The stately 1922 Colonial in Northwest Washington was always desirable, but as the owners learned over time, it took an architect’s vision to reconfigure the main floor and make modern living a joy.
“The house is so much more comfortable and usable,” says Gretchen Robbins, a health and wellness coach, who shares the remodeled, 4,200-square-foot house with husband Michael, a consultant, their three teens and a Portuguese Water Dog.

The family’s house-proud journey has taken more than a decade and three renovations to get just right. Working with Fowlkes Studio on the two most recent updates, in 2017 and 2021, has proven its worth. The prior redo made an oversized 1980s-vintage primary suite more livable. And the latest converted the underused great room below it into a 24-by-29-foot kitchen that is now the heart of the home.

The family’s remodeling adventures began in 2011 with their purchase of the five-bedroom, five-and-a-half bath house. Though they upgraded the kitchen right away, it remained cramped. Upstairs, frustration grew over the primary suite, where the bedroom was too big, the bathroom too small and the closets inadequate. “We had a king-sized bed and it looked like a postage stamp,” Gretchen recalls.

In 2017, the couple called architect VW Fowlkes, a schoolmate of Michael’s, and his partner and wife, Catherine, for help. Catherine proposed reducing the bedroom dimensions to expand the bathroom with a walk-in shower and tub enclosure and enlarge the closets. The renovation added a pocket office in an adjacent exercise room. “We made everything just a little more proportional,” Catherine Fowlkes says.

In 2021, Gretchen called again, this time to address the home’s challenging kitchen. “Everybody would be crowded in there when I was entertaining, and I didn’t like that,” she recalls. Expansion on the quarter-acre lot was not an option, but Catherine saw opportunity within. By reordering rooms—and shifting an interior dining room wall 18 inches—the century-old house was remade.

To get there, three main rooms on one side of the center stair hall were essentially flipped. “This was really about flow, reconfiguring and carving up a space into more rational spaces,” says Catherine, who spearheaded the latest redo. “We had worked together before, so there was a lot of trust.”

The former great room is now a live-in, eat-in, entertaining-ready kitchen. The formal dining room became an intimate TV room with an electric fireplace. And the old kitchen faded into history; in its footprint, Catherine designed a project highlight: a regal gray antechamber known as the butler’s pantry, which serves as a chic mudroom and adjunct bar.

“The changes just made a lot of sense,” says the architect, looking back on the previous cramped, dark kitchen and bright, spacious but ill-used great room. “It wasn’t quite right—but now everything is gracious.”

Once dominated by an oversized leather sofa, the space containing the kitchen boasts a Saarinen table and a custom banquette in a sunny alcove. A pizza oven built into the old fireplace supplements an array of reinstalled Wolf appliances. New, full-height windows and doors open to an existing terrace and a garden designed by Kelley Oklesson of Groundsmith Collective. A frosted-glass interior wall opens to the cook’s pantry.

“The architect brought a level of creativity, thoughtfulness and uniqueness,” Gretchen Robbins declares. “The kitchen is absolutely the center of the house. It’s so inviting and comfortable. We’re always in there.”

During the latest upgrade, the family moved out for demolition, then returned during four months of construction, occupying the untouched side of the stair hall and second floor. Builder Simon Ley set up a camping kitchen on a side porch off the formal living room (now the dining room), even connecting the garden hose to a temporary sink. Gretchen turned to a friend, local interior designer Rachel Poritz Mennen, for stylish new furnishings in the kitchen and TV room.

The butler’s pantry is an essential feature. Individual lighted closets secure backpacks, while custom cabinets by Ted Ferris hide snacks, refrigerator drawers and Michael’s prized pellet ice machine. The dog can pad about on the brick floor, or hop into a mosaic-tiled puppy spa under the watchful eye of a mounted trophy stag that conveyed with the house. A marble farm sink is sized for armfuls of flowers destined for the kitchen’s 13-by-5-foot, Caesarstone-topped island.

“Catherine is so ridiculously talented,” Gretchen says, pointing out the butler’s pantry. “She had an image of what this room would be. It’s elegant, but also extraordinarily useful. That 100-percent sums up the house. It’s a million times more usable now. It’s gorgeous.”

DRAWING BOARD

Q&A with architect Catherine Fowlkes

When expansion is not an option, how do you start a redo?
Often, critical spaces are incorrectly sized for the occupants. Sometimes it’s as easy as swapping furniture around, but more often we move interior walls. We always evaluate circulation to the outdoors as well as inside. Replacing exterior doors with windows—and windows with doors—can change the way people live in their homes.

How do you add character in a pristine, modern space?
We like to create a fictional history for spaces that may be devoid of personality. Often we amp up crown molding or wall paneling to bring attention to a minimal, subtle moment. The addition of a patinaed plaster wall or a worn brick floor, for example, really highlights sleek new cabinetry.

What makes a NEW-HOME OR RENOVATION PROJECT A success?
The best projects are where the team—builder included—shares a basic trust, and everyone is allowed to have new ideas. Problem-solving is a fundamental part of an architect’s job. When a clear vision has been established, the solutions tend to make a project stronger.