Opening up a Craftsman-style home in Wynnewood for modern living
The home, built in 1926, had a warren of small rooms — including 11 bedrooms — when Kelly Copeland and Ken Deitch bought it in 2012. They've opened up the space for their family of four.
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Kelly Copeland and Ken Deitch’s Craftsman-style home in Wynnewood has many wonderful spaces.
The living and dining rooms feature polished oak trim, and the music room is paneled in cherry. The light-filled center hall has a finely carved staircase. The centerpiece of the new kitchen is a 100-year-old counter from a general store in North Carolina, which Kelly found on eBay. She and her two children have almost completed a charming playhouse in the backyard with windows that open and shut.
For Kelly, though, the old/new butler’s pantry is “the coolest room in the house.” Original glass door cabinets display her pottery (she has a kiln in the basement). The white base cabinet was crafted to match. A built-in stainless steel beer fridge adds a modern touch. Old-fashioned black-and-white marble flooring is also new. Walls are painted sea foam. “I love blues and greens,” Kelly says.
Servants handled food preparation behind the scenes in 1926, when the house was built. The pantry, kitchen, laundry and sitting area were separated from the rest of the house by a narrow door and hall.
When Kelly and Ken bought the three-story home in 2012, they knew the space needed a better flow, but the house fit their need for bigger quarters when their second child was born.
“Though not necessarily this big,” Ken says. The home then had 11 bedrooms, with several crammed into the third floor.
Kelly and Ken, who had been living nearby, wanted to replace the warren of small rooms and hallways with a playroom for their son, Finn, and daughter, Stella, while preserving the home’s Craftsman style.
Their Realtor suggested they contact Andrew Kerns, co-owner of RKA Builders of Broomall. Kerns was up to the challenge. His crew tore down walls for a playroom and restored the third-floor landing, duplicating original staircase spindles and railings.
Downstairs, RKA Builders also incorporated old with new when workers reconfigured the pantry-kitchen space. The narrow door was replaced with an entryway leading from the center hall. Basement steps were moved, back stairs preserved, and a new powder room installed. The renovations were accomplished without expanding the footprint of the house or altering windows or the exterior stone.
Custom sage cabinets in the kitchen from J.L. Wakefield & Sons in Northeast Philadelphia are similar in style to the original cabinets in the pantry. Black-and-white countertops are soapstone, and the backsplash is white subway tile. Shelves flanking the Viking stove were fashioned from recycled barn wood and gas piping. A large slate blackboard Ken’s sister was discarding displays children’s art.
The laundry and mudroom behind the kitchen has an open storage closet and an 1897 cast iron saw table now used for the children’s art projects.
Other repurposed industrial items purchased from Philadelphia Salvage, Lancaster flea markets, and elsewhere include a lamp made from a fire extinguisher and another made from a fire hose. The coffee table in the living room is actually a barrow once used to haul peat in Ireland.
Ken and Kelly acquired the bistro table with a marble top in the center hall from the South of France on their honeymoon in 2003. Adjacent chairs are covered in burlap printed with red roosters. The cherry wood table in the dining room came from Restoration Hardware Outlet in Limerick. The eight-foot hutch belonged to Kelly’s mother.
Ken, an emergency room physician, and Kelly, a partner in a biotechnology firm, both have home offices, A beige-and-red chair in Kelly’s space matches the red walls. A footstool fashioned from a camel saddle belonged to an uncle.
Oriental rugs purchased from consignment shops are scattered on oak floors throughout the house.
Finn, 10, and Stella, 7, apparently have inherited their parents' penchant for preservation. Their playroom features a giant red gum ball machine the children spotted in Ricklin’s Hardware Store in Narberth when it closed last year.
The Craftsman house was featured on the 2017 Ardmore Library Kitchen Tour. This year’s tour will be Sunday, April 28. For more information. go to www.ardmorekichentour.org.
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