Kitchen Remodeling in Beachwood, Ohio

What we see in Beachwood kitchens

Most single family homes in Beachwood sit on wide lots with room the builder spent on bedrooms and a formal dining room rather than the kitchen. The result is a kitchen that is a decent size on paper but walled off from the family room, with a doorway you have to walk around every time you carry a tray.

The second pattern we run into is storage that stops short. Wall cabinets end at a soffit, so the last twelve to eighteen inches of wall does nothing. Corners get eaten by lazy susans that only hold half of what they should. There is often a built in desk nook that has been a mail pile for years.

Condo and townhome kitchens closer to Chagrin Boulevard are a different job. Plumbing stacks and vents are fixed, and the room is usually a galley with one window at the end. Those kitchens get better through cabinet depth, drawer layout and lighting rather than moving walls.

The changes that actually move the needle

The wall between the kitchen and the family room is the first conversation. Sometimes it comes out entirely. More often we widen the opening and put a working island where the wall stood, which gives you seating on one side and drawers on the other.

Second is height. Running cabinets to the ceiling instead of stopping at a soffit adds a full row of storage for the dishes you use twice a year, and it makes the ceiling read taller. In houses with a separate formal dining room that gets used twice a year, we sometimes borrow a few feet of it for a pantry wall.

Third is the working triangle. Beachwood kitchens frequently have the refrigerator marooned at one end and the sink under a small window with no landing space beside it. Moving the run, adding a second prep sink in the island, and swapping base doors for deep drawers fixes daily annoyances that no finish choice will.

On resale, kitchens in this part of the county get compared against newer builds in Pepper Pike, Orange and Solon. A dated kitchen is the thing buyers price down hardest, so the work tends to hold its value here.

Sorting out the practical side first

Beachwood, like the rest of Cuyahoga County, requires permits once you touch plumbing, electrical or structure. Confirm current requirements with the Beachwood building department before you commit to a layout, because a permit question can quietly change where a sink is allowed to go. We work to those requirements as part of the drawing.

If you are in a condo or townhome, check the association rules early. Many set work hours, restrict which entrance a crew can use, and want a written approval before anything starts. That approval is usually the longest lead item in the whole project, and it costs nothing to start it now.

Plan for living without the room. A folding table, the microwave and the coffee maker set up in the dining room or the lower level is enough for most families. Clear a path from your driveway to the kitchen for delivery, and think about where the old cabinets go on their way out.

Bring decisions in order when you come to the showroom: layout first, then door style and finish, then countertops, then hardware. Deciding on a handle before you know where the drawers are is the most common way people stall out. Our designers will walk that order with you in one sitting.