Tag Archives: historic renovation

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Northwest Portland Residential Kitchen Design Concepts

PMA was commissioned for the remodel of a kitchen in a historic Queen Anne home in Kings Hill Historic District. PMA’s design included a new cabinet layout, counters, new appliances, lighting, and a refinished floor. The new design addresses the lack of counter space and dysfunction of the current layout, while providing a sophisticated aesthetic.

At the core of the design is the material and color palette. The cool grey scheme put together by PMA reflected the client’s taste. The cool shadow grey of the walls is juxtaposed by the Nordic white finish of the cabinets. Cornice is introduced back into the kitchen and matches the color of the cabinets. Tile along the backsplash is a geometric matte white porcelain tile. The lower cabinets are solid wood, Brookhaven Pasadena recessed door panels and solid faced draws, with a matte painted finish. To open the space, the upper cabinets feature frosted glass central panels.The feature lighting are simple pendant globe lights over the center bar and small flush-mount blubs symmetrically placed throughout the kitchen. Under cabinet lights enable work station lighting at each counter surface, while the upper cabinets are lit from behind to create ambient lighting. PMA proposed 3 refinish options for the hardwood floor. The preferred option is a warm honey oak finish, which compliments the overall cool grey color schemes and highlights the blue granite counters.

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Northwest Portland Residential Garage

The combination of a steeply sloped site, a contributing resource within a historic district, and a historic design review process turned the request for creating a two car garage into a challenging design proposal. Compounding working with the site’s steep slope was the perpendicular steep slope of the sidewalk, street, and right-of-way that created cross slopes and drainage concerns. The property also has an existing historic basalt retaining wall approximately ten feet high simultaneously creating an imposing structure next to the sidewalk but bringing visual interest to the front of the property.

Concrete garages at the front of the property were common in the area when houses were first constructed in the early 1900s. The district guidelines also noted that garages are an integral part of the historic district. New materials were chosen to reference historic precedence and to be compatible with the historic main house and surrounding contextual properties. Careful attention was given to surveying the corner elevations of the lot so that accurate site grades could be determined in order to take advantage of set-back exemptions within the zoning code.

Overall the design celebrates simplicity of materials, minimizes the exposed portions of the structure, and respects the historic district by incorporating the basalt stone retaining wall as part of garage face. The roof of the structure is designed such that the owner can create an amenity deck for the basement apartment or a flat landscape area within the steep slope.