When Beth and Rick Weger bought their 1930s Spanish bungalow in San Jose’s Rose Garden neighborhood, the house was filled with vintage charm, from detailed archways separating the rooms, to a built-in telephone nook in the hallway. But the kitchen? A 1950s or ’60s remodel that needed attention. Since Beth had remodeled the kitchen of her last home and won second-place in a San Jose Magazine competition, she felt empowered to take on this kitchen for her family of four. Because she didn’t like the available options to go Spanish classic style, she went rustic instead.

The Problem: A wall with an awkard pass-through separated the kitchen from the breakfast nook. The counters and backsplash were about as dated as you can get — beige tiles with dark brown grout.

The Solution: Remove load-bearing wall between the kitchen and breakfast room, adding a chair-height breakfast bar (instead of stool height she didn’t like in her last kitchen). With the wall gone, the sunlight from the gorgeous bay window flooded the entire kitchen and gave Beth a new view from the sink down the driveway to the street, which she didn’t have before.

She added coppery green granite counters from Bedrosians in San Jose, new cabinets in distressed rustic alder, KitchenAid and DCS appliances, and a tile backsplash installed by S&S Tile from Tile Fantastic. She finished the look with a Kelly-Moore paint in Chamois Shirt, but 50 percent darker.

“In the end, we kept it warm and rustic and what we liked instead of going with exactly the style of the house,” Beth said.

Related links:
Green Kitchen
Soho Kitchen
Tudor Kitchen
Entertaining Kitchen
Modern Kitchen

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 2:30 am and is filed under Before and After, Bungalow, Decorating, Home and Garden, Home Decor, Interior Design, Kitchen, Q & A, Q and A, Remodel, Rose Garden, San Jose. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.