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New kitchen for English country-style house

View of traditional kitchen with wooden cabinetry and cabinetry, countertop, cuisine classique, interior design, kitchen, brown — View of traditional kitchen with wooden cabinetry and tile flooring.

View of traditional kitchen with wooden cabinetry and cabinetry, countertop, cuisine classique, floor, flooring, interior design, kitchen, room, gray, brown

View of traditional kitchen with wooden cabinetry and cabinetry, countertop, cuisine classique, interior design, kitchen, room, brown

View of traditional kitchen with wooden cabinetry and cabinetry, ceiling, countertop, cuisine classique, estate, home, interior design, kitchen, room, window, brown, gray

View of traditional kitchen with wooden cabinetry and area, design, diagram, drawing, floor plan, line, plan, product design, structure, technical drawing, white

Houses with a strong architectural history present their own challenges when it comes to remodeling how do you meet modern lifestyle requirements without sacrificing the intrinsic character of the home?

The solution for this project by Stuart Cohen & Julie Hacker Architects was to keep the focus firmly on the original architecture.

Cohen says the English-style, white-painted country house was designed by the late architect Ernest A Grunsfeld Jr, who also designed the Chicago Planetarium. Some of the original appeal of the house had been lost, however, following earlier remodeling projects, including a new kitchen in the 1980s.

"The kitchen had no relationship to the design of the house it had a black-and-white checkerboard floor, white laminate cabinets and a low 7ft ceiling," says Cohen.

In planning a new addition to house the kitchen, breakfast room, mud room, garage and stairwell, the architects took their cue from the existing millwork in the house. A raised diamond panel that appears on cabinets in the living room and on all the interior doors was replicated in the stained alder wood kitchen cabinets. Alder was chosen as the best, and most consistent match with the existing cabinets.

"We also replicated the crown moulding, base boards and the casing around the doors," says Hacker. "But we invented the rest of the vocabulary of the woodwork. The island and sink cabinet, for example, feature a classical column design, which is a homage to renowned English architect Sir Edwin Lutyens."

Cabinetry between the kitchen and breakfast room is glazed front and back to provide a transparency that visually connects the two spaces, enhancing the sense of a single room.

All the walls in the kitchen are tiled to match the Costa Smeralda granite countertops. The floors are tiled in reclaimed stone from France, chosen for its warm, textural appeal.