Farmhouse Kitchen Addition

This his­toric farm­house kitchen in Mount Ver­non, Wash­ing­ton was en­larged and ren­o­vated for bet­ter ef­fi­ciency with­out sac­ri­fic­ing its century-old charm. The functionality of the space was greatly improved by personal touches—in fact, the owner’s retro diner table served as the centerpiece for the design program of the project.

All coun­ter­top sur­faces in the kitchen are maple butcher block, allowing any surface in the kitchen to be used as a cutting board, which is a design feature that is well-loved and well-used.

This was ac­com­plished by sand­ing off the fac­tory fin­ish and oil­ing the sur­face. In­stead of us­ing the tra­di­tional sin­gle farm­house sink, a dou­ble-bowl farm­house sink was spec­i­fied for the ease of wash­ing and rins­ing. The kitchen is­land, cab­i­nets, and ap­pli­ances are or­ga­nized to sep­a­rate the serv­ing side from the cook­ing side, a pro­gram­matic de­tail that al­le­vi­ates con­ges­tion. Sim­i­larly, the cof­fee bar was arranged so that all cof­fee-re­lated ac­tiv­i­ties are placed within a 3-foot ra­dius. Bead­board is used at the back­splash/​wall cov­er­ing to add to the his­toric feel.

Cir­cu­la­tion be­tween the kitchen and the rest of the home was im­proved by widen­ing the ex­ist­ing open­ing to the din­ing room (an ar­chi­tec­tural choice that im­proves sight-lines into the larger kitchen and im­proves flow). A new door was added to con­nect to the south pa­tio in­stead of the prior con­nec­tion from the base­ment stairs. A walk-in pantry con­tains ad­di­tional stor­age, in­clud­ing small ap­pli­ances such as the mi­crowave and mini-fridge, which the own­ers did not want to be vis­i­ble to guests. The ex­ist­ing pow­der room was also re­or­ga­nized and ren­o­vated to high­light a beau­ti­ful William Mor­ris wall­pa­per and board and bat­ten wain­scot.

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