Historic home design: A much needed makeover.
This historic cottage home is well lived and well loved. All it needed was a bit of attention to give it a new zest for life!
Sometimes the perfect little cottage in a historic corner of town needs new reason to be the hostessing hotspot for the neighborhood.
Everything about this kitchen and dining refresh illustrates that the place where you gather and eat will likely be the hub of your home. The previous owners dated and poorly remolded the kitchen. Liberties were taken with this kitchen in order to balance it’s functional and aesthetic limitations. While never intending to be a chef’s kitchen, it now offers a cozy feel. Therefore creating a great opportunity for sharing travel finds and inspiring a gathering for a meal. You might even open a bottle of wine for the occasion. A statement backsplash helped unify existing base cabinets, and the upper cabinetry was removed to offer some variety. A custom hood surround, floating shelves, and upper cabinets with lovely grasscloth are featured in the back. New light fixtures and a fresh roman shade and it all feels like new!
Bistro High Top for Purpose & Function
The footprint of the kitchen was so small that adding an island for a casual dine-in opportunity was not feasible. Instead, the design introduced a high-top bistro-type setup. This balances the passage to the cozy dining room and offering up a nice place to perch and watch the chef at work. Or, provides a cozy place to read and drink your coffee in the morning. By working around the original floors and dish pantry storage, the design turned this smaller transition area into additional gathering space for the home. Also, the area gave purpose to a ‘hallway’—which wasn’t its own room but didn’t need to be useless either.
Dreamy Dining
Then, of course, the lovely dining space. With the table being a family heirloom, paired with cheap and cheerful slipcovered chairs and a really awesome light fixture that added a lot of ambiance – this room was the surprise stand out in the project for us. A fresh coat of paint helped accentuate the character of the room with the broad arch from the living room. We actually love the original plaster texture on the walls in here.
New Life in an Old Home
Often in historic home designs, the balance of functional use of the square footage and opportunity to find new purpose for that same footprint is a critical step to take in the overall design assessment. Adding value where it was not originally, and tying together spaces that warrant a visit or hangout is our favorite thing to do!
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