Design Confidently, Live Comfortably
  We knew from the start that we didn't intend our house to be a museum. In fact, we're quite convinced that our home's original owners, given the opportunity, would have chosen 21st-century kitchen and baths if they could have. The challenge we faced was introducing these comforts into our home without their appearing awkward or out of place.
In our new kitchen, we suggested the ambience of an older kitchen with raised-panel cabinets and white Carrara-marble counters, but we updated it with stainless-steel appliances and sea-glass-tile backsplashes. It feels contemporary but also fits with the house. For all my traditional tendencies, I'm a firm believer that bathrooms shouldn't be old. We chose tile and limestone for the baths, making them wonderfully pleasant rooms. We raised the height of the counters in both the kitchen and the baths to 38 inches, which is better suited for an adult house. Nevertheless, in all the rooms, we tried to keep as much of the "good" original detail as possible. We covered the hardwood floors during construction to preserve them. We retained several of the home's ceiling medallions and replaced those that had to be removed. In a few cases, we held onto original components that were taken out as part of the renovation. After struggling with our decision to replace the traditional, wood-and-window front door and transom with a modern 8-foot frosted-glass door, we couldn't resist tucking the original in the back of the garage, where it still remains –just in case. We found that the small details in the house work the hardest to keep the Victorian flavor. We located reproduction hardware which, when mixed with original pieces, became difficult to tell apart. We saved the original raised-panel doors during demolition and added new doors customized to match. The best example may be the molding we added throughout the new rooms, a simplified version of the original trim found in the parlor. The original, decorated with a medallion at each corner, would have looked too busy if used to frame all the windows we had added. In some cases, our remodel was a mix of detective work and intuition. When the aluminum siding was applied, all the original exterior molding had been stripped away. But we had hints of what had been there when we found old molding in places the tin men could not reach, as well as paint shadows left where the old shingles had been. We also researched period photos of the neighborhood at the public library hoping to find an image of the house pre-metal. In the end, it was pieced back together–perhaps a bit more simply than the original–using all the clues we could find. The result is a home we love, whose history is now fused with our own. With the help of our contractor and architect, we were part of its evolution as a house at home with its past and its present. Tom Curtis is a merchandise manager for a women's clothing manufacturer. NEXT: Color Choices Challenge Tradition BACK: Second-floor Fixes Install 21st-century Comfort |
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