This lovely Monterey Modern style house on Royal Blvd in Glendale had a 1980’s kitchen without good light or access to the house’s outdoor spaces. To aggravate the flow of the house further, the driveway runs directly to the back of the house where the garage is located off of a motor court. Access to the house by family and friends was naturally happened through the backyard which forced them through a carport and around the side of the house to enter the kitchen directly. The kitchen has a new exit to the side yard and a set of french doors to a new deck. The location of the deck connects the formal living room with the kitchen through exterior spaces in a more immediate way than it is connected through the interior. To create a kitchen that could accomodate a family of cooks and in-kitchen dining, one of the requests of the Client, we combined the existing kitchen, an old utility room, and small breakfast room. The small utilitarian spaces of the original rooms were remade to feel and embrace a contemporary lifestyle, while also integrating seamlessly into the style and scale of this 1930’s vintage home. When working on a kitchen of this scale in a vintage home, we make sure to layer materials and forms into the design so it does not feel out of scale or modernist. The floors are blue slate herringbone and set the color tone for many of the other finishes. We used a quartzite with many of the same colors as the floor for the perimeter counters because of its durability and a light marble with flecks of blue and gold for the eat-in island. The wood on the inside of the windows and doors was stained blue. Cabinets are a combination of white oak and painted with brass screen fronts. The Client has wanted to save some built-in niches from the original breakfast room, but in the end it would have limited the design too much and so included two small radiused end cabinets, one in each cabinet finish.