Opening Up a Galley Kitchen – Part 2
| Galley kitchens can be very effective work spaces. The big problem with galley kitchens in older homes is that they are cut off from everything — and often have limited counter space. In today’s lifestyle, the kitchen has replaced the living room hearth as the center of the home. Some think the only answer is to build a big addition that includes a kitchen/great room combination. I disagree. I’ve yet to find a small galley kitchen that I couldn’t successfully incorporate into an open plan — a plan that works within the existing footprint and that’s more effective than the “great room” This is the second of 4 articles that explores different solutions to integrating an original galley kitchen into the existing footprint. In the first article, we created an efficient L-shaped kitchen that hid the mess, added lots of storage and counter space and opened the kitchen to the dining room.In this article we look at 2 kitchens where we combined the kitchen/dining room spaces and swapped functions — moving the kitchen to the space formerly occupied by the dining room and making the former kitchen space a dining or breakfast area. The first house is a 1920′s Tudor Revival in Chevy Chase, MD where the client wanted the old and new to blend seamlessly and to evoke the feel of the original period. The second is a 1940′s home in Silver Spring, MD. The original house lacked the charm typical in homes built earlier in the century. In this case, the client wanted a transitional home that added architectural details such as wainscotting and additional trimwork but that also borrowed lines and materials from much more modern homes. |
 The Old Dining Room is Now A Large Kitchen |
 Floor Plan After Remodeling with Central Kitchen |
 Floor Plan Before Remodeling with an Isolated Kitchen |
 Large, effecient Kitchen Moved to Old Dining Room |
 Floor Plan "After" with Central Kitchen |
 Floor Plan "Before" with Isolated Kitchen |
Both these kitchen, above, had 3 things in common that led to similar solutions:
As you can see, common spatial solutions can be executed in dramatically different styles. In both these remodels, we opened the kitchen not only to an eating area and to the outdoor, but also to the living areas. This allows the residents to be together but doing different activities. The owner of the 2nd home said to me just the other day that it was so nice when they had guests — each could be doing their own thing in different “rooms” – reading, working, cooking — but also be together having a single conversation. Read More About How To Remodel Galley Kitchens: Expanding A Galley Kitchen – Part I Opening Up a Galley Kitchen – Part III |
| All images courtesy of Braitman Design/Build |
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[...] of the 20th century. It may mean moving walls (see example) or it may mean moving the kitchen (see example). What my clients report and what I’ve experienced in my own home is that creating the [...]