We’re fortunate here at Hammer and Hand to work with Portland’s most talented designers and architects on our remodel and new construction projects.

This week our regular designer-collaborators at bright designlab posted photos of a cool joint project: bright partner Alissa Pulcrano’s modern kitchen remodel.  See the gallery of photos here on our site.

Designed by Alissa, built by Hammer and Hand, and photographed by bright’s Leela Brightenburg, the kitchen is a model of how modern design principles can transform a compact room into an airy, sleek and functional space.

I stole a few minutes of Aaron Steven’s time today here at Hammer and Hand to get his insights about the design.  Aaron, our Operations Manager, was project manager for this kitchen remodel.

“The story of this project was about taking a small space and filling it in as a functional, modern kitchen,” he said, “but keeping a clean, spacious feeling.”

Three key design elements helped make this happen:

1. Avoiding the Range Hood
It required a City variance to do this, but Alissa substituted the typical view-obstructing range hood for an exhaust fan mounted in the wall.  “It’s finished with a totally cool retro fan cover,” Aaron said.

2. Sliding Doors for the Cabinets
Simple in concept, but not easy to achieve in a way that retains the classic look of cabinet doors that pull.  The advantage of sliding doors?  No doors swinging out, taking up precious space.

3. Dishdrawer Dishwasher
Patterned from filing cabinet design, this small appliance saved lots of storage space for the kitchen.

Aaron was also impressed by the light touch that Alissa brought to her application of materials normally considered “heavy”.

“The walnut used through is hefty, but it’s raised up off the ground on stainless steel supports, so it feels like it’s floating,” he said.  “Same thing with the marble counter tops.  Marble is a heavier material, but at the thinner 2cm thickness rather than 3cm, these counter tops have a real elegance to them.”

So how did the kitchen remodeling project turn out?  Aaron sums it up nicely: “It’s slick, it’s clever, it’s cool and it’s totally functional.  It doesn’t just look good, it really works.”

(For more about Hammer & Hand’s services, visit our kitchen remodeling page.)

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This project has been a particularly fun one for us, and has been featured in a blog post by the client, visited by a duo of French energy efficiency writers, and highlighted on the recent Sellwood | Westmoreland Remodeled Home Tour.  Please check out the new gallery of images.

-Zack

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We just added a new gallery of images to our website called “Upcycled Kitchen”.  The pics feature a project that we completed earlier this year for Leslie Cole, staff writer for the Oregonian’s FOODday section.

Leslie wrote a great article about the remodel of her kitchen for the O’s Homes & Gardens section: “A remodeled kitchen artfully blends old and new.”  In the article, she describes how designers Kevin Fischer and Charlotte Cooney successfully fused old and new.

Please check out the photos of the beautiful project.  Meanwhile, I’d like to draw your attention to an important detail that Leslie pointed out to me.  The pickled green beans in the shot below were prepared by Hammer & Hand’s very own Sam Hagerman – his canning chops “preserved.”

(To learn more about our services, visit our kitchen remodeling page.)

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While Hammer & Hand does its share of high-concept work, many of our projects are more modest in scale and scope.  And as much as we enjoy those high-profile big projects, we’re also super-satisfied by making strategic “interventions” in normal homes that make big impacts at low cost.

We’re equal opportunity remodelers: craftsmanship for the people!

I spoke with Project Manager Alex Daisley and Lead Carpenter Mark Johnson recently about a Cedar Hills kitchen remodel that exemplifies this notion that big things can happen in small spaces with small project budgets.

When Hammer & Hand owner Sam Hagerman saw the pre-remodel kitchen, he said the framing and layout were so bad it was almost unethical.  Alex adds, “the space was so cluttered with posts and beams and soffits that it was disastrous.”

Given this state of affairs inherited with the purchase of their home, the clients were dedicated to transforming the kitchen into a well designed, flowing space.  To that end, we engaged in a design-build collaboration with the clients and Amy Griffith of Broken Box Designs.  

Mark (with assistance from Sean Vasser and Tyler Dotten) stripped the kitchen down to the studs and re-engineered the space to eliminate posts (including the primary offender intruding into the center of the space), and raise soffits and the overall ceiling height (creating a half-gabled ceiling).

The change was like night and day.  “Even though the original kitchen had two skylights, it was horribly dark,” said Mark.  “We were able to keep the skylights where they were, but by opening the vault, really bring light into the space.”

Amy guided the lighting layout and flow of the space while the clients directed finish choices for elements like the countertops, cabinets and flooring.  To save on design, material and labor costs, the clients selected, purchased and assembled the Ikea cabinets used in the remodel.  Original appliances were saved from the old kitchen and incorporated into the redesign.  The clients chose marmoleum floors, corian countertops, and a simple, beautiful tile backsplash.

The project also solved a big furnace and asbestos problem in the house.  The original furnace was sited inside an asbestos-lined closet in the kitchen, drawing indoor air, leaking carbon monoxide, providing inadequate heat to the house, and creating an unsafe and uncomfortable indoor environment for the clients and their two girls.

“It was the most asbestos I’ve ever seen,” said Mark.  “The closet was lined by quarter-inch asbestos boards.”

We had the asbestos removed by a licensed contractor, replaced the furnace with a carefully-sized energy-efficient model relocated to the attic, replaced all ductwork, and added new ductwork to areas of the house that weren’t previously connected to the heating system – healthy air and no more electric space heaters scattered throughout the house.

The project’s results really speak for themselves.  “It was an amazing transformation,” Mark said.

-Zack

P.S.  “After” photos by bright designlab.

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Kitchen remodels are core to who we are at Hammer & Hand, both as a business and as artisans.  Certainly a big reason for our constant engagement with kitchen remodeling is market demand – as long as there are kitchens there will be a need to reinvigorate and reinvent them.  But our fascination with kitchen renovation projects runs deeper than a simple market response, and connects with the fundamental reasons that the kitchen has become so important to today’s families and homes.

In the old days, kitchens were private spaces where the designated chef of the family (usually the woman of the household) toiled away on food preparation in isolation, separate from the central living spaces of the house.  But today that’s been turned on its head.  As Hammer & Hand CEO and co-founder Daniel Thomas puts it, “the kitchen functions today as the heart of the home, not a private hearth.  It’s a place for feeding, nurturing, and communing – the center of home life.” 

Of course at the most basic level the kitchen has core functions that it must provide, those of storing, cooking, and cleaning.  But it’s also the high-traffic focal point of the home, a bona fide living space in its own right, often with multiple entry and exit points.  As such, it often serves as the transition point for inside/outside connections with the family garden.  Grand Central Station.  Where it’s at.  Because kitchen remodeling operates at this nexus of so many spatial and programmatic forces, it’s inherently challenging (and fun) to work on.

Given our longstanding passion for kitchen remodel work, I thought it’d be useful to pause a moment and take stock of the kitchen remodel case studies, stories, and images on our website, and share them with you.  Read on…

Cedar Hills kitchen remodel – a big transformation in a small package.  One of our most popular Field Notes blog posts, this write-up and photo spread shows how an affordable kitchen remodel project in a compact space can make a really big impact on the room, and the entire home.  As we say in the post, “in the course of our Portland-area remodel work, some of the most profound spatial transformations take place in the smallest, most affordable projects.”

A Dutch Colonial kitchen upcycled.  We remodeled this kitchen for the Oregonian’s FOODday writer Leslie Cole, collaborating with designers Kevin Fischer and Charlotte Cooney to take an old kitchen with good bones and remodel it into a model of form and function.  The post includes links to a photo gallery as well as Leslie’s entertaining article about the remodel experience.  Plus, the pickled green beans in this image were made by H&H’s President Sam Hagerman.

Modern Portland kitchen remodel: compact, airy & sleek.  This hip kitchen remodel, designed by and for our frequent collaborator Alissa Pulcrano (of bright designlab), is a study in creating an atmosphere of spaciousness in a small room.  Our post on the project includes a link to beautiful photos of the kitchen, as well as a rundown of the three details that made the design work: 1. Avoiding the Range Hood; 2. Sliding Doors for the Cabinets; 3. Dishdrawer Dishwasher.

Twin studios duplex conversion: joint post with Departure Design’s Michelle Jeresek.  The kitchens in these two units showcase affordability in sustainable construction.  Customized Ikea cabinets help keep costs low; a compact design that packs an entire kitchen into just 10.5 lineal feet supports a small footprint; and efficient appliances ensure that ongoing energy demand is low.  This project was featured on the City of Portland’s 2010 Build It Green! Home Tour.

Clinton Street bungalow kitchen remodel.  This kitchen reinvention was part of a whole house remodel that we recently completed in Southeast Portland.  The remodeled kitchen nicely encapsulates new kitchen notions that I touched on above.  An open floor plan facilitates flow between the kitchen, dining room, and family room and supports the kitchen as an inviting living space.  French doors off the dining room establish an inside-outside connection with the existing deck.

I hope you enjoy the breadth and depth of this work!

-Zack

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We just added a beautiful set of bathroom remodel photos by bright designlab to the Koin Tower project image gallery on our website.  The new images join already-published ones of our recent kitchen remodel in the same condominium unit.

Please stay tuned for more.  I’ll follow soon with notes from an interview with project manager Christopher “Coop” Cooper, as well as great before/after image comparisons.  Meanwhile, enjoy the pics!   – Zack

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Just over a year ago we completed a kitchen remodel on the twenty-fifth floor of Portland’s Koin tower.  The clients were so pleased with the result that when they approached us recently with their bathroom remodel project, they asked us to reassemble the identical project team, not only the same designers (Charlotte Cooney and Kevin Fischer) and Hammer & Hand craftspeople, but also the same cadre of subcontractors.  We were happy to oblige, and project manager Christopher “Coop” Cooper and site lead Patrick Conrad got to work.

Having successfully orchestrated the kitchen remodel, Coop and Patrick knew that the job would bring some inherent challenges.  Remodeling twenty-five stories up in an exclusive high rise is unique work – work at which we love to excel.  There are the extensive building rules to respect, the tight schedules to adhere to, the white glove standard of cleanliness to meet, and the property management staff to collaborate with.  But mainly, there are the domestic routines of the clients and the clients’ neighbors to respect.

“In a building like this one, there are just a lot more people to consider,” says Coop.  “In a typical residential remodel you need to be cognizant and respectful of the clients’ lives as well as those of the handful of neighbors immediately surrounding the project.  But in the Koin Tower, you’ve literally got wall-to-wall people.”

That means being extra careful about noise and other nuisances, smart about hauling out demo’ed material in a way that doesn’t disrupt the condo community, strategic about staging deliveries, and super organized about deploying subcontractors.

“In a job like this, there’s a big need for a ton of good project management,” said Patrick.  “You’ve got to make sure everyone’s on the same page.”

And it’s not just the “neighbor relations” stakes that are high in most condo projects.  So are the stakes surrounding safety and building integrity.  When you’re doing something like relocating a tub drain, for instance, you’d better be sure that you’re not drilling through one of the post-tension cables that run through the floating concrete floor.  Those cables, after all, hold the building up!  In siting the tub drain location, Patrick conducted a detailed sonar reading of the floor to graph cable locations – with stakes like these it isn’t sufficient to rely on the original architectural drawings for this information.

“It’s a game of inches,” said Coop.

The design intent of the bathroom remodel was to tie the finishes and materials to those of the recent kitchen remodel, maximize limited space by activating previously “dead” corner zones, and establish a natural flow through the space.

Looking at the original bathroom, with its wrap-around mirrors, dressing-room-like lighting scheme, and pink detailing, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this unit once belonged to James DePriest, the revered laureate music director of the Oregon Symphony.  You could easily picture this original bathroom as a deluxe dressing room backstage at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

But our job was to visually tie the bathroom to the recently updated kitchen.  To do this, we used the same 2′ x 2′ countertop tile as found in the kitchen, used teak in all the casework, and installed the same 3form translucent panels.  A trio of tasteful pendant lights replaces the dressing room motif and align perfectly with the geometry of the vanity’s cabinets.  To lighten the shower up, we expanded the stall and used a clear glass with a frameless shower door.

To eliminate “dead” corners that wasted precious space in the bathroom, we sited a new jetted tub in a corner, connecting the vanity on one wall with the towel and ironing board cabinets on the other.  This solution required that the wall be moved (a whopping) three inches.  Remember Coop’s quote? “It’s a game of inches.”  But the result is remarkable.  What was once a relatively cramped space is now open and graceful.

“This bathroom is breathtaking,” said Coop.  “You open the door and … wow.”

Patrick is quick to thank the Koin Tower staff for being such excellent collaborators throughout the remodel, and apparently the admiration is mutual.

“They told us we’re the only builder that they’ve ever asked for a business card,” said Patrick.

That’s strong praise.  We belie the image of the ham-fisted, loud and messy contractor.  On the contrary, we’re unrepentant building nerds, proud of Swiss watch-like precision and management.

Congratulations to the team for their beautiful work!

– Zack

P.S.  Photography by bright designlab. See more photos of this remodel here.

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We just published a new gallery of project images to our website featuring this classic kitchen remodel designed by Charlotte Cooney of Domestic Arts and Kevin Fischer of Alice Designs.  (Thanks to Carie Camacho/Alissa Pulcrano for the beautiful photography.)

Hammer & Hand Project Manager Alex Daisley led the project in a historic bungalow in Portland’s Rose City Park neighborhood.  He and the designers took great care to match the aesthetics of the existing home in the kitchen remodel, while also creating a space that meets the demands of 21st century home life.  (Note: for more about our conception of kitchen remodeling, visit our Kitchen Remodels page.)

The oak trim, casework, and windows throughout the kitchen was stained to match the existing wood work in the adjacent living room, and the parting bead detail that flows through the windows and opening archway also matches existing work precisely.

We emphasized local materials throughout the project.  The period light shades are from Portland’s Schoolhouse Electric, and the counter tops are made from a locally produced recycled concrete and glass polymer concocted according to a European formula.  Subway tiles and marmoleum flooring round out the kitchen finishes.

One improvisatory touch was the pullout pantry cabinet sized for food wrap storage (pictured below left).  What would otherwise have been dead space in the cabinetry became a handy, custom touch.  We also added a new doorway and transom (pictured below right) in the kitchen to provide separation for a back stair that leads to a guest flat.  A timer sensor turns the light on in the hallway only when the door opens.

It’s a handsome project, and an excellent example of how seamlessly a modern kitchen can be incorporated into a traditional home aesthetic.

– Zack

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To transform the space Emerick Architects employed a small addition and new layout to connect the living room entry, kitchen and dining room. A new front Dutch door opens into a small mudroom area where occupants can take off their raincoats and shoes, stow bookbags and sporting equipment, and even charge their cellphones out of sight. By reversing the gable in the front of the garage/dining room we blended the overall lines of the house while preserving the cathedral ceiling of the back gable to highlight French doors opening onto a deck with a view of green space. Entering through the Dutch door, you see across the dining room to the French doors.

Overall, we transformed the core of the house to increase comfort and livability with finishes that seamlessly blended with the original look and feel of the space. We cut custom-designed knives to create molding that matches existing profiles. Aesthetically, we maintained the 1920s look with traditional painted and clear CVG cabinets topped by Jatoba wood and Carrera marble countertops. The Dutch door was custom built by our in-house craftsmen using reclaimed wood and historic mortise and tenon jointery to give the traditional detail of a Dutch door.

Before the remodel, the gable of house and garage did not match and seemed out of sorts and boxy.  Our small addition married the former garage with the original cottage, integrating the space inside and creating a unified front for the historic cottage.

The converted garage formed a cramped, code-violating space for eating, ignoring gorgeous views of green space. The dark, crowded kitchen was an outdated, hard-to-navigate space with loud tile.

Light, inviting, vaulted ceiling room invites visitors to sit and enjoy food, or move outside to experience the green space.

New open, light space features handcrafted Dutch door, farm sink, hand-oiled wide-plank walnut floor, open cabinet shelves.

Three finishes: Natural hardwax oil on walnut floor. Hand-rubbed oil on jatoba countertop. Traditional hand-painted cabinetry.

CVG fir cabinetry creates practical storage space for informal entry. Carrera marble reflects light from numerous windows.

Handcrafted Dutch door built from reclaimed wood and made with historic mortise-and-tenon jointery. Open plan moves from kitchen and informal entry into the dining space, connecting the house into continuous flow.

We opened the small space by choosing shelves instead of traditional cabinets with doors. We forged custom-cut knives to match historic molding from other parts of the house. Shelves of reclaimed wood were painted to match the casework.

The dark, crowded dining room is transformed into a light, inviting, vaulted ceiling room.

(For more about our services, visit our kitchen and home addition pages.)

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New entry, remodeled kitchen and bathrooms, re-envisioned family room, modernist staircase, wine room addition, inside/outside connection to new patio canopy, simplified exterior detailing – our Marshall Park remodel gave a complete interior and exterior facelift to this 90s-style home, imbuing it with a new urban-chic aesthetic.

“What was most striking about this project was the utter transformation of the space without really expanding the footprint,” said Aaron Stevens, Hammer & Hand’s Operations Manager.  “The difference is amazing.  Usually, when you see that, a major addition has been made, but not here.”

(For more about our services, visit our kitchen, bathroom, and home remodeling pages.)

The newly remodeled home offers a unified experience of harmonic, beautiful materials and spaces.  As you walk in through the new entry of the home, the select-grade walnut flooring beckons you through to the hallway and into the kitchen, passing a new staircase of steel and walnut.  Flowing through the kitchen, with its black-stained veneered cabinets, you reach the NanaWall that, when accordioned open, creates a powerful spatial connection with the patio and garden beyond.  Explore further and you find the family room and stone fireplace, where walnut flooring and black-stained veneered cabinets repeat, aesthetically tying the space to the rest of the house.  This visual connection continues into the bathrooms, with the same cabinet treatment applied to the bathroom vanities.

The overall effect is beautiful: a strong, clean modernism with dynamic interplay between warm floors, dark cabinetry, and light walls and ceilings.

As Aaron reflected upon the project, he said there were two primary drivers for the project’s success: first, designer Jenny Bergevin’s deep understanding for what the clients wanted and the house needed from the remodel; second, Hammer & Hand Lead Carpenter Will Richmond’s thoughtful and ever-present communication with the clients, Jenny and our subcontractors.

This communication formed the foundation for the collaborative process that blossomed between Jenny, Will and the homeowners.

“Things were being developed in-process, but there was really no down time because our communication was so constant,” said Will.  “We kept up a good pace.”

A prime example of this was the new staircase and rail design, which Will built from a magazine photograph clipping.  The clients and designer were drawn to the image’s simple, clean lines and fusion of walnut and steel.  Once Will had a clear idea about their intent, he started working out the construction details for the structure.  To achieve a modern simplicity, visible fasteners for the rail’s spindles would not do.  So Will established a dialogue with the metal work subcontractor Dyadic to devise a system to fasten the spindles to the stairs in visually clean  way.  The solution involved fitting each spindle into pre-drilled hole in each stair tread, with fasteners positioned underneath.  But because the entire rail-spindle component was fabricated offsite at Dyadic, there was no room for error.  Every dimension on the metalwork and the staircase had to be absolutely precise so that the 80-or-so spindles all dropped into place without a hitch.  It all worked out perfectly, and looks effortless.

“I really enjoyed working with the designer and client,” said Will.  “They were excited with each stage and so happy with the finished product.  Near the end of the project the owners were getting impatient, but it was because they were so excited to get into their new space.  They were super excited.”

Hammer & Hand’s Jay Leaver and James Reck lent their muscle and excavation and demolition expertise to prepare the house for the remodel, and finish carpenters Jon Bair and James Fox assisted Will in finishing the space.

Check out the full gallery of project images.

– Zack

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