Converting a dated layout into a beautiful modern home!
All too often, first-time homeowners are ecstatic when they find the “perfect” home. Unfortunately, the excitement and newness begin to wear off as the homeowners discover the flaws in the design of their new home.
Recently, our team met with a young couple in Sandy, Utah who had purchased a home they loved everything about except for the small kitchen. Based on the layout, they were very limited on the type of fridge they could purchase because the fridge door would hit the wall and wouldn’t open fully.
Supply List:
- 2/0 hollow-core 5-pannel interior door
- 5/0 10-lite ball catch interior door system
- 16″ melamine shelving
- 12″ melamine shelving
- Shelving hook strip
- 4.25″ (739 Colonial) baseboard
- 2.25″ (386 Colonial) door casing
Behind the kitchen, the home featured a spacious living room that opened up to the entry of the home. After reviewing options, it was decided that the best way to utilize space in the home meant moving the wall between the kitchen and living room back 3 feet. This would provide more walking room around the counter in the kitchen, open up space for a larger fridge with waterlines for an icemaker, and allow for a large pantry that could be constructed between the existing cabinets and the new wall.
As for the living room, the decision was made to add a small wall to separate the space from the entry and convert it into an office.
Construction began with demolishing the existing wall which was followed by framing of the new kitchen wall, pantry walls, and a new wall in the family room to create the study space. This was followed by electrical, water, and finally drywall.
Project Gallery
With the walls finished, it was time to install the cabinets and doors. The homeowners decided to modernize their interior doors by replacing their 6-panel woodgrain doors with smooth 5-panel doors. The new pantry features our 2/0 hollow-core 5-panel smooth door and the study features our 5/0 10-lite ball catch door system.
The next step was designing a shelving system to accommodate for various heights and widths in the pantry. Based on the homeowner’s request, the shelving space was designed to fit 5-gallon buckets on the bottom, tall cereal boxes, and even small soup cans with minimal wasted space. Melamine shelving was chosen over regular MDF shelving to assist in any cleanup that inevitably occurs in a pantry. The pantry used a mixture of 12” and 16” width white melamine and was supported along the walls with hookstrip. A large wooden dowel was used where the shelves met to add additional weight support.
The project was finished by installing 4-1/4” baseboard along the new walls and the 2-1/4” case on both sides of the new doors and painting everything to match the home’s existing walls.
This remodeling job more than doubled the storage space in the kitchen, provided a more spacious walking area around the countertop, allowed for a large refrigerator, added a study that is better utilized than an outdated formal living room, but most importantly, truly turned our new homeowners’ home into their dream home!
Looking for inspiration that will transform your home into your dream home? An Accent Doors & Trim expert is just a phone call or email away!