Kitchen Remodeling in Akron, Ohio

Akron houses were mostly laid out with the kitchen as a work room at the back, closed off from the dining room and often from the yard as well. That is the single most common thing we are asked to change. Opening the wall between the kitchen and the dining room changes how the whole ground floor feels.

Room sizes vary a lot by part of town. Homes in Wallhaven and Northwest Akron tend to have a larger footprint with a proper dining room next door, so an opening between the two rooms is straightforward. In Firestone Park, Kenmore and Ellet the kitchens are tighter, and the gain usually comes from full height cabinets and a longer run of counter rather than from taking anything down.

Older Akron kitchens also tend to have the basement door, the back door and a radiator all competing for the same wall. We work those in at the start, because they decide where the sink and the range can realistically go.

Storage is the first fix. Most Akron kitchens we walk into have a soffit above the wall cabinets and a foot of dead space above that. Running the cabinets to the ceiling gives back a full shelf of usable storage in a room that never had enough of it.

Flow is the second. A galley kitchen with a doorway at each end means people walk through your prep space all evening. Moving the sink to the window wall and putting the range on the opposite run keeps traffic out of the middle of the room.

Then there is the island question. Not every Akron kitchen has room for one, and a cramped island is worse than no island at all. If the floor leaves you less than about three feet of clearance on the working sides, a peninsula off the existing wall does the same job without the pinch points.

On resale, buyers looking around Highland Square or Merriman Valley walk through a lot of houses in one weekend. A kitchen with matching doors, solid counters and no gaps at the ceiling reads as finished, and that is often what separates two similar listings.

Start with measurements, not with door styles. Bring the room dimensions, a photo of each wall and a note of where the windows, radiators and doorways sit. A designer can draw a workable Akron kitchen layout from that in one sitting.

City of Akron permits come into it once you move plumbing or electric, or take out anything structural. A straight cabinet and countertop replacement inside the same footprint usually does not need one. We tell you which side of that line your project falls on before anything is agreed.

Plan for the kitchen being out of use while the work runs. Most Akron homeowners set up a microwave and a kettle in the dining room and use the basement sink for the duration. It is worth sorting out before day one rather than working it out on the morning the old cabinets come out.