| Shown below are some of our
recent kitchen installations in Arts & Crafts homes. Recent
studies have shown that your return on investment for a kitchen remodeling
or addition is roughly 86% on average. In addition to adding to your
enjoyment and the beauty of your interiors, this is one of the most
cost-effective single projects you can do to increase the value of your
home. Please feel free to contact
us if you would like to discuss your kitchen ideas or dreams further,
or to explore options for a remodeling or addition project that might
include a new kitchen. |
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Here are two views
of a kitchen that is over 10 years old at this point, and I think they
clearly illustrate the timelessness of good design that fits the character
and vocabulary of the house. The owners, both cooks, did not want
upper cabinets in the main kitchen space, with the exception of the pantry
wall with the built-in refrigerator, and the result is a light, airy and
open feeling space that is workable for one or two cooks. There is a
second oven in the island, along with a trash-compactor. The sink is
a large, deep stainless steel single bowl, which makes is easy to
"hide" a few pots before washing. Most of the lower
cabinets have drawers as opposed to doors, which make them far more useful
for storage. The counter tops are Black Absolute granite and butcher-block
on the island, which only requires a yearly light sanding and oiling to
maintain. While not particularly large, this kitchen is nonetheless
a very efficient, pleasant space that is easy and enjoyable to cook in. |
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These are views of a
beautiful large kitchen in a large stucco house in a neighborhood of
Chicago. Technically, it is a kitchen addition rather than a pure
remodeling, since the original kitchen ended about where the left border
is on the first photograph. The cabinets in the butler's pantry,
visible through the doorway, provided the inspiration for the kitchen
cabinets, which are a painted finish. Again, the clients wanted
minimal upper cabinetry in order to preserve an open, vintage
feeling. The flooring is compressed cork tile, which is a
surprisingly-durable material that has held up very well. In
addition to being forgiving to dropped plates and glassware, it is warm
for bare feet, and very easy to clean and maintain. These pictures
were taken shortly after completion, about 8 years ago, but I was there
recently and the floor still looks great. The counter tops are zinc,
a material that is perfectly period-appropriate, but will show wear.
The clients liked the idea of a counter that would age gracefully, and
after an initial awkward period, it now looks like it has been there 100
years and has been cared for all that time - in other words, it looks
great. |
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| This is a
kitchen in a large addition to a 1907 house by Robert Spencer, a
Chicago-based Arts & Crafts architect. The original house was an
interesting half-timber Tudor Revival design, and so the addition carried
through with that language. One of the owners is of Japanese
descent, and so an Oriental flavor was part of the original concept for
the interiors. I hit upon the work of the English Arts & Crafts
architect CFA Voysey as a nice blend of period details with the clean,
straightforward ideals of the Japanese aesthetic, and so his work was used
as a point of inspiration for solutions to most of the details and for the
overall vision. The cabinetry is all custom-designed and built by
one of our cabinet sources. It is all quarter-sawn white oak, and
dyed to match the woodwork in the rest of the house. The countertops
are Ceasarstone, a manufactured quartz-based material that can be shaped
and fitted just like granite, but is far more impervious to stains.
It looks completely natural, and even has a subtle "grain" to it
like natural stone would. |
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| On the
left is a view of a pantry cabinet that I designed to look like a
free-standing piece of furniture, similar to what might have been used in
a kitchen of the period. In England, they were called kitchen
sideboards. The picture on the right shows the range and hood.
I did not want a more typical hammered copper or steel hood in this
instance, since I wanted to follow Voysey's clean, simple aesthetic, so
instead it is just a simple drywall box, which contains a vent and blower
component. The tiles behind the range are laid in vertical soldier
courses, another detail Voysey used often. |
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| On the
left is The initial design sketch I made of a Green & Greene-inspired kitchen for a house
in Virginia. The photo on the right shows
the finished space. Projects like this, long-distance, present
special issues, but are not insurmountable with today's technology. |
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| Here are
two more views of the Green & Greene-style kitchen in Virginia.
The picture on the left shows the encased refrigerator with a small work
island in front. The peninsula faces both into the living area as
well as the kitchen, with drawers on the outside for table linens, and a
serving surface that functions beautifully for parties. The picture
on the right shows another view of the range counter. The window
above the sink faces out to the driveway and road, so some sort of window
treatment was necessary for privacy, especially at night. Wide
wooden blinds were selected as appropriate both to the period and to the
style of the house. |
| Shown below are some images of
powder rooms and bathrooms from projects we have completed. The
budgets for these rooms varied considerably from very high-end to modest,
but I think the results are all quite special. In each instance, we
tried to keep a consistency with the overall project vision as well as the
nature and character of the rest of the house. For a small bungalow,
and appropriately-modest bath was called for, and likewise for a large
house, more latitude in terms of materials and finishes was taken.
Please feel free to contact us if
you would like to discuss a bathroom remodeling or renovation of your own. |
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| On the left is a picture of a
powder room off the kitchen in a house in Oak Park. The space is
small, but the painted pine wainscoting, at a height of just about
60", give the space a nice, clean feeling of openness. The sink
is new, but the toilet is a reconditioned high tank model from the
1900's. The mirror above the sink is built into the paneling,
keeping all the details to a simple few - important when you have a small
space with a specific function. The shot on the right is a view of
the master bath in the same house. Two bedrooms and a servant's bath
on the third floor of the house were re-configured to create a master
suite with a large dressing room. If the owner's sell, the dressing
room can easily be converted back into a bedroom. The rooms, tucked
up under the eaves of the house, have all sorts of charming angles and
corners, adding to the romantic feeling of a garret under the roof. |
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| At left is the shower in the
master bath. I was thinking about CFA Voysey when I did this, and
wanted to lay the subway tile in a vertical soldier course, like I
imagined he might have done. It is a very clean, simple look, and I
have since used it in one way or another several more times. The
glass enclosure is as simple as you can get, and the terrazzo shower base
is likewise plain but elegant, I think. The picture on the right is
the second floor bathroom in the same house. The clients have two
teenage girls, and so a double sink was clearly called-for. I found
this antique French one at a local salvage store, and it worked perfectly
as the inspiration for the whole room. The stenciled frieze is based
on a design by Candace Wheeler, and the two girls helped create it.
Each carp is different, like a school of koi swimming around the
room. The curtains are a reproduction William Morris pattern,
Acorn. The floor is a vareigated slate, laid in a random
pattern. Not exactly what you would find in a period bathroom, but I
chose it to enhance the "underwater" palette. Both
daughters were competitive swimmers at the time, and Pisces as well!
Fish just seemed appropriate. |
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| These are
two views of a small bathroom that we created, along with a guest room,
out of the space that was the original dining room as part of an addition
to a modest bungalow in a northern suburb of Chicago. The space is a
great example of what can be done with a relatively small budget.
The fixtures are Kohler, the tile is from Home Depot, and the medicine
cabinet and towel bars are from a mail-order catalog. The most
expensive thing, per square inch, is the decorative cap molding, which we
had to get from a specialty tile store. The original oak floors were
retained, since it is a guest bath and not going to see daily use, and
this detail goes a long way to making you think this is an original bath. |
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| The house
next door is quite close, so some sort of treatment was necessary for the
bathroom window. The clients did not want curtains, so I had the
panes in the lower sash replaced with hammered amber glass, which provides
privacy while still letting the maximum amount of light in to the
room. While not big enough for a tub, there was plenty of space for
a nice shower, and some room left over for a small linen cabinet with
simple open shelving above on lumberyard shelf cleats. I had this
cabinet built on-site by a carpenter out of poplar which was then painted,
so it really looks authentic. The whole point of the project was to
achieve a result that looks like it was always part of the house. |
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| These are
two bathrooms in a remodeling and addition project based on the work of
the English Arts & Crafts architect CFA Voysey. The photo on the
left is a small, third floor bath which I wanted to have something of the
feeling of a servant's bathroom. The palette is very simple, white
and pale green. The tiles in the alcove are glass, which have a
natural greenish tint to them, but each one has a slight variation, which
lends a good deal of subtle interest. The surface of each tile is
not entirely flat, so there are wonderful ripples and refractions that
occur when the light plays off them. The photo on the right is the
first floor powder room. For this space, I wanted the materials and
finishes to refer to what else was going on on that level, so
custom-designed oak paneling was used, with a round mirror incorporated
into it like Voysey might have done. The pedestal sink echoes the
mirror in shape, while the tile pattern on the floor is reminiscent of the
hearth design in the living room. |
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| These
are two views of the master bath in the same house. I wanted a
feeling of an oasis or spa, and so the colors and materials are kept to a
minimum, and the shower enclosure is located in a different area.
The tiles on the wall are a wonderful pale green, with a lot of depth to
them. The sink base was custom-designed to look like a piece of
furniture. The counter top is Ceasarstone in a beautiful pale green
with darker-colored grains of quartz. Since the house is situated on
a large lot far from neighbors, there is no need for curtains, and so the
feeling of bathing, or relaxing, in a tub in the middle of the treetops is
very powerful and soothing. |
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| The photo
on the left is a view of the doorway to the mechanical room that houses
the equipment for the steam shower. The picture on the right shows
the floor tile design, which we made up from stock sheet tiles that were
cut and positioned in place. The inspiration came from old period
tile floors, combined with a Japanese textile design that I found in a
book on Oriental antiques. |
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| These are
two views of a guest bath in the basement of a house here in Oak
Park. The inspiration for this space was the movie "Chariots of
Fire", and the kind of Edwardian bathrooms that might be found in the
athletic facilities of those old English men's clubs. The fact that
I have never been in one in my life did not deter me from imagining what
they might be like. The cypress wainscotting from the rest of the
floor was continued here, along with the variegated slate flooring.
The tile design in the steam shower is what I picture to have been in
those old sporting locker rooms. |
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| These are
two views of the master bathroom in a Frank Lloyd Wright house here in Oak
Park. The existing bathroom had been redone in the early 1960's
after a fire, and it looked funky and very dated, but not in a good
way. The challenge was to come up with a design that Wright might
have done himself, since there were no original drawings or photographs
showing what it looked like in 1907. I imagined that Wright would
have used the most modern-looking, and simplest, fittings he could find,
and so that concept lead the design. The tiles are typical 3x6
subway tile, but I had them laid in horizontal soldier courses, which I
thought Wright might have liked. The floor is standard hex tile
sheet goods, but cut and laid in place to create a simple rectangular
border pattern. The vanity is custom-designed to match cabinetry
elsewhere in the house. The white seat that came with the toilet was
replaced with a more appropriate black one. |
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| We also
redid the children's bath in a similar manner, which is shown at
right. For both shower enclosures I used glass 3 x 6 tiles, laid as
elsewhere in a horizontal soldier course. While the master shower is
plain glass tiles in their natural color, we wanted to spice the other
bath up a bit, and so turquoise glass tiles were used. In both
instances the walls are plain 3 x 6 white glazed tile. While the
effect in both baths is a curious and exciting combination of
period-correctness and ultra-modern details, the total result is
completely in keeping with the house itself, a jewel of Wright's early
Prairie School period. |
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| Technically
not a bathroom, this is the upstairs laundry room in the Wright house, and
since it is a space where cleaning happens, I decided to include it
here. Again, the goal was to imagine a laundry room that Wright
might have designed, and to use materials that are found elsewhere to
integrate the space into the rest of the house. The sink is a
contemporary utility sink that is identical to one from the early 1900's,
but the porcelain legs came from a salvage source. The cabinetry is
based on the designs for the bathroom vanities, but the real key to the success
of this space are the undercounter washer and dryer with integrated panel
fronts. Upon first entering the room, you could easily miss them and
just assume that this is a period utility room, which is what we wanted. |
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