At work, I am doing a project that requires me to source fixtures, stones, finishes, etc for what will be two rental apartments. In SoHo, these apartments are located in a building that was built in 1920 – but the entire interior of the apartments will be new. I am struggling a bit to capture the feeling that I am going for so I thought I would work it out here.
Although I typically favor more traditional kitchens, one of my favorite things is the juxtaposition between old and new, which we touched on last week.
With kitchens, as with historic public buildings, there is a great opportunity to show the passage of time in a house.
Old wood beams and windows, adjacent to lacquered cabinets with stainless steel fixtures and countertops allows the visitor to understand when something is new, and often the shiny and modern aspects of the kitchen make the antique aspects of the home all the more apparent.
We have seen places where homeowners take it to the next level, and make it seem as though you could remove the kitchen one day, and you wouldn’t even have known it was there. Now that is a look I love.
Most of us remember House Beautiful in February 2010, when we saw a kitchen in what used to be the dining room of this Montgomery house. Again, in an historic home with wainscoting and moulding, that stainless steel range truly stands out – showing us that passage of time.
It is that “passage of time” look that I really love. In all of these photos, the kitchen and its appliances seem transitory, as though they have just stopped by for a visit and could be removed at a moment’s notice. That’s good preservation.
Photos courtesy of Elle Decor UK, Marie Claire Maison, & House Beautiful
