Kitchen of the Week: A Craftsman Bungalow's Kitchen Opens Up
A Craftsman-style hutch made from natural red birch was added along one wall to provide additional storage for cookbooks, china and other objects as well as a place for doing homework or checking recipes. Even more storage can be found inside the bench. Having the bench built from the same materials as the kitchen cabinets and the table and chairs custom-made from the same wood as the hutch helps to tie the two areas together.
The cabinet just inside the doors to the deck houses the washer and dryer. On the opposite side of the room is a storage area and access to a tiny powder room.The resulting space is bright, open and respectful of the home’s past while still a perfect fit for today’s lifestyle. “It’s a wonderful kitchen,” Silver says.See more of this project
Kitchen at a GlanceWho lives here: A family of fourLocation: Oakland, CaliforniaSize:Year remodeled:Contractor: FSM Project, Inc.“The space was gutted to the studs, from the subfloor to the ceiling joists,” Frank Silver, owner of FSM Projects, explains. Even with the total overaul, though, the kitchen itself remained, in his words, “very close to the original.” Finding that balance included keeping many of the original elements and, in the case of the sink, original location, while adjusting the rest of the space to fit the family’s needs.Through it all, the homeowner was “extraordinarily hands on,” Silver adds. That involvement led to several refinements to the original plan, including the addition of extra storage space built into the peninsula at the end of the banquette which would have otherwise been “wasted space,” Silva says.
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