kitchen
kitchen kitchen
Some of the newer readers might not even realize what a big part of the site our renovation blog was in the early days of Brownstoner. Truth is, we miss it. Plus, we did kinda leave people hanging by not showing the finished product. It may have had something to do with a couple of harsh comments about the choice of shower curtain in the kids’ bathroom and something to do with the fact that a house like ours is never really done. Unless you have a bottomless pit of money that allows you to perfectly restore everything in the house before moving in, a brownstone reno is really a lifelong commitment. Which makes it hard to say, “Okay, we’re done now!”

With that said, it’s time to start revealing the finished product in bits and pieces. As promised last month, we’re starting with the kitchen and hoping other readers will follow suit by sending us their photos and stories to run on the main page. There are some good shots of the evolution of our kitchen in the July 2005 archive that are worth checking out as background.

The current kitchen is at the top of the stairs on the second floor where a bathroom used to be. We closed off the original doorway from the hall (where the fridge is now) and opened up the wall to the dining room. We were able to salvage enough of the old pipe molding from our demo to cover the entire opening. The counters are veiny white marble cut from a very large slab (found at Build It Green!) that had been salvaged from the bathroom of an old theater in the West 40s in Manhattan. We saved money with IKEA cabinets and splurged a bit on appliances, with the theory that we could move the appliances if we ever have the money to move the kitchen down a floor to the rear of the parlor. So we went with a Bosch dishwasher, a Bluestar range and a Jenn Air refrigerator. We capped it off with a vintage Art Deco ceiling light.

Okay, your turn. (If you emailed us last month already, please send us a reminder.)


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. We are thinking about going with a pretty expensive, Italian modern kitchen in our rowhouse. Putting aside the argument of whether this is in line with the style of the home, which we are debating at home right now. My question is does modern cabinetry look high end enough for a reallly high end renovation. I see them in use all the time in fancy new condos, but not so much in the brownstone resale market. I think this is because usually sellers of brownstones are older and it’s a bit of a generational thing to go for the really classic wood looks out there. But does that mean the newer stuff automatically looks cheap by comparison, even if it’s really not. I’m talking about using laminates and expensive appliances and countertops. Reason for concern over how others view it is purely for resale reasons. So any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

  2. Where, exactly, would an island go? It would take up the rest of the space of the kitchen!

    We’re running into money problems with our garden floor (where the kitchen will be) and are trying to decide where to cut $ out. Those cabinets look pretty darn good.