San Francisco Modern Architecture firm Hart Wright Architects designs a light filled flowing modern space for a family in San Mateo by renovating a 1950s ranch house
Hart Wright Architects is showcasing a recently completed project in San Mateo. The house had a broken up layout with awkward spaces that were underutilized. It had a cramped kitchen and a land locked living room nobody wanted to spend time in.
SAN MATEO, Calif., Oct. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Hart Wright Architects is showcasing a recently completed project in San Mateo. The house had a broken up layout with awkward spaces that were underutilized. It had a cramped kitchen and a land locked living room nobody wanted to spend time in.
Modern Architecture firm Hart Wright Architects' task was to rework the floor plan to recover the space lost in this terribly laid out home. They started by identifying the positive plan components and enhancing them. In this case, the house had a logical entry / living / kitchen arrangement but the experience was compromised by too many doors and an overwrought circulation path. They opened up the plan first by re working the entry with a reconfigured coat closet and skylight, then by closing off the opening in to the living room, the entry became its own filter space between outside and in. The entry provides a transitional flow into the open family area. Hart Wright Architects added a cabinet piece called a "Key Drop" that was low enough not to get in the way between the living room and kitchen but it still kept a separation and sense of entry transition space that was needed there. Keys purses and phones were successfully given a place to be.
The wall between the living room and dining room came down and completely connected the spaces together. The wall between the kitchen and the dining room was removed, eliminating a hallway and allowing the kitchen to face the open connected living spaces. The ceiling in the dining room was vaulted further adding to the open feel of the new spaces. Hart Wright Architects designed the dining table and credenza custom to fit the space and the clients' specific needs.
Between the garage and kitchen there was an oversized laundry room. The architects captured this space and gave it to the kitchen creating a new smaller laundry space, a desk area and a pantry cabinet. Then there was enough to get big island in there.
Heath ceramics was used for both kitchen backsplash and fireplace wall. The existing traditional fireplace was updated by tossing the mantlepiece and tiling the bottom third of the wall with tile and capped it with a wall to wall blackened steel mantle. The architects centered a modest sized skylight on the fireplace to bathe this focal point in natural light.
The proportions of the spaces worked, they just needed a hand to unify them and a client/architect team with a vision for what would make a series of broken up out of date spaces into a modern, functional, light filled family together space.
More information and images of the project can be found on the Hart Wright Architects blog and website, https://www.hartwrightarchitects.com.
Media Contact
Eliza Hart, Hart Wright Architects, 415-503-7071, [email protected]
SOURCE Hart Wright Architects
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