It can be a challenge to find an old home's true personality under the onionlike layers of improvements. When the owners of a 1908 Arts and Crafts house in Briarcliff Manor, New York, decided to rework a poorly laid-out addition that held a cold 1980s kitchen, they had to find a way to channel the space's long-obliterated Craftsman spirit. One thing was clear: Nothing about the walled-off kitchen worked—neither its utilitarian style and lack of seating nor its isolation from other rooms. After two years of scribbling ideas on napkins, the couple called on local contractor Eric Messer and architect Carol Kurth.
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