How do we create better flow in a home’s layout?
Here is a lovely stone house with origins in the great home-building boom of the early 1920’s. Like many of these older houses, its charm is timeless–but its floorplan, not so much. We live and entertain differently now. In this case, the homeowners wanted a more spacious and inviting kitchen to spend time in, with a more open connection between the kitchen and dining room.
The existing kitchen had of course been renovated before, but its location felt enclosed and isolated from the rest of the house. It was separated from the dining room by a narrow butler’s pantry with a swinging door and flanked by a mudroom that led to a small breakfast room.
We removed the partitions that defined those smaller spaces. This gave the house a bigger kitchen with a large opening that creates better flow and a clear view to the dining room. Built-in cabinetry makes up for the loss of the enclosed butler’s pantry. A new, small addition open to the kitchen provides a comfortable casual gathering spot for the family. At the far end of the old kitchen space, we created a covered entryway to a new mudroom that leads to the newly renovated rear porch.
Sometimes opening up the kitchen isn’t the whole answer to creating flow, especially for even older estate homes like this one, also in Chestnut Hill. Then we take a whole-house approach to create a home that satisfies the needs of contemporary families while keeping the charm and appeal of the original structure.
