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Here's the 70s-era kitchen that we inherited when purchasing our house.
What would you do with it?
Jason
We were lucky with the lights @mikedoeslife. We bought them at a market before we had started the renovation and just hoped they would work - particularly the colour. They seemed like a bargain at the time, and we've since had people say they think they are French glass and valuable.
Jason
I had an epiphany when I saw u took down the laundry adjoining the kitchen to open it up and then popped the laundry behind the bifold doors. I've been seeing that done more and more lately and it always seems to work. My own renovation has been stumped for some time over a space issue putting in a second bathroom because I am continually trying to preserve the laundry room space - every single inch! why I don't know. - head thing I guess)
My question is ........ How much space was sacrificed in the old laundry........ and how much space do you have behind the bifold doors.....? Is there some cupboards at the top? Just the best idea and solves most of my imagined issues with respect to gathering up wasted space.
Thanks again for Sharing
Thanks for joining in the discussion @Kingstons1000. And a big welcome to Workshop. It's great to have you as part of the community.
The old laundry was a decent sized room. My guess is something like 3 x 5m. The European-style laundry that we installed behind the bifolds has been more than sufficient. On the left hand side we have a washing machine with a dryer hanging above it. Then we have a benchtop with a sink that has a cupboard and a laundry hamper. There are open shelves above and a single drying rack. On the right we have a broom cupboard with more shelving above. You can see most of it in the picture below, except the broom cupboard which is behind the bifolds.
So we got to keep plenty of storage and open up the area - it was certainly the right choice for us. The biggest sacrifice was losing somewhere to store clothes horses for drying clothes (we do that in the study). You also ideally want a reasonably quiet washing machine. Ours is a little noisy on the final spin cycle!
Good luck with your project. It would be great to hear more about your plans.
Jason
Hi @bec1,
Thanks for your message and welcome to the Workshop community. It's lovely to have you join us. I hope you find plenty of information, advice and inspiration here from other community members.
We didn't have to replace a load bearing wall in the reno. The family room had been added to the existing house in the 1980s. We only knocked down an internal wall which was not load bearing.
But our engineer did recommend two timber beams to support the flat roof, which you can see divide the kitchen from the family room. I remember our builder thought it was overkill at the time but we were happy to be conservative. We did have the option of going with steel which would have been less obtrusive but obviously higher cost, but we liked the idea of separating the two rooms a little with the beams as it's a reasonably large space, particularly in relation to the rest of the house.
As Chris suggests, if you're interested in doing something similar it might be best to start a new discussion with as much detail as possible so that others can assist. You would probably get a better idea about costs from that as our project was a decade ago.
Thanks again for joining us, and for your interest.
Jason
Well, you've come to the right place for starters @Sainimili. The Workshop community will be happy to start you on your journey and give you plenty of inspiration and assistance along the way.
Perhaps you could start by hitting the Start a discussion button, sharing some photos of your current kitchen so that members can see what kind of a space you have to work with, and letting us know some of your requirements for the renovation, including budget.
Welcome to the community,
Jason
