Kitchen Before & After: A Standard Builder’s Kitchen Gets a Better Layout

Cambria Bold
Cambria Bold
Cambria Bold is the Executive Editor of Cubby, and one of Apartment Therapy Media’s first full-time editors from way back when. She was the founding Design and Lifestyle Editor for Kitchn and the Managing Editor for Apartment Therapy’s green living site, Re-Nest (RIP). After a few years offline and then working elsewhere, she’s back to share ideas about design, kids, and family life. It’s helpful that she now has two little kids and lots of thoughts about all those things. She lives with said kids and their father in St. Paul, MN.
updated May 2, 2019
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(Image credit: Melissa of The Inspired Room)

Melissa (of home blog The Inspired Room) knew that her kitchen was “certainly not the worst kitchen ever,” but she wanted it to feel like her kitchen, not like a generic builder’s kitchen. So after three years of living with it as is, she took the plunge and made it her own, focusing on giving it a better layout and a lot more charm. See the ‘After’ photo below:

So pretty and fresh! They got rid of the upper cabinets in favor of drawers (“I really love drawers for storage”) which made the kitchen feel much cleaner and more open. A wall full of subway tile and grey grout provides an “architecturally interesting backdrop” for the space, while the color palette of white and grey feels modern, yet classic at the same time. But the biggest improvement was getting rid of the breakfast bar. As Melissa wrote in her blog post about the remodel:

By simply removing the breakfast bar that cut the room in two, we opened up the entire space to allow traffic to move more freely through the kitchen. That alone was a huge improvement and completely transformed the space! We can now fit more cooks in the kitchen and there is plenty of room for guests to mill about the room. No more collisions.

See many more photos of Melissa’s kitchen, and read all about her remodel at her blog:

Read All About It and See More Photos → The Inspired Room

Related: Leigh’s ‘One Window to Many Windows’ Renovation

(Images: Melissa of The Inspired Room)

Filed in:
Before & After
renovating