The past few weeks I’ve been sharing with you my son and daughter-in-law’s, Aaron and Melissa’s 1970 redo. So far I’ve shown you how they changed the fireplace to a farmhouse style fireplace, how they changed the main floor to a farmhouse style open concept, and how they created a DIY faux exposed brick chimney in the middle of the main floor.
Today, I’m going to share with you the drastic change the kitchen went through in the kitchen redo!
This is what the kitchen looked like before they started any work:
It was a typical 1970’s-something kitchen…
At the time, back in the 70’s, this was a wonderfully modern kitchen…
But as our lifestyles change, our house plans change to accomodate it.
In the 70’s it would not have felt very nice to have a kitchen open to the living room… We liked to keep the ‘kitchen mess’ separate from the entertaining space back then.
Although this ‘modern’ 1970’s kitchen did have a nice breakfast nook and peninsula for stools in the kitchen…
That was a huge improvement for ‘open-ness’ compared to a few years prior when kitchens still had doors completely closing them off for the rest of the house.
But for how Aaron and Melissa wanted to use their house, this was not going to work.
Like most people in this current society, at least in the USA, we like our kitchen as part of the overall living space. We like to share the food prep and cooking with our guests now.
Therefore, pretty much all the walls enclosing the kitchen needed to come down!
In that picture above, you can see the tiled front entry hall opening up to the living room. That wall behind the stove and the wall separating the living room from the hall both came down. (The one wall was a supporting wall, so the carpenter had to put in a huge laminated beam for support)
And if you look back at the picture of the kitchen looking towards the dining room, that wall came down too.
Once the wall between the kitchen and dining room came down, space from the dining area could be used for a longer cabinet run:
Where the fridge sits now, is where the wall used to be. Just a couple extra feet made all the difference to make this kitchen plan work. There still was plenty of room in the dining room for the table and chairs after a couple of feet were used for the kitchen.
This picture below shows the walls that were removed:
As I explained in last week’s post though, to transform a space that was originally built with lots of walls to a space with none can be a little tricky… support can be fixed with a laminated beam, but the mechanics going up to the 2nd floor were another issue. (you can see that faux exposed brick chimney post here)
That’s where they boxed them up in the middle of the space and created a faux brick chimney, creating a visually unique, character-filled element in the kitchen. (what felt like a problem at first, turned into being a great feature!)
Their new kitchen has a huge peninsula now and is the center ‘hub’ of the main level!
The distressed wide plank hickory floors juxtapose the clean white shaker style cabinets beautifully. (here is a link for these cabinets!) affiliate
The flow of the main floor space is so welcoming and inviting now, and the floor plan of the kitchen works great, giving multiple cooks space to prep, cook and set up.
The only thing that remained where it was from the original floor plan was the kitchen sink placement. The did need to replace the old window, but the plumbing stayed put.
The large apron front farmhouse style sink is one huge basin and so wonderful to soak large pans in. Here is the link for this sink. (affiliate)
In the picture below, you can see from the front entry how the space feels now, instead of being greeted with a tiled floor and narrow hall, the main floor openly welcomes you into the home.
There are so many great details on this space I’d like to talk about but this post is getting too long, so I’ll have to go over those details next time.
Be sure to check back as I continue to share details of their house, and check out this page to read everything I’ve written about it so far: Aaron and Melissa’s 1970 redo.
A little note in case you are new here… I am an interior designer… I did help with the floor plan design for Aaron and Melissa’s house and made a few suggestions, but they really took the ‘bull by the horns’ and made their own decisions with the initial plan of wanting the open concept and choosing all the finishes etc. and did a wonderful job at it too! (I was just there every now and then for moral support and for a little guidance to help them figure out sizing etc.)
One thing I did highly recommend was the cabinet selection.
Needless to say, I love these cabinets! They are solid wood, quality built, come with a beautiful white finish and classic shaker styling, all at a relatively reasonable price.
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