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My kitchen renovation, Part 3: the layout

Annie Elliott | September 5, 2016

After our first meeting with Aidan Design‘s Nadia Subaran and her trusty team, John and I accepted the fact that if we wanted a place to eat, we would have to expand the kitchen.

We were thinking along these lines anyway: a million years ago (in 2012), we were ready to go with a kitchen renovation that included an addition. An expanded kitchen, in other words. But first, we had to suffer an agonizing build-out of the basement to support said addition.

(If you have a sec, go back and read this blog post. You’ll be fully up to speed.)

Construction on the back of a Wardman townhouse in Washington, DC
UGH. The back of our house during construction in 2012
Renovation of a back porch patio in Washington, DC
See how the basement comes out farther? Now an addition will have something to support it. Kind of important, I suppose

We were supposed to move right along with the kitchen renovation in 2013. However, the project stalled due to several boring, real-life reasons. (Not jolly, shiny, Facebook-appropriate reasons, such as wide-eyed indecision about what countertops we wanted.)

No, the suspension of the kitchen renovation was due to:

  • Construction fatigue (when you have a house that was built in 1910, you can’t know what you’ll run into when you start digging)
  • Cost overruns due to said construction, and, boringly,
  • A whopper of a tax bill.

(Side note: if you’re a CPA who also provides bookkeeping services and your client dutifully pays her quarterly taxes, there’s no excuse for not “catching” the fact that your client will owe a gazillion dollars on April 15. If this does in fact happen, you stink at your job. And you’re fired.)

ANNNNNYwayyy….

Three-ish years later, we’re ready to roll.

Here is the floor plan Aidan came up with:

Floor plan for DC kitchen renovation for DC interior designer Annie Elliott
Aidan Design’s kitchen plan

That’s kind of hard to read, isn’t it? Here —

Floor plan for a kitchen renovation in Washington, DC
Detail: floor plan for the main kitchen

Current sink wall:

A dated DC kitchen with Formica counters and wood cabinets before renovation

Elevation of the new sink wall:

Elevation of kitchen cabinets on sink wall DC gallery kitchen

The layout of the main kitchen isn’t too different, is it? As I mentioned in an earlier post, the location of the appliances was the only good thing about the kitchen, so it made sense to start there.

The stove wall, across from the sink wall in the main kitchen (the doorway goes to the dining room):

Elevation of kitchen cabinets DC galley kitchen

(That big bird drawing is a placeholder, but more on that to come, believe me ;) )

The butler’s pantry is a little more dramatic, because, well, there ISN’T a butler’s pantry right now. Reminder that right now, there’s this:

One end of a galley kitchen before renovation in Washington, DC
See? No butler’s pantry

Here’s the proposed plan:

Floor plan of a new butler's pantry, part of a DC kitchen renovation
Detail: floor plan for the butler’s pantry

On the right side as you enter from the Foyer:

Pantry cabinets in a galley kitchen

And on the left. Again, that doorway is to the dining room:

Elevation of kitchen cabinets in a butler's pantry

Did you notice that there’s still no place to eat in this kitchen? I did!

Next time, I’ll tell you about that gray section at the left of Aidan’s floor plan :) The adventure continues!

Bossy color | Annie Elliott interiors is based in Washington, D.C. We create outrageously beautiful homes, starting with color.

Category: Kitchen + bath, RenovationTag: addition, butler's pantry, cabinetry, cabinets, DC, DC kitchen, elevation, floor plan, galley kitchen, kitchen expansion, kitchen remodel, kitchen renovation, pantry, renovation, Wardman, Washington

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