our house remodel: kitchen + dining room

Welcome to the final stop on this leg of the remodel tour – the kitchen and dining room!

This room sees the biggest transformation in this remodel. As a reminder, we started with the stairwell access in the living room and the dining room as a small bedroom. The main purpose of this entire remodel project is to redirect the stairs back to their original orientation – aligned with the back entry door. The previous owners had six adults living in this space during the pandemic. Can you imagine?! They needed this small room to be a bedroom and the kitchen to have more work and storage space. So they turned the stairs around and cretaed a little pantry above backend of the stairwell. We would rather have an official dining room than a 4th bedroom – and we think most folks that would want to live here after us would agree.

Since we are working on the stairs, we are going to take the opportunity and lower the walls on either side of the stairwell to unite the kitchen and dining into one big room.  Then the coat closet gets rotated onto the shared wall with the primary bedroom along with a built-in bench to create a bona fide dining room.

Their orientation along that wall allows the entry to get relocated to align with the front door. This new view into the backyard from the front door and uniting the two rooms make this modest home feel so much bigger than it actually is. Score!

Before we get too far into this new plan, let’s take a moment to look back and honor these rooms’ past lives. Here’s the oldest photo we could find – from when it was listed for sale in 2013. My guess is that these are the original cabinets from 1955; mainly because my friend has the same layout in a nearby neighorhood and her kitchen layout is identical – true story!

And this is how it looked when we bought the house back in 2022 and largely how it looks today…

And here’s how it could look with a modern makeover!

As for the dining room, it was shown as a bedroom in the 2013 listing…

…and with a very awkwardly placed, too big dining table in 2022.

But just look at how much bringing down those stairwell walls opens up the space!

Let’s stay here and chat about the dining room before getting too far into the kitchen.  Can you even with this new layout?!?! I seriously love how open it feels, how much more functional it is (a real dining table!), and these shades of green against a blank canvas paired with wood and black accents just make my heart so happy. The sleek lines of the table and low profile of the chairs bring function and simplicity to this relatively small space.  The playful mult-globe pendant light set in front of the old entry wall insert (love this so much!) as inset shelves set a mid century vibe and a fun juxtaposition of basic shapes.

One more moment to appreciate how much bigger this space feels….and this view from the new range location?! Yes. Please.

This view of the kitchen from the dining room isn’t too bad either, eh? I love the natural light this new modern yet mid-century french door brings inside. But the space between this door, the stairwell, and the kitchen is tricky. There’s no good way around it, literally. It’s tight. In order minimize to traffic jams here, we’re going to place a tall but thin pantry perpendicular to the cabinets along the sink wall. This allows the range to move next to the refrigerator, at the lowered portion of the stairwell wall.  If there were full depth cabinets in both of these places, it would be uncomfortable for even one person to move through. Like I said….it’s tight.

So we found a way to open it up! This set up is a great example of how a small space can maximize storage and still feel easy to move around. While open shelves aren’t for everyone, they actually function really well for those most used dishware and gives easy access to cookbooks. And an opportunity to add some touches of personal decor here, too! Who says a kitchen can’t have family photos??

Speaking of….did you know that we now have affordable kitchen accessories in The Collection? For just $125, you’ll instantly receive a clickable catalog with 8 items to refresh your kitchen!

We can also help if you are dreaming of a full kitchen remodel! You can choose from our basic kitchen + bathroom package with 8 standard items or customize your package to change / add catalog items. You can also add space planning or work with us in person if you are within 25 miles of Madison, WI!

Each of our designs come with a photorealistic image of the room, design narrative, and a clickable catalog. You can then do the work yourself or give a copy to contractors for comparable bids!