The kitchen island, with granite countertops and custom cabinetry, has seating for five.
"We do lots of meals just there at the island," Kelly says. "It's nice. You feel like a short-order cook."
Photos courtesy of NJW Construction
Sometimes, a kitchen update can be as much about subtraction as about addition.
Take the Donegal Cliffs home of Kelly and Bill Megahan. Their new kitchen, courtesy of NJW Construction, has, among other things, a big new kitchen island, a new breakfast area and a plethora of new kitchen cabinetry.
What doesn’t it have? For starters, a design that makes the kids more likely to be underfoot, and a wall blocking the view of the family room.
The family has lived in the house since 2002. The motivation behind the remodel was a simple matter of evolving needs. As the Megahans’ three children – ages 16, 12 and 8 – have gotten older, they’ve found themselves in need of far more space and amenities. And the couple didn’t want to move.
“We liked the schools, and we knew we wanted to feed into (Dublin) Coffman (High School),” says Kelly. “There really wasn’t any new housing development that fed into Coffman at the time, (so) we just decided that we would remodel our house.”
On top of that, there was wear and tear – cabinet doors coming apart, etc. And there were too many blind spots.
“You couldn’t see the family room from the kitchen, you couldn’t get a good view of the back yard from the kitchen or the family room,” Kelly says.
To that end, the Megahans worked with NJW to remove the wall separating the kitchen from the family room, and also extended the kitchen eating area.
Though the kitchen is certainly the highlight of the work NJW did, it’s not the full extent of it. The renovation also entailed an addition that includes a brand-new mudroom and extended family room space.
Personal storage lockers in the mudroom are a godsend for organizing and dealing with clutter, Kelly says.
“The mudroom can organize (the kids’) stuff well and make morning time and school paperwork easier,” she says.
Garth Bishop is managing editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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Though the family room was not previously visible from the kitchen, large espresso-farmed doorways now connect the kitchen to the extended family room space. A brick fireplace was also removed to make room for the French doors.
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Though the family room was not previously visible from the kitchen, large espresso-farmed doorways now connect the kitchen to the extended family room space. A brick fireplace was also removed to make room for the French doors.
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One side of the island is raised, with an extra drawer allowing for more storage and a convenient place to set items that have just come out of the oven.
"It's a good landing point for different things," Kelly says.
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One side of the island is raised, with an extra drawer allowing for more storage and a convenient place to set items that have just come out of the oven.
"It's a good landing point for different things," Kelly says.
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Another addition: a built-in refrigerator and freezer. Not only do they offer more space than the Megahans had before, they're actually separated, which cuts down on kitchen congestion. A walk-in pantry provides even more storage.
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The mosaic backsplash in the kitchen grabs further attention.
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The mosaic backsplash in the kitchen grabs further attention.
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A built-in washer and dryer make the mudroom more functional and add more counter space. And it's a far cry from the previous laundry room, which connected the garage to the kitchen and was unbearably narrow.
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The Megahans' three children -- ages 16, 12 and 8 -- even have their own section of the kitchen, thanks to a kids' bar with a beverage refrigerator and pull-out trays.
"It's nice, because that's not underfoot for me when I'm in the kitchen around the oven or the big sink or the stove," Kelly says.
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Also new off the kitchen is a window-framed breakfast nook, complete with a contemporary gas fireplace.
"That's been really nice, because when you come in from the snow, or when we have soccer players come in from a cold soccer game, we can flip the switch on and instantly get warm," Kelly says.