An Old House with a New Kitchen

I saw a potential client last week.  A beautiful late 1880's brick row house.  They have fixed it up over the years but haven't overwhelmed the place.  They have striped and sealed the woodwork leaving it's natural beauty and letting it show that the trim and doors and baseboards have aged gracefully with their dents and dings.  And the carry a certain elegance against the white walls and the simple furniture the owners have.  Simple furniture yes, but many are modern designer pieces that are classics for their own more recent eras.

They have worked on the house over the years and now it is time for the kitchen

Old can be new

I have a special place for old houses.  Maybe because I grew up in several different ones and the neighborhoods I lived in were filled with them.  I have found that to be an anomaly in too many places here in the states.  My parents moved to Belgium when I went to college and lived  there for 27 years.  I loved the way Europeans would keep the old but make it new again.  They didn't need to tear it all down.  It was perfectly acceptable to have a beautiful old plaster ceiling and big solid doors lead into a modern kitchen with glass and stainless steel.  The celebrated the dicotomy and often made that difference into a new kind of whole.  Hopefully, I will be able to add a little to that movement and support that belief.  Let's make the old new again rather than discarding it and building something that doesn't carry a history.