pictured: a remodeled kitchen by Small Carpenters at Large in Atlanta.

While this is not strictly a "house blog," and more a "houses blog" - I'm not so interested in detailing my own endless attempts to both restore and update my 1920s Mission Revival bungalow here in Sacramento - I am going to bring it a little closer to my own experiences with this post and a number of related articles to follow over the next several months.

We have finally decided to remodel & restore our kitchen. The hardwood breakfast nook, relocated in the 1980s, will return; roof beams and oak cabinets will reappear; butcher block and stone countertops will be reinstalled, and period lighting - from our good friends at Rejuvenation Hardware - will illuminate the room. During the seemingly endless planning process, I've looked at other remodels in historic (and some new) homes, mostly in the Craftsman and Mission styles. Here, for your perusal, are some of my favorites - the best I've seen on the Internet - which I hope you will find interesting and possibly useful in your own projects.

• Alex Chiapetta, a Berkeley CA based architectural designer, remodeled this beautiful Craftsman kitchen in Alameda, complete with a gorgeous copper hood, white marble counters and lots of light.
• Scott Presnell and Stephanie Bloomfield, owners of a 1917 Tacoma WA bungalow, remodeled the kitchen in their historic home, restoring it to its original glory - including a beautiful tile frieze behind the range. Their new exterior paint is also very attractive.
• Denver's Classic Homeworks specializes in historic remodels, and received an award for their work on this kitchen. Wonderful detail and lots of rich, comfortable earthtones. Many of their other kitchen projects are also on display on their website, with the equally wood-based Holdorf kitchen being one of my favorites.
• Danny Feig-Sandoval's Small Carpenters at Large in Atlanta won a Chrysalis award - given for the best kitchen remodel under $40,000 - in 2004 for this project in a 1920s Craftsman bungalow. Their other kitchen projects show a flair for taking advantage of small or otherwise wasted space, and a tremendous sensitivity to period design elements.
• Sortun-Vos Architects have done a bit of work for two owners of this "colorful craftsman" home in their home town of Seattle, which caught my eye immediately, but as I browsed their site I found several old house kitchen remodels that are really remarkable in thier accomodation of period features, built-ins, and new - but perfectly appropriate - tile, fixtures and architectural woodwork.