Kitchen Remodel
Remodeling Need
These Fairfax homeowners were looking to improve the functionality of their Cape Cod-style home that was built in 1974. The kitchen and living room were small, separated by non-loadbearing walls. Their primary bathroom was also small and awkwardly blocked off from the rest of the house.
They were looking to create a playroom separate from the adult basement area, add a new screen porch, and update their bathrooms. They came to Schroeder Design Build with the need to remodel their living space, but wanted to be careful not to over improve their home.
The homeowners had a clear vision of what they wanted, pulling various images together from Pinterest, and worked with our design team to make it work in their space.
Design Solution
Schroeder Design Build designed a two-story addition that included a new open kitchen and living room, large walk-in pantry, new primary bathroom with a large walk-in closet, and a screened-in porch on the main level. The new layout was perfect for casual family living or easy entertaining. It was designed to be bright, airy, stylish, multifunctional, and fun.
The homeowners didn’t want any wall cabinets, so we were tasked with creatively designing a layout that had enough storage space, while using only open shelving.
Kitchen features include:
- Wellborn cabinetry painted oyster white with maple natural finish floating shelves
- Silestone countertop complementing the white classic tile backsplash
- Matte black metal hardware
- Barn door on new walk-in pantry
- 3 large windows over the new kitchen sink
- Reused existing kitchen appliances
Other features include:
- Eze-Breeze™ screens with soft vinyl one-pane windows that slide up
- Wellborn cabinetry in a maple wood natural stain (no glaze) in the primary bathroom
The unfinished portion of the basement was converted to a functional playroom. A basement level home office and new laundry room were added under the kitchen addition.
Challenges
The first-floor interior walls needed to be removed to create an open space, which contained supply ducting for the second-floor bedrooms above. The supply ducts in the basement next to the washer went up through the closet on the main level and up to the second story.
We creatively rerouted the existing air supply ducts across the home in order to maintain proper air flow and maximize the size of the shower in the new primary bathroom.
In order to create a playroom in the unfinished basement, we relocated the washer and dryer into the new addition.
To keep costs down, we looked for a way to preserve the existing plumbing connection. The sanitary lines were creatively rerouted for the new laundry room to connect under the existing wet bar. This allowed us to avoid disturbing the existing basement bathroom where the plumbing stack is located.
Finally, an existing bedroom egress window needed to be preserved to meet code requirements, and the new addition roof needed enough slope to maintain warranty for the shingles. Our production team was able to adjust the roof framing and wall heights to meet both requirements.
Result
With this room addition, Schroeder Design Build was able to create all the features and amenities the homeowners wanted, and they were thrilled with the end result.