Patricia Poore

1 week ago | finehomebuilding.com | Patricia Poore |Abby Cote

We seem to have a collective memory of cozy, tucked-in beds, whether or not childhood included draping a blanket to make a tent of the lower bunk. Cupboard beds and bunks have a common history as efficient ways to provide sleeping space for a family. Today’s designers use alcove beds, built-in bunks, and entire bunk rooms to create a room within a room, using precedents from Swedish furniture to nautical berths. The concept sounds like a holdover from mid-century suburban kids’ rooms.

2 weeks ago | finehomebuilding.com | Patricia Poore |Abby Cote

Classic in black and white, this new kitchen by 
Kennebec Company beautifully suits the elegant revival house built in 1920. For the renovation, 
Kennebec’s designers worked with Colin Smith Architects to create a combined family room/dining room/kitchen and pantry space. Plain, inset cabinets from Kennebec’s Maine 
Farmhouse collection are a suitable choice—simpler than the raised-panel woodwork in the original house.

3 weeks ago | finehomebuilding.com | Patricia Poore |Abby Cote

The work at hand may involve a mix of approaches (e.g., restoration of the façade, rehabilitation of walls using plaster patching and drywall, renovation of the kitchen). Throughout the project, having a preservation mindset is good because it helps avoid destruction of rare materials and magnificent craftsmanship as well cultural history. Old houses contain lessons: Aren’t pocket doors proof that an open plan sometimes needs to be closed? Changing taste is the enemy of preservation.

1 month ago | artsandcraftshomes.com | Patricia Poore

Manufacturers of kitchen appliances are busy accommodating those who want their kitchen appliances to disappear. Old-house restorers often seek to hide modern incursions, but the market also serves those with newer homes who prefer a built-in look for the room that’s become a family hangout. Options are numerous. TAKE REFRIGERATORS. Never mind the technological advances that have made them energy efficient and far more versatile. Looks have changed, too.

1 month ago | artsandcraftshomes.com | Patricia Poore

The ca. 1920 row house, in the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia, needed major repairs; it had been gutted by a fire in the 1970s. The subsequent remodeling made no attempt at a period look: “It was a DIY ‘Mediterranean’-style job with tiled countertops and harvest-gold appliances,” says homeowner Lynne Gery; she and her husband, Daniel Womer, bought the house in 1986. “I’d approached a few contractors over the years,” Lynne explains, “but I never met anyone I felt comfortable with.