An Alexandria Row House’s Drab Addition Will get a Stylish Overhaul

Someday in the 1980s, the entrepreneurs of a regular 1920s brick row dwelling in Old Town Alexandria included 400 square toes of room to the back again. Maybe the two-tale addition, full with an atrium, was just the issue at the time. But above the a long time, its charm had dimmed.

“The addition had an open kitchen area/relatives area structure,” recalls the house owner, who has shared the row dwelling with her spouse and their 14-year-old son, 10-calendar year-previous daughter, and goldendoodle, Lily, for 14 decades. “But the kitchen area hardly ever effectively utilized all the area that it could have had, and the spouse and children home was undersized, accommodating only a couple individuals in the seating spot at any offered time.”

It just did not operate any more, so inside designer Anne Marie Hauer of Choux Layouts, who has a studio in The Plains, aided spearhead a comprehensive redo of the place. The addition the moment showcased an L-shaped kitchen to its proper, with a small island for two, a small seating area past, and French doors on to the yard. It was painted gray and experienced a rooftop skylight and a glass-paned facet doorway.

“They required me to aid style and design an improved kitchen layout and more substantial relatives area, a far more open up, flowing area,” states Hauer. “How to transition from the outdated part of the row residence to the new aspect in a fluid method was also significant, as was deciding upon a kitchen design that felt refreshing still included all the storage possibilities so very sought just after in Old City.”

Quite maybe the oddest aspect in the previous addition was a floor-to-ceiling tower of open cabinets developed to disguise a vertical support beam. It rose up like a periscope at sea, breaking the line of vision and separating the kitchen area and household room. Dispensing with that and expanding the all round footprint was the initially get of enterprise for Hauer, who worked alongside architect Brad Linden of Linden + Kehyari Associates. Concerning shedding the kitchen’s L-formed structure and bumping out the rear footprint by absorbing aspect of the back deck, they added an extra 130 sq. ft to the space—and finally to the household home.

Along with the householders, they made a decision to make the again wall all massive-paned glass framed in black aluminum, making an open up place with an industrial sense that the family members loved. Windows were being also put on either side of the new fire that served to anchor the newly enlarged spouse and children area.

“To produce separation among the kitchen and household room, we designed a huge cased opening,” suggests Hauer, referencing the architectural variety that also secretes the newly reinforced structural beams supporting the addition. The open up balcony was sealed off, but the skylight still provides in mild over the new, greater kitchen island.

“We needed to regard the traditional aesthetic of the unique entrance part of the home,” states Hauer. “But we also wished to embrace a extra modern sensibility listed here, with cleaner traces and furnishings.”

For instance, oak herringbone flooring had been picked for the rear addition, with a light natural stain. The complete space has negligible moldings and is painted white. Alternatively of leaving the L-shaped kitchen to one facet, Hauer built a multipurpose cooking and entertaining space with various custom storage functions on either facet of a more substantial central island, that includes ample seating and a waterfall edge.

“The kitchen’s new structure makes what was the exact sq. footage feel so considerably bigger now,” says the home-owner of the kitchen’s redesign.

Hauer suggested a blend of Shaker-style cupboards in quarter-sawn oak in a combination of the two natural and white-painted finishes the cabinetry was provided by Exceptional Kitchens and Baths.

“The brass hardware and plumbing fixtures include warmth to the space, as do the purely natural wooden cabinets,” Hauer says. “But we stored the components strains clear and contemporary.” Though the pulls and knobs are present day in experience, the library sconces earlier mentioned the cupboards are much more traditional in style and design, nodding back again to the home’s architectural roots. The brass mesh on the bar cupboards, fairly than glass fronts, is also in preserving with this concept.

“It was give and consider with the standard-compared to-modern day vibe,” suggests Hauer. “For example, we selected a rolling ladder to access the higher cabinets, but we did not enjoy the antique-sensation base that arrived with it, so we omitted the wheels, and I had a local resource shop wrap the base feet of the ladder in brass for a contemporary look.”

Exclusive kitchen area functions incorporate a whole-dimension wine fridge, a crafted-in desk/place of work place, and a vent hood with a plaster end for texture and warmth, as well as a attractive custom bar with basic brass mesh cabinet fronts.

“We love blue,” claims the home-owner of the blue-and-gold qualified fuel array the workforce picked. “It’s the focal stage of the kitchen area. We preferred how it embellished the everyday, coastal California vibe we were being likely for with all the natural woods and neutral décor.”

For palette continuity, the blue finds its way into the household home by way of a faux linen–wrapped cocktail table and a pair of deep-blue porcelain desk lamps. A hanging but neutral beaded chandelier defines the seating space and helps make a restrained statement. Loved ones home seating incorporates a pair of clear-lined cream sofas in a stain-resistant Perennials material and a bamboo-and-rattan settee. Linen panels on a black iron curtain rod insert a diploma of sophistication and coziness to the industrial-fashion back again wall.

“All our picks have been intended to deliver the general room alongside one another, to make it lovely, relaxed, usable, and, of training course, pet- and relatives-friendly,” suggests Hauer.

Useful curiosity was extra on possibly side of the new fire/Television set wall in the type of double window seats. Bookshelves are set into each and every market, and there is below-bench storage as perfectly as overhead matched pendants for looking through or ambient mild at evening.

“One of the homeowner’s requests was setting aside a committed place for the household puppy,” suggests Hauer. “In the redesign, we designed room for Lily under the window bench to the still left aspect of the fire.”

Lily’s specialized niche has the identical brass metallic mesh used in the kitchen’s bar, reflecting the analyzed continuity in layout used to this refreshed addition.

“The additional 7 ft on the relatives place and the kitchen’s redesign make this house livable for our entire family members with extra home for company,” says the property owner. “We lived in this space in advance of, but now, it is so a lot more snug and prettier. And we even managed to construct a area for Lily!”

This story initially appeared in the April issue of Northern Virginia magazine. Subscribe for more stories like this.