Awsome *WoW* kitchen and lose "formal" dining room?

We're in the middle of designing our kitchen with the designer and are stuck on one point we keep going back and forth on. We want to make larger our kitchen but it would mean losing the formal dining room. We can still easily put a dining table but the wall where the hutch or wall unit goes with the dining table will be compromised. We thought we could simply not put upper cabinets on that wall making it look like it goes with the dining table and part of the kitchen at the same time.

Would you prefer a super WoW kitchen if it meant losing a formal dining room?

This would make one side of the kitchen extended to 17 feet rather than 9 '. The other side of the kitchen is 8.5 ft. That's where the stove will go, centred, with a wow canopy and no upper wall cabinets making it the focal point of the kitchen. 9 ft ceiling. wall cabinets will be double stacked cabinets with crown moulding to ceiling.

how many times a year do you use the formal dining room?

If the answer is less than 12, I'd say go with the kitchen + lose the formal dining room.... but no-one can make that decision for you.

Originally Posted by wyb

how many times a year do you use the formal dining room?

If the answer is less than 12, I'd say go with the kitchen + lose the formal dining room.... but no-one can make that decision for you.

We always use the dining table but never cared for the wall unit. Wondering if people will sit and look around and say "huh, where's the wall unit?"

I guess it was more of a question on what you guys would prefer and if whether or not it would hurt resale.

Mortgage is almost paid off so I doubt we'll be selling, but still something to consider "just in case".

You mean that buffet base and the hutch top? That is SOOOO 1970...

Do what YOU want to have, not what you think the resale value would be. You're going to live there for some years, don't you? Enjoy it. Go with your preference and you might find out that the future potential buyer's wife is thinking just like you.

We had this same discussion when we gutted our current home. We are people who would never not ever use a formal setting. In fact, we did not choose china or silver or any of that crap for wedding registries.

This is a view from the formal dining room into the eat-in kitchen at purchase:



Here is the space looking at the entry to the kitchen from the den/great room.



And this is after we tore through the support walls and installed beams above (and about a week before our daughter came VERY early):



This is the new island a couple months later after we'd rushed two 12 hour crews to make the space livable:



And this is the same view as above from the great room:



I don't know if you (or anyone) considers what we ended up with a 'wow' kitchen, but after 9 years here, we still like it and use it a lot when entertaining. The thing most people say when they see it for the first time is 'its so open!' No one expects for a 45 yr old place to be this way.

Take lots of pics!

PH your kitchen looks awsome. That's a big transformation not to mention a huge improvement. I like how the white cabinets really open up the space and brings more life.
What's the height of your ceiling and height of the wall cabinets?

I decided to give up the formal dining and to extend the kitchen because in the CAD drawing it looked very good.

The only issue at mind right now is the newly installed engineered hardwood flooring. Apparently they are not so scratch resistant. The last thing anyone would want is to have a scratched up floor in an upscale kitchen. I've entertained the thought of ripping it all out and putting tiles but I don't want to break up the uniform look throughout.

Originally Posted by MatWiz

You mean that buffet base and the hutch top? That is SOOOO 1970...

I can't remember where I read it recently, but that's exactly what was said as well.

In my last house I only used the buffet base and kept the hutch top in storage. When I moved last year I sold the base and hutch and kept just the table and chairs of the dining room set. My new house has a large butler's panty, so the storage provided by the hutch/base wasn't needed.

As to if you need a formal dining room I think you'd need to consider how large a table you can get in your kitchen (vs. dining room). Do you entertain and need seating for a large groups that you can't do in your eat in kitchen?

Originally Posted by mj745

PH your kitchen looks awsome. That's a big transformation not to mention a huge improvement. I like how the white cabinets really open up the space and brings more life.
What's the height of your ceiling and height of the wall cabinets?

I decided to give up the formal dining and to extend the kitchen because in the CAD drawing it looked very good.

The only issue at mind right now is the newly installed engineered hardwood flooring. Apparently they are not so scratch resistant. The last thing anyone would want is to have a scratched up floor in an upscale kitchen. I've entertained the thought of ripping it all out and putting tiles but I don't want to break up the uniform look throughout.

That's the cool thing. When we added the real hardwood, it took 1 1/2" off the 8' ceilings. The place could have felt very 'short' were it not for the newly open floor plan. Since then, we installed new windows and shutters last year. When we did that, I wanted a way to 'raise' the low ceilings. A creative use of trim and glossy paint is a great way to do that!

Of course, I have in mind a similar trick with crown molding around the whole house. That'll come one day... along with freshly painted ceilings... and hardwood in the back bedroom... and shower room remodels... and this and that..

Here's the kitchen window trim. Not the best place to show, now the same angle as before but my two "herr-icanes" have made an absolute mess of the place. Stuff is all over the counter. So this is the best I have.



This is the great room window trim. This also shows the work we did on the media center and fireplace a few years ago. This is where I think the right crown will make a huge difference:



And this is the new and improved sun room with the trim feature. Not totally necessary here as the room is sunken by ab 4" from the rest of the house. Also, these brand new doors are getting replaced with the new fort knox like security doors. I like this look a lot, but it's terribly easy to.. well.. kick in.



As for the floors, our hardwood has weathered nine years of entertaining, kids, spills, a washer overflow/flood, and now a dog. The (big) dog's nails do cause scratches in the clear polyurethane, but they look similar in depth to swirl marks on a car's paint. And you can only see them in the right light.

My thoughts for a kitchen floor- or any floor, really. Is that it won't be the focal point of a given room. It should add to it without taking away from the room. I guess what I am suggesting is that scratches are going to happen. Just be ok with it if you like the flow of the house and the floor you have. I use the imperfections as a memory of good times, running around the house.. or that time we dropped an entire turkey on the floor... It's all good.

Love the crown moulding and it's height. Entrance to the swimming looks very grand and demands attention. You didn't like the idea of adding crown moulding to your kitchen cabinets?
Those look like 5" recessed lighting in your kitchen and at what distance do you have them from the wall cabinets? Any issues with casting shadow over countertop?

Originally Posted by mj745

Love the crown moulding and it's height. Entrance to the swimming looks very grand and demands attention. You didn't like the idea of adding crown moulding to your kitchen cabinets?
Those look like 5" recessed lighting in your kitchen and at what distance do you have them from the wall cabinets? Any issues with casting shadow over countertop?

in order to add crown to the cabinets, we would have had to order shorter cabinets or reduce the work space underneath to the counter. Being a practical set, we preferred function over form.

The lights offer the room plenty of light. We also have under cabinet lights that provide lots of light when not dimmed for 'effect.' Also key here is that we did not want a giant vent-a-hood hanging down over the cook top. We instead cut the concrete and installed a retractable one.
(in the pics with studs where the walls were, you can see a trough for the exhaust)

We wanted to bring the outside to the inside and for the sunroom to be the 'bridge' between the two spaces. That's another reason we chose a natural slate product. It feels rustic and natural like the outside and you can 'feel' the outside with the large windows. The steps outside the doors span the entire wall and have the same stone as our hearth and around the steps of the pool. We used the same stone in the re-done/face lifted entrance. It is obvious to most that major work has been done bc this is not a 45 yr old space, but through each project over the years, we wanted the certainty of WHEN the work was done to be in question. We've accomplished the consistency throughout the years. Excepting a garage that would make your teeth hurt, I think we're done with the working spaces of the home for a few years.

Now to the bathrooms...