HOUSE ON 24TH STREET
breakfast of champions
I’ve been a practicing designer for almost two decades now, and have been able to work on countless projects all over the country. But it’s not every day that I get to take on my own space.
Back in 2016, my husband and I bought a charming old Tudor after searching for months. We lost out on a couple of homes before we found this one, and it was such a good find. It was a 3 bed/2 bath, with a laundry room on the first floor (super hard to find in these old houses), a huge unfinished basement for dodging tornadoes, and a detached 2 car garage. Best of all, it was in our price range.
I know what you’re thinking, it doesn’t look too charming. And you’re right, but it had such potential. It had been “flipped” years prior, but it needed help. Some rooms needed more work than others. One thing I was adamant this house did not need was an open floor plan. I loved having a formal dining room separate from the galley kitchen. I loved the flow of the house, and overall it functioned great.
The breakfast room had original built-ins, but they weren’t too pretty when we moved in. Someone had applied basic molding to cover their original shape. So we ripped that off right away.
The cabinet faces themselves seemed a bit too primitive for the space and had so many layers of paint on them that they were very difficult to open. So, we replaced the faces with a shaker style, had them painted, and added the hardware. That latch hardware was the chef’s kiss to these now charming built-ins.
For some reason, the base was different in the breakfast room than the kitchen (and the rest of the house). I’m not sure why they did this, but I was sure I didn’t like it. How could the same four walls enclosing these two spaces have two different kinds of base? For me, it just couldn’t. Luckily, we were able to steal enough of the eye-catching base from closets to switch it out in the breakfast room. The “new” old base looked rough at first. There was plenty of sanding, filling nail holes, and of course painting that had to be done. But it was so worth it, as it made the space so much more cohesive.
While I was all about that base, the crown (if you want to call it that) had to go. Losing the tiny sliver of trim made those 8’ ceilings seem a bit taller. We painted the walls, ceilings, built-ins, and base Benjamin Moore OC-17 White Dove, with different sheens.
Whoever had renovated it previously had installed large, travertine look tiles. It was a bit dingy and dated. So we chose a white herringbone mosaic pattern for the tile floor. I am not a big fan of chevron, but cannot resist a herringbone. In the end, the tile really added a lot of personality to the space.
The light fixture was replaced with this beauty, which made a world of difference. But the easiest change might have made the biggest difference: removing those mini blinds.
We really gave this breakfast room a new lease on life, and it gave us memories to cherish for the rest of ours.