Construction is well under way at Whistle Haven but the dining room walls are not the only thing we have removed. Nope. My goal is to completely update the feel of this 1979 house by replacing finishes and fixtures AND opening the space up. So let’s talk kitchen.
From the beginning we knew we were going to change a good bit of the kitchen layout. The existing cabinet layout wasn’t going to work because one of our goals was to open up the kitchen to the dining room and to the living room. To do this we needed to almost completely remove the wall that the stove was on.
The doorway on the far left of the picture above leads to the living room and the space beyond the stove and counter leads to the dining room. Before any major demolition could be done though the granite counters and cabinets needed to be removed.
The house was listed as a foreclosure and for some strange reason the bank actually had new granite counters installed. So while black granite probably wouldn’t be my first choice for a counter it’s estimated that we have around $4000 in new counters that can be salvaged. So even though the footprint of the kitchen cabinets will change we will be able to reuse the existing granite counters… saving us a good deal of money.
And like any interior designer I love a good challenge. It’s been fun incorporating these black counters into our dream kitchen design. But before we get to the dream kitchen part lets back up to the demo part.
We took down most of the cabinets ourselves. And by we I mean Michael Luke did most of the work and I helped in small ways like removing shoe molding and shooting videos of him hard at work.
And while it would have been fun to take a hammer or ax to those cabinets obliterating them from the wall we tried to keep them intact because they may find a new life in Michael Luke’s work room just off the garage.
So what will the new kitchen layout look like? The new kitchen is going to become my command central for the house. From the spot where the sink is in the picture above I will have a view of both the front and back doors and all main living areas of the house. Just call me Master & Commander (of the house).
Cabinets will span the entire wall of the kitchen with the sink and refrigerator remaining in the same place. In front of the cabinets will be a nine foot long island with seating for six people The island area will be our main seating area in the kitchen vs. the traditional stand alone table with chairs that would have been used in the previous layout.
The floor plan above shows the large cased opening that provide a clear view of the dining room and living areas. Along with seating at the island in the kitchen we left a little room by the window for a small bistro table of sorts for Michael Luke and I to use in the mornings for our quiet times or breakfast together before the girls wake up.
Ok, so let’s take a look and see what a difference removing a wall can make. Below is the original view into the kitchen from the living room.
And then we opened up the view by removing the wall all the way to the stairs!
Doesn’t it really open the space up? And here’s the view from the kitchen looking into the living room from that same opening. 
Remember this was the wall that had the stove on it.
And here is my master and commander view of the downstairs. The picture is taken from behind where the new island will go.
And finally a look back at the opening into the dining room from the kitchen. 
So that’s pretty much where we are now with the kitchen. Michael Luke has completely removed the tile floor and now we are just waiting on the installation of flooring and then we can get to work installing the kitchen cabinets. I’m so excited about all the finishes and can’t wait to go into details with you in another post. In the meantime, tell me the one thing you would not leave out of your dream kitchen? For me it’s adequate storage for all my large counter top appliances like my VitaMix, InstantPot, and griddle.
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The kitchen really has come a long way. Not that it started out in dire need of help or anything but the color palette just wasn’t us. I had been wanting to change the red wall ever since we bought the house almost six years ago! Looking at the picture above a hope to sprinkle some more bold yellow around the room. For instance by adding a yellow dishtowel to hang on the oven and maybe some yellow vases on the counter or yellow artwork to lean against the backs plash.