Put Down the Sledgehammer: This California Kitchen Makes a Case for Keeping Walls
Photo by: Laure Joliet
Mary Posatko and David Butler had scored a renter’s dream. After living in their South Pasadena home for a decade with their two teenage sons, their landlord presented them with the opportunity to buy it. The couple had grown accustomed to the tree-lined neighborhood’s historic Craftsmans and Jazz Age–era bungalows, and their own address had a few of those quaint yet complicated details, too. So when the family officially got the deed in 2019, they knew exactly how to turn their home’s pitfalls into charms.
“The house had minimal prior renovations done to it, so there were lots of original materials still intact,” recalls the couple’s architect, Jen Dunbar, the principal of her namesake firm. The kitchen was the problem area: It felt dark and cramped, and its finishes were dingy. “Additionally, there were pain points in the flow—it was hard for two or more people to be in there together,” adds Dunbar.
