DC Row House First Floor Renovation

The current owners of this 1911 rowhouse were dissatisfied with the 1998 renovations by the previous owners.   The existing kitchen was jammed into the back of the house and was poorly designed to serve a family of four who liked to entertain. The back staircase to the second floor was narrow, steep and not needed. The powder room was larger than needed and hogged all the natural light from one of the few first-floor windows and the existing dining room was a drop zone for all items.

The owners wanted an updated, spacious, and functional kitchen where the couple could comfortably prepare meals together. The kitchen should provide adequate casual dining seating for their family and be adjacent to a casual living space so they could keep an eye on their small children or converse with friends.  With further questions, it was determined that a formal dining room was important but only used infrequently and any added natural light would be a big benefit!

The design challenge to this project was to pay homage to the over 100-year-old historic charms of this house but to make it function for today’s living.  The first step was to evaluate the layout.  Since the back staircase was not needed, eliminating it would be easy.  Keeping the kitchen in the rear of the first floor wouldn’t meet the needs of adjacent living space so the proposal was made to move the kitchen to the middle of the house.  Reluctant at first, the owners quickly could see the benefit to the kitchen being in the heart of the home.  The living room was moved to the rear and the dining room to the front.  By evaluating how this family wanted to function and thinking beyond how the spaces were traditionally used, the new layout makes use of all the first-floor square footage.  In a rowhouse, every square inch count.

Rethinking some of the smaller layout details added to the functionality of the overall space.  The powder room was moved across the hall to capture, for the communal spaces, the natural light and in the foyer, built-in cabinetry provides organization for a drop zone.

Having the kitchen in the center of the house created a new demand for the space.  The kitchen required protection of the chef from the main traffic pattern.  The new layout created two major zones in the kitchen.  The traditional work triangle on one side of a center island creates the needed protection of the chef while the wall of cabinetry opposite or behind the island creates the perfect place for storage, and entertaining.  Separate refrigerator drawers and a second sink serve two purposes.  The first, ease of entertaining and the second, the ability for morning to run smoothly with coffee preparation dedicated to that space and the children getting themselves breakfast.  The owners now claim that everyone moves smoothly through the space and we have more storage than we know what to do with!

Attention to details add to the success of this kitchen.  The original plaster ceiling moulding at the dining room chandelier was retained and now hosts a beautiful island light.  In the new hallway between the kitchen and living room a new barrel-vaulted ceiling, typical of the era of this house, ties the spaces together and invites one to venture further. The original pocket doors from the foyer to the kitchen were retained as was much of the original millwork.  That which had to be new, replicates the old.  Given the age of the house, all new hardwood flooring needed to be installed as there was nothing left of the original floors to sand.