The Remodeled Kitchen is Well Connected to the Home & the Music Room

My client came to me because she wanted to create the next phase of her life.  She is a relatively recent widow with grown sons — and with the completion of the remodel has retired from her job.  She lives in a post-WWI brick rambler in the Forest Glenn neighborhood of Silver Spring, MD.

Her life has been filled with music, friends and family.  She envisions her new home as a French-style Salon – a place where her creative friends and their friends would meet to share music and discuss art, literature, and politics.  She wants a seamless transition from home to garden to entertainment space in her basement. 

In addition to the grand vision, she also wanted:

• A master suite with an in-suite bath
• A guest bath that is fully wheelchair accessible for when her mother visits
• A new kitchen
• A wider hallway for wheelchair accessibility

And to make the project even more challenging, my client’s budget was quite limited and the lot small so the magic had to be performed within the existing footprint. 

The discussion of this project will cover several articles. 

1.  This article covers the overall plan and the changes to the foyer.
2.  The second one will cover the kitchen.
3.  The third will cover the new guest bath.
4.  The fourth will cover the master suite.
5.  The final will cover the new exterior rooms.

The original room configuration was typical of houses built in the early 1950’s with small rooms and unconnected with each other and unconnected with the out-of-doors.

Floor Plan - BEFORE

As you can see from the floor plan, above, the kitchen – while in the middle of the house – was cut off from everything.  The dining room has a solid door and windows to the back yard but felt unconnected.  The hallway was too narrow for a wheelchair and the single hall bath was small and hard for everyone to use let alone someone with any physical impairment. 

Floor Plan - AFTER

The back wall of the kitchen in the remodeled home is wide open to a new patio and to the music and living rooms.  The now open hallway is wide enough for easy transit and helps make the whole home feel more expansive.  It also offers a more visible connection between the entertainment area of the basement and the first floor.  The old kitchen was reconfigured into a wheelchair accessible bath and a large pantry.  The new master suite – while not fully wheelchair accessible has many universal design features. 

Kitchen is Well Connected to the Outdoors

The Stairway Was Opened On All SidesOpen Floor Plan Connects The Basement to the Living room

Open Floor Plan Connects The Basement to the Living room

 

Read more about the details of this remodel as I post the rest of the series in the next few days. 

 

 The 2 “BEFORE” pictures, below, are from the same camera angle as the first image and the hallway image. 

"BEFORE" From Same Angle as 1st Image

 

"BEFORE" From Same Angle as Hallway Image

 

Back to School Storage in the Front Foyer

My clients, in close-in Silver Spring, MD are looking to improve the space usage of their home.  One of the problems is the lack of a mud room entry or a foyer with room for a closet or other places to store the back packs, coats, boots and everything else that comes along with pre-teen and teenage children.  Today, everything gets piles into one corner of the living room.  The living room, is also awkward – long and narrow – making it difficult to find a comfortable seating arrangement.  In fact, even though the house is very small and they are quite cramped, the living room is rarely used.  And, like most of us, they are on a tight budget.

I proposed a simple, relatively low-cost solution that solves both problems.  I proposed moving the non-load-bearing wall between the tiny foyer and the long, narrow living room about 3 ft into the living room.  Thus creating a spacious foyer with a wall well suited to a low storage bench for seating and cubbies and hooks for coats above.  Changing the swing of the front door, helps with a more natural flow.   If the homeowners wanted, they could also switch the entry flooring to porcelain, stone or ceramic tile.  But simply patching and refinishing the oak floor would be less expensive.

This family is informal and the tight budget suggests the use of cubbies.  The ones drawn here are custom but stock components from IKEA or The Container Store would also work well.

For a family with a larger budget or that do more formal entertaining, the solution below provides a more formal approach to combining the mud room with a main entrance.

By Using Built-in Storage You can Combine a Mud Room with the Foyer

And if you want a greater sense of openness, you can eliminate the wall altogether and create a visual connection to the living room like the option below.

Removing the Wall and Adding Open Shelves Creates a Connection with the Living Room

To visualize in greater detail the room changes, I’ve included after and before floor plans, below.  Notice that the “after” plan also proposes solutions to issues with the kitchen, family room and indoor/outdoor connection.   I’m currently working the family to think through what improvements are most important at this point with the idea of phasing in the other improvements as finances allow.

Floor Plan "After" - A gracious Foyer with Mud Room Storage

Floor Plan "Before" - A Tiny Foyer with No Storage

Here are 4 solutions to the problem.

Solution 1: Select one side of the house to open up and create a foyer and study on the other side

Solution 1: Take Room for the non-public side

Floor Plan of Solution 1 - After

Existing Floor Plan for Solutions 1 & 2

Solution 2: Create an open “center hall” with Views Straight Through to the Back.  The load-bearing center wall is replaced with a wooden beam and columns that echo the columns on the front porch.

Solutions: Create an open hallway with columns

Solution 2 - View from Front Door Thru to Back Garden/Deck

Floor Plan for Solution 2

Solution 3: For a 1950’s post-war construction home, modern built-ins and a re-faced fireplace create a functional and welcoming entry and living room.  The built-ins provide views into the living room and a place to display sculpture as well as hanging space and drawers

Solution 3: Custom Build-ins

Solution 4: Add a powder room and closet to bound a new foyer.

Solution 4: Use Soffit & Flooring with New Closet & Powder Room

Solution 4: Floor Plan

Solution 4: Existing Floor Plan

When the projects are finished, I’ll be sure to add images of the remodels.

All computer renderings courtesy of Braitman Design/Build.

Many of us love the “charm” of an older home – one built before 1930.  For the most part what we’re responding to is the architectural detailing that comes from building without stock parts and without a production mentality.  In today’s home, such detailing is no less desirable – whether it’s funky, traditional, or rustic.

Funky:

Painted Lumber Hide Electrical Wires

In my sculpture studio, above, I used painted lumber to hide electrical wires – both to the fluorescent fixtures and to the low voltage track lighting.  This action was actually a cost savings action; it was cheaper to hide the wires behind lumber than to fish them through old plaster ceilings.  Even adding the additional decorative lumber – one of the legs of the large angle plus the 4 cross pieces – was cheaper than fishing the wires through the ceiling.  The labor of painting the lumber was my sweat equity.  2 additional cost savings actions – seen above and below – included (1) a piece of ¼” luan to hide the hole created where we took down a wall – painted bright aqua, and (2) a graphic painted on the wall and ceiling to disguise a ceiling that’s badly out of level.  The white railing is hung level (used as a flexible hanging rail for both pictures and shelving).  It’s 5” closer to the ceiling at its end than at the corner.  The bright graphic helps disguise this flaw of a hundred year old building.

Graphics Disquise Sloped Ceiling

The ceiling of Spin Pizza, below, again uses raw lumber to hide a mish-mash of ceiling elements.  The overall effect is actually calming in it’s randomness.  Read article

Ceiling Spin Pizza

Traditional:

A soffit is often used to help define areas within a room.  In the rendering, below, I plan to use a soffit to define a foyer in a home in Bethesda, MD where the front door opens directly into the living room.  The new foyer is defined on one side by a stained glass panel and on the other side by a new coat closet and an alcove with a door to a new powder room.  By painting the soffit a dark charcoal and the walls of the foyer a darker gray than the rest of the living room, the foyer feels enclosed.  You get a feeling of expansion as you walk into the living room.  A stone floor in the foyer completes the look.  The stone floor and outfitted coat closet allows the foyer to functions as a mud room entry.

Soffit used To Define Foyer

In the photo, below, a gentle pearl color on the sloped ceiling and cove lighting give a special effect.

Soft Pearl Ceiling Highlighted With Cove Lighting

And below we, again, use a darker color on the soffit of a faux tray ceiling.

Dark Soffit Helps Define Tray Ceiling

A 3-part crown molding sets off the ceiling, below, in a 1905 vernacular farmhouse.

3-Part Crown Molding

Rustic or Country:

Wood plank ceilings are a common element in rustic construction.  Below are two images from a blog posting on cottage style from completely-costal.com.  Go to the original post and notice that almost all the ceilings are decorated – usually with painted or unpainted wooden planks.

Painted Plank Ceiling

Painted Plank Ceiling

Whichever style makes sense for your home, special details on the ceiling or that frame the ceiling can lend immeasurable charm to your home.

Images courtesy of Braitman Design/Build unless noted.