This article was originally published on April 24, 2023; it was updated on May 16, 2023.
The story of this Victorian kitchen remodel begins in “The Avenues”, a vibrant neighborhood in Salt Lake City that was first developed in 1850. Within it is a 487-acre historic district, where a concentration of vintage Victorian-style houses creates a distinctive enclave. Roofs sprout turrets, cupolas and onion domes; eccentric fenestrations and porch configurations are found on both brick and shingled structures.
This was the character that Rachel Hutchens, CKBD, principal designer of Salt Lake City-based Maven Home Interiors was asked to consider when she was hired to rework the kitchen of a home located in The Avenues. One hundred years after the house was built in 1891, an addition was made to it that ignored the charm of the original building; the kitchen was part of that renovation.
Hutchens’ clients asked her to make the home feel more cohesive and create a kitchen that not only meshed with the style of the old home, but also would be more functional.
Victorian Kitchen Remodel
The homeowners had recently painted the exterior of the home and its detached garage green. The view from the kitchen includes the garage, so it seemed natural that the kitchen should complement the exterior colors and theme of the home.
“They wanted a green or gray kitchen, so we started to go through some iterations of those shades for the cabinets,” said Hutchens. “But what ended up happening was the clients saw a quartzite slab for the counter and fell in love with it. So we chose a green-gray color that would work with that surfacing and the exterior paint as well.”
—By Leslie Clagett, KBB Managing Editor
