Maine Addition

Elegant in its simplicity, the kitchen occupies an addition to a 1760s Cape.

- By Patricia Poore / Photos by Stephen Fazio

Sympathetic design and fine craftsmanship are evident in this rear addition to a Colonial-era house. Architect Anne Whitney and kitchen designer Jeff Peavey worked with the owners to create a fitting room with old beams, wood floors, and brush-painted wood cabinets. Whitney designed it to look like an adapted "back house" in the Maine tradition: big house, little house, back house (work shed), barn. Hence the exposed beams in the open ceiling and a spare aesthetic.

Wide-pine flooring was reclaimed from an 18th-century house. A door out of view to the left opens to a pantry that hides the microwave oven and offers practical shelving for storage of pantry staples, large pots, cookbooks, and more.