Electrical House

FORWARD was asked to redesign a kitchen and breakfast area in the historic Electrical House, which was J.C. Nichols' first model home. The current owners see themselves as stewards of this historical house and were interested in finding a solution that both met their contemporary needs and felt as though it could have always been part of the house. The house had a small addition that had been done decades ago. This provided the space required for a functioning kitchen, but was divided into 3 spaces. The first move we made was to rework the plan to make one large kitchen and locate the half bath and a butler’s pantry into a central core that separates the more formal functions from the service components. The bath now opens off a small service vestibule between the entry and rear service stairs. The rear stair (which had been used as a mechanical room in a previous renovation) was put back into use and opened to connect to the kitchen. The creation of the new larger kitchen required extensive structural work to support the multi-story load bearing brick structure. It was decided to leave this brick exposed in the final design. The design of the kitchen itself utilizes modern appliances and conveniences, but is designed to fit within the historic context and not feel like a complete reconfiguration. The intent was to appear as though nothing more than a finish update was all that had been done to the original house.