This beautiful century-old row house was showing its age. We removed a few walls and relocated the back basement stairs to replace tight circulation with livable space.  Flipping the locations of the kitchen and dining room puts the kitchen at the center of the action and allows for a powder and mud room at the rear of the house, segregating the “profane” areas from the public realm. Dropped ceilings help define spaces in lieu of the former walls. 

The removal of the walls allows natural light to reach the heart of the house, supplemented by new recessed fixtures and decorative pendants.

The original staircase, repaired and refinished, is now properly celebrated as the centerpiece of the ground floor.