Mid-Century Kitchen Remodel — How to Honor Great Design in an Upgrade

Project showcased in Chapel Hill Magazine

This architecturally designed mid-century home had many beautiful elements already in place but the kitchen had not been updated since 1978 and was falling apart. The large family living in the home needed more storage, but changing the footprint of the kitchen was not possible without compromising the rest of the architecture. So the problem to solve was both how to honor the existing architecture while also making the space more functional.

We wanted to take this question even further by asking whether we could enhance or even elevate the rest of the beautiful features of the home with how we approached materials and massing in the design. We began with the cabinetry, working with Fresh Air Designs to specify a cabinetry line (Linea by Cuisine Ideal) that reflects mid-century aesthetic without aping it. The warm tones of the alder wood reflect the aged pine and cedar wood tones throughout the house, and the linear decoration (tambour) on the cabinet fronts in the main room harken back to the linearity present in mid-century designs.

Wanting to make a statement as guests enter the home, the cabinetry facing the dining table has a bold countertop design with a partial waterfall down the side — an effect we lovingly termed “the mullet”. Concealed finger pulls keep the lines clean and shallow touch-latch cabinets under the countertop overhang add valuable additional storage.

Built-in cabinets above the counter replaced existing cabinets, but we added doors with ribbed glass to control dust and relate to the other linear elements in the design. Green and gray natural quartzite stone countertops with a thickened profile anchor the cabinets and add a touch of playful movement to the space.

Recording Studio & ADU — How to Do a Lot With a Little

Designed for a local musician and recording artist, this space needed to serve multiple uses: as a recording studio, performance venue, and a guest suite/ADU. The budget for this project was very limited, and the building had to fit in the back corner of a residential urban lot in Durham, North Carolina. Every day this building is visible to the clients from their bedroom, kitchen, and back deck, so it was important that the building was nice to look at and not too big. The clients wanted to be able to invite large groups to see performances by local musicians in a fun and relaxed atmosphere, while also preserving as much of their backyard as possible for their child to play in during the day.

In addition to all of the above, the design needed to be simple enough that parts of the building work could be completed by the homeowners (who had limited experience in construction) as a cost-saving measure. When a design “problem” is this complex, our first step is to understand the core experience the client is wanting to achieve. We adapt our discovery process to the unique personality of the client. For this client, writing about the experience as a narrative was the most helpful way to express what they were looking for.

Understanding the experience the client wants to have is essential to our design process at Charlton Architecture. We always take the time to gain this core conceptual understanding because it helps us focus our design skills on what is truly important to the client.

Half Moon House — How to Celebrate the Site

Located on a rocky outcrop in the San Juan Islands in Washington State, a key problem for this project was how to design a home that contributed to the beauty of the site rather than detracted from it. The lot is at the peak of a gentle hill and is highly visible from the water and land. In addition, the lot width was narrow and had significant setbacks leaving a small available building area. In order to fit the client’s desired program it seemed at first that the building would have to be two stories, but this would have created a tower-like form on the site which would overpower the gentle sweep of boulders and grasses that make the site so special.

We preserved the drama of the rocky coastline by first working to deeply understand the client’s goals that informed their programmatic desires. Through this exercise we saw an opportunity to reduce the scope of the program by using our spatial ingenuity to design a plan with no wasted space and a clever system of flexible rooms. This allowed us to keep the design to a single story.

Huge window-walls in key view areas create an intimate connection to the landscape. Reclaimed wood tongue-and-groove siding was allowed to gray out, melding with the surrounding natural palette so that the house feels like a part of the landscape rather than distinct from it. Simple, low cost interiors capture the aesthetic of the client’s Japanese heritage while maintaining the strict budget. This is an elegant, understated home; a place in which to connect with beauty outside its walls.

Fashion Guru’s Minimalist Kitchen — How to Turn Dark & Pokey Into Bright & Clean

Designed for two prominent members of the fashion industry in Seattle, this high-end kitchen remodel transformed a dowdy, dark 1980’s galley kitchen into a fashion-forward space that caters to their love of hosting.

Connecting the hosting spaces of the kitchen and living room required a complete reconfiguration of the kitchen layout. We eliminated a dividing wall, replacing it with a deep island that contains cabinets on either side for ample storage but connects the cooks in the kitchen to their guests.

We worked with mass as a visual language to create rhythmic harmony and clean lines, concealing all appliances inside cabinetry and using routed-in recessed finger pulls on cabinetry doors. This allows light to spill uninterrupted over the countertops from the large new window. A light color countertop was chosen to reflect this natural light around the room.

The clients wanted space to display art objects as well as an environment that was free of visual clutter. We integrated open steel shelving at the corner of the island where art can be best seen from the stairs by arriving guests. Visual calm was achieved by staining the 1980’s cherry-red floor a dark color to offset the tonal palette and carefully integrating small details such as flush outlets in the backsplash.

Screened Porch & Deck — Privacy on a Small Urban Lot

Historic Addition & Remodel - How to Play Nicely with Historical Homes

A large, modern addition transforms a humble Sears kit-house located in a historic district while remaining connected to the landscape. Chapel Hill, North Carolina.