Michael and Gretchen Robbins consider themselves lucky. As a management consultant and a health and wellness coach with three kids, they moved into a nearly century-old home that they think provides the best of suburban-meets-city living.

“We can walk to the metro, but we also have a nicely sized yard, a detached garage, and big leafy trees,” Gretchen says. “Having previously lived in the very urban areas of New York City and Tokyo, we didn’t want to lose the ability to walk places, but we wanted a real house.”

Their historic address not only had an ideal location, but it also had an exemplary past: Though the Robbins are the third family to inhabit the four-bedroom structure, it has been well preserved. The Robbins did a renovation to the kitchen in 2012, about a year after they moved in, and hired Fowlkes Studio to overhaul their primary suite in 2017. But it wasn’t until about a decade after the first kitchen redo that Gretchen realized that first go-around had been “a failure.” So she called principal Catherine Fowlkes with the hope that she could fix it.

“We had a tiny kitchen compared to the scale of the house,” Gretchen adds. “We wanted something more functional and beautiful.” Keep scrolling to find out how the four-month project, which wrapped up in November 2021 (minus the refrigerator, which finally arrived last May), came to a close.

Location: Friendship Heights, Washington, D.C.

The before: “Knowing that the kitchen is the center of the house, we knew we wanted to renovate very soon after we moved in, and we did so in 2012,” Gretchen explains. “Although the finishes we chose were beautiful, the layout of the kitchen just never met our needs. It was the darkest, smallest room on the first floor, and it provided no barrier between cook and guests when entertaining. When my in-laws would come for dinner, for example, they were always standing right in the middle of the kitchen while I was trying to finish preparing the family meal. I love them, but I had to be like, ‘Get out!’ Also, with a large family, we just didn’t have enough storage space for food, my hundreds of cookbooks, and the plethora of cooking tools I collect.”

The inspiration: “We envisioned more space, more light, more storage, and an island so that I could be on one side cooking while guests stood on the other side chatting and socializing,” Gretchen says. “My initial idea for the kitchen was to knock down one wall and combine it with the original formal dining room that was adjacent to the kitchen. But Catherine saw something so much better, which involved reassigning nearly every space on the first floor while maintaining the same footprint. So now our original kitchen is a combination butler’s pantry and mudroom, the original formal dining room is now the family room, and the onetime oversized family room is now the kitchen. Catherine also changed how we access the outside deck to a much more usable format.”

“Since we had worked together previously, I knew that Gretchen was a pro at making decisions and had an appetite for interesting design,” Catherine says. “I wanted to activate all of the spaces so that nothing was underutilized, while also having plenty of breathing room.”

The square footage: 885 square feet for the kitchen, butler’s pantry, and living room

Mudroom counter and backsplash: Carrara Marble 30" Stone Farmhouse Sink from AllStone Group

Mudroom faucet: Elan Vital 38 Deck Mounted Bridge Faucet from Watermark

Kitchen island counter: London Grey Honed from Caesarstone

Range: 36" Gas Range from SubZero Wolf (existing)

Kitchen sconce (oven): Signal Wall Sconce from Jieldé

Kitchen sconces (banquette): Pium Wall Light from Pinch

Kitchen pendant (banquette): Bell Pendant Lamp from Normann Copenhagen

Butler’s pantry ceiling mount: Terra Surface from Cedar and Moss

Cabinet and butler’s pantry frame paint: Mole’s Breath by Farrow and Ball

Most insane splurge: “Not in relative dollar amounts, but in, ‘Can a faucet cost that much?!’ when it came to the faucet in the mudroom and butler's pantry. I asked Catherine to show me some other choices that were less expensive but ended up trusting her impeccably cool style and went with the splurge faucet. I just love it. Every time I use it, I think of what a beautifully made fixture it is.”

Sneakiest save: “We reused a few appliances, including the wall ovens, dishwasher, and refrigerator drawers,” Catherine says.

Favorite part: “If I had to pick my favorite parts, they would be the wood-burning pizza oven and the gorgeous doors that open to the outside,” Gretchen says. “The pizza oven had originally been our working fireplace in the middle of what was the family room. I really love a real, wood-burning fire and did not want to lose it. Catherine suggested either a raised fireplace in the middle of the kitchen or a wood-burning oven. We decided that even if we rarely used it to cook, the pizza oven made more sense, as we could burn wood for the look and feel of a fire even when we weren't cooking. Turns out, we regularly use the oven to cook pizza, vegetables, chicken, and so on.”

What I’ll never do again: “I'm one of those weird people who love renovations,” Gretchen admits. “I love having creative people in my home every day and watching the process unfold. I'd do a renovation tomorrow if I could. But I will say, months without a kitchen sink is a bit torturous. We had an old refrigerator and a hot plate set up in our dining room, and the foreman hooked up our outdoor hose to a camping sink that lived on our covered porch. I won't miss using that!”

Final bill: “We exceeded the budget, but with our eyes open,” Gretchen says. “There were no surprises, and all the teams—Fowlkes, Simon Ley (the builder), Ted Ferris (the cabinet maker), and Rachel Poritz Mennen, who helped me select furniture—were all very respectful to keep us informed of every expense.”

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest

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