DEMOLISH, EXPAND, ELEVATE

A major kitchen and living room restructure & remodel

Small would not be the word that came to mind when walking into this home, but the awkward layout certainly made it feel that way. From the moment you walked through the front door, there were so many 90's style oak built-ins - a run of cabinets to separate the entry from the dining room, an old TV cabinet and a poorly laid out kitchen and bar. The kitchen was narrow with a peninsula, floating uppers and an unusable pantry at one end. Then off the peninsula was a teeny tiny bar nook, with barely enough room for one person. All of the oak cabinets and dated finishes made the large space feel chopped up, even though it was fairly open. To top it off, many of the appliances had slowly been kicking the dust, the closer the remodel date came!

BEFORE:

In our initial consultation, my client expressed her need for storage, a functioning kitchen, and an open entertaining space. She already had a contractor she was working with and they had thrown around the idea of demolishing the back wall of the house, closing in the patio and expanding the footprint of this space. It was a HUGE job, but we could check all the boxes!

We had a few quirks come up during planning for this remodel. Firstly, in order to open up the whole back end of the house we had to keep a structural post in what felt like the middle of the kitchen. Secondly, we had this amazing vaulted ceiling in the living room, but to vault the addition to match would mean restructuring the roof, which was a huge expense in an already expensive remodel, so we had to come up with a creative solution to the ceiling height differences.

They were pretty adamant about keeping a fireplace, but were open to a gas burning option instead of the massive wood burning one they currently had. (Which they were able to get a rebate for, since they went "green"!)

So I got to work laying out several options for the kitchen & bar. They love to entertain, they wanted a great bar, where people could gather, out of the way of the kitchen but still feel like all the spaces were connected. And we definitely had to rework that pantry!

FLOORPLAN:

I actually stole space from the kitchen & relocated the door to make the pantry a true walk-in. I removed a few windows to be able to add more cabinetry along the back wall, and in exchange, put in a twelve foot slider out to the backyard. I placed our nine foot island just right so it could encompass the structural post, and make it into a feature instead of an eyesore. I created a little nook for our bar on the other side of the pantry, with it's own small island.

In the living room, I replaced the corner stove with a linear fireplace feature with modern built-ins on either side, using the built-ins to hide the ceiling height difference.

This fireplace is actually NOT centered in the room, but we let the fireplace take the ceiling height jump, and kept the cabinets the same height on either side. Then by also making the built-ins asymmetrical, it helps to disguise the asymmetry in the room, and the ceiling.

(Also, bear with me, we are missing an area rug, but it was on backorder for too long!)

When it comes to finishes, the client fell in love with this gorgeous natural stone countertop. It has this copper vein running through it that we knew we wanted to play up. I was shocked and excited when the client agreed to a charcoal color for the island. Dark colors normally scare people, but can be so impactful!

We have tons of natural light from our twelve foot slider, and everything is so open, it was the perfect way to offset the more medium toned gray we chose for the perimeter. We used that same medium gray for the built-ins in the living room. For the backsplash we chose this handmade, distressed looking, oversized subway tile, that we took to the ceiling at the kitchen sink. I love taking tile to the ceiling wherever I can, it makes such an impact!

We added a little recess over the cooktop with a solid color glass mosaic accent. A little traditional nod, in this updated kitchen. The cabinets themselves lean more traditional, with the wrapped hood vent feature, so this little moment just felt very right for this kitchen. Now functionally, on either side of the cooktop we have narrow spice pull out drawers, and under the cooktop we have deep drawers for pots & pans. There is a blind corner pull out on the lower corner to be able to have full access into the abyss. There is a trash pull out to the left of the sink, so you don't have to see dirty trash cans. The island is full of pull out drawers for maximum storage. Oh, and all of the appliances are new and they work!

For the fireplace, we kept with the traditional look, by using a ledge stone and adding a chunky stained mantle. Also, notice, or maybe you didn't, the thin black line above the TV, that is the heat vent for the fireplace, so that we are able to hang our mantle & TV over the linear fireplace. Always, always, always, make sure the fireplace and TV are balanced!

We wrapped our structural post in the same wood we used for the mantle and stained it to match. Sometimes when an unavoidable structural element comes up, it's best to lean in and make it an architectural detail. We actually beefed this post up a bit by wrapping it with wood, but we made it so pretty that you want to notice it.

Then the bar. We kept the same charcoal color cabinets, but we added a little copper touch, by adding perforated metal panels to the upper and across the back of the island. I originally wanted real copper panels, but they were crazy pricey, so we bought steel ones and had them powder coated! I actually prefer this because the color will never change or patina. We used the same ledge stone as the fireplace for our bar backsplash, and added some floating shelves, stained to match the mantle & post. Here we also have a wine fridge, an ice maker and the island, even though it is small, the cabinets are functional.

Did you notice the copper hardware?! We also used the copper hardware on the kitchen island to pop off the black cabinets and pull together the two spaces. You can also see the matching post & shelves here as well, all working together to make the space cohesive.

We played up the high ceilings with our lighting. First off, the client had a custom round table made to seat 10, and this thing is massive! So we needed a huge, beautiful chandelier to top it. Then the large traditional lantern fixtures over the kitchen island play up the size of that island and just how open the whole area is. The small seeded glass & copper accented pendants over the bar island, add just the right amount of attention to an already captivating space. From this angle you can really see how HUGE the space is and bright, even with just the accent lights on!

Now, not only does the space look amazing, but it also functions and everything has a place. I can see many parties happening here, many holidays, family & friends gathering and mingling and flowing from one space to the next. It's an entertainer's dream and all it took was a little demo and a little expansion to majorly elevate the space.