The kitchen originally was much smaller and was completely open to a small space that functioned more like a porch, but was totally unusable due to 3 doors to other areas. I took down the divider wall to the porch and opened opened it up to the kitchen, and closed off the doorway from the porch going into the dining room. The kitchen originally had a wall where the entry point now is, and the entry was where the island is. The new layout allowed for a bar and made the kitchen more accessible to the dining room.

One of the neatest features of the space is the blue custom piece that looks like furniture. Due to the narrow kitchen, we needed to keep this unit more narrow than standard cabinet depth. However, we needed it to house a microwave, so this shallow cabinet wasn't large enough. I was able to have this unit built where the microwave portion is deeper, cutting through the wall and into the stairwell header going into the basement! This is a feature that no one sees or notices, but was key in making this all look seamless. I put a small cubby within this unit that includes a plug-in so that a crockpot or other small appliance can sit in here and not take up valuable counter space for other food prep. Or, it can serve as a nice place for desserts.

The dining steps down from the main level of the house. The original opening to the porch/kitchen had a step within the dining room, which made this small space even smaller. By closing off that space and removing the steps, it allowed for a more functional dining space.

Lots of extras, like the tall cabinet pull-out beside the refrigerator, the corner cabinet with the pivoting pull-out, pull-outs beside the range