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.)