Project: Kitchen, Powder Room and Butler’s Pantry Remodel in 1890 Victorian.
What a privilege to help breathe new life into a historic home with such beautiful bones and character! #ProjectRevampedVictorian included a full-gut renovation of the kitchen, powder room and butler’s pantry, including a reconfiguring of the powder room footprint and opening of a load-bearing wall for better flow between the kitchen and dining room.
For a busy family that enjoys cooking and entertaining, the strategic changes to the layout of the kitchen and surrounding spaces created a big impact, and the new design, with a nod to the history of the home, is a dramatic improvement over the 1990’s-era kitchen.
Photography: Lara Kimmerer
The overall layout and appliance placement in the kitchen stayed the same, but a few key changes made a big difference. Instead of a freestanding kitchen table, an island adds countertop space and houses a microwave drawer, and wall cabinets installed to the ceiling provides additional storage space.
The deep blue finish on the cabinetry provides a moody and historic-feeling foundation to the kitchen, while lighter elements like stainless steel appliances, a crackled backsplash tile and polished nickel hardware add contrast.
Nodding to the age of the home, the kitchen features a bridge-style faucet in an English bronze finish, an ogee-edge profile on the countertops, and decorative corbels under the wall cabinets.
Accentuating the height of the room, stacked wall cabinets installed to the ceiling provide more storage for lesser-used kitchen items. Three industrial-style sconces over the window provide another layer of lighting, whether for tasks at the sink or mood lighting for a dinner party.
The mix of materials is bold yet classic, rich yet neural, historic yet fresh.
Polished nickel hardware, in a more decorative style, pops against the steel blue cabinetry.
As part of the construction scope of work, the powder room was reconfigured smaller, with the load-bearing wall between the kitchen and powder room pushed back and widened for better flow between the kitchen and the adjacent dining room.
Outside the powder room, our team created more storage with shallow cabinetry, serving as a perfect landing area for the family coming in and out of the home’s back mudroom.
Ah, the powder room! She is a thing of beauty, perfectly compact and loaded with style! With a classic basketweave floor tile, applied molding and historic paper on the walls, and vintage-inspired fixtures, we wanted this space to feel traditional, cozy and timeless.
A mix of chrome, oil-rubbed bronze and leafy green crates an enchanting feel.
Through the home’s dining room – painted a classic French-Canadian hue – is the walk-in butler’s pantry, tucked away as a cheerful surprise.
It was bittersweet to remove the pantry’s original built-in cabinets and open shelving, but the condition and function of the space called for a refresh. We added a small bar sink in one corner, while new cabinetry stores the homeowners’ barware and serving collections off the countertop. We selected Cherry inset cabinetry for a historic feel, in a rich “coffee” stained finish. The glass fronts showcase glasses and barware, while the wallpaper runs up the backs of the wall cabinets.
The new quartz countertop and undercounter beverage fridge put everything within easy reach to mix up a cocktail or pour a seltzer…
…and the new bar sink and faucet make clean-up a breeze!
Take a walk through #ProjectRevampedVictorian with designer Jenni Jacobs.
See how this space was transformed in our Before and After Gallery!
Thoughtful planning was at the heart of this kitchen, pantry, and powder room remodel. By taking a design-build approach, every detail was considered early on, resulting in spaces that function beautifully and feel naturally connected. Learn more about our design-build process and how we approach whole-home renovations.
