KHS work-in-progress: O&G seating samples at Touisset small-house renovation/addition

Earlier this week, folks from Warren's O&G Studio were kind enough to bring barstool and chair samples to the Touisset small-house renovation/addition, so we could have a looksy in situ. We wanted to see which would fit best in terms of style, size, and color with the mahogany custom table and banquette, the jatoba bar counter and the (newly installed) antique southern yellow pine floors, as well as the overall updated cottage/arts-and-crafts/industrial-lite aesthetic.

The winner was the Wayland lowback sidechair and fanback barstool in the absolutely gorgeous Azimuth blue stain on maple. Can't wait to see our selections, when complete, in place!

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

KHS work-in-progress: Touisset small-house renovation/addition update

Here are more progress shots of this small-house renovation/addition. Note the newly installed jatoba bar-top high counter, built-in banquette with custom mahogany table, down-draft range along the windows, and enclosed porch-like addition that I discussed in an earlier post.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

KHS work-in-progress: Touisset small-house renovation/addition

With this post I'm starting a new category at House Enthusiast where I'll share "KHS work-in-progress". I posted some exterior and interior progress photos of this project over the winter in a "New-Small-House book tidbit" about transformation. Now the Touisset small-house renovation/addition is nearing substantial completion.

This is a kitchen/dining/family area addition off a c. 1910 ish cottage bungalow. We designed it to resemble an enclosed porch inside and out, though it's new construction. Windows wrap three sides and a cathedral ceiling with mahogany beams give it a porch-like quality. Daylight is shared by each of the overlapping kitchen/dining/family spaces and the increased ceiling height allows the various spaces to feel larger than the sum of their parts.

Because windows line the counter work surface there are no overhead cabinets and therefore no undercabinet lights, so to provide task lighting, low-voltage cable lights stretch between beams. Tall cabinets, not seen to the right, provide storage for items that would otherwise have occupied overhead cabinets. A sliver of the built-in banquette is visible beyond the shaker-style cabinets and soapstone counters. The banquette and the built-in bench adjacent to the stair provide discreet locations for intimate gathering and slight remove from activity elsewhere in the space. A new gas heating stove is yet to be installed on the other side of bar-counter wall. The existing stair to the right, which used to run along the exterior wall of the house, now opens into the addition and sports a new guardrail on the addition side of the stair which plays off the existing square baluster design of the original guardrail on the other side of the stair.

Southern yellow heart pine floors tie the addition into the existing home and a family of industrial-inspired light fixtures with smoked glass and exposed filament bulbs provide cohesive warm accents throughout the kitchen/dining/family area. This multipurpose space offers a variety of spatial experiences for a variety of activities which will allow it to live larger.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

The New Small House: Transformation

One of the homeowners in the small-houses book I'm writing speaks about the power of architectural transformation and its capacity to transform the lives of a home's occupants, neighbors and community. The delight we often take in "before" and "after" renovation/addition photos taps into the delight we typically take in transformation, in general. There's something about imagining the possibilities and potential that are latent in our everyday environments that draw us in and compel us forward to realize those possibilities and potential.

The KHS small-house renovation/addition project pictured above is currently under construction. It's at the fun stage where the design we conceived months ago is taking physical shape as framing and window/door installation is nearing completion. The existing stair that once ran along the exterior wall, bordering the cottage's small living room, remains, but is now open to an adjacent enclosed porch-like addition. We are essentially adding not only the space of the addition but the spaciousness now perceived in the neighboring original living room. Those familiar with the house "before" have been walking through and almost giddily remarking on how expansive the small house now feels "after". The thrill of the transformation is nearly contagious.

This small house will remain small, but not quite as small, and will live larger, but not too large.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast