Kitchen Remodeling in Solon, Ohio

The kitchens we see in Solon

Most Solon kitchens are large by Northeast Ohio standards. The problem is almost never square footage. It is that the square footage got divided up by a builder who put a desk nook where a pantry belonged, and a walk in pantry deep enough to lose a bag of flour in.

Homes on the streets running off Liberty Road, Pettibone Road and Aurora Road tend to share a plan. The kitchen opens to a family room, sits closed off from the formal dining room, and leans on a peninsula that is doing the job an island should do. In a lot of these houses the cabinetry is still the cabinetry that came with the house. Doors hang crooked, drawer boxes are stapled together, and a soffit eats the space between the uppers and the ceiling.

The other common Solon situation is the condo and cluster home kitchen. The footprint is tight, there is one window, and every wall has to earn its place. Those get a different approach: fewer but taller cabinets, drawers instead of doors below the counter, and lighting that does not rely on one ceiling fixture.

What actually changes

Storage comes first. Deep drawers replace base cabinets with doors, because you can see what is in a drawer without kneeling on the floor. The soffit comes out and the wall cabinets run to the ceiling, which usually returns a full extra shelf on every run.

Flow comes second. When a wall separates the kitchen from the dining room, we look at whether taking it out solves the traffic problem or just makes the room louder. Not every wall should come down, and we will say so.

Then the island. Solon rooms often have space for a proper island but were built with a peninsula stuck to a wall. A correctly sized island changes where people stand, keeps the cook out of a dead end, and gives you seating that people actually use.

Resale is a fair reason to remodel here. Buyers shopping Solon are usually comparing several similar houses in the same district on the same weekend, and the kitchen is where they make up their minds. A room that looks builder standard blends in. A room planned around its own dimensions does not.

Before you start

Measure the room and photograph all four walls, including the ceiling line and any soffit. Bring that to the showroom. A designer can work from it in one sitting, and you will get further than any phone call would take you.

Solon requires permits for work that moves plumbing, electrical or structure, and the city inspects it. We handle that side and the scheduling around it, so you are not learning the process on your own house.

Plan for a kitchen you cannot use while the work runs. Most Solon families set up a temporary counter in the dining room or the basement with the fridge, the coffee maker and the microwave. Do it properly on day one rather than improvising in week two.

Decide early what stays. Appliances, a floor still in good shape, sometimes the existing plumbing wall. Each of those choices changes the drawing, and they are far easier to make before the cabinetry is laid out than after.