Kitchen Creations
Restoration Recipes
Kitchen Classics
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Kitchen Creations
VINTAGE APPEAL
Mark sketched the new design for the kitchen cabinetry himself. The white farmhouse sink adds another turn-of- the-century look.
When faced with rehabilitating this 1900 kitchen in Detroit, Michigan, Mark Reynolds looked on the bright side: “At least the lack of maintenance in the house spared all of the tacky 1960s and 1970s renovations suffered by other homes in the area.” Although the kitchen had survived through the disco era, it had a long way to go before Mark could even think of boiling an egg. Along with decades of filth covering every inch of the room, the electric wiring was original (no longer up to code), the plumbing had collapsed, and the foundation in the breakfast room had crumbled away. “I hauled the refrigerator to the curb without opening the door,” he says. A restoration purist, Mark wanted to re-create the atmosphere of a Victorian-era kitchen without all the dirt. “Some folks might have gutted the interior walls for a big, open kitchen, but I was reluctant to lose the original footprint and features that were still intact: the wainscotting, the built-in icebox, the trim, cabinets, and cold-storage room and butler’s pantry.”
Total Cost: $14,000
(not including exterior work)
Architect: NA
Contractor: NA
Materials: $5,500
Cabinetry: $7,500
Appliances: $1,000
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Before the room could return to its original ambiance, Mark needed to make it structurally sound. He did all the structural work, wiring, and plumbing. His first task was to gut the breakfast room and then install new rafters, flooring, wiring, and surface treatments. Next he stripped and refinished the Michigan yellow pine planks. “We wanted to keep the flooring; they don’t make 20´-long flooring strips any more,” Mark says. After some thought, Mark sketched a design for the kitchen cabinets using the butler’s pantry as a model. “Live with a project for a while,” he says. “This was advice I took from OHJ years back.” Although Mark had the cabinetry built and installed he stained and shellacked the woodwork himself to match the original color as closely as possible. He also added beadboard, a traditional wall treatment at the turn of the last century.
Mark modernized the butler’s pantry by adding a dishwasher and microwave. He also installed a copper sink in this room, replacing the original washboard iron sink. “The vintage appliances craze has not hit this area yet,” says Mark, who was able to pick up his old stove from a neighbor for $250 and the fridge from an estate sale for $50. The last project tackled was to upgrade the original Chrysler Koppin built-in icebox to a modern Freon-based system. This project would allow Mark to put the 1940s Frigidaire in the billiards room on the third floor. “Surprisingly, the space works well,” he says. “Two people can prep food in different spaces without bumping into each other.”
Vintage Appeal
Nooks and Crannies
Ease & Aesthetics
Adaptive Re-use
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