Tired of living in a house with so much wasted space, Geffen hired architects Catherine and V. W. Fowlkes of Fowlkes Studio to reconfigure the entire house—and finally move the kitchen to the first floor.
Photography by Brandon Webster, courtesy of Fowlkes Studio.
The back wall of the new kitchen extends beyond the room’s original footprint; it’s part of an addition that cantilevers over the townhouse’s side yard.
The blue print on the wall is a photograph by the homeowner, and the coral piece is a Joan Miró lithograph.
The clients wanted to make sure they ended up with no unused space: They did away with a rarely used formal dining room, and placed the dinner table (Mörbylånga from Ikea) in the center of the kitchen instead.
Fowlkes “softened the walls” with a Venetian plaster finish in a custom putty color, and paired it with honed Caesarstone countertops in Calcatta Nuvo.
“We experimented with mixing cabinet materials,” says Fowlkes of the stainless steel and bleached walnut surfaces.
To the left of the range is a small utility closet.
The clients wanted more storage in their new kitchen than they had previously, so Fowlkes added a full-height wall of storage cabinets. The team was able to reuse several appliances from the previous kitchen, including the dishwasher and fridge.
A wine fridge (also salvaged from the original kitchen) is stacked above a new microwave drawer and steel-fronted storage drawer. They used lower paneling to protect the busy walkway, with room above for hanging artwork.
In a small nook at the end of the kitchen, Fowlkes installed high shelves to allow for a flexible-use area underneath; it’s sometimes used as a “mom command center” with a desk, and other times as a lounge space with a stuffed chair.
The new addition has standing seam metal paneling and cantilevers over the side yard.