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When purchased
in 2007, this upper apartment in a two-unit building
from the 1920's had not been updated or re-decorated since the late 1950's. The exterior of the
building is Edwardian and had been converted from TIC to
Condominiums in 2006. Much of the interior
period detailing had been butchered, but the bones were
solid, the location in one of the desirable western
neighborhoods of the city afforded and outstanding view of the
Golden Gate Bridge from the rear.
I saw an
opportunity to restore the unit to it's period glory
while adding contemporary lifestyle conveniences
including a chef's kitchen, new master and guest
bathrooms. As in most of my other projects,
"elegant simplicity" was the design esthetic I was
after. The project took 10 months to
complete, included new electrical, plumbing and
re-plastering throughout, new entry staircase, careful
restoration or replacement of the original moldings,
replacement of all interior doors and hardware,
upgrading windows, restoration of white oak flooring, as
well as the new kitchen and baths. I acted
as Architect/Designer, General Contractor, finish carpenter, cabinet builder
and installer.
Click on any of the thumbnail images for a larger
version of the photograph.
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Original Cabinet
Design Idea from a
Magazine
I wanted to be as
period-sensitive (1920) as
possible during the
remodel, and
tripped over this photo
in a magazine as a close
approximation of what I
was after in the
kitchen.
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Concept Drawing for
Cabinet Front
After locating
sources for the
period-specific
hardware, making field
measurements of the
space, and drawing up a
variety of cabinet door
proportions in CAD, I
ended up with this final
working idea for the
remainder of the
cabinet drawings. |
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Detailed CAD Drawing
Example
After the concept
drawings looked
acceptable, detailed
drawings of the entire
space and cabinet
details were made.
Nothing was standard
about any of these
cabinet units. Each one
is a one-off piece of
furniture designed
specifically to fit the
existing space.
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Faceframe and Door
Fitting
Shown above is the
assembled faceframe with
doors and hardware being
fitted to the faceframes.
The faceframes were
constructed with Poplar
and joined with pocket
screws. The doors
and drawer fronts are
traditional
frame-and-panel
construction of Poplar
using a custom profile
appropriate to the
period. |
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Base Cabinet with
Blum Tandem Drawer
Slides
The boxes for the
cabinets are from 3/4 in
pre-finished maple
Eurobirch plywood, dado
corners, glue and
AssyPlus screws for
construction. Cabinet
backs are 1/2 in
Eurobirch. This was the
first time I'd used Blum
Tandem slides - which
aren't that easy to get
right with faceframes. I
spent a lot of time
detailing slide
placement and it all
worked perfectly.
The advantage of the
Blum Tandem slides
include under-drawer
concealment, easy
removal of drawer,
drawer front projection
alignment points and
soft closing mechanism. |
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Base Cabinet with
Drawers& Fronts
Drawer boxes
were made from European
Beach with dovetailed
corners. Drawer fronts
are poplar
frame-and-panel similar
to door detail.
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Sink Base with Bookshelf
and Doors Being Fitted
After
faceframes were
installed, the doors
were precision fit to
the openings with 2.5mm
cut-line clearance to
allow for paint
thickness, and
hardware installed.
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Upper Cabinet Unit
This is an upper
cabinet just prior to
transport to the job
site with faceframes
installed, doors fitted
and hardware installed.
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Original 1950's Kitchen
This is the
range corner of the
original kitchen. This
particular range corner
was not a functional
layout, and the
original kitchen did not
have a space for a
refrigerator. Six
layers of Linoleum
on the floor - some put
down with tacks one inch
on-center. I
decided to use
vertical-grain white oak
for the new floor
consistent with the
living and dining rooms.
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Reconfigured Range
Corner
By removing an
unused flu and pipe (for the
old range) I was able to
reconfigure the range
corner as shown and tie
into the older roof
penetration for the
ventilation system.
Being an avid home chef
myself, I was after a
highly functional
workflow in the
reconfiguration, and
inclusion of modern
convenience ideas, but
to keep the overall
design statement low key
and period sensitive.
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Cabinet Installation
I prefer to work alone
when possible and it was a
challenge to get the
cabinets installed
working alone. Some of
the upper cabinets
weigh in excess of 150 pounds
and the ceilings are 10
feet above finished
floor.
As I expected, the
floors were not level -
varying by as much as
one inch overall in the
kitchen and this
required a lot of fussy
fitting of the cabinets
to insure the units were
level and remained
square. Custom
baseboards scribed to
the floor were fitted
after cabinet
installation. The
opening shown here in
the base cabinets is for
the dishwasher.
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Sink Base with
Granite
I searched
extensively for just the
right stone for the
countertops. I ended up
selecting Granite - dark
sage green, with white
swirls - because it had
a feeling of the
original period of the
building, but also felt
contemporary because of
the coloration. It took
three slabs for this
job. The sink is a
commercial extra deep
single-bowl stainless
under-mount unit from
Franke. The cold
water supply to the
Franke spout, the pot
filler at the range and
the icemaker in the
fridge is filtered by a
Multipure unit.
Under the sink is a
Hafele trash/recycle
storage system, and an
oversized disposal.
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Range Corner after Stone
Installation
Since the cabinets have
a finished height of
37-1/2 inches great care
was given to the range
height position.
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Sink and Refrigerator
Area
Shown here is
the recessed Liehberr
refrigerator after
cabinet and stone
installation. I
chose the Liehberr unit
because it is self
contained yet looks
custom-fitted, is from
the leading refrigerator
manufacturer in Germany
, and compared to a
Sub-Zero unit consumes a
fraction of the energy,
offers more storage and
is easier to service.
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Completed Result
Sink and range
area looking into the
adjoining laundry area.
The recessed wall unit
opposite the range was
originally an externally
vented cold storage box.
I replaced this rotting
box with the built-in
unit shown which houses
the microwave oven,
toaster oven, other
small appliances and a
small stereo.
Lighting is a
combination of recessed
dimming CFL cans in the
ceiling from Cooper,
florescent strips under
the wall-hung units,
plus two decorative
pendants over the sink.
The dishwasher to the
left of the sink is by
Miele.
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Finished Result as
viewed from
Dining Room
The wall color
is a pale sage, and the
cabinets a soft creamy
white - historic in
appearance with a
contemporary light feel.
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View from Kitchen to
Adjoining Laundry/Pantry
Area |
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Finished Kitchen Showing
Cooking Station, Sink
and Refrigerator
Installation |
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Finished Cook Center
The range is a
Capitol unit (spin out
of Wolf) with center 5th
burner with 22,000 BTU
output, custom tile
back-splash with glass
accents, pot filler,
Vent-a-hood exhaust
system.
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Laundry and Pantry
Area
I decided to
carry the stone into the
laundry area to give a
feeling of continuity
and to insure the
laundry are didn't have
an "orphan" feeling
compared to the kitchen.
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Under-counter Washer
Dryer
This washer
dryer installation was
very difficult because
of the space
constraints, but the
outcome was well worth
the effort.
The water supply
includes a
moisture-sensing shutoff
as well as a remotely
located manual shutoff.
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Ball Catches Throughout
In keeping with
my obsession on period
detailing, I decided to
use furniture quality
ball catches throughout.
All the hardware in the
kitchen is
polished nickel.
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Period-appropriate
Drawer Pulls
This shows the
final detailing of the
drawer pulls and the
relief profile
on the drawer fronts.
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Twelve New Custom Wood
Passage Doors
The doors in the
unit had been painted
about 10 times and
looked like they had
been whipped with
chains. Some were
damaged, some were
cutoff 2 inches above
the finished floor. I decided to
replace them all with
new vertical-grain fir
units custom sized to
the existing openings,
and elected to continue
the period detailing
into the decorative
solid brass hinges.
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Traditional Solid
Brass Mortise
Locksets Throughout
This shows the
new locksets installed
in the doors. Fitting
and installing the
hardware on the doors
was painstaking and time
consuming. For
cutting the mortises I
made jigs and performed six
different router
operations for each
door at the job site. The knobs are
crystal (not glass) and
the backplates are heavy
solid brass specific to
the period. All
doors have functioning keylocks.
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Finished Living Room
The unit was
lath/plaster with
surface wiring. I
decided to completely
rewire the unit, add
recessed lighting where
appropriate, and then
had a master plastering
team skim coat
the entire unit after all repairs
were made. The
results are flawless
All fixed pane glass and
the rotating vintage
Dean windows were
replaced with new low-e
double-glazed glass to
be more eco-friendly and
significantly lower the
street noise.
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Living Room to Dining
The floors are
vertical-grain white
oak, needed extensive
repair and refinishing.
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Dining Room
I added the
wainscot to this room to
conform to the original
period. When the project
began, one wall in this
room had faux brick
glued to it.
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Dining Room
The main
lighting fixture was
specifically chosen to
look up-to-date and add
drama but also tie back
into the period of the
building.
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Guest Bathroom
I decided to
keep the original hex
floor in this room and
spend the time making it
fresh again. New Toto
toilet with soft-close
mahogany lid, and after
inspections I added the
corner lavatory I found
in France. The wallpaper
was custom made in
Canada to a period
design I supplied.
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Master Bathroom
I decided to use
tumbled stone on the
floor for traction and
enhanced it with
diagonally placed glass
accents. The tub is
custom made (27 inch
code restriction) and is
a full 22 inches deep
for soaking. The stone
overlay on the tub and
the lavatory
counter are charcoal
granite honed to give
the appearance of soapstone
without the drawbacks of
soapstone. The tub
surround is tiled with micro-subway
tiles made from Carrara
marble - a
fresh interpretation
employing a material commonly
used in bathrooms
from the original era.
All fixtures are
Hansgrohe in polished
nickel.
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View from the Bedrooms
This is the view
from the two larger
bedrooms and the sun
room. The property is
outside the gate,
looking back into the
bay.
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