A question of proportion?
Isn’t this a delicious white kitchen? And that sofa looks so inviting – the one red cushion is masterful. A great example of clean contemporary design working in an older home. (Just look at the thickness of the walls, and the sash window). But is there something about the perspective, or is that restaurant style faucet nearly touching the ceiling? I think I would have picked a slightly smaller one for this particular kitchen.
via filmlocations.co.uk
I’ve been through this in another house. Seems I’m destined to gut and rebuild kitchens and bathrooms wherever I live. But life is too short to drink bad wine or live with bad design.
Speaking of which, tea will have to wait as I hear a bottle of Conundrum calling my name. Instead of a cuppa, it will have to be a glassa. TGIF!
Oh I don’t know – if you haven’t lived with makeshift and awkward, how can you truly appreciate good design? And remember the adage about the cobblers children…. it takes a lot to scare me! Now about that tea…
Would love to have tea with you… though if you saw the makeshift kitchen we have now, you’d probably faint from fright!
Kate – Better start stockpiling soapboxes, if it isn’t too late already
. Wow, thanks for your analysis. The question of context is interesting – one of my London flatmates was secretary of the Georgian society. Many of those lovely 18th Century Georgian terraces were thrown up hastily and with shoddy standards in a the midst of a population boom in the city (agricultrural & industrial revolution, beginnings of Empire, people flocking to city, foreign trade, etc). They were the tract houses or McMansions of the day – they all look the same, too! With the passage of time they became historical and valued despite the construction shortcomings. Not so long ago there was no problem razing a Craftsman cottage to the ground around here to replace it with something bigger and more current – so the ones that survived relatively intact are finally becoming recognized as historic resources. Is it going to happen with the ranchers next? – the Atomic Ranch people are already on it, lovingly preserving the details everybody else has been vigorously destroying for the last 30 or 40 years – and look at the popularity of Eichlers. I guess they were all types suited to their place and their period, so even if not grand and expensive, they are a true vernacular, not a pastiche? Though here in California we value fake (pastiche) French mansions just as long as they are more than about 75 years old – we are sadly lacking for much historical depth. Which totally agrees with what you were saying, about either being a typical example or a completely untypical one of a certain period. We’re going to have to get together over tea one day and have a long talk ….
I realize those are probably rhetorical questions, but I’m going to answer them anyway.
From a preservation standpoint, 50 years is the cutoff. But just because it’s old, doesn’t mean it’s historic. Sometimes old is just old.
Some houses (or other structures, for that matter) are historic by association: someone important in history lived in it or designed it, or it’s located within a historic district or site.
When a house is historic because of the house itself, it’s usually for one of two reason (which when you think about it, are about 180° apart):
1. The house is an excellent, typical, almost archetypical, example of a recognized style and/or period of architecture. Spanish revival, New England saltbox, mid-century modern ranch, etc. E.g., not just any ranch built in the 1950s is a textbook example of MCM.
2. The house, while typical in many ways, has features that were very unique for the time and/or place it was built. I’ll use my own house as an example: in a town full of Queen Anne mansions, our house is the only townhouse (rowhouse blueprint without neighbors); our house has the only polychrome patterned slate roof known to exist in the county; it is probably the only house in the area with a transom window over every single exterior and interior door.
Though it is the most common situation, being despised or seen as unfashionable is not the fate of all old homes.
Once in a great while, a house is owned by a series of people who have the extraordinary vision to see it within the context of its time and place and to appreciate their house for what it is. Or perhaps a house is passed down through a family who does not make significant changes because they’re sentimental, or they fear it will make the grandparents turn over in their graves. And of course there are always those people who resist change or who are just too cheap (or too broke) to pay for it.
But the fact that so many houses are at some point seen as outdated and as a result are remodeled, is exactly why it’s so important to recognize, protect and appreciate the few intact examples that remain.
No one expects a house to never have been touched by a nail or paintbrush. That wouldn’t be a home, it would be a time capsule museum. (I certainly would not want to use an outhouse, pump water from the cistern or have gas lights as the first owners of my house did.)
It’s possible to update kitchens and bathrooms or repurpose other rooms without removing or doing permanent damage to the defining characteristics each historic house has — that is, the collection of features or elements that make it historic. But before they can be preserved, they must be recognized. Often one learns to respect and appreciate them only after educating oneself about the style & period or the architect or the original owner.
The biggest threats to historic homes are water, fire… and people. Namely, the homeowners, the “designer/contractors”, the “designers” in DIY home centers.
Time to get down off my soapbox. (Vintage of course! Ever try standing on a bottle of Method detergent?)
PS: I seriously doubt many McMansions will be left standing in 150 years, or even 100. Only the granite countertops and tumbled marble showers will survive.
Hi Kate – but when does a home make the transition to historic? Does it have to go through a phase of being despised and unfashionable first? Will our grandchildren be preserving historic McMansions?
To add a caveat to what I said above: It *is* perfectly ok to make fun of or be mean to people who inalterably ruin the integrity of historic properties.
I wanted one of those commercial scullery faucets until I saw this photo.
The unflattering camera angle really emphasizes the low ceiling doesn’t it? It’s got to be less than 8 ft — I would guess about 7′2″ or so.
As for calamities, there’s a difference between using a photo to discuss design challenges and just being mean or making fun. It’s sort of too bad more people don’t find their own kitchens online — it would be interesting to read owner/design rebuttal.
Cheryl – thank you! The calamities are fun to do but I really don’t want to be the mean girl all the time – but then again “I love this”, “I love that” gets old rather quickly, too. I really did love your post http://www.kitchendetailsanddesign.com/?p=729 – the colors, and especially the sconces.
I enjoyed your blog! I had to laugh at the calamaties..I am glad none of my work was on there! I, too, like to point out some design disasters on my blog…sometimes you just have to ask, WHAT were they thinking?? I do worry I might grab a photo one day and someone who either designed it or owns it will see it and come looking for me! I read several of your entries and we are of a like mind!