This bright and open family kitchen now stands where the former family room was. Designer Ray Wiese of Sherborn, Mass.-based The Wiese Co. was called in for a simple update, but he ended up switching around three rooms, opening up the space and adding a deck.
The original kitchen was dark and narrow and felt cut off from the family room and the outdoors.
“After getting the buy-in on moving things around, we found a way to make this family of five have all their friends over with room to spare,” said Wiese.
After moving the kitchen to the family room and the family room into the former dining room, Wiese lowered the ceilings from 14 to 12 feet to make the kitchen feel more proportional with the bigger space.
By moving the kitchen to the existing family room, he also had enough space to add the professional appliances for the hobbyist cook in the family.
“Typically, we have to rely on more ambient light from our pendants, and when clients show us inspiration photos of downlights, we look for something that will provide that ambient layer,” said Wiese. “In this design, the recessed lights are high enough to disperse more light, and the downlights reflect nicely off the white counter. We also have the dining chandelier nearby and the large pendants over the island, so the layering works well.”