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A local couple falls in love with a fixer upper and makes it work for their retired lifestyle.
Bob Sowder Photography
Empty nesters Pam and Tom Kirchner were already settled in Roanoke County when a ranch that needed some love went up for sale. “We weren’t really in the market, but looked at it and made an offer the next day,” says Pam. “We knew it needed work, but it had good bones.”
While the brick rancher sat near the end of a quiet street and had a new HVAC and windows, the floor plan was choppy. The Kirchners were used to high ceilings, and the low ceilings made Tom, who stands at 6’2”, feel claustrophobic and cramped. As soon as they moved in, they began searching for a design firm to help them create the open and airy floor plan they craved, and they hired Circle Design of Roanoke to partner with them on the project.
“The house, as it was, was pretty dark and dated and the kitchen was really small,” notes Emily Borg, a designer with Circle who worked with the Kirchners on the renovation. “They had this idea of wanting to vault the ceilings, which is fairly expensive, but they had a budget in mind so we presented them with two options.”
Circle drew up a plan that met all the other needs while hitting the budget the Kirchners wanted but left the ceiling as it was, and a second option that incorporated the vaulted ceiling.
“They really fell in love with the vaulted ceiling layout, and said they’d increase the budget in order to make it happen,” notes Borg.
The result is stunning, and makes the home live larger than its square footage. The ceiling is lined with wood tongue and groove paneling and topped with faux wood beams for texture and warmth. Borg explains that the faux beams were more economical, and because of the distance, appear nearly identical to real wood.
“In pulling the color palette and finishes together, we felt we needed to add some warmth, and the brown beams contrasted with the gray wash paneling plays with that balance of cool and warm tones,” she says.
Other goals of the project included creating a laundry room on the first floor to relocate the laundry from the basement, as well as adding a large kitchen pantry and updating a bathroom with new finishes. A laundry room was created off of the hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathrooms, and a small desk in the laundry serves as a computer station. The bathroom’s dated fixtures and tile were traded for a cleaner aesthetic, and the large pantry added near the eat-in kitchen provides much needed storage.
The reworked kitchen has a more effective layout, and the design choices contribute to the bright and airy feel.
“We have all of our clients create a board on Pinterest or Houzz to get a sense of what they like, and the Kirchners gravitated to a white kitchen so we gave them that, but they also liked blues and greens, so we worked that in with the island,” notes Borg.
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