the galley kitchen, redefined - Howells Architecture + Design

THE
GALLEY
KITCHEN,
REDEFINED
With their “shotgun” arrangement of space along two
walls, galley kitchens are often narrow and can feel cut off
from the rest of the house, but thoughtful design connects
people and living spaces in the Beaumont-Wilshire kitchen
of Rose and Eric Brooks.
The Brookses had all the usual reasons motivating their
decision to remodel the kitchen of their 1940s house.
The existing kitchen was the product of multiple cheap
renovations, with unattractive cabinet veneers and worn
linoleum flooring. The space also functioned poorly.
At the breakfast nook, a peninsula jutted out into the
throughway, impeding the flow. Also, while double
doors connected the breakfast nook to the rear garden,
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this area was particularly cramped.
“There was always a bottleneck over
there,” Eric recalls.
As a homeschooler of three children,
Rose was extra-invested in a well laid
out kitchen that had a better connection to the dining room on one end
and the back yard at the other. At
first the owners thought they would
need to knock out an existing wall
and a stairwell to expand the kitchen,
but their architect, Michael Howells,
discouraged this, assuring them the
available space was sufficient for an
optimal kitchen. “The kitchen was
already wide enough,” he says. “The
basic layout wasn’t wrong. But in this
case, slight tweaks to the configuration would transform the space.”
While the essential layout remained
the same (range, sink, and breakfast
nook retained their placement), the
kitchen remodel necessitated the
removal of a chimney, the widening of
the opening to better connect kitchen
and dining room, the removal of nonfunctioning soffits to extend cabinetry
to the ceiling, and the removal and
replacement of the rear doors to the
garden. The existing rear doors were
just a few inches short of functional,
Howells explains, “but inches really
matter when you’re talking about a
space that five people are using every
day.” Replacing the back doors and
shifting the new door set slightly to
Continued on page 12
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Architect: Michael Howells of Howells Architecture + Design
www.howellsarc.com; 503-869-3715
Contractor: Mike Andreyuk of ReCraft
www.recrafthome.com; 503-680-0939
Cabinetmaker: Eric Wolf of Wolf & Son; 503-232-9168
Architectural photography: Matt Niebuhr
www.mattniebuhr.com; Copyright 2011 — Matt Niebuhr; all
rights reserved
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Northwest Renovation
Continued from page 11
the right created space for a builtin bench at the breakfast nook and
accommodated a generous dinerstyle table and chairs. The result is
a cozy and capacious seating area
that still allows for easy passage to
the yard. With its church pew-like
seating area, the breakfast nook
is easily the most popular hangout
in the house. “It’s a multi-purpose
space now,” Rose says, with the
table utilized as much for school
projects as for eating, and the
bench providing a quiet spot for
the family’s avid young readers,
Annika and Naomi.
Aesthetically, the kitchen is sleek,
but also warm, with an unusual
combination of cherry cabinetry
and built-ins, white countertops
and blue tile. Howells’ materials
palette started with the choice of
wood. “I was inspired by a beautiful cherry cabinet in the owners’
living room,” he explains, “and by
the rich colors of their collection of
musical instruments.” White IceStone (recycled glass) countertops
add lightness and brightness to the
kitchen, “plus food always looks
good on white,” Howells claims. A
soft blue tile from Heath’s Modern
Basics line completes the scheme,
and oak-flooring matches the
kitchen with the rest of the house.
Overall, the kitchen has a clean,
modern sensibility, but also feels
rooted in this older house. Howells
believes the key to a good remodel
is sensitive — but not faithful —
integration within the existing
home. “You want to pay respect
to the building’s origins, but you
also want to be current. And then
you want quality materials and
craftsmen so it will last well into
the future.” In Howells’ design
approach, aesthetic choices aren’t
simply a matter of personal preference but are important decisions
that should be arrived at carefully. “Remodeling a kitchen well
is expensive, and I take my clients’
investment very seriously. I always
try to guide them toward something that not only looks good and
functions well now, but will also do
so for decades to come.” n
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