This two-story house in the Ygnacio Valley neighborhood of Walnut Creek is home to a young couple with three children under 8 who wanted a kitchen remodel that would create an open plan kitchen and family room that would fit their needs. The original kitchen had brown cabinets, a cramped U- shaped kitchen cabinetry layout, and an exterior door to the right of the peninsula. One set of upper cabinets hung from the ceiling, blocking the view into the family room, and the floors were laminate. They were ready for a complete kitchen renovation!
Their dream kitchen was a cook’s kitchen: a large island, lots of storage and new appliances, including a wine fridge. What best suited their needs was an open plan kitchen design that flowed into the family room where the children played. The kitchen design included a 36″ Dacor cooktop and hood, with a landing space on either side, and a beautiful picture block and border framed tile backsplash behind the cooktop. Dacor double ovens lined the left wall, and a large island that seats two is in the center of the kitchen. The island has built in bookshelves for the large array of cookbooks used by the family. There are window pane style glass doors on the upper cabinets on the right side of the kitchen, dishwasher and wine fridge set in the base cabinets, and a pantry with four rollout shelves. The island and the long run of countertops on the right side of the kitchen provide both storage space and prep area for cooking. They chose beautiful white painted, framed Crystal cabinets, stainless steel appliances, and a lovely white quartz Berwyn Cambria countertop with subtle movement.
To create the open plan kitchen design, we removed the pony walls and railings separating the kitchen from the family room, and the old brown wooden cabinets on either side of the fireplace, as well as the exterior door. This allowed us to extend the base cabinets and the length of the kitchen, while still providing access through the slider doors in the family room. We designed matching custom framed white painted cabinetry for either side of the family room fireplace to complement the kitchen cabinetry. We replaced all the flooring throughout the downstairs with a warm 5″ engineered hickory wood flooring. What we achieved is a family-friendly, functional and elegant open plan kitchen!
