THE SETUP Client Background: Our clients, a couple who have transitioned into the empty nest phase, have cherished their home for over three decades without undergoing any significant renovations. With a newfound desire to adapt their living space to better suit their current lifestyle, they’ve embarked on a journey to reimagine their kitchen — the heart of their home. Their aspiration is to cultivate a serene, neutral-toned sanctuary on the first floor that seamlessly merges with their family room, ensuring a harmonious and inviting environment. Design Inspiration: The renovation is inspired by the couple’s penchant for soft, calming neutrals, using their cherished family room and the kitchen’s existing tile flooring as the cornerstone for the color scheme. This approach aims to foster a sense of warmth and tranquility throughout. Design Objectives: Harmonize the kitchen with the family room by adopting a soothing, neutral color scheme, ensuring a seamless flow across the first floor. Enhance kitchen functionality with thoughtfully designed cabinetry, providing a designated place for every item and maximizing storage efficiency. Cultivate an inviting and comfortable atmosphere that reflects the homeowners’ desire for a calm and relaxing space. Design Challenges: The homeowners wish to retain the existing kitchen tile flooring and integrate it into a refreshed, modern design. Accommodating a dining area spacious enough for family visits without compromising the kitchen’s open feel or functional layout. Despite liking the current placement of plumbing and appliances, the homeowners aspire for a more open floor plan to facilitate better movement and interaction. The need to amplify natural light in the kitchen, especially around the sink area, where existing lighting is insufficient. Preserving the half-wall between the kitchen and family room, a feature the homeowners want to keep, while ensuring it complements the new design. THE RENEWED SPACE Design Solutions: By choosing a neutral color palette that complements the existing tile, the design unifies the kitchen with the adjacent spaces. The tile’s grout was cleaned and restored, enhancing the floor’s appearance and integrating it seamlessly with the new kitchen aesthetic. The inclusion of a larger island with seating for two, alongside maintaining a substantial dining table, was achieved by optimizing the spatial layout. This allowed for a sociable yet functional kitchen, accommodating large family gatherings without feeling crowded. Minor adjustments to the kitchen’s layout maintained the preferred locations for plumbing and appliances while introducing an ‘open’ design concept. Strategic modifications, such as angling the pantry wall, improved the flow and accessibility within the space. Replacing the garden window with a broader, standard window significantly increased natural light, transforming the sink area into a bright, welcoming space with enhanced views of the outdoors. The decision to keep the half-wall was ingeniously leveraged to define the dining area while maintaining an open connection to the family room. This feature not only serves as a visual separator but also ties the two spaces together through the shared color scheme and design elements. The homeowners are thrilled with their newly remodeled kitchen, which has become a hub of warmth and hospitality. Hosting a wedding shower and a birthday party, they have shared their renewed space with friends and family, who have been equally enamored. This remodel has not only met their functional and aesthetic desires but has also enriched their home with a fresh sense of serenity and joy. The upstairs part of the home is shaping up nicely. Here’s their newly remodeled primary bathroom.

Photo by Michele Lee Willson
Inspiration for a mid-sized transitional l-shaped medium tone wood floor eat-in kitchen remodel in San Francisco with shaker cabinets, medium tone wood cabinets, green backsplash, matchstick tile backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an undermount sink, quartz countertops and an island

Architectural Photography By Trevor Boyle Studio
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Chris Davis Photography
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Karen Swanson of New England Design Works Designed this Pennville Kitchen for her own home, and it won not only the regional Sub-Zero award, but also the National Kitchen & Bath Association's medium kitchen of the year. Karen is located in Manchester, MA and can be reached at nedesignworks@gmail.com or 978.500.1096.

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Closeup of the door to the hidden pantry. False panels and hardware to match the rest of the bank of cabinets. We custom made all of the kitchen cabinetry and shelving. The kitchen was a small area so maximizing usable space with function and design was crucial. The transitional design features a pantry wall with the Sub Zero all glass door refrigerator and oven cabinet centered and equal size pantry cabinets to either side with 3 large storage drawers below and rollout shelves and work surfaces behind the door cabinets above in each with a hidden walk-in pantry door next to the Sub Zero. The cabinets on the range wall all have large storage drawers with wood organizers in the top drawer for spices and utensils. The client also wanted floating shelves to either side of the steel hood which were made from re-sawn maple to look like cut pieces from an old beam, each shelf is lit from the underside with LED flush mounted puck lights. The island was our biggest challenge. It needed to house several appliances of different size, a farmhouse sink and be able to have function from all 4 sides and still have room for seating space on the backside. The sink side has the farmhouse sink centered with storage drawers to the right that feature wood organizers and a double middle drawer to help hold all the small utensils and still maintain the 3 drawer look from the front view that matches the integrated dishwasher to the left. The right side contains both the integrated soft close trash unit and an icemaker with a third false panel door to maintain the size balance for all three. The left side houses the Sub Zero undercounter freezer. I wanted the face to look like six equal sized drawers, which left the integrated drawer fronts for the freezer overlapping the side panel for the dishwasher. The back of the island has storage tucked up under the seating space. The quartz countertop meets up against the maple butcher block to create a stunning island top. All in all the end result of this kitchen is a beautiful space with wonderful function. We finished the false beams in our exclusive hand-rubbed cappuccino stain. Photos: Kimball Ungerman

Brookhaven and Wood Mode Cabinetry This transitional kitchen combines contemporary and traditional elements. David Duncan Livingston
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Example of a transitional kitchen design in DC Metro

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The original breakfast room was removed and the corner corner squared off a the site of the new sink. The removal of the wall dividing the kitchen and dining areas allowed the kitchen to expand and accommodate the open concept floor plan. The result is an amazingly comfortable & beautiful space in which to cook & entertain.

Photography by: Jessie Preza
Inspiration for a transitional medium tone wood floor kitchen/dining room combo remodel in Jacksonville with gray walls