Opening Up

This past Spring, I did a kitchen renovation for a small house of 4, 2 parents 2 kids.  Since one was just out of college and the other was going into her 2nd year of college, the parents wanted a new look for their kitchen/dining room area with an opportunity to allow the light to enter the kitchen area from the dining area. Using their existing kitchen island table as inspiration to change the design, I pushed the look of the black vertical wood boards into the walls, replacing the wall paper walls with a white upper wall and the bottom black wood boards to create a country wainscoting and give the walls a warmer feel and help accentuate the deep colors of the dark wood theme of the tables and counter-tops. To also give the parents both a space for the two of them to eat when it's just them and to also open up the space so light gets into the kitchen I designed a two person bar that could be sat at on either side.  This allowed them to look towards the outside when its just them or turn towards the kitchen if they were entertaining friends.
Overall giving alternative sitting areas, opening up the divide between the kitchen and giving the area a consistent look made the area feel larger and flow from one area to another easier.