How to Redesign a Kitchen & Family Room

Family room and kitchen

Many of today's homeowners want an open-concept kitchen and family room, with only a center island or bar separating the two areas. But quite a few older homes weren't designed with that in mind. Kitchens were entirely separate or built with low-hanging cabinets dividing the two rooms. If you live in that kind of home, you don't have to settle for less than what you want. Even a Craftsman-style home can undergo a redesign that gives you the kind of contemporary kitchen-family room they want.

Things You'll Need

• House plans

Instructions

1. Examine the kitchen and the family room. The rooms in many houses are separated by a full wall or low-hanging cabinets. In other houses, the room next to the kitchen is the dining room. If the latter is the case, compare the dining room with the family room. If the dining room is larger, consider swapping the two or changing one into an entertainment room.

2. Figure out whether it is possible to open a connecting wall between the kitchen and family room. Before knocking down the wall, find out whether the wall between the rooms is structural. You will need to consult your house plans or hire a specialist to determine this for you. If the wall between the kitchen and family room is structural, you will need to add a supporting beam. If not, you can knock the wall down.

3. Examine the floor plan of the of the existing kitchen, and reconsider the flow. Now that the connecting wall is down, you can create the kitchen you always wanted. Consider adding an island or a counter with stools. You may want to entirely redo your kitchen, replacing counters and cabinets and moving appliances to easier-to-reach spots.

4. Consider the family room. You may decide to move or replace furniture to create a more welcoming, open space. By combining the two rooms and improving the flow, you now have a space where everyone can be together for meal preparation and clean-up, family games and movie-watching.

Tips & Warnings

• Hiring an architect to help you redesign your kitchen can be helpful. The architect may have some ideas you hadn't even considered.

References

• iCivilEngineers: Internet of Civil Engineers
• Cleveland Magazine: Dramatic Redesign