SEAL BEACH KITCHEN

Michelle loved to cook, had a growing family, and a kitchen that had seen better days. The kitchen was small and cramped with no workspace.

Besides the generally poor layout and limited space, the microwave was missing its door handle; the base cabinets were moldy and crumbling due to a leaking dishwasher and the garbage disposal made a grinding, guttural sound, but didn’t actually dispose anything.

The biggest challenge besides being small was that the kitchen was surrounded by a small dining room, hallway, and family room. It also had a peninsula that cut the space in half.

The first challenge was how to make the kitchen larger. Another issue was finding space for a workstation off the kitchen, thus freeing up bedroom space for the growing family.

After some investigation (involving crawling around the attic to see how the house was built), the solution was apparent: blow out all the walls and turn a hallway and three small rooms into one large room with a larger kitchen.

The GFCI recepticles were hidden by integrating them into the cabinets and under the counter tops to maintain the clean, contemporary style.

When it was all completed, Michelle and her growing family ended up with a grand kitchen. Michelle now has twice as many cabinets and a full line of Thermador appliances to test her culinary mettle, as well as a large island workspace for baking or letting the kids spread out with their projects. The dining area now compliments the kitchen space. A nook off the kitchen was converted into a computer workstation that freed up valuable bedroom real estate.

An old ill-conceived kitchen with wasted hallway space and rooms that didn’t serve a useful function for a modern family were all combined into a dramatic, useful, family-centered space.