Small Shift for a Big Difference

Small Shift for a Big Difference

This John’s Creek home was typical of homes built in the 1980’s. The owner had added an island cabinet for the microwave and for storage. Countertop space was at a a minimum and the pantry space in the kitchen was insufficient. To help with that, a pantry cabinet had been installed in the laundry room resulting in poor workflow for both the kitchen and laundry room.

There were a number of minor changes to the floor plan that had a huge impact on the overall layout and functionality of the space. We moved one of the laundry room walls about 15 inches, relocated the refrigerator, and created a space for the new oven and a pantry cabinet that doubled the storage space.

Storage space was significantly increased by adding cabinets to the back side of the island instead of using it for seating. Since the laundry room size was reduced, there wasn’t as much wall space for cabinetry but to compensate, 27 inch deep upper cabinets were used. With this, the owner doesn’t have to lean over the washer and dryer as far to reach items and the extra depth gives them more storage.

We wanted to keep the look lighter than the old dark kitchen. Painted cabinets are more expensive and traditionally stained cabinets are not in keeping with modern design. The good news is that manufacturers have non-traditional stains that integrate well with todays look. We used painted upper cabinets combined with gray stained lower and tall cabinets to control costs. The painted uppers keep the look lighter while the darker cabinets anchor the space.

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