Thayer Reno
The kitchen:
The heart of the home
The original kitchen had a small island, old cabinets that overhung that island, and a smaller footprint that led to an overall feeling of dark + cramped.
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We OPENED THIS ALL UP:
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Demolished a wall so that the space would now extend horizontally,
removed the oppressive / depressing cabinets over the old island,
ripped out the old island and vowed to make it bigger.
Extending the footprint for more space
The "nook" area (with the table / chairs) used to have a wall separating it from the main kitchen.
This led to the kitchen feeling cramped, while also not optimizing the space for storage, appliances, etc.
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So, we not only tore down the wall, we also MOVED a DOORWAY (to the dining room) in order to extend the kitchen back considerably.
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This allowed us to put in a larger range, a larger fridge, plus more cabinetry in general (all new; hardwood floors + cabinets as well)
Wider kitchen island
We realized that we could extend the kitchen island, doubling its width...
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... which not only makes it much more useful, but also allowed us to add even more storage on the other side from the sink (see the cabinets in the lower right-hand corner of this image).
Doubling the space to entertain
Originally, the family room area was sunken, behind the kitchen.
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This explains why the original kitchen island was pretty small, because if you sat at it and then took a couple of steps backwards, you would fall over into the adjoining room.
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We elevated the floor of the family room, to provide one large surface.
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This allowed for the island to be roughly doubled in size, and also allowed for furniture re-arranging to accommodate guests for Super Bowl parties, etc.
We also ended up putting the TV on a swivel, so that you could see the TV from the kitchen.
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Other improvements to this area:
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- Addition of a skylight that transformed the prior "sad dungeon" feeling of the space
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- New hardwood cabinets, walls, and of course the aforementioned floor: no more fear of trips and falls!
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- That exterior door visible in the shot was replaced, as was the sliding door out to the patio (not visible in this shot but is to your right if you're standing here)
Some pictures of the kitchen renovation
LOL, none of this ended up being salvageable... here's some initial demolition:
Peek-a-boo!!! This is what "to the studs" means: everything, and I mean EVERY THING was ripped out.
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This also helped us shift the doorway to the dining room over, which allowed us to extend the usable space of the kitchen.
