Simply designed, meticulously crafted cabinetry replaces the mass-produced units installed in this Washington, D.C.-area galley kitchen during the 1980s. The latest iteration of the kitchen features a variety of counter heights and materials for different uses, concealed dishwasher drawers, and a bank of Sub-Zero refrigeration drawers built into base cabinetry below a solid cherry counter. A Shaw’s fire clay sink is served by a wall-mounted faucet and pot filler. The doors are inch-thick solid maple, inset and hung on traditional non-adjustable butt hinges. Paint by Farrow & Ball.

 The cabinet shown below follows the outline of an original cabinet that had been removed long before the current homeowners bought the house; they discovered the original cabinet’s outline under a layer of purple wallpaper hung during the previous remodel. We planned a pastry preparation area with a marble counter that sits lower than surrounding counters to make kneading bread dough or rolling pie crusts a breeze. We hinged all the doors on the right instead of having them open at the center, and as a special detail for this cabinet we built the drawers along the lines of those in original early-20th-century built-ins: with pinned rabbet joints instead of dovetails and traditional wooden runners instead of mechanical drawer slides.

The homeowners had their kitchen’s mid-century exhaust fan cover (below) re-plated, then installed it above a new stove. The simplest of shelves hold pots and pans.

 The wall opposite the sink has a nine-foot-long counter in solid cherry with shallow uppers above.

Adjustable shelves sit on traditional wooden supports.