Behind The Scenes
A 1903 Farmhouse Kitchen Addition.
The new kitchen would be located in the addition, behind where the old kitchen was located. (The new dining room is where the old kitchen used to be. See before photos).
For the kitchen footprint, they added an upper row of windows along the kitchen’s back long wall that provide a tremendous amount of natural light on the northwestern side of the house. These windows stopped just shy of 7 feet off of the kitchen floor, so my task was to design a kitchen that had few to no wall cabinets on that wall, yet offered sufficient storage. Luckily for me, my client is not a clutterbug, and his storage requirements were pretty streamlined.
My first quest was to make the 36″ rangetop and wood hood a focal point on the long wall under the windows while keeping two lower windows to flank the rangetop. I then balanced that centerpoint by creating two “anchors” at each end: the Electrolux all refrigerator on the left and the GE Monogram double ovens on the right. Two generous 3 drawer bases provided plenty of pot and pan storage on each side of the range top along with two spice pullouts.
On the island, facing the back wall, we installed a Sub Zero two drawer freezer, a Sharp MW Drawer, along with prep sink and recycling pullout. Food prep work would happen in this area. We eliminated the square corner cabinetry idea completely by making the “cleanup” sink area one continuous run ending on the long wall, thereby making its length “longer” in functionality. This segregated kitchen functions even more specifically: all cooking and prep work is performed on or across from the island, and all clean up work is executed on the shorter run that houses the Kohler Strive farm sink.
In the kitchen, near the island area, we had to have two large columns supporting a new upper floor for new Master Suite. Reclaimed wood columns were sourced from the old part of the house, and although one of them is located right next the island, it feels natural and organic with the rustic cross beam details in the ceiling above. All rustic wood elements seen in the kitchen and great room were sourced right from the existing property’s structures.
On the other side of the island, my client wanted to reuse his beverage centers from his old house, so we housed them near the dining area, divided by an additional storaged drawer base.
Products we incorporated into the kitchen:
Cabinetry: Hickory Creek Cabinetry, Ben Moore “Graystone” paint color.
Countertops: Caesarstone Calacatta Nuvo
Tile backsplash: Bianco Puro from The Tile Shop
Appliances: Electrolux 36″ all refrigerator, Sub Zero 30″ freezer drawers, GE Monogram Gas rangetop, GE Monogram Built-In French Door Double Oven. Sharp MW Drawer.
Mudroom, Powder Room and Master Bath Renovations
I also was engaged to design the Mudroom, Powder Room and Master Bathroom. For the Powder Room, we sourced a vanity sink base furniture piece from Signature Hardware with matching mirror from the “Benoist” Collection. We included an acrylic tub with surrounding oval curtain rod hanger for an Old World feel. Porcelain tile with a variant gray-brown color saturation adorned the walls. Brannock Built creatively sourced and stained the wood trim cap around the tile to match the vanity and mirror.
For the Mudroom, we kept it simple with paint grade built in cubbies and hooks. The Master Bath, due to its modest but still functional size, seemed to ask for a more modern theme. From Tedd Wood Cabinetry Luxury Line’s “Vogue” series, we picked an English Oak veneer slab style vanity, trimmed out the mirror with same material and found an engineered quartz top remant “Linen”. We selected minimalistic plumbing fixtures from the Axor line of Hansgrohe in chrome.
Finally, Brannock Built was engaged as the building contractor. They deserve great kudos as this was a challenging project with many unforeseen issues. Much of the existing structure thought to be viable was substandard and had to be rebuilt from the ground up in order to properly support the new elements.
Regardless of the twists and turns in the road, Brannock Built rose to the challenges successfully which was most clearly evidenced by a thrilled homeowner when all was finished!
In late 2017, I was contacted by a former kitchen design client who had purchased a 1903 rural farmhouse in Page County, Virginia with acreage and stunning panoramic Shenandoah National Park views. The home was badly in need of an overhaul, and he was now ready to begin. Working with his long time friend and architect, Michael Lysczek, the two of them created whole house plans that removed walls, and added a new addition and a two story tower to the home.
