Kitchen design is a very personal thing, especially when it comes to old houses. Some people want the kitchen to match the period look of their house while others don't mind having a more modern looking space.
Personally, I lean towards the first group. I've seen many nice old house renovations spoiled (IMHO) by undistinguished kitchens that will look dated in a few years. It can be jarring to walk through a beautiful period renovation and then walk into a kitchen that looks the same as every other kitchen. Much better to design a more timeless kitchen that complements the architecture of the house and gives a nod to the fact that 18th and 19th century kitchens looked nothing like 20th/early 21st century kitchens.
Of course, when I talk about period feeling I'm not talking about authenticity. None of us wants to hand pump water to the sink or store our food in an icebox (never mind do our cooking in a fireplace). So we're going after a look that somehow evokes the flavor of the period while still providing a kitchen that's useful and fun to work in.
We're going to use my own kitchen as the case study. My house (shown in more detail here) was built around 1830. We carried out an extensive renovation and expansion eight years ago. The kitchen is located in a part of the house that was rebuilt from the ground up but that we wanted to blend with the rest of the house.
1. No long runs of cabinets. Long, uninterrupted runs of matching cabinets and counters are probably the primary distinguishing feature of the modern kitchen. Back in day, of course, kitchen "cabinets" were typically free-standing pieces of furniture. Sideboards, cupboards, hutches and the like were brought together regardless of style, color, or materials. That was the look that I was going after in my kitchen, as you see here.
Here we have three different pieces (four if you include the corner cabinet). One is painted, the other two are natural (in fact, these were made from wood we salvaged during demolition of one part of the house). These were designed to resemble free-standing pieces although they are built in.
Instead of a long, uninterrupted length of counter, there are three separate sections here: two soapstone and one wood. Together there is plenty of prep space.
2. No inside corners. Almost all kitchens have banks of cabinets that have 90 degree inside corners. These are so common that most people don't even think about this detail. Of course, when kitchens were comprised of separate pieces, there were no inside corners. Take a look at how this subtle omission yields a different feeling than found in most kitchens today.
3. Mix and match. We've already touched on the fact that the cabinets in our kitchen are not all the same. Some are painted dark green, some are natural. The cabinets surrounding the fireplace are painted a different color; the gray/green of the rest of the woodwork in the room. Also, these have raised panel doors while the other cabinets have flat panels. It can be risky to do this. Done poorly, the room will lack cohesion and will look too busy. But done well and it can help achieve a really special place.
4. Appliances. We decided that to pull off a 19th century feeling in our kitchen, we wanted to minimize the visual impact of the appliances. The obvious answer for the fridge would be to get a built-in unit meant to accept cabinet panels. Two issues there: first those units (Sub Zeros and the like) are very expensive. Second, even with the cabinet panels they typically have a large stainless grille on display.
So instead we took a standard white bottom freezer fridge and mounted cabinet panels to it for a more built in look. We first mounted the panel to the fridge door with drawer slides so that the cabinet door and fridge door could slide open together. Later, we found some plastic slides from Hafele hardware designed specifically for this application.
To hide the double oven (to the left of the fireplace) we over-sized the cabinet and then installed retractable doors. These doors stay open when the oven is being used and until it cools off.
The dishwasher is an integrated Fisher Paykel, so we simply built cabinet panels to help blend that in.
We tucked the toaster oven and microwave into the pantry (the door to the right of the dishwasher above) to keep those out of sight. Finally, we opted for a fairly discreet gas cooktop and hid the hood into the cabinet above.
I recognize that most people won't go to these extremes to make a new kitchen look old. In fact, if you look at some of the other kitchens we've renovated you'll see a wide range in style and appearance. But hopefully this will provide some ideas to those of you about to embark on a kitchen renovation in an old house.
Comments? Questions? Snide remarks? All are welcome! We'd love to hear from you so please comment on our posts.
Mark Landry is the President of Landmark Services, Inc, one of the premier old house renovation contracting firms in Massachusetts. He loves old houses and would welcome the opportunity to discuss your renovation, restoration, or addition.
Last time we did a survey of the Greek Revival houses in my town of Medway, Mass. There are some great examples of the style in town, ranging from humble to high style. Now let's take a look at the potential pitfalls of altering the original siding and trim details.
It's pretty clear to me that the average home builder in the 18th and 19th centuries had a much better grasp of the basics of architectural styles than their modern day counterparts. Architectural styles had rules. Carpenters did not simply make things up as they went along. They used either pattern books or local examples to guide them as they built up cornices, columns, and other architectural elements. A quick look at some of Asher Benjamin's pattern books will reveal some of the rules used by the master carpenters to produce their millwork.
As a result these old places are still pleasing to the eye all these years later. The proportions are "right". On the new houses of today moldings of different styles are mixed and matched randomly. Windows are often out of scale with the facade; either too big or too small. You'd be hard pressed to find a carpenter who could tell you the difference between an architrave and a capital.
So let's look at what happens when ill-informed alterations are made to historic houses. First we'll look at a fairly intact Greek Revival here in town.
As we discussed in the last post, this house is based on the Greek temple form. The triangular gable (also called the pediment) is supported by the wide, horizontal band of trim (the architrave) which, in turn, is visually supported by the wide "columns" (which are represented by the wide cornerboards, called pilasters). The pilasters have capitals at the top, just as true columns do.
Visually it all makes sense. There is a logic to it. The wide pilasters look as if they can carry the weight of the architrave and pediment above. It's simple yet quite elegant.
So let's look at what happens when this sense of order and proportion is disrupted (with apologies in advance if I offend any of the homeowners).
Our first test case is the house below. A quick look will reveal two changes. First, the wide horizontal trim band (called the architrave, remember?) made up of several boards in the original has been replaced with a single board so that it is now much narrower. It feels less substantial and out of proportion with the pediment above. The second floor window trim no longer touches the trim boards above so the composition feels less unified.
Even more troubling is the fact that the pilasters have been replaced with simple cornerboards. Gone is the detail of the recessed panels on the pilasters. Gone are the capitals. And because the cornerboards are so narrow gone, too, is the sense of proportion. These narrow cornerboards seem incapable of supporting the visual weight of the pediment above- they look like they may crumple at any time- so the whole effect is much less pleasing to the eye (and it doesn't help that the shutters have been removed either). Still a nice looking house, but not as cohesive as our original example.
Our next example has been altered even more. First, the triangular pediment looks less substantial because the wide trim boards that once followed the slope of the roof were removed when the clapboards were replaced with shingles (take a look at the two houses above to see what I mean). Second, there are absolutely no pilasters or cornerboards. These, too, they were removed when the siding was replaced. There is nothing to visually support the pediment and roof. Next, of course, is the siding. I've seen few, if any, Greek Revivals that look better with shingles than the original clapboards. With no cornerboards, no shutters, and shingles instead of clapboards, this house looks a little naked compared to our original example.
Our next case displays the unfortunate result when a nice historic house is covered with vinyl siding and aluminum trim. The installers were intent on covering everything in sight. Look at how bad the horizontal architrave looks when treated with siding. It loses its decorative function, which is to visually support the roof. Fortunately, it looks like most of the trim is probably still under the vinyl and metal wrapping so this house could be more easily restored to its former glory than some of the other examples.
Our final example has been maintained and preserved to a larger extent than the three previous examples. In fact, apart from the porch addition, it would rival our original example. The porch (not original, but not bad) obscures the front door surround and also visually interrupts the pilasters, so that they no longer appear (at least from the street) to reach the foundation. All in all, though, this is a well preserved example.
This row of Greek Revivals illustrates why it's important to consider the intentions of the original builder and/or designer before undertaking renovations of historic house. If your house has been altered by a previous owner, don't despair. Study the houses in your neighborhood. Check the historic society for old photos of your house (we found a great 19th century photo of our place). There are a lot of great resources to help you figure out what your house may have looked like.
Not sure where to turn? Give us a call. We've been restoring and renovating historic houses in and around Massachusetts for over 20 years. We'd love to discuss your house.
Comments? Questions? Snide remarks? All are welcome! We'd love to hear from you so please comment on our posts.
Mark Landry is the President of Landmark Services, Inc, one of the premier old house renovation contracting firms in Massachusetts. He loves old houses and would welcome the opportunity to discuss your renovation, restoration, or addition.
In the course of a recent renovation of a ca. 1795 home in Milton, we
needed to replicate an original rooftop balustrade.The one surviving
section displayed a "spider web" pattern composed of many small pieces
of wood nailed together.
Concerned that wood would not
hold up to the elements well in this situation and would require a lot
of maintenance, we explored other options. After much research (and
some soul-searching) we decided to reproduce the balustrade by having
the panels milled from sheets of PVC imitation wood. We're very
pleased with the result. Visually, the new panels are indistinguishable
from wood. But in terms of strength and maintenance, the PVC product is
superior.
We brought the surviving panel to a friend who has a CNC machine in his shop and asked him to cut the new sections from sheets of PVC material (one popular brand is Azek). A CNC machine is a cutting and shaping machine controlled by a computer. Our friend Nick programmed the pattern into his computer by tracing the original with the cutting head and entering the key positions into the software.
The rest was simple. He laid 4' x 10' sheets of 1 1/4" thick material on the table and pressed a button activating the cutter head. The result was 30 panels matching the original in appearance but stronger and better able to hold paint.
While some may argue against the use of synthetic materials in historic renovation projects, we feel that they are appropriate in some situations. In this case, the use of this material does not affect the aesthetics of the project, but provides the homeowners with a longer lasting product that will require far less maintenance than would have been the case if we had used wood.
PVC trim is certainly not the right choice for most of our projects. Wood has a subtlety in appearance and touch that cannot be matched by synthetic materials and-except in rare cases such as this balustrade- we stick with traditional materials when we can. One other great use of PVC wood, though, is any trim that comes in contact with the ground such as the lower trim boards on a porch.
Landmark Services has been renovating historic Massachusetts houses, barns, and churches for almost 20 years. Have a look at our project portfolio to see some of our past projects.
We'd love to help you plan and build your project so give us a call!
Comments? Questions? Snide remarks? All are welcome! We'd love to hear from you so please comment on our posts.
Mark Landry is the President of Landmark Services, Inc, one of the premier old house renovation contracting firms in Massachusetts. He loves old houses and would welcome the opportunity to discuss your renovation, restoration, or addition.
When we build an addition on a historic house, we take pride in our ability to make the new space blend seamlessly with the old. One of the ways we do this is by avoiding the raw look of exposed concrete foundations. Instead, we typically place a veneer of stone over the concrete so that the new foundation looks very much like the original foundation- at least from the exterior.
To do stone veneer you must form a shelf in the concrete foundation, as shown in this crude sketch.
The stones are laid in mortar and typically attached to the wall using thin metal straps or ties. Because the shelf is usually fairly thin - 4-6"- it's necessary to use fairly thin stone. On the project shown below, however, we poured a very thick foundation wall with a large, 12", shelf. This enabled us to use much larger stones than normal, more closely replicating the look of an old fieldstone foundation. We used salvaged fieldstone for this project, and kept the mortar back from the face of the stones to suggest an old dry-laid foundation.
On other projects, we have used old granite curbstones as a veneer material to simulate the granite capstones found on so many 18th and 19th century homes. Here's on example:
If you can't find old curbstones, you can use new ones. However, many stone yards sell salvaged stone of all shapes, sizes, and types. Although expensive, facing the foundations of your addition with stone makes a noticeable difference in the appearance of the job.
We'll be doing a large amount of stone veneer on our project in Brookline, MA. We lifted the house up on steel beams, removed the old stone foundation, and installed a new concrete foundation. We stockpiled the original stone and will be using that as the veneer material. We'll have to pick through the pile for some of the thinner stones and if we run out of thin ones, we'll have to split some of the larger ones to make them small enough to fit on the shelf. In the end, we'll be rewarded for that effort with a new foundation that has much of the look and feel of the old foundation. I'll post some pictures soon.
Landmark Services has been renovating historic Massachusetts houses for almost 20 years. Have a look at our project portfolio to see some of our projects.
We'd love to help you plan and build your project! Give is a call. We're Landmark Services, The Old House Experts.
Comments? Questions? Snide remarks? All are welcome! We'd love to hear from you so please comment on our posts.
Mark Landry is the President of Landmark Services, Inc, one of the premier old house renovation contracting firms in Massachusetts. He loves old houses and would welcome the opportunity to discuss your renovation, restoration, or addition.