President Reagan famously said “Tear down that wall!” When reconfiguring spaces in client’s homes, we often concur. Many older homes were built during a time when heating, cooling and window technologies were not particularly efficient. Smaller, dark rooms were the norm, but that’s not how people want to live in 2019. 

We’ve written about open spaces but the design route to achieve that can involve tearing down a wall or partial wall to create better circulation, more natural light, and items on our clients’ wish lists ( islands, islands, islands). 

Walls, Walls Go Away

From a design point of view, tearing down a wall often makes sense for the floor plan, but then creates other challenges: for one, storage. Where do the cabinets go?  We often build in a tall cabinet or two to compensate. Or, we tear down half a wall and design lower cabinets, which allows the space to soak up the natural light from the new view across the rooms. 

Another design challenge when the wall has gone away is delineating separate areas. For this we compose a few different strategies:

• Ceiling treatments that vary from space to space, including lighting options

• See-through dividers like columns or open bookshelves

• Pocket or barn doors that can disappear when open but be closed when necessary

• Peninsulas that visually separate the kitchen from another area but are much airier than the wall it replaces

• Move the wall forwards or backwards to create the space needed

We rarely recommend taking down all the walls – as your furniture will just float around without any anchors and sometimes, you just need some private spaces.  Reconfiguring a floorplan requires good problem-solving skills as well an experienced eye. Fortunately, KitchenVisions has faced this challenge many times and successfully placed the puzzle pieces back together in a more functional, visually pleasing fashion. At least that’s what our clients have said: “KitchenVisions listened to our needs, and came up with a great design that was better than we realized was even possible for the space.”

Sometimes the solution means moving the walls around to create a better floorplan. Whether entirely removing a wall, half-wall, or moving a wall, we bring the best resources available to every project.  When we match our clients up with general contractors and builders, we are confident that they will bring in structural engineers to assess the best method of replacing the weight bearing load that the wall provided. 

Want to know more about the projects we featured in this blog post? Let’s talk about any walls you want to tear down or move.