PointClickHome is presented by:

Before & After Kitchens: Bright & Beautiful

Open and airy, this family kitchen is a feast for the eyes

Written by Bernadette Baczynski • Photographed by Olson Photographics, LLC

From every direction, the old kitchen in Susan Sherratt’s Alameda, California, home conspired to confine her. A header dropped the ceiling height, a peninsula blocked off the breakfast nook to one side, and a peninsula with ceiling-hung cabinets blotted out the family room. Having no windows just added to the feeling of confinement.

Along with its significant cosmetic problems, the kitchen was essentially dysfunctional. What Susan really needed was an island work area instead of twin peninsulas. She was also frustrated with the double wall oven which she considered to be a bit on the puny side. “I could barely get a turkey pan in it,” she says. Susan’s quest for a better double oven drove her to remodel. Naturally, she and her husband, Richard, had other goals in mind, too: the island, additional storage, aesthetic appeal and more.

Early in the process, Richard decided to add on to the space by having the breakfast nook wall pushed back, taking advantage of an overhang on the house. This eventually let kitchen designer Victoria Reginato, CKD, also of Alameda, to expand the kitchen into the breakfast nook’s old location. To open up the new space, Reginato took out the peninsula separating the kitchen and breakfast nook. She also evened up the ceiling heights, removing an unattractive dropped ceiling.
“In the old kitchen, there was a load-bearing post with a header above it that made it feel like another room,” Reginato says. With help from a contractor, she moved the load from the header into the attic. “That got us a clean ceiling line from the kitchen into the family room, and that really made it feel like one room.”