After Remodel: Spacious Host Kitchen
A spacious host kitchen is an amenity old-house purists often sacrifice to enjoy a pristine period home. But in Brian and Judith Turner’s 1926 Tudor Revival, the kitchen wasn’t authentic—or especially inviting. The basic layout may have been original but the sterile space was a holdover from a 1960s “update” and jerry-rigged, with the refrigerator relegated to the adjacent mudroom in order to fit in a table and chairs. In addition, the kitchen suffered from a severe lack of storage space, with just a few cabinets around the sink and on the wall opposite it.
To give the Turners the gracious cooking and eating space they were after, with good flow with the rest of the New Rochelle, New York, home, architect Carol J.W. Kurth first annexed some closet-size spaces next door, then replaced the wall shared with the TV room with a breakfast bar.
Before Remodel: Bland and Style-less
A ’60s redo had nixed the kitchen’s stylistic connection to the 1920s house.
A Period Look
The new great-room kitchen has lots of seating and open sightlines to neighboring rooms, as well as more than twice as many storage cabinets. Now Judith can monitor both her homemade Italian “gravy” and the kids’ TV time from inside, and there’s plenty of room for friends and extended family to gather. Kurth even capped the bay windows, richly stained cherry cabinets, and granite countertops with a detailed coffered ceiling. The result? A kitchen with 21st-century function tucked in a space with the finely crafted details of decades gone by.
Casement-Style Windows
Casement-style windows and the bay configuration are both hallmarks of the Tudor Revival style. This 19-inch bumpout added a display sill behind the Herbeau Creations sink and Whitehaus Collection oil-rubbed bronze faucet. It also focuses eyes on the granite countertops.
Cherry Cabinetry
Cherry cabinetry with a black glaze has an aged look that blends well with existing molding elsewhere in the house. Bronze accent tiles in the backsplash help soften the profile of the pro range.
Coffered Ceiling
The Coffered ceiling, highlighted by recessed lights, is a new grid constructed by installing two decorative 8-inch beams perpendicular to old structural ones running the length of the kitchen. All were then covered in plasterboard, trimmed out, painted, and lined with a stained crown molding
The Archway
The Archway over the breakfast bar, was created using stock trim; it provides a graceful transition between
the kitchen and the TV room.
Sliding Storage
Hidden storage for cutting boards on either side of the sink is concealed by decorative panels that slide open with
just a tug on recesses at the top.
Latticework Panels
Latticework Panels on the breakfast bar’s base cabinet doors allow air to circulate inside and add texture.
Before Floor Plan: Tight Squeeze
Three closet-size rooms at one end of the kitchen made for such a tight squeeze that the refrigerator stood in the mudroom to allow for a table and chairs.
After Floor Plan: Increased Space
Annexing the rooms increased the space from 200 to 300 square feet and created a workable layout that accommodates dining and food-prep zones.
What They Did:
1. Took over Several Smaller Spaces—a pantry, mudroom, and closet—that were arrayed along one short wall for an additional 91 square feet of floor space. The new area holds a table and four chairs.
2. Removed most of a structured wall shared with the new TV room and replaced it with three support columns to take the load while allowing for an open plan.
3. Built a breakfast bar between two of the columns to add casual seating and preserve an open sight line to the TV room.
4. Relocated appliances to the opposite end of the room, separating food prep from the new eating area.
5. Installed an Island with a second sink, microwave, and open shelves to triangulate between the main sink and fridge wall and the range.
6. Added more natural light with a new bay window in the dining area and a large bumped-out bay along the sink wall, where two smaller windows were closed up. French doors to the patio replaced the old back door.
