My son and daughter-in-law, Aaron and Melissa bought a 1970’s home that they remodeled… Once done the main level was transformed into

a farmhouse style open concept space.

Back when Aaron and Melissa first bought this house, the main level was divided into separate rooms, (with a very constricting kitchen floor plan).

This is my favorite kind of work… taking a not well-working floor plan and turning it into a design that functions well and looks great! So yep, I did help with this floor plan, but Aaron and Melissa did a huge amount of the plan themselves. I still remember sitting at our dining room table, with them explaining to me what they wanted this space to be like once it was done. Aaron took super detailed measurements and we planned it together. My involvement was to help them understand how to achieve the vision they had. So. Much. Fun!!

This picture below is from the angle of standing in the doorway between the dining room and living room, looking towards the kitchen:

We worked on a plan to remove the wall between the dining room and kitchen as well as the wall between the living room and front entry… those would be relatively easy as they were not load bearing.

The wall between the kitchen and living room was load bearing, so a header would be necessary… also, that wall had the mechanics (ie: cold air return and heat ducts and plumbing pipes that went from the basement to the upstairs).

This is that wall looking from the kitchen: (if you could see through the fridge, you’d see the living room and front door beyond)

Our plan was to create an island of sorts and redesign the kitchen plan into a galley style kitchen. Once the wall between the kitchen and dining room was removed, we could actually steal some space from the dining area to allow space for the fridge, sink, dishwasher, and range on that wall. (I’ll share more on the actual kitchen remodel and planning on a different post, so be sure to check back later!)

Back to my point about that wall between the kitchen and living room…

Even though the mechanics had to go through part of that center wall, and there needed to be a header, by removing most of that wall the impact would still feel so much more different, creating the open concept feel and function Aaron and Melissa were after.

In the end, that solid wall was replaced with a super wide doorway, leaving only a narrow full wall dividing the new doorway and the existing doorway between the dining room and living room. The island, (actually a peninsula) is part of that new doorway space now too.. That little wall space between the two large doorways is where the mechanicals can go to the upstairs… the rest of the old wall between the living room and kitchen is now mostly open.

In this pic below, it shows the space during the redo, albeit pretty close to the end… (still some tiling and details at this point in the picture) This was the space as they were moving their furniture into the house after being in storage for almost a year… (the white sofa went to the lower level family room… it was just being staged there)

The old floor was removed, that consisted of tile in the front hall, carpet in the living room, and oak floor in the kitchen. It was all ripped out and replaced with this gorgeous wide plank hickory floor. By having uniform flooring, also visually opens and connects the space in an open concept.

This was a picture I took when I was painting the main level. I was standing in the living room and looking toward the front entry. The wall between the living room and front entry was now totally taken down and the popcorn treatment on the ceilings was scraped and replaced with a knockdown finish. (here you can read more about that ceiling process from when it was done in the condo renovation)

(That closet opposite of the front entry doors in the pic below was once a standard closet then received a fun treatment that I’ll share with you in a different post as well!)

Those steps going upstairs were carpeted in a wool berber once the trim was painted.

After…

Here is what the main level looks like in the farmhouse style open concept:

(you can see all about the farmhouse style fireplace here)

Now standing in the front entry,

instead of looking down a cold, tile-floored hallway, a farmhouse style open concept greets you!

Standing in the galley kitchen looking towards the dining room,

you can better understand how stealing that space from the dining room for the fridge allowed a spacious galley in the kitchen, but still left plenty of room for the dining table.

Now, standing in the kitchen looking towards the living room, the openness is so welcoming.

As I post more details about Aaron and Melissa’s project, you can keep up by checking out this page: ‘Aaron and Melissa’s 1970’s Redo‘

Oh and see that exposed brick chimney? Well, next time I’ll tell you the secret about that!!

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