Last year a sweet family with three kids purchased a 1960s Midcentury Ranch on land and immediately found out there was a massive termite problem. When the home owners came to us to check out this issue we were excited to take their frustrating situation and turn it around. We touched every space of the home but today, I am going to share the kitchen remodel.
The goals:
- Reuse the existing cabinets
- Open Up the space
- Create an island
- Keep the original midcentury slate floor
- Make room for a normal sized (36″ wide) fridge… the fridge you see was 33″
Before we go into all the good stuff. Lets look at what we were dealing with:
This kitchen is a galley kitchen. It originally was more than likely a galley kitchen. With the doorway and the laundry door it all felt pretty tight.
Confession:
Here are a few things that bug me in kitchens:
- Angled corner cabinets create hard to use countertop in corners. In reality it just ends up being a messy storage corner.
- I never understand why any cabinet other than the hood being raised higher than the other cabinets. Why raise the corner cabinet? Is it supposed to be a focal point?
We see the same trend of raised cabinets over here. But more importantly can you see angled ceiling? Because of the roof line there was nothing that we could do to change it. The plan was to do all we could to minimize the angles.
Are you seeing that fireplace in the living room? Here is what it looked like before we started the remodel. Get your tissues ready. This might be the first ever “Before” picture that makes me sad to see go. The “after” is good but we were sad to see a lot of the “before” go.
Beautiful….. Amazing…. Stunning…. the Copper…. The Beams…. the Wood Ceiling……
ALL. INFESTED. WITH. TERMITES
The ceiling had to go. No remedying the termites they were that bad. There is a whole sad story here, the termites were found and not disclosed by the previous owners and their agent. What was worse than the decorating ceiling was the structural framing (not seen in the picture) was eaten through as well.
Since cedar was so expensive we decided to drywall and add back the beams to save the budget a bit. Here is the after before the home owner moved in.
The good news, we installed it in a way that if the homeowner ever wants to add wood later on they can. Even though I love the wood… it is still stunning without. Termites out of the home is even better. We were also able to add can lights into the ceiling because there was originally no ceiling lights.
Back to the kitchen before…
It already started to feel better as we started demo. We, of course, had to install a huge structural beam to open it up fully.
We always knew saving the slate was a must but the tricky part would be the transitions around the doorway wall and into the kitchen. The island design as well as placement was the one trick we had to cover the floor problems
I also grabbed a few pieces of this tile from Old Town Architectural. Yes, they had some in their warehouse.
The Plan
We needed a good plan to reuse the cabinets. You can see we kept the base cabinets and upper cabinets along the sink wall intact. The fridge, island, and stove wall were the areas that needed the redesign. And yes we used all the cabinets we pulled off to make it happen.
You can see above we added a book shelf in the island. Here is the reason why:
- It covered the lack of floor where the wall once was located .
- We ran out of base cabinets to use
- Its was a good point to transition the counter to butcher block.
Once it was all installed we added painted the cabinets.
- The white cabinets are Sherwin Williams Pure White 7005.
- The island is Benjamin Moore Salamandar 2050-10
We searched and searched for the right dark green that matched the slate floor tile. We knew the wood and slate would contrast so we didn’t want to add in yet another contrasting color on the island.
I think the design trick worked out well. The island feels like an extension of the floor.
The actual foot print of cabinets didn’t get bigger, it stayed the same even though we removed some things and moved things around. However, the kitchen looks bigger because it is completely open.
The structural beam is actually in the ceiling. We added a faux beam to help the transition from the ceiling heights between the dining room and kitchen.
By painting the ceiling, wall, and wall cabinets all the same color it minimized the angles on the ceiling. You really don’t notice at all.
We got rid of the stacked ovens. We actually kept the cabinet and cut it in half. After cutting it to base cabinet size we added some trim to fit a microwave and then added the end panel to finish it off on the sides.
We couldn’t use the upper part of the cabinet. It was too tall and too beat up. Thankfully there was an extra kitchen cabinet in the basement. We added some filler and a side panel to make it fit perfectly with the base cabinet.
We reused the cabinet above the hood and raised it a little higher so we could insert the hood insert under it.
The homeowner got the double oven feature by choosing a range that had a double oven.
Can you see where the angles began on the wall where the oven was? That is the exterior front porch wall right behind the oven and it angles farther to the right than the left. I would have attacked this completely differently with new cabinetry but we were working with the old so we couldn’t change it much. Based on the cabinet layout the hood was not centered on the angled wall. We minimized the lack of symmetry by painting the cabinets white, choosing white backsplash and installing white quartz counters.
The fireplace hood steals the show in this view of the kitchen. As it should. Nothing should compete with that 1960s original copper fireplace hood.
Let’s take a look on this side of the kitchen. First of all the doorway gone just opens it up so much. We also took the laundry room door out and replaced it with a sliding door to create better flow.
If you are wondering where the pantry is in the kitchen, it is located across from the kitchen in the laundry room. This is why the sliding door was so important. A hinged door would block the flow of the space. I will reveal this space in a different post. Coming soon!
Our master plan to reuse all the cabinets worked 95%. The base cabinet next to the original 33″ fridge was moved to the island and we didn’t have a smaller base cabinet to put in its place. So, Scott from Saw Creations built us a smaller cabinet. Its the only new cabinet in this kitchen
Why the larger filler piece between the two cabinets?
It is because when we pulled the cabinets out we realized the basement stairs were just barely under the cabinet and both the 24″ and the lazy susan were modified. The home owner wanted more drawers so we couldn’t modify those… so smaller cabinet with filler to block the angle.
I love this little corner. We added panels and trim to make the 33″ fridge cabinet work for a 36″ fridge. Doing this, and also removing the angled cabinet created a situation where we couldn’t reuse anything.
This was the perfect opportunity for open shelves. Scott from Saw Creations made the open shelves out of the same material he made the beams out of in the living room and kitchen.
I am always kind of sad when I kitchen doesn’t have open shelving somewhere because its the perfect place to put a little personality and fun into your kitchen.
This picket backsplash gives the perfect amount of texture to all the white. I love it!
Do you see how important the bookshelf is I helping with the floor transition? We needed something more than and island leg to cover where the wall once was. Underneath the stool you see is the one place where we needed to patch in some tile. Old Town Architectural Salvage is a treasure trove and I couldn’t believe we found some pieces of this tile there.
I love the butcher block end to the counter and Wichita Granite and Cabinetry did a fantastic job seaming it up to the quartz counter. It gives us another focal point to break up the white.
I think I need to show you the before of this space again.
Before the space felt tight and small but its actually really big. The buffet is permanent (original 1960) cabinetry and we were excited about giving it new life.
Removing the door way and unifying paint just helped this space to FEEL as big as it really is. The green and white minimizes the red slate tiles, which were not the tiles we wanted to accent in the space. Look back above the red on the walls accents them, and now you barely notice them.
The cute light fixture is from Amazon.
I love how the entire space turned out and would love every bit of every day life in this kitchen.
This is the view from the living room of the entry way and kitchen so you can see how the space flows. Everything is on an angle in this midcentury house.
The termites had not made their way over to this entry way wood so we were able to save it! This is all original!
I also love this view into the living room! What a fun space to transform and make happen for our clients!
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