NR HILLER DESIGN, INC.

CUSTOM FURNITURE & CABINETRY

  • HOME
  • BOOKS
  • ABOUT
  • PORTFOLIO
    • KITCHENS
    • FURNITURE
    • BATHS
  • NEWS
  • WRITING
    • ARTICLES
    • BOOKS
    • BLOG – Making Things Work
  • PRESS
  • CONTACT
Home / Projects / Kitchen for a 1917 house

Kitchen for a 1917 house

The kitchen’s primary storage and workspace: a cabinet inspired by salvaged built-ins from other houses in the neighborhood, with a counter made of salvaged fir. (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 D.C.-area design business Old House Loves.

The long view: minimally furnished, as it would have been when the house was originally constructed. (Photo: Lauri Hafvenstein)

Here’s the pantry “before”

Before: view toward the pantry. In keeping with late-20th-century trends, some well-intentioned soul removed the wall between the pantry and the main kitchen area, thereby in effect turning the previous workhorse that is a pantry into a useless hallway.

…and after

Inside the pantry today, open shelves on wooden battens face a wall of shallow built-in storage with three glazed doors. (Photo: Lauri Hafvenstein.) With the pantry walls restored, the space becomes functional. The design of the built-in cabinetry on the right is based on a surviving pantry in a neighborhood home. Lauri found salvaged wavy glass and painstakingly stripped it of old paint and glazing compound. We used salvaged hinges, latches, and bin pulls to give a more authentically antique look. Lauri’s brother, Larry, did the painting. The open shelves at left are supported by battens that run the full length of the wall. Lauri’s sensitive selection of paint colors and meticulous painting turn this simplest of storage forms into a decorative virtue.

The sink and stove wall “before”

My eyes hurt. This is, after all, a 1917 house.

…and after

Lauri found a salvaged sink (and a plumber willing to install it — no mean feat) and bought a restored Oriole stove from the Good Time Stove Company. Because the brick wall had to be built out to accommodate the plumbing pipes, I suggested installing a small set of shelves in a niche over the sink. Lauri’s neighbor Brian finished the trim. I made the worktable in knockdown form and delivered it to the nearly-finished kitchen by sending some parts by mail and transporting the rest in my luggage.

Period Frigidaire. Yes, it needs to be defrosted regularly. But wow. I’ll take inconvenience any day when it comes to beauty. (Photo: Lauri Hafvenstein.)

 

 

 

Follow us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Latest Instagrams

nrhiller

Shout out to @cardinalspirits ! The people at our Shout out to @cardinalspirits ! The people at our locally owned distillery have been extraordinarily resilient in response to the pandemic — making hand sanitizer when none was available, cocktails and kits you can buy in stores, and keeping their excellent kitchen in business even when the distillery is closed for dining in. These pork belly tacos that Mark had yesterday looked beautiful, and the corn smelled divine. And here’s to a food business that serves carry-out in food-safe compostable containers! So rare. And so important. Thank you, Jeff and Erica!
.
.
#snowday #hikeinthewoods #goodfood #cardinalspirits #yay #goodpeople #indianabusiness
I am so grateful to have this man as my partner. H I am so grateful to have this man as my partner. He recently found this ridiculous photo from 2007. We both look a lot younger! As @chbecksvoort49 says, life is so lovely when you have a good partner. Mark is a gentle, caring soul. Incredibly resilient. Deeply thoughtful. An excellent builder and carpenter. Loyal friend. Spoiler of domestic animals. Occasional annoying dude. Altogether a wonderful human being with whom I am blessed to make a life.
.
.
#throwbackthursday #tbt❤ #grateful #gratitude #marriage
Nap time for Piggy. While I have chemo drugs drip Nap time for Piggy. While I have chemo drugs drip into my bloodstream, Tony has laid claim to Joey’s fleece. More dangerous is that he’s sharing the fleece with the pig, which has become Joey’s favorite toy. Fortunately Mark is monitoring the situation. 

And while this post is not about work, I am working on my laptop, writing post for the @finewoodworkingmagazine blog and a letter of recommendation for someone I admire (a lot).
.
.
#dogsandcats #work #ilovemywork
A day packed with drawing time and calls with a cl A day packed with drawing time and calls with a client in Rhode Island. There’s nothing like having historians as clients during interesting times. At the end of the day I found Mark chopping wood and had to catch this image with the hillside glowing in the background.
.
.
#saturdaywork #kitchendesign #thankyouteachers #historiansrock #ilovehistory #thisishistory #historyiseverything
By hand. This is how I draw kitchens. My drawings By hand. This is how I draw kitchens. My drawings are of course terribly prosaic compared to those gorgeous colored renderings by @johnnygreystudios but they do the job. Despite their arguable advantages, CAD images leave me cold. It has been super rewarding to get back to this particular kitchen design, for clients in St. Louis. I’m also working on another set for clients in Providence, Rhode Island. So fun! Another highlight of today: I completed a blog post about @furnituremaking which should be up at Lost Art Press this weekend and took delivery of materials for the next shop job, which will occupy my next good week (after chemo week...). A big thumbs up to good days.
.
.
#customcabinetrydesign #cabinetmaker #customkitchens #drawings #byhand
This is the look of a cat who has become thoroughl This is the look of a cat who has become thoroughly spoiled by living in the house, after a day of suffering the terrible conditions of the shop for just one day. “Don’t ever do that to me again! I need my woodstove in winter.” 
.
.
#catsofinstagram #shoplife
To celebrate the new year we went for a misty hike To celebrate the new year we went for a misty hike up the hill. Today we saw a beech with especially cool bark and, thanks to the precipitation, found a lost stream pouring into a &cave where we had previously seen only dry ground. So marvelous! We came home and made a fire for Grumpy. My new hand knitted scarf from HAM was perfect. @anissakaps 
.
.
#2021 #newyearhike #southernindiana
A few glimpses into the year that’s been. No woo A few glimpses into the year that’s been. No woodworking pics!  One of the happiest discoveries this year is that we have a fantastic woods behind our place, much of it owned by the Karst Conservancy, where Mark and I have been hiking.  Another gift is that my sister now has a kind, responsible, thoughtful and loving man in her life. Mark’s lovely mother passed in December, a big loss. The greatest joys have been family and friends, too many to mention individually (and they would probably prefer to be anonymous here), despite the challenges of connecting during a pandemic. I am feeling thankful. Here’s to doing what we can to make the world kinder and more beautiful in the year to come.
New work. I’m writing from the hospital in Bloom New work. I’m writing from the hospital in Bloomington where I am getting my first infusion. For years I’ve been working sporadically on a collection of stories about animals and work. A few weeks ago I was faced with the decision whether to go for (or forgo) chemotherapy. The one thing I could imagine being a sufficiently powerful motivation to go through the treatment was the prospect of completing this book. Happily, Chris Schwarz thought that “Shop Tails” would make a good addition to the Lost Art Press line. I’m crossing my fingers and sitting in this chair with several others who are being treated for their own conditions. Nurses are the best.
.
.
#chemotherapy #writerscommunity #shoptails #animalfriends #makingthingswork #adjustment #newwork #hopeful
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Affiliations

Society of American Period Furniture Makers

Copyright © 2021 · NR HILLER DESIGN, INC.