ALTERNATIVE KITCHEN DESIGN

How do you create a small modern kitchen that won’t compromise the character of a 200-year-old home?

Built in 1804, the original stone addition (the larger structure shown to the left of the greenhouse) to the Pennsylvania German working farm contained a center hallway entrance, a parlor, an office/kitchen and spring-fed larder on its first floor. The present owners, an English couple who bought the farm over 30 years ago lived in the more contemporary stone house (circa late 1800s) located just across the lane until recently when it was sold. Now, they needed to prepare the 1804 home for their retirement.

About 15 years ago they had renovated the home for a tenant, installing makeshift cabinetry in the office/kitchen to serve as a kitchen/living room.

After 60 years of un-heated neglect, even that job was overwhelming; patching plaster covered stone walls, cleaning exposed beams, fixing the wood flooring and installing updated utilities. Now the makeshift kitchen needed to be replaced and the room was to be re-created once more as a period styled ‘keeping’ room that would contain a modestly sized kitchen, a seating area in front of the original stone fireplace and the dining area.

Instead of installing new period styled cabinetry, the owners decided to use furniture pieces that would fit between the fireplace, two deep set windows and a door in the nine foot by fourteen foot area allocated for the new kitchen. They chose three pieces of YesterTec’s Kitchen Workstation Furniture that could conceal a refrigerator/ freezer, an existing dishwasher and a microwave from view from the ‘living’ area of the room. The existing electric range would be re-used, but concealed from view, by placing it away from the best views. An antique pine pantry/cupboard would be used for dish and food storage and provide inspiration for the ‘new’ workstations.

 

An antique cupboard provides storage for dishes and dry goods. The corner soapstone sink was custom made.

The island separates the living area from the work area by using an ST storage unit with sliding ribbed glass doors. The counter top above the ST unit provides extra work space when it is needed. The Microwave, does not ‘disappear’, but is concealed from view from the living area. And there is still is no need to alter the original window and its extra deep sill.

There is nothing better than to use your most comfortable chairs as dining chairs!