Before & After: An 1880s Townhouse Kitchen Gets a New Location and a Pink Paint Job
Photo by: Jennifer Hughes
All the walls in this Washington D.C. home may have been painted a color called Agreeable Gray, but when architect Nicholas Potts stepped in to update the place for a writer and her advertising executive husband, he had a bone to pick with the name. “Over the course of the renovation, we joked that it was very disagreeable,” says Potts. Luckily, his clients could look past the one-size-fits-all paint job and see a home that seemed tailored to their search.
They had been looking for a historical address to raise their two children, but others had beaten them to the punch with changes that replaced the past with modern sameness. When the couple finally lucked out by finding this 1880s townhouse on Capitol Hill that retained some period details like plaster walls and ceiling medallions, they wanted to make sure any changes they made proved how happy they were to still have those old features around.
“The home had its issues, but we did not want something that had been given the ‘Home Depot Special,’” says the homeowner. Here’s how Potts helped them put their own spin on a hard-won time capsule.
