It’s the first day of Spring, the snow is melting, the skies are blue and I have determined squirrels doing incredible gymnastics to get at the bird feeders. Here’s a recent remodel of a home on an Historic Block in Denver’s Congress Park neighborhood. Despite keeping the original built-ins in the kitchen, dining and living room, the rest of the home was completely gutted. We demoe’d an existing center chimney to make room for new stairs to the basement, added a primary suite and completely re-hauled the basement as well as a few other things to make this sweet 1920’s bungalow more functional for this young family of four.
I especially love the way the kitchen turned out. I mainly work on full remodels these days and it’s rare that we keep existing cabinets. I think most homeowners probably keep their cabinets and work with what they have, but it’s not necessarily what I get hired to do. We typically donate or sell the existing cabinetry so that it doesn’t go straight to the landfill (a change from what used to go on in this industry). This kitchen is an interesting mix of original and new.
The original trim around this opening and the windows is adorable. We added the wall of cabinets at the back of this space. It used to be the stairs leading to the basement. (Photo by Jordan Katz for Laura Medicus Interiors)
The client replaced the countertops with Carrera marble a few years before. We added the hex tile, the wall light, new cabinet hardware and a new, unlacquered brass faucet. (Photo by Jordan Katz for Laura Medicus Interiors)
We added another wall light next to the stove and took the new tile all the way up to the ceiling. Some of the cabinetry is original to the home, some was added by another homeowner and we added the refrigerator wall cabinets. (Photo by Jordan Katz for Laura Medicus Interiors)
This is a new door to the exterior – we replicated the existing trim. The exterior of the door is painted Knoxville Gray and the cabinets, trim and walls are White Dove by Benjamin Moore. This door goes out to the client’s south facing kitchen garden. (Photo by Jordan Katz for Laura Medicus Interiors)
Isn’t that a charming original window next to the new Dutch door? Because we have an indoor cat, I don’t think I could ever have a door like this, but it seems like it would be a delight. (Photo by Jordan Katz for Laura Medicus Interiors)
The client’s father had this butcher block made and he drove it out to his daughter from North Carolina. The light fixture is from Schoolhouse. (Photo by Jordan Katz for Laura Medicus Interiors)
A pretty view of the dining room that’s adjacent to the kitchen. The cabinetry and windows here are original. There was an arch existing and we had to replicate it with a new one because the the footprint changed slightly. The oak floor is original. (Photo by Jordan Katz for Laura Medicus Interiors)
Spring is made of solid, fourteen-karat gratitude, the reward for the long wait. Every religious tradition from the northern hemisphere honors some form of April hallelujah, for this is the season of exquisite redemption, a slam-bang return to joy after a season of cold second thoughts.”
Laura is a Denver Interior Designer who runs an Interior Design Studio based in sunny Colorado with a strong commitment to livable and interesting interiors. She also runs The Colorado Nest, a Denver blog about Design, Art and Life in the Mountain West and co-hosts the book podcast "The Inside Flap" on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play.
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