Project Overview

This was a major home interior remodel in which we had to remove two adjoining bearing walls to open up the large great room area just off the kitchen. This home is now ready for lots of entertaining that this client does. The backyard and patio are now an accessible part of this area after adding the large sliding glass doors you see in the photos. The kitchen is fully equipped with all the features to open up dead corners and get the most out of the cabinets and countertops.

The clients wanted the simple classic style and look of painted cabinets, and like the majority of my clients who originally requested that look, as you will see in my portfolio, when I showed them samples of white raised panel thermofoil doors and explained how easy they are to keep clean, how they last many years longer than a painted door, and how much less expensive they are, they selected the thermofoil. Unlike most other kitchen fabricators, I do not limit the molding options for a thermofoil cabinet project like this to only thermofoil light valence or crown moldings, since they are very limited in size, shape, and color. When I say these doors look like painted doors, I am not exaggerating. What I have always done with solid color thermofoil’s like this is offer all the same molding that we use on real wood projects, and simply paint the wood to match the thermofoil. This has always given my thermofoil projects much greater depth and detail than other manufactures, who do not seem as capable of thinking outside the box and mixing materials to create unique and stunning detailed overall looks that can be shaped to any style, by the use of appropriate detailed moldings. Classic, Mission, Craftsmen, Art Deco, and most other styles are not defined as much by the actual door style used as they are by the choice of how to accent the doors with accompanying crown, casing, or light valence molding that create the overall style.

We put in a double-duty baking area and wet bar between the kitchen and great room, and also opened the wall between the great room and dining room, keeping the counters and storage below to offer a clear line of sight between the two rooms as well as the view to the ocean beyond the dining room window and southwest-facing dining room walls.

Notice the placement of the recessed down lights over the counter tops as you look around the kitchen, they are not in the typical brain-dead architectural geometric pattern seen in most magazines. These kitchen lights are placed where they are needed over work spaces, in front of cabinets so the cabinets are highlighted and you are not standing and working in your own shadow like you would if the lights were behind you in a geometric pattern in the ceiling. We also supplemented the lighting with under cabinet florescent lights.

The outdoor kitchen was there when we started, but the client had a major issue with it: the wall behind it and the eave above it was always filthy with soot and grease from the BBQ. We built the custom hood and faced the wall with tile behind the BBQ and below the hood to create a better looking and cleaner area. Function does affect beauty! Things that function well stay cleaner and last longer.

The fireplace was completely stripped and refaced with more modern tile and bookshelves adjoining it. We also fed and mounted the TV cables above the fireplace.

The bathrooms were upgraded with the same materials we used in the kitchen. The hall bath is done in a more classical European style I started my functional baths with years ago, with pantry-style cabinets flanking the sinks and indirect lighting above and below those cabinets. The master bath’s cabinets are more traditionally done. The master bath also included changing a swinging door between the sink area and the toilet/shower area to a pocket door so the door wouldn’t take up floor space. The new custom master shower is a walk-in, no door needed — the glass block partition is plenty to keep water inside the shower. We added a good shower seat and grab bar.

The only thing that would be needed to update this remodel to today’s standards would be changing all the halogen recessed ceiling lights to new LED lights, and do the same LED change out for the fluorescent undercabinet and over cabinet lighting.  The kitchen