Exploring Kitchen Remodel Options For A Ranch Style Home

Today I’m sharing a remodel project I am working on for a family of four. The home is on a quiet country road, though still convenient to town and work. The yard is spacious with a mature landscape. Overall, the home is sized well for the family. The interior however is dated and the main living areas are not functioning the way they would like. The homeowners are considering the possibilities a remodel would offer. Today, I’ll focus on just the kitchen. 

The homeowners would love to have a more open design so the family can be connected even while enjoying different activities in different rooms. In the current layout, the family room and kitchen are walled off from each other, making the rooms very separate and closed off. We all love to use Alexa as our home intercom system, but sometimes you want to be able to communicate face to face. The kitchen itself is not particularly small, but the layout and lack of circulation around the area make it feel small.

What’s Not Working

Here is a summary of the problems we would like to solve:

1. Kitchen is closed off from the family room
2. No pantry
3. Circulation is limited, only one way in or out
4. Seating doesn’t accommodate everyone
5. Wasted and unusable space

A Place To Start

The biggest challenge in this room comes from the location of the HVAC and equipment room. It is situated in the middle of the main living area of the house, which probably makes for an efficient flow of energy, but not so much for an open layout. We will need to consider extending the back wall of the kitchen and rearranging the HVAC to minimize the footprint.

I have presented three options for improving the space.  

Three Layouts to Consider

By adding just two feet to the kitchen area and condensing the space for the HVAC, we can provide a significant improvement to the flow of the living areas. The wall between the kitchen and family room can be opened up, the island can be repositioned and lengthened, and the traffic flow improved so that all the rooms can be accessed from multiple sides. I also was able to make use of the wasted space between the kitchen and dining room for a large walk-in pantry.

The second option I’m presenting is similar to the first, but changes the orientation of the cooking triangle a bit and brings the island to the center of the kitchen.

The exterior door in the top right of the drawing is an entrance to a working lab area. By moving this entrance into the adjacent mudroom, we can borrow a small amount of space from an unused corner of the lab and place the pantry there. This opens up the kitchen and allows us to lengthen and center the island, as well as provide additional space for either a desk/office area or a built-in floor-to-ceiling hutch cabinet. An added bonus is the centering of the arched opening into the dining room, which will allow more natural light to flow between the spaces. The disadvantage of this layout may be that there are fewer overall upper cabinets. Depending on how they like to organize their kitchen, this could be made up for in the pantry or the increased lower cabinets in the island. 

I have also included some little changes to the entry and dining area of the home in all three drawings. By removing the front closet and adding the lost storage back into the mudroom, I opened up the entry and made more space in the dining nook for a full-sized dining room. This could be converted to an office if the family prefers to eat mostly at the island and would prefer the space for a dedicated home office. If this were the case, I would advocate making a small table-like area at the end of the island, use the desk space for full-length cabinets, and close the opening to the kitchen side with a doorway. As below:

 Lastly, this option is a much more extensive remodel. I’ve completely relocated the HVAC to a large closet in the hall (not shown) and opened up the back of the home for a continuous main living area. The dining is integrated into the open area, and the entire back wall can be utilized for windows and/or sliding doors to the deck, dramatically increasing the amount of natural light in the main room. I also added a small dedicated home office to the front, by extending the wall forward. This would be the most open floor plan possible, but also requires the most amount of demo and rebuild. 

There is always more than one way to solve a spatial problem— and always some trade-offs for each solution. The key is to identify your needs and highest priorities before you start, and then make a plan.

“The design is not just what it looks like and feels like. The design is how it works” — Steve Jobs

Our homes should reflect our personal style, feel like places of retreat and inspiration, and also function effectively for our daily tasks and lifestyle. Good design attempts to accomplish all these things. 

Materials & Inspiration

I’ve selected a few materials and finish options for their inspiration and consideration. This is just a starting point. The process of curating all the pieces to make this come together will perhaps be the topic of another post.

There are other areas of the home and an add-on to explore along with the kitchen remodel, some of which will be affected by the choices they make here. Remodeling a home can be overwhelming, but with the right planning, it can also be incredibly rewarding.

Drop me a note if you are in need of some planning and drafting for your project. I would love to help you create a beautiful design and maximize your home’s potential.

All the best,

Jen