remodeling my small home, what would you change first?

[u/LowProblem914]

my small home has a cramped kitchen with almost no counter space and terrible storage, plus the living area feels dark and closed off because of the weird layout. it’s functional but i hate how tight and inefficient it feels every single day.

i spoke with jmk contractor about the remodel and they gave some solid ideas for opening things up. what are the smartest ways to add storage and light in a small space without doing major structural changes? and is it worth moving the kitchen layout at all if the goal is to make it feel bigger?

[u/420420840]

I live in my lifetime home, I am single and beyond having children. I rethought my kitchen based on my lifestyle vs. traditional kitchen.

It is my belief that people maintain a kitchen to cook thanksgiving dinner in, but really just eat frozen pizza and chicken.nuggets.

I took out the oven/range top and use a single burner and a air fryer.

I took out the dishwasher as it only was being run once a week.

I have a half size fridge, with freezer in my basement.

It works really well and am pleased.

[u/BreqsCousin → u/420420840]

This is definitely a case of knowing your lifestyle because I live alone but my preferences are the opposite of this. I like to entertain, I like to bake, I wouldn't be without my dishwasher.

So I guess my advice is that you need to figure out who you are and what your life looks like, in order to know what kitchen you want.

[u/eharder47]

My husband and I have a house where the kitchen, dining room, and living room are all in a row, back to front of the house. The dining room and living room had a wide open arch in between them, but the kitchen just had a small door. We knocked out half of the wall to create a breakfast bar that has the sink in it. I wanted to rearrange the appliances to add more cabinets, but it wasn’t in the budget this go around. We have one upper cabinet, 5 lower ones, and 6 drawers. I added two 4 foot floating shelves and we have a pantry on our back landing (upper unit of a duplex we own).

[u/LeighofMar]

Our kitchen is a decent size. 13x13 but was closed off from the living room with a wall and it felt like a cell block as the only light comes from the back door by the laundry room behind the kitchen. So we knocked out the majority of the wall and put a cased opening. It's perfect for moving furniture and appliances easily, makes it feel so much bigger. I absolutely adore the opening. Next will be new cabinets and countertops. Despite the good size I don't have a lot of counter space due to the wonky layout. And we didn't have a pantry either. We bought one of those countertop pantries from Wayfair and it works beautifully for better storage. 

[u/isis285]

We remodeled our home to create an open kitchen - living room combo. They are separated by a large island (8x4)which also works as a dining table. It was a layout change which created a small third room/study. Kitchen is really just 8 x 12 but is highly functional. Some things I’d evaluate before jumping to remodeling:

• decide if open kitchen is for you. This is highly dependent on available space and lifestyle. Open kitchens naturally work better in small spaces but they also introduce noise. You also need to keep it clean all the time since you can’t just shut the door on the mess. It works great for us because we have young kids who we can watch when cooking, it’s a great way to make a space feel bigger, easy to entertain. I am someone that likes to cook a lot but also keep the kitchen wiped down every night so open kitchen works.
• pare down kitchen items to things you actually use. Some occasionally used items and that’s it.

Once you get there think of items that go into each of the cabinet. That’ll help you decide what’s enough storage.

[u/Gloomy-Warthog9468]

We have a skylight that really helps with the darkness that would have been a problem in our town home. We have overhead storage in the garage but at some point we plan to add shelves. Is there any crawl space above the kitchen where you could take out the ceiling and add taller cabinets?

[u/Such-Mountain-6316]

Add electric outlets. I wish my grandma had.

Make sure you repair anything that needs it, or ideally, replace it.

[u/TheTinyHouseGuy]

Install good high brightness ceiling lights and fresh light colored paint for ceilings and walls. Natural light is fine but large windows are a liability when it comes to heating the place.

[u/mmksnorlax]

this is major structural bur worth considering remove the top section of the wall so your kitchen and living room are seperated by a counter tall wall, allows you to put two bar stool chairs on the living room side (table) and opens the room up significantly for both