Lose a wall and gain a dream kitchen
These days, keeping a room that is solely for dining can be a waste of space
What’s standing between you and your dream kitchen? Often, it’s a wall, a relic from the days when a separate dining room was a must-have in every home.
Today, formal meals have gone the way of the rotary phone in most households, and a room solely for dining seems like a waste of precious space.
“The formal dining room was popular for a while,” said real estate agent Cassie Frick.
But most of Frick’s clients view them as so last-century. “Everybody wants the open concept. The vast majority don’t want a formal dining room anymore,” she said.
Frick included. She and her husband, Scott, recently remodelled their 1970s home in Minnetonka, near Minneapolis, extending the kitchen by eliminating an adjacent dining room.
“For us, with two kids, a formal dining room does not make sense,” Frick said.
“It was a big room, but we never went there and it was totally cut off.”
More than one-third of kitchen renovation projects now involve increasing the room’s size, according to the 2017 Houzz Kitchen Trends Study.
Open floor plans continue to rise, with 51 per cent of new kitchens more open to other rooms of the house than they were before the remodelling.
“Half the kitchens we do, we end up taking out a wall or partial wall,” said Craig Weber, architect and owner of Bridgewater Construction.
“It makes for a much more dramatic kitchen. Most people entertain in the kitchen, whether they want to or not.”
Often the unwanted wall is load-bearing, so it’s important to consult with a professional, said Max Windmiller, an architectural designer with Windmiller Design Studio.
He advised Frick during her project and also brought in a structural engineer.
“She knew what she wanted, but she wanted to make sure it would be possible,” Windmiller said.
“You have to figure out how to transfer that load. It’s a structural challenge.”
Bungalows from the 1950s and ’60s are good candidates for wall removal, said Weber. “The floor plans are pretty flexible.”
Wall removal can be more complicated in a split-level or older two-storey home, but just about anything is possible. “We’ve taken walls out of homes from pretty much any era,” Weber said.
The results are worth it, said Steve Ribnick, who recently hired Weber to remodel his family’s 1978 two-storey.
Ribnick and his wife considered a cosmetic face-lift for their kitchen, but ultimately chose to remove the wall between the living room and family room to create an open floor plan with a casual dining area.
Their formal dining room is now a music room and playroom.
“Best decision we made,” Ribnick said of losing the wall. “We use all of our house now.”