Evanston Mansion Renovation Episode 20: Butler’s Pantry
Evanston Mansion Renovation – Butler’s Pantry
Reinstating a butler’s pantry that appeared on the 1896 plans for this luxury Evanston, Illinois mansion on Lake Michigan – but now with a modern coffee station and leaded glass that match the dining room windows.
Follow along!
- Episode 1 – Exterior and Foyer
- Episode 2 – Library and Family Room
- Episode 3 – Dining Room and Porch
- Episode 4 – Kitchen and Pantry
- Episode 5 – Stairwell and Landing
- Episode 6 – Primary Bedroom and Bathroom
- Episode 7 – Porch and Third Floor
- Episode 8 – Lower Level
- Episode 9 – Laundry and Guest Bath
- Episode 10 – Kitchen and Pantry After Demo
- Episode 11 – Primary Bath and Closet After Demo
- Episode 12 – Laundry and Guest Bath After Demo
- Episode 13 – Third Floor After Demo
- Episode 14 – Temporary Primary Bedroom
- Episode 15 – Entry Hall & Library
- Episode 16 – Primary Bath
- Episode 17 – Exterior Sconces
- Episode 18 – Powder Room
- Episode 19 – Kitchen
- Episode 20 – Butler’s Pantry
- Episode 21 – Dining Room
- Episode 22 – Primary Bedroom and Closet
- Episode 23 – Laundry and Guest Bath
- Episode 24 – Living Room
- Episode 25 – Guest Bath
Transcript
What’s really, really interesting about this project is that we actually have original first floor plans from the Evanston History Center and there was a butler’s pantry here so we’ve brought it back and it creates a great transition space between what’s going to be kitchen and on the other side of this door what’s dining room.
So, it’s a big, big giant space with all these weird random windows so this might be the most random of all. This is the narrowest window in the room. It has the tallest sill height and that’s because it was never part of the kitchen to begin with. So, by creating the wall that’s in front of me now separating what’s butler’s from what’s breakfast we’re able to then make some sense of this window.
Standing behind me here we had a bunch of kind of like weird duct work and plumbing and things like that. The previous cabinetry didn’t go all the way to the ceiling. These cabinets are going all the way to the ceiling and so we had to get rid of all those return air ducts that were above us.
This is going to function a little bit as a butler’s pantry for serving for the dining room. We are actually matching the leaded pattern of those uppers to the leaded pattern that you see in the dining room.
We don’t have very many upper cabinets in the kitchen because there’s so many windows, so this is a place where it’s also in addition to our pantry going to function for storage. This side is going to be sort of our coffee station. Because we have a window here we’re limited in what we can do for wall cabinets.
On my right hand side we’re going to have a tall cabinet from floor to ceiling and it’s going to be open shelving and a place for a coffee maker, a place for a coffee grinder. We also have under cabinet refrigeration so that we can store cream, fresh fruit, things like that. That’ll serve for the kitchen and also the dining room.
Go back and watch from the beginning if you’ve missed any episodes of this incredible journey.