The Brass Standard

The new kitchen of this 1927 Capitol Hill house features a custom island with extra storage. The simple open shelving is crafted from solid walnut planks suspended with uncoated brass tubes from Brassworks USA. The homeowner chose hexagonal glazed basalt tile from Ann Sacks to add subtle texture.

Written by Rachel Gallaher

Photographed by Lara Swimmer

An Imperial hood hangs over the Wolf range, and an unfinished brass tube and fittings from Brassworks USA hold often-used pots and utensils above the stove. Black soapstone countertops from MS International are inspired by James Beard award-winning chef Renee Erickson’s personal kitchen, and the unfinished brass sink is custom from Texas Lightsmith.

“When we bought the house, we joked that it looked like prime Lady Di in here.” Cookbook author Sara Dickerman gestures around her newly connected kitchen and dining room, which now neatly square with contemporary Northwest aesthetics instead of screaming 1980s Windsor parlor. “The walls were heavily stuccoed and sponge-painted oxblood red and hunter green,” she explains, “and everywhere you looked there were drapes upon drapes upon drapes. The kitchen had dark cherry wood and busy granite counters—just an accumulation of textures and colors.”

Managing to overlook those drapes, Dickerman and her husband, Andrew Shuman, fell in love with the rest of the centuryold Federal-style house at the north end of Seattle’s Capitol Hill, purchasing the property in 2010 with the intention of an eventual kitchen remodel. Five years later, when that time came, Dickerman reached out to Lisa Chadbourne and Daren Doss of local firm chadbourne + doss architects to undertake the project.

“The biggest thing we did was create connection on the first floor by enlarging an opening between the kitchen and the dining room and removing a large peninsula cabinet,” Chadbourne says. The archway was given the same curve as additional ones throughout the house and a fresh set of French doors opens to a newly installed deck.

A prolific food writer with two cookbooks under her belt, Dickerman needed a kitchen that would both give her space to experiment with recipes and provide a welcoming place for family hangouts. The architects, with the help of Bellan Construction, installed a custom island with a black soapstone top that matches the new counters. The author also requested a large single-chamber sink that would allow her to easily wash sheet pans. Brass hardware lightens the dark cabinetry and adds what Chadbourne calls “a living finish” that will evolve with time—a perfect expression of the kitchen’s decades of growth and change.