Kitchen Remodeling in Berea, Ohio

The kitchens we see in Berea homes

Berea kitchens are usually smaller than the outside of the house suggests. Close to Front Street and on the streets around Baldwin Wallace, the kitchen tends to be a closed room at the back with a doorway to a separate dining room and a second door out to the driveway. That puts two traffic paths straight through a room that already has limited wall space.

Further out toward Sheldon Road the rooms open up, but the layout still leans on one long run of counter with the sink under a window. Storage ends up split between a few tall wall cabinets and one deep corner nobody can reach into.

A lot of the older houses drop the basement stairs right off the kitchen. That stairwell takes a whole wall, which is why so many Berea kitchens have the refrigerator parked somewhere odd with no counter beside it.

The changes that make the biggest difference

The first thing most Berea homeowners ask about is the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. Opening it, or just widening the doorway, changes how the whole ground floor feels without adding a square foot to the house.

After that it is storage. Deep drawers instead of low cabinets, a pull out beside the range, a proper pantry cabinet where a broom closet used to be. Blind corners get swapped for something you can actually reach into.

Peninsulas come up constantly. Plenty of Berea kitchens have one jutting into the room. Once the layout is redrawn it often becomes an island with seating on the far side, or it goes altogether so the path to the back door clears.

Resale matters too. Buyers walking two similar houses on the same Berea street compare the kitchens first, and matched cabinets, a solid countertop and lighting that works is usually what separates them.

What to sort out before you start

Permits for Berea go through the city building department, and anything structural, electrical or plumbing will need one. Allow time for it at the front of the project instead of finding out about it halfway through.

Work out where you will wash dishes and eat while the kitchen is out. A basement sink or a garage refrigerator is worth setting up before demolition day, not after.

Measure before you visit. Bring the length of each wall, the ceiling height, and where the windows, doors and basement stairs sit. With that on the table a designer can lay out real options in one sitting instead of guessing.

If your house sits on a stone foundation and the kitchen is above it, mention it early. Moving a sink or a range across the room in that kind of house takes more planning than it does in a newer build, and it is far easier to design around from the start.