Fixing a DIY-Gone-Bad Kitchen
When a young couple bought their first home in a Pensacola, Fla., community, they knew its DIY-gone-bad style and functionality offered considerable room for improvement. Of note was the kitchen, which was part of a long great room, although it was tucked into a corner.
The line of the kitchen’s back wall was broken up by an entryway to a hallway with laundry, a bathroom and garage access, while a doorway into the dining room chopped up a perpendicular wall. An overlarge island and peninsula extended far beyond the cabinetry into the living space and was topped by a massive vent hood reminiscent of a spaceship.
“It had one of the worst layouts I had ever seen,” said Cheryl Kees Clendenon, DGD of Pensacola-based In Detail Interiors, the team called on to renovate the 1969 colonial home. “There were many functional things that just didn’t work.”
The homeowners wanted the house to be more accommodating to the activities they enjoyed, which included making a front music room easily accessible from the kitchen/great room they envisioned as an entertaining space. But to get between the two spaces required going through the dining room, an area the couple expected to use infrequently.
Keeping these lifestyle choices in mind, Clendenon tossed out traditional expectations to redefine the layout. She focused on meeting the specific needs of her clients rather than giving in to what existed or preconceived ideas about how rooms should connect. But that meant making some tough decisions along the way.
Challenge #1 – Back Doorway Relocation
To truly rework the layout, Clendenon first had to rethink egress. By shifting the doorway to the laundry/garage access hallway at the back of the kitchen, she would gain width to allow the kitchen to come out of its little corner.
It sounds easy enough, but that back hallway had a small bathroom on the far side of the original doorway, which was exactly where the new doorway needed to go. Clendenon wanted to move the bathroom to the other side of what would become the new hallway, even though in a Florida home, plumbing changes usually require cutting into concrete below.
“We knew we would have to trench into slab,” she said. “We explored it with the plumber ahead of time.”
In fact, knowing this work was a necessity, she incorporated additional plumbing updates into her plan. For example, in the kitchen, plumbing was run beneath a new island. Although this was an expensive fix, it was worth it in terms of the overall spatial possibilities.
“The gain of switching that bathroom was a critical piece of the new kitchen layout,” said the designer.
Challenge #2 – Rethinking a Long Great Room
A second structural adjustment needed to make a new configuration possible was creating a doorway between the great room and music room. This decision gave Clendenon’s clients the entertaining flow they wanted but with an unusual corollary. Adding the new doorway meant closing the original opening between the kitchen and the dining room to ensure enough wall length.
“Some clients might find that horrifying,” said the designer. “But for this client, it was more important for them to have access from the music room than the dining room.”
Although the two doorway changes had given the design team more space with which to work, it was a long, skinny room, and Clendenon wanted to create a layout that made it feel less like a runway. Because the dining room was no longer as accessible, she also needed to include dining seating in the kitchen.
Rather than a simple bar island, she opted for a built-in banquette, which helped take up some of the central space. Its adjoining table adds more depth to the feature than an island alone could have.
“You don’t want to have a dancehall in the middle of a kitchen,” said Clendenon. “The banquette helps fill the space to make it look intentional.”
Additionally, to use some of the new wall length made possible by closing the dining room doorway and add more interest than an extended wall of cabinets, she included a coffee bar.
“It meets the needs of the client,” said the designer. “That is what I always want to say at the end of a job. We’re very client centric.”
Challenge #3 – Achieving Balance
Getting the space right and ensuring functionality tailored to these homeowners took a considerable portion of the budget. In addition to the plumbing updates, a full rewiring of the house was needed – a positive because it allowed Clendenon to remove many unsightly speakers in the ceiling but also expensive.
“For this kitchen to work and work well, it needed some structural changes,” she said. “We were designing for a young couple who had a good budget, but they had a big list.”
To offset these costs, the In Detail Design team got creative with materials and finishes to make sure the kitchen’s appearance was as good as its functionality. For the flooring, which was replaced throughout the home, the team chose LVT, which is more affordable and quicker to install. Slab-door cabinetry was a less expensive choice but got an upgrade with bronze hardware, while the coffee bar cabinets have metal inserts for doors. One standout feature is the range hood, which looks like burnished bronze but is faux-finished wood.
“We are in a position to help clients maximize the money they have, not just designing for people who have a lot of money,” said Clendenon. “Don’t make assumptions. Not everybody has the same needs and wants.”
Keeping the focus on the homeowners, their lifestyle and their individual needs might mean challenging the status quo, but it will lead to more successful results and more satisfied clients.
SOURCES:
DESIGNERS: Cheryl Kees Clendenon, DGD, Liz Lapan & Libby Kees – In Detail Interiors; PHOTOGRAPHER: Steven Gray; BACKSPLASH: Bedrosians; BANQUETTE SEATING: JF fabrics; COUNTERTOPS: Cambria; CABINET HARDWARE: Top Knobs; CABINETS & SHELVES: Paulk Woodworking; DINING CHAIRS: Four Hands; FAUCET: Delta; FLOORING: Tesoro; HOOD: Paulk Woodworking & Big Finish LLC; LIGHTING: Hudson Valley Lighting; Metal Cabinet Door Inserts: McNichols; PAINT: Benjamin Moore; RANGE: Café; SINK: Blanco; TABLE: Dovetail Furniture; VENTILATION: Zephyr
