Our clients loved the vintage charm of their 1970s-era home, but they didn’t love its dated functionality.
Our challenge was to update and improve the kitchen and dining room spaces while at the same time maintaining and improving on the features that make the home unique and inviting.
The greatest change we made was to remove walls that bisected the space and obscured the interesting angles of the original vaulted cedar-plank ceiling.
The walls not only blocked sightlines, but also carved the space into oddly sized and dysfunctional rooms, including a cramped galley kitchen, an unnecessary and under-used formal dining room, and an oversized dining nook with a woodstove that the family never used.
By opening up the space, we greatly improved function and flow, and now the family can cook together, entertain large crowds, or just hang out.
New cabinetry maximizes storage, and the new layout is tailored to how the family wants to use the kitchen – for example, with the pantry and refrigerator within easy access to hungry teens who want to quickly grab a snack. The generously sized island provides additional storage, counter space for prepping and entertaining, and seating for the entire family. And since the former dining room had been functioning as a home office, we even included a desk area at one end of the kitchen, with a view out to the home’s lovely, wooded property.
The reconditioned ceiling is now a warm and earthy focal point, with its dramatic angles and triangular skylight in full view. New track lighting in serpentine loops provides adjustable task lighting as well as an artistic element, without blocking the ceiling.
The patchwork backsplash tile is another nod to the home’s organic ‘70s style, and a contemporary counterpoint to the original brick walls throughout the space. The tiles feature a variety of textures and patterns, all in soft and subtle earth tones.
We updated the home’s front entry as well, with new stair rails and new hardwood flooring that continues into the expanded kitchen and down the stairs. The fireplace wall was updated with a new pellet stove, additional storage cabinets, and the elimination of the toe-stubbing raised hearth.
Learn more about your home remodeling options at www.ironsbc.com.
–By Melissa Irons, Irons Brothers Construction
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