Historic Kitchen Renovation Recognized In Country Decorating Ideas' "Remodeling" Magazine


KITCHEN MAKEOVER - BURIED TREASURE

A Jewel Of A Kitchen Comes Alive!

This kitchen and its stained-glass windows are 128 years old.
Before its present owners remodeled, the beauty of the glass was lost in the dreary room.

 

"When Wes and I started talking about this kitchen, we said, 'Let's do it right since we'll be here for the rest of our lives." For Mona and Wes Hartman "doing it right" is a big undertaking. Remodeling their kitchen was the first phase in a project that will take years to complete. Why years? They are restoring and turning a house built in 1861 into a functional living space suitable for today's lifestyles.

...The kitchen was dreary and nonfunctional, but the stained glass above the original windows was as jewel-like as it was when the house was built. Mona and Wes knew they wanted the emerald, amethyst, and sapphire glass to dictate the color scheme. Choosing the color scheme was easy; designing the kitchen was more difficult. "Our main goal was to keep it in sync with the historical character of the house and also make it functional," Mona explains.

At this point she and Wes turned the project over to Bruce Richey, architect, and Randy Borgardus of Oregon Architectural Millworks & Manufacturing. "We wanted professional help for two reasons," Mona says. "Because of the historical significance of the home, we felt we had a responsibility to do things correctly and to have quality work throughout it; also, we plan to spend the rest of our lives here and keep the house in the family."

B. F. Dowell House Kitchen

"Bruce designed the cabinets to complement the arched windows and paneled doors in the house. I wanted lots of storage space, so he planned a pantry unit, deep drawers for cookie sheets, and a pullout drawer for baking goods. He hid the microwave behind doors, too," Mona says. "We didn't want a lot of modern kitchen appliances to strike the eye when you walk into the kitchen. All you can see is the refrigerator and the cooktop."

...The kitchen is everything Wes and Mona hoped for. It's warm, inviting and very functional. The stained glass windows are not the only reason people call it a "jewel of a room."