Kitchen Remodeling in Eastlake, Ohio

What we see in Eastlake kitchens

Most of the Eastlake kitchens we plan sit in ranches and split levels on the streets running north and south off Vine Street. The kitchen is usually a rectangle against an outside wall with one window over the sink and a doorway at each end. Those doorways break up the counter runs, so there is rarely a stretch long enough to actually work on.

Closer to the lake, north of Lakeshore Boulevard, the lots get narrower and the houses have been added onto over the years. That is why the kitchen often ends up as the smallest room in a house with plenty of space everywhere else. The addition went on the back, and the kitchen stayed where it was.

In a lot of these homes the overflow pantry has drifted down to the basement, along with the second refrigerator. Pulling that storage back up to the kitchen is one of the first things we plan for, because it changes how the room feels more than any finish does.

The changes that make the biggest difference

The most common change in an Eastlake split level is taking down the short wall between the kitchen and the dining room. It is usually not load bearing, and removing it turns two cramped rooms into one that a family can sit in. We check the framing before we promise anything.

Storage is the second change. Full height pantry cabinets, deep drawers instead of low shelves, and cabinets carried up to the ceiling recover a surprising amount of room in a small kitchen. Corner cabinets get sorted out properly rather than left as a dead hole.

In narrow kitchens a peninsula almost always beats a full island. It gives you the extra work surface and a place to eat without cutting the walkway down to nothing. We lay out the traffic path first, then decide what fits.

On resale, Eastlake homes are compared against listings in Willowick, Willoughby and Mentor. A kitchen with real storage and a clean layout is what moves a house in that group, and it does not take a luxury budget to get there.

Before the work starts

If your job moves plumbing, electric or a wall, the city will want a permit. We handle that paperwork as part of the design work so you are not making phone calls between jobs.

Plan where the kitchen will live while the work happens. Most Eastlake homes have a dry basement or an attached garage, and setting up the microwave, kettle and coffee down there makes the whole thing easier on everyone.

Driveways on the older streets near the lake are narrow, so we talk about delivery access and where the crew parks before the first truck shows up. In winter that matters more, since lake effect snow off Lake Erie can close a driveway overnight.

Bring your appliance sizes with you. If you already own the range or you are planning a counter depth refrigerator, that decides cabinet widths, and it is far cheaper to know it at the design table than after the boxes are built.