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Pennsport Kitchen Renovation
Client: Katherine Kelton & Troy Graham
Location: Pennsport, Philadelphia
Project Manager: Dave Wing
This project began with Katherine's collection of magazine clippings. Over time she had accumulated photos of the metal and glass door in Billy Joel's kitchen, the open shelves she liked from a contemporary country kitchen, and finally – one two-by-two thumbnail of what she called her "dream kitchen." As we began the design process, and started to select wood for the cabinetry, the eyes of this dream kitchen followed us wherever we went. We'd spend time squinting at it – cabinets and countertop look like black walnut. Local black walnut it was. That's a stone floor, right? Local Pennsylvania blue stone it was. Billy Joel's glass and metal door? Not so easy. We got a couple quotes – to fabricate would be about as much as the kitchen renovation itself. Then Lia, with the help of her husband Scott Lash from Provenance, landed upon a door that was being removed in a renovation of a home on Philadelphia's Main Line. It would need some TLC, but the metal worked, and the glass lights, with the two broken ones replaced, would let in sun. The salvaged door would be perfect.
And so it was. We enlarged the brick opening around the old doorway and light came pouring in. We took out the old powder room and re-leveled and insulated the floor, started the cabinetry in the shop. The original plan was for the open shelving to be suspended off the brick wall by wire. Someone mentioned how cool it would be if the shelves were floating on the brick wall. Thus began a series of heated conversations over food, beers, movies – how the hell do we do this, and make it strong enough to support anything they put up there? This is what we came up with. We took threaded – actually, we're not saying. Nice try.
The cabinets were installed and finished, the pantry slid perfectly, the appliance garage door shut and closed as it should on its Swedish gas hinges, and we were fine-tuning the brass hardware latch system and cleaning the stone to seal it. Katherine walked into the kitchen, looked around, and said "This is my dream kitchen." The picture haunted us no more.
Client Testimonial
"We found Brendan through Philadelphia Magazine, looking for a local contractor who cared about sustainable design, and who had experience working with older Homes. We needed a total gut renovation of our struggling, '70s-era kitchen and wanted it to be modern but also look like it belonged in our 150-year old rowHome. Once we saw the work on Greensaw's website and met Brendan in person, it was clear that we could stop looking. The search for a good contractor can be a daunting exercise, but Brendan and his team brought so much enthusiasm to the project- including showing up on time ready to go at 8:30 every morning- that we started recommending them to friends before the demo was even complete.
The process was a real collaboration- each member of Brendan's team brought his own ideas and solutions, all with an impressive attention to detail. It is fair to say that Greensaw created not just our dream kitchen but a work of art. We find ourselves opening drawers just to watch them glide close, like we can't believe that such a beautiful room belongs to us. The work speaks for itself, but the people behind it are just as wonderful. We couldn't recommend them more highly."
— Katherine Kelton
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