Before & After: Open Dining/Kitchen at the KHS Shaker-house renovation/addition

To create a more open and expansive dining and kitchen area that's better connected to the rear yard, we removed the walls shown to the left and straight ahead in the "Before" photo (bottom). New patio doors, straight ahead and to the right in the "After" photo, fill the arched openings that had led from the former upper-level screen porch to the lower-level screen porch and the exterior (respectively). Daylight from four formerly failing casement windows, to the right in the "Before" photo, is now captured through three new casement windows in the same overall opening, to the right in the "After" photo. A custom built-in banquette, and custom table (from Ares Iron) comfortably allow for more diners than the small table in the "Before" photo. Reclaimed chestnut flooring and a new color palette round out the improvements. More "Before & After" photo pairings to come.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Before & After: Exterior at the KHS Harvard Shaker-house renovation/addition

It's always fun once a renovation/addition project is completed to begin to pair off "Before" and "After" images. Here's the first of a few Before & After compilations that I'll be posting to House Enthusiast. You might recall seeing a couple images from this project as it progressed here on the KHS Facebook Page and here on House Enthusiast.

The primary exterior change you'll notice is that the arched opening seen in the "Before" image (at the bottom) used to be infilled with screen panels and led from an upper-level screen porch. That same opening now contains a new patio door system and leads from interior space that we captured (at the main floor level) in order to expand the kitchen/dining area.

What had been the lower-level screen porch, under the rear shed roof, has had the floor lifted and the foundation reconstructed to support new porch posts that have been painted house color.

Also not obvious is that four malfunctioning casement windows seen in the "Before" photo to the left of the arched screen opening have been replaced with three new casement windows that fill the same overall opening.

The exterior interventions were meant to be subtle, while affording significant improvements on the interior, which you will begin to see in the next round of KHS Harvard Shaker-house renovation/addition Before & After photos. Stay tuned.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

KHS "House Talk" column in Vineyard Gazette "The Vine", May 2017

Make the most of outdoor living in the spaces in between. Look for my new "House Talk" column about outdoor rooms in The Vine, a publication from the Vineyard Gazette Media Group, on newsstands now.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

KHS "House Talk" column in Vineyard Gazette "The Vine", spring 2017

If you find yourself on Martha's Vineyard this week, pick up the latest copy of The Vineyard Gazette to see my new column in The Vine, spring Home & Garden issue. In it I discuss what to consider when deciding between constructing/adding a porch or an attached arbor. (A nice predicament to be in.) 

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Primer: Banquettes as seen in Fine Homebuilding

The 2017 HOUSES issue of Fine Homebuilding magazine hits newsstands today. Inside, find a "Drawing Board" column I wrote and illustrated about three banquettes that I recently designed for homeowners looking to maximize tight spaces while incorporating a custom-crafted accent feature. Here's a link to the online version of the column. Visit the KHS website, here, for photos of a project featuring one of the banquettes, and an earlier House Enthusiast post, here, for photos of a second KHS project featuring a banquette. The third KHS banquette has just been installed, but not yet photographed. Stay tuned...

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast