An Arts & Crafts home in Laurelhurst. Architectural Heritage Center Kitchen Revival Tour XIII, April 16, 2011

The third house I visit had the happiest kitchen I've ever been privileged to be inside.


From the booklet: Constructed in 1922 for real estate businessman Ferdinand Reed, this beautiful Arts & Crafts home hides a special surprise--a breath-taking Depression-era kitchen in near-mint condition. Given a complete makeover in the 1930s using the most current materials, the kitchen features floors, countertops and lower walls of original white tile with stunning borders and accents glazed in transparent aqua/seafoam green, while the upper walls and built-in cabinets were resurfaced in matching, aluminum-edged pressboard panels (possibly Marlite, introduced in 1930) for a Streamline look.



I stood in the middle of the room, smiling and smiling. Immediately I felt so happy to be there, in all of that light, beneath those high ceilings. I love that the colors on the tiles are described as transparent. I think that help them absorb and reflect light. Lovely.


The sink sports a wall-mounted faucet from the 1950s, unusual soap and cup niches, and charming half doors below that allow both visual screening and ventilation. The butler's pantry behind the kitchen was similarly modernized, as well as the small room adjacent to it where the original refrigerator was located (converted to a half bath in 2003). A new refrigerator now resides in a former storage cabinet, and a dishwasher is tucked into a former grain bin.


However, the real star of this kitchen can be sensed in its absence. A new vintage-style range with flanking cabinets sits rather awkwardly in the dramatically tiled spot that was originally the home to...


...a top-of-the-line Hotpoint electric range, which is currently perched on its elegant high legs in the basement, awaiting rewiring and restoration to its rightful place at the center of this remarkable kitchen.


Don't ask me how they are going to get the stove into the kitchen--these are the stairs I walked down to take the photo of it. I forgot to ask. But I have faith that it shall be done. And I believe I heard someone say that those light fixtures over the stove will also be gone, once the Hotpoint comes home.


Staircase to upstairs.


Built-in in the dining room, original to the house I overheard.


There is a twin of this cabinet, not original to the house, right across the opening between the dining room and the living room.


This cabinet in on the living room wall and backs up to the cabinet in the previous picture. It seemed to me to be a bookcase with doors--perfect. I think there was one opposite it, a twin, just like the two cabinets in the dining room. You can see the front window reflected in the glass door.


The front wall of the house with more cabinets and a bench seat. I should have checked to see if it opened, but all I could think about at the time was, "Wow. These two rooms are huge. And look at all of the beautiful wood."


Look, there's robin on the wire! Fun.