Karen Swanson’s historic Manchester, Massachusetts, home was built in 1850 by a prosperous local sea captain named John Carter, and although most of the house has the architectural detail of that period, the kitchen was a relic of the 1950s (or thereabouts). Swanson, owner of New England Design Works and an award-winning kitchen designer whose personal tastes are more modern, made a kitchen that straddles the line between traditional and contemporary, with a small nod to the home’s original owner.
Kitchen at a Glance Location: Manchester, Massachusetts Size: 280 square feet (26 square meters) Photography by Evan White
The old kitchen had fixtures and finishes that had given up the ghost. The room stood in front of a large utility room.
AFTER: Swanson took over the utility room, gaining workspace and allowing more natural light to enter the kitchen through two exterior windows. A no-longer-working brick chimney lies behind the oil painting. The bricks could not be removed, so Swanson stuccoed over them and tucked a small laundry room behind the old structure.