“Bad design.”
That is what an electrician told us when we took down all the walls in the kitchen of our second flip in Southern Pines. He had a point — not everyone likes an open concept. A lot of people like to be able to hide their dirty dishes away from company (I know I do considering dirty dishes may as well be a permanent fixture in our home). But, when you’re dealing with a 1700 square foot house that is the shape of a shoebox with a weird compartmentalized kitchen between two very small living spaces, you may want to consider opening things up a bit.
This 1970s ranch had a truss system that allowed us to take down the walls in the kitchen without there being any structural implications. After double-checking with a structural engineer, the kitchen walls were the first thing we demoed. When we brought in an electrician to work out a solution to ensure we had the appropriate amount of outlets to meet code requirements, he was not pleased. “Where are you going to put your blender?” “There’s no wall to hide all the cords for your appliances.” …Uhh, didn’t think of that — guess I just knew I needed the walls to come down so I didn’t have a Russian doll version of a house with shoeboxes inside of shoeboxes?
He declined the job.
Admittedly, I did doubt our decision to remove the walls for a moment there, but we proceeded with our initial plan full steam ahead.
All the walls are down in the kitchen.
Jim working technically where the kitchen used to be. You wouldn’t be able to see the fireplace from where he was standing originally.
Kitchen progress. Kept it light with white cabinetry.
As previously mentioned, the house was lacking in the square footage department. We wanted to maximize storage as much as possible so we decided to add some practical character by installing some shelves to flank the “entry” into the kitchen. When ordering our cabinets with Lowes Home Improvement, we asked if they had any shelves we could leverage. They could only do something that looked extremely outdated — round shelves as shown below.
Rounded shelves proposed. This simply would not do.
I was determined that we needed shelves and they now needed to be custom built. There’s nothing like getting under Jim’s skin by giving him a Pinterest picture, or in this case — a primitive sketch — of what he needs to build with no formal plans whatsoever.
Jim being the best ever and building custom shelves.
Super professional “rendering” of shelves I envisioned for the space (taped to work-in-progress shelving). This is exactly what Jim worked off of when building the shelves.
Work-in-progress shot of both shelves that flank the entryway to the kitchen.
After we took down the walls and added some shelves, we wanted to take the kitchen a step further in openness.
We had created a multi-functional laundry room off the kitchen that also served as an office and mudroom. In an effort to make the laundry room / office seem like an appropriate extension of the kitchen, we installed a glass pocket door between the two areas. That way both rooms could play off of each other, yet remain separate—especially if the washer/dryer were running or if someone was working in the office while others were cooking or entertaining. The glass pocket door also helped add a level of sophistication we strived for in this home.
We also obviously updated the cabinets, countertops, appliances, etc, and added a counter-to-ceiling tiled backsplash, too. Were those countertops our favorite? Nope. But you have to stay on budget somewhere. I remember the countertop woman at Lowes questioned our design choices as well — “Brass hardware? Isn’t that ‘outdated?’” "A black pocket door—that sounds, um, interesting?” She thought we were absolutely clueless with designing our kitchen, too.
Thankfully our most questioned kitchen was a huge hit. We were under contract in about a week after putting the house on the market. Below are some great before-and-afters of the space.
Before: dark and depressing shoebox. Check out that green carpet—just like the golf course across the street.
After: lighter, brighter, and open.
Before: kitchen is closed off from dining area.
After: you can entertain guests like you’re a Hibachi chef.
Before: claustrophobic peninsula.
After: updated peninsula and a view of the glass pocket door leading into multi-functional laundry room.
Before: another view of the closed-off kitchen. The walls made the kitchen and two neighboring living areas seem much smaller than they were.
After: extra storage space in kitchen with custom-built shelves.
The office / laundry space is an extension of the kitchen.
Before: work-in-progress tiled backsplash.
After: finished tiled backsplash.
A great space for entertaining.
Be sure to check out more of our updates for this home, here.