Kitchen Design

So many doors

A few years ago, I had a client who wanted to remodel her kitchen, entry area, half-bath, and laundry room. The kitchen had five doors, so this was going to require some planning.

Here's the original floorplan showing the five doors in the kitchen. It left very little room for storage, appliance placement, or countertop work area. There's also a window on the wall adject to door 5, which puts a door right where you would normally put the sink.

We worked through several iterations of space plans, working to maximize storage and kitchen functionality. Here's where we ended up.

First, we flipped the bathroom door to allow for egress into the laundry room from the bathroom. That allowed us to remove door 3 in the kitchen. Next, we created a new door in the living room to the basement stairs, which allowed us to remove door 5 in the kitchen. Door 4 would now be opened up to an open peninsula with seating.

It's worth noting that a recess was created for the new refrigerator location so a full depth appliance could sit back in a be flush with the front face of the cabinets. I have a real peeve for refrigerators jutting out into rooms.

I don't want to make this a long, drawn-out post, so let's just look at some before and afters.

The new side-sliding window allows more light to enter, and offers a seamless feel to the similar windows in the entry. The light over the sink harkens to the craftsman style of the home.

After removing the door to the laundry room, that wall became the home of the refrigerator, microwave (which was ultimately moved lower than what I showed here), and cabinet storage.

With door 5 removed, that wall could now accommodate the range, cabinets, and work space. There's also a new appliance garage on the left end of the cabinets.

These two pictures are looking from the opposite direction. The photograph is inside the kitchen looking at door 4, while the 3d render is in the dining room looking at door 4, which has been opened up with peninsula seating.

Here are some additional 3d renders from the project.

I've been fortunate enough to visit this project after it was completed, and it is remarkably similar to the renders. This client was a best-case-scenario. She was open to ideas, trusted my input, shared opinions openly, and was excited and cooperative throughout the entire process. What a great project!