This newly renovated house in Hamburg went from being outdated and divided up, to a bright and neutral toned open space that's going to be great for entertaining.
At first we were just going to replace the cabinets and countertops and install new flooring in the main living area, but as often happens in remodeling projects, this turned into a whole first floor renovation. Here is what we ended up doing...
The renovation plan:
- Change the kitchen layout to a larger "U" shape
- Replace the cabinets and countertops
- Install new vinyl flooring on the first floor
- Add new recessed lighting in the main living areas
- Replace the baseboards and add crown molding
- Remove the wall between the dining room and living room
- Change the wall around the stairs to a half-wall
- Add shiplap, stack stone and floating shelves to the fireplace
- Paint the main living areas
You can follow along with some of the work in the highlighted stories on our Instagram.
Redesigning the kitchen
In order to expand the kitchen we removed the side door to make room for a three walled "U" shaped kitchen with more cabinet storage and counter space.
The extra space allowed the stove and fridge to move farther away from the sink making it feel much larger than the original design.
Some of the aesthetic updates included: taking out the drywall soffits and extending the cabinets to the ceiling, installing matching crown molding, and adding a fridge panel for a more finished look.
The designs and cabinets for this renovation were supplied by Kitchen Creations of WNY.
Removing the dining room wall
At first we were planning to simply replace the flooring but the clients wanted to explore removing the main wall and we are glad they did because it made a massive difference.
The first floor went from a separated dining/sitting room and living room to one big living space. Not only does it make the room feel bigger, but the natural light coming in from both sides of the room makes things much brighter too.
Renovating the old staircase
After the wall between the dining room and living room was removed the wall surrounding the stairs felt out of place. The first thing you saw after walking in from the driveway was the door to the basement stairs, so the homeowner chose to make it into a half-wall.
The door to the basement was moved to the bottom of the stairs and the vinyl flooring was continued down into the basement landing area.
The fireplace makeover
The fireplace was originally skim coated and painted to match the walls with outdated shelving on each side (that was taken down before we took any pictures).
We framed out the sides so the shelving would stick out almost to the front of the fireplace and put in a little broom closet on the side to cut down on some of the wasted space.
The top and sides got white shiplap that tied in nicely with the rest of the dining room by continuing the same baseboard and crown molding right across the fireplace.
The exposed portion of the fireplace is finished in marble stack stone and 12 inch black porcelain tiles.
To finish it off the guys at Creekside Custom Workshop used stained pine to make a beautiful mantel and floating shelves.
We are so happy with the way this project turned out!