Historic Helping Kitchen Remodel Recaptures Older Home’s Long-Lost Charm

Older homes offer many appealing features … but a well-designed kitchen is seldom among them.

So when Nancy and Curtis Wickre decided to update the kitchen in their historic Rockwood neighborhood home, the task required stripping the room down to its wall studs and floor joists.

With the help of designer Laura King of Kitchens by Contardo, the Wickres recaptured the leaded-glass charm that had been lost during a ‘70s-era face lift.

But instead of keeping the 1929 home’s original cut-up configuration of kitchen, entry hall, pantry and breakfast nook, they eliminated walls and moved a doorway to create a friendly, well-lighted space where the family can cook, eat, do homework and entertain friends.

The Spokesman-Review’s 1995 Inland Northwest Home Awards jury voted designer King an Honor Award in the remodel/addition category.

Wrote juror and art curator Beth Sellars, “From darkness to light, from dated fussiness to clear lines, this kitchen remodel was quite successful.”

Said Seattle home design writer and fellow juror Fred Albert, “This room takes a familiar concept - the all-white kitchen - and reinvigorates it with a varied blend of traditional paneled cabinets and zoned activity areas. The results are functional and sympathetic to the home’s architecture.”

“It’s not truly historic,” Nancy Wickre says of her new kitchen, “but in feeling it is.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos