Projects Archive - NR HILLER DESIGN

1930s Kitchen Update

The owners of this historic house in Bloomington, Indiana wanted to retain the original cabinets and mosaic tiled counters while updating the kitchen to make it lighter and more functional. In keeping with early-20th-century convention, the original counters are lower than contemporary norms; since one of the clients was well over six-feet tall, I built the new cabinets with counters at 38 inches. The new cabinets follow the original proportions faithfully in other respects and are fitted with salvaged chrome-plated hinges and reproduction knobs from Rejuvenation Lighting and House Parts. (This kitchen was done in the late 1990s, before Rejuvenation and other manufacturers of reproduction hardware had added this Deco-era style of hinge to their offerings.)

The general contractor on this job was Golden Hands Construction. As part of the job, a skylight was added, the sink cabinet was reconfigured to accommodate a new sink, the linoleum floor was removed (as a result of which the contractor added trim around the cabinet bases), and the wall shown above was reconfigured to incorporate a clever built-in closet in a space by the refrigerator that would otherwise have felt cramped.

Interesting footnote: The mosaic tile counters are original, with the tile laid in a cement bed. Although the grout lines were dirty and worn from decades of use, the clients wanted to keep the counters, along with the original Nurre vitrolite wall tile. They had the contractor remove the old grout with a Fein tool fitted with an abrasive blade, a painstaking process that took many hours. Then new grout was added and the counters were sealed.

This kitchen was featured in Fine Woodworking.

Photography by Kendall Reeves, Spectrum Studio of Photography and Design

Kitchen for a 1917 house

The big picture. Minimally furnished, as it would have been when the house was originally constructed. (Photo: Lauri Hafvenstein.)

Lauri Hafvenstein introduced herself to me at the end of a talk I presented in Baltimore in 2009 about designing kitchens for old houses. She’d recently bought a 1917 house in Washington D.C. and was hoping to redo the kitchen in time for her home’s hundredth birthday.

A couple of years later she got back in touch and hired me for a design consultation. I arrived to find her dining table covered in original catalogs from 1917 and knew right away that I was dealing with someone who was passionate about period authenticity. We discussed her ideas and I shared my own, along with resources. We also visited a neighbor’s house that still had its original pantry so we could recreate the one in her kitchen.

A few years later Lauri was ready to take the plunge, but to make the job affordable, we had to do the work in stages. I built the cabinetry in my shop and drove everything to D.C. with my partner, Mark, in 2015. We installed the cabinetry and Mark added a wall in the original location to separate the kitchen from the pantry. Next, Lauri’s brother, Larry, made several trips from out of state to repair plaster, install trim, and paint, all to a high professional standard. I returned the following year to install the newly painted cabinets’ doors and drawers, add open shelving in the pantry, build a recessed niche over the sink (which Lauri’s neighbor Brian trimmed out), and assemble a small work table I’d built in pieces and brought in my luggage.

Lauri’s images document the dramatic transformation of her kitchen, a true labor of love that took several years, along with a lot of patience, research, and hard work. She is now a partner in Washington D.C.-area design business Old House Loves.

A view closer in. A capacious cabinet with drawers, glazed doors, and counter made from salvaged fir is the primary storage and prep space in the kitchen. (Photo: Lauri Hafvenstein.)

Before: The same area as in the picture above was little more than a hallway. Without a logical punctuation, the wall at right had been fitted with some stock base cabinets, a 45-degree corner cabinet at each end. The space that now holds open pantry shelves was completely wasted. (Photo: Lauri Hafvenstein.)

Lauri took up the new floor and had the original fir sanded and finished. She had trim milled to match the remaining original pieces.

Lauri’s use of salvaged goods and vintage appliances is particularly striking. She bought a circa-1917 Oriole stove produced in Baltimore (in other words, a local product) that had been restored by the Good Time Stove Company. Her fridge is a 1929 Frigidaire.

Inside the pantry today, open shelves on wooden battens face a wall of shallow built-in storage with three glazed doors above drawers and wooden doors. Lauri found the salvaged glass and painstakingly scraped it to remove old paint. The hinges, latches, and bin pulls are salvaged. (Photo: Lauri Hafvenstein.)

After: A salvaged sink, wooden worktable, restored 1910s Oriole stove (patented in 1912, but a near-identical version was made in 1917), and niche for decorative items and dishwashing supplies. (Photo: Lauri Hafvenstein.)

Before: view of the sink and stove wall

1929 Frigidaire. Yes, it needs to be defrosted regularly. But wow. (Photo: Lauri Hafvenstein.)

The fridge interior. (Photo: Lauri Hafvenstein.)

Desk of salvaged walnut

A custom-designed desk made in solid walnut from my clients’ backyard tree.

All photos here are by Kendall Reeves, Spectrum Studio

After being cut, the log was left on the ground for a few years, as a result of which it developed quite a bit of rot. I did extensive patching to replace, and in some cases reinforce, rotten sections of heartwood and sapwood.

This back corner shows the subtle but extensive patching to replace sections of rot. The mitered corner of the apron is inlaid with a half-butterfly (the shape in this case purely decorative) and reinforced with kerfed splines. I shaped the rear edge of the top by hand to remove punky sapwood, which would have proved all too tempting to my clients’ kittens — it was the perfect texture for shredding. The long back edge of the front angled leg seen here has a large chunk of inlay and a second strip of heartwood running most of its length at the back edge.

The desk has two drawers made with handcut dovetails and mounted on full-extension Blum Tandem slides, in addition to a keyboard tray with a live edge.

little drawer and other details from side

Detail showing side of small drawer with handcut dovetails and half-butterfly key reinforcing a small split at the front of the side support rail

Detail showing two knots patched with decorative inlaid keys and dead knot at the front corner of the upper shelf

Detail showing keyboard tray partially extended and small drawer

Armoire

A turn-of-the-century Scandinavian-inspired design, this armoire has retractable doors with decorative strap hinge hardware salvaged from an old barn in Ohio. Antique keys function as door and drawer pulls.

Photography by Kendall Reeves, Spectrum Studio of Photography and Design

Piano Room Composition

A wall of built-in cabinetry for this music room combines meticulously matched figured veneers, paint, and glass.

English Arts & Crafts Style Bookcase

I designed this piece when Megan Fitzpatrick, editor of Popular Woodworking, invited me to submit a project article for an Arts & Crafts-style bookcase. Although the design is original, its construction and aesthetic pay homage to longtime English furniture manufacturer Harris Lebus. The sides–straightforward slabs glued directly to legs, not frame-and-panel–are characteristic of many Lebus pieces from the early 20th century, as are the leaded glass doors, built-up feet, and brackets under the top.

See my blog post on the piece.

Bath for a ’30s Eclectic Revival House

Ready to banish pink and gold from her upstairs bath, this client hired me to create something more in keeping with her home’s architectural character.

Before

After

I incorporated a nice little alcove for soap and shampoo when installing the subway-tiled shower surround.

Fantastical Voyage

Having lived with rickety bedroom dressers since grad school, these clients (whose sons are now in college) were ready to enter the world of capacious, well made cabinetry. Ready for smooth-gliding, full-extension drawer hardware. Ready for soft-close wardrobe doors. And definitely ready for an aesthetic upgrade.

Inspired by the work of Chicago artist Edgar Miller, this pair of dressers and the companion wardrobe reflect the clients’ interest in old maps, German literature, and African art.

The dresser at the center of this arrangement features stylized plants and animals roughly in the style of work by 19th-century scientist and artist Ernst Haeckel.

Space below each piece is designed for shoe storage.

Photography by Jim Krause, Tabletop Productions.

A Magic Wall

After years of patient planning, architect Larry Phelps decided the time had come to realize his vision for the entry area of his home in 2014. This 22-foot-long wall is a pivotal element of the house. It welcomes visitors, leading their attention to a breathtaking view of forested hillside on the wall opposite the front door. It divides public areas for cooking, dining, and relaxing from private bedrooms and baths. And now, thanks to Larry’s ingenious design, it also comes to life with the click of a button to show photos, watch movies, or surf the Internet.

Phelps specified sequence-matched plainsawn red oak panels that I sourced from Heitink Veneers, then cut to precise dimensions, edgebanded, and finished. Mark Longacre Construction prepped the surface of the wall to minimize any irregularities that would have been magnified by the long perspective, then worked with Larry and me on the meticulous installation.

A 3/8-inch ground veneered in straight-grain red oak is scribed to the ceiling, wraps around the wall’s ends, and returns at the rear.

A key component of Larry’s vision is his clever incorporation of a flat-screen TV. Larry fabricated a compartment behind the paneling, painted the interior black to make it invisible, and concealed it all behind a tinted screen. It’s deeply rewarding to see a customer so pleased by the realization of his own dream. As Larry writes,

I find myself accepting that it is a magic piece of glass. So I guess the illusion is complete, because I know what’s going on and it doesn’t matter. I have enjoyed it for a few days now and it still amazes me. It is like looking at something from the future.”

Photography by Kendall Reeves, Spectrum Studio of Photography and Design

An Architect’s Kitchen on the Cusp of the 21st Century

The vision for this compact kitchen came from my client, architect Kristopher Floyd, who accomplished an impressive restoration of his turn-of-the-20th-century house largely with his own hands during his spare time. The painting on the hood over the stove is by artist Veda Stanfield.

Photography by Kendall Reeves, Spectrum Studio of Photography and Design