Kitchen project grows into more

Even before buying the 1932 Tudor-style house in Buckhead, designer Janice Dietz knew it was going to need work. “It did have good bones; they don’t make them like this anymore,” she said. “But we had to do a lot of work on it.”

During the 10 years Dietz and her husband, Andrew, have lived in the house, they have replaced the slate roof, remodeled the baths, taken out the cast-iron pipes and refinished the hardwood floors. Two years ago Dietz decided to tackle the boxy kitchen.

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Curtis Compton/ccompton@ajc.com

A wall was removed from the kitchen to create a vaulted dining area. A six-burner Viking stove anchors the island and breakfast bar, which was built out of reclaimed elm.

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Curtis Compton/ccompton@ajc.com

The expansion of Dietz’s 1930s home includes a loggia with a fireplace and a breezeway that connects to her parking garage and studio.

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Acting as her own contractor, Dietz designed a new kitchen, breakfast area, mudroom and loggia off the rear of the house. She also transformed a former guest suite over the garage into her office. The entire project was finished in August.

“The house has some beautiful details, and I wanted to come up with a design that looked like it was original,” Dietz said. “At the same time, I wanted something with an updated sophistication and modern conveniences.”

Dietz didn’t touch the sunken living room, den and formal dining room, spacious enough to hold a rectangular table for 10. But beyond the dining room, a new butler’s pantry was created with white marble counters and dark green cabinetry.

In the adjacent kitchen, the same marble counters surround the farmhouse sink. The green cabinetry enfolds the refrigerator and pantry shelves. A six-burner Viking stove anchors the island and breakfast bar, made of reclaimed elm.

Removing a wall created room for a vaulted eating area, flanked by a wall of glass to the right and built-in cabinetry on the left. The lower cabinets are designed to hold plates and bowls — easy for the Dietzes’ two kids to grab. Beyond the eating area, new French doors link the new covered loggia and fireplace.

A small office for the two children has a built-in desk, two bright red chairs, a shelf lined with baskets of supplies and a wall of built-in cabinets for files and books. The ceiling fixture was salvaged from another part of the house.

“My daughter used to drag her backpack through the house, up to her room then back down here again to do homework,” Dietz said. “Now they can leave everything right here.”

The adjacent mudroom features shelves, wall pegs, cubbies, a bench, an ironing board that drops out of a wall cabinet and a below-counter washer and dryer set brought up from the basement.

Among the small details Dietz included were adding dowels to the new hardwoods to make them look vintage; using pressed tin ceiling panels for the cabinets in the office; copying the original door styles for the new ones; building arched doorways that mimic other openings in the house; and putting old-fashioned latches on the kitchen cabinets.

“I thought about this design for a very long time because good design is about attention to detail,” Dietz said. “It was key to make the new part of the house look like it was original, and I think it does. It’s not that different from the rest of the house.”