"Arts & Crafts Meets New
The finer points of making a kitchen all your own- all in the details..."
"When Grace Gilroy purchased her beachfront home in the Kitsilano neighborhood in Vancouver, BC, it had undergone a partial restoration. It still was burdened, however, with a 1970s remodel- complete with shag carpeting and diagonal cedar siding in the bathroom. But beneath the once-hip facade was an Arts and Crafts gem waiting to be reborn.

"When she called me, she wanted to preserve the renovation that existed in the house and take out all the other aspects that had been remodeled in the seventies," says architect and designer Keith Jakobsen, of Jakobsen Associates in Vancouver. "But we

wanted the best of the old with the best of the new; we said, 'Let's not make a museum piece."'

Gilroy, a film producer for almost 30 years, hoped to keep the early-20th century motif and Charles Rennie Mackintosh features of the 6,000-square-foot home, whenever possible. (Mackintosh was a famous Scottish architect known for his Arts and Crafts designs.) Jakobsen said the tall, narrow cabinets and mottled glass-filled doors are nods to his ideas.

The challenge: combine early-century fashion with functional high-quality appliances and fixtures necessary in a working kitchen. Getting it right took almost two years of searching for everything from the right drawer pulls to proper lighting.

"Finding what we wanted and knowing what we wanted to do took a bit of time," Gilroy admits. "It was a case of what's going to blend with the whole scheme of things and still achieve a look that's OK." With the renovation complete and the 1970s swept away, Gilroy says the look is far better than OK and that the combination of form and function is all she expected and more."
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