When we first approached this home, we thought of it as a quaint home on a large grassed and tree-lined parcel. We then entered it to find many past homeowner renovations and changes. The kitchen, which had been renovated just two years earlier, featured shiny white cabinets and a kitchen window that had been moved to allow more upper cabinets. The dining room had entrances from both the kitchen, through an archway, and the living room. Our suggestion was to make the rooms interact with both the front grass-yard area and the entertainment area of the backyard and pool. The adjacent carport had been filled in and a door added for easy access, but a steel pole remained to stabilize the 2nd floor guesthouse.
When the dust settled and the five layers of sagging plaster and drywall ceilings had been removed, a new kitchen emerged. The hand-crafted and stained cabinetry brought the architectural age of the home back to the 1940s. The opening of new windows to the rear yard allowed the play of light in the workspace and provided a sense of space. All of the appliances, with the exception of the Wolf Range and the Sub Zero wine cave, were hidden away under hand-made patina cabinets crafted on site. The Verde Fire granite, which has only one seam in the main part of the kitchen area, works well with the handcrafted copper sink.
The steel pole was removed and a very large and heavy I-beam was slipped in its place. The once rendered useless room now houses the media area and a petite powder bath, carved from the same space. The sink was handcrafted out of a sheet of copper to eliminate the need for a pedestal.
Finally, the terracotta tile was expertly laced into the existing original1940’s tile. A wall was built to fill in the arched entrance into the living room and the new space is a wonderful breakfast room with a separate dining room made from the original living-room area.
The integration of the old with the new allows the architecture of the home to breath. In the age of bigger and better, this is an example that sometimes improved use of space is better than bigger.
