The Beverly Hills Kitchen Volume
The Brief
A collector family had lived in their 1928 Spanish Colonial Revival for nineteen years. The house was architecturally significant at the street — intact massing, original clay tile, the unmistakable hand of its original builder — but inside, the 1990s had been unkind. A previous owner had installed what the current homeowners referred to, with some restraint, as “the Tuscan kitchen.” Glazed burnt-sienna tile, raised-panel cabinetry, a laminate travertine-look island, and decorative wrought iron that had nothing to do with the house.
The homeowners asked WDC to do two things at once: remove the 1990s intervention without damaging what remained of the original architecture, and build a working kitchen and a restored primary suite that belonged to the house as it was designed.
The Approach
The project was treated less as a renovation and more as a selective restoration with contemporary interventions kept intentionally quiet. WDC led design-build with a historic preservation consultant retained during the discovery phase to audit what was original, what was 1960s, and what was 1990s.
- Original fabric recovery. Behind the 1990s tile work, we found original hand-troweled plaster walls in good condition, original clay floor pavers beneath two subfloors, and one run of original 1928 cabinetry framing on the pantry wall. These were preserved, restored, and integrated into the new design.
- Kitchen. Demolition removed every element of the previous renovation down to framing. The new kitchen is organized around a 12-foot island in book-matched Italian walnut with a Calacatta Gold honed marble top. Perimeter cabinetry is plaster-faced, hand-troweled, with no visible hardware — brass pulls are placed only at the range wall and pantry. A La Cornue range anchors the original hearth location. No upper cabinetry; the restored plaster wall reads.
- Primary suite. Expanded by 140 sq ft into a disused secondary bedroom. New palette: cerused oak flooring, a freestanding Drummonds tub, unlacquered brass plumbing throughout, and a separate dressing room with full-height walnut paneling. The original arched doorways in the suite were preserved in place.
- Lighting. Vintage Italian brass and hand-blown glass sourced by the homeowner’s interior designer and integrated during rough-in. All recessed can lighting removed from the project scope at the outset.
- Mechanical discipline. New systems routed through existing chases. No dropped ceilings added. No returns placed on visible plaster surfaces.
The Result
The house reads as its original self with an unmistakably contemporary working kitchen and a primary suite that could plausibly have been there since 1928. The 1990s intervention is gone without a trace. More tangibly for the homeowners: the kitchen is actually used now — prior to the renovation, the family ate the majority of meals in the breakfast room because the kitchen was, in their description, “not a room you wanted to be in.”
The restoration also surfaced an outcome the homeowners didn’t request: two pieces of original architectural detail — a plaster fireplace surround in the living room and a section of original ceiling beam — were identified and stabilized during the project and are now intact for the next owner, whenever that is.
“With a house like this, restraint is the entire design move. Everything you add, you have to be prepared to defend against the original building. We don’t walk into a 1928 house and try to sign it. We try to read it, and then add only what the house is missing. A working kitchen was what this house was missing.”
— Jacob Ruiz, Design Principal, WDC
Project Credits
| Design-Build | WDC |
|---|---|
| Design Principal | Jacob Ruiz |
| Historic Preservation Consultant | Consultant — confidential |
| Interior Design | Collaborator — confidential |
| Photography | Editorial shoot scheduled Q2 2026 |
Key Specifications
| Kitchen Materials | Book-matched Italian walnut island, Calacatta Gold honed marble, hand-troweled plaster perimeter cabinetry, unlacquered brass hardware (range wall + pantry only), La Cornue range |
|---|---|
| Primary Suite Materials | Cerused oak flooring, Drummonds tub, Kallista + Waterworks unlacquered brass, walnut dressing-room paneling |
| Preserved Originals | Exterior massing and clay tile roof, interior plaster walls (kitchen + dining), original 1928 cabinet framing (pantry wall), arched doorways (primary suite), one original ceiling beam run |
| Mechanical | Systems replacement routed in existing chases; no new dropped ceilings; zoned HVAC with hidden linear diffusers |
| Permits | City of Beverly Hills building, electrical, plumbing, and mechanical; no exterior modifications triggered design review |
Restoring a historic home?
WDC leads selective restorations of significant Los Angeles architecture — kitchens, baths, and whole homes. Every project begins with a Discovery conversation — no estimate, no obligation.
All WDC project details anonymized at client request. Specifications available under NDA for qualifying inquiries.