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"   CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE KITCHEN When they bought their 1920s Tudor almost a decade ago, these West Coast homeowners (he&amp;#039;s a marketing executive, and she&amp;#039;s a writer) knew they would eventually have to embark on a renovation to fix what previous owners had tried to rework: a series of small, dark rooms\u2014kitchen, dining room, den, and a combination laundry and bathroom in the rear of the house\u2014with unfortunate flow and only limited access to the backyard. In 2005, with two young sons, the family desperately needed those rooms to better serve them as a relaxed place to hang out or enjoy casual get-togethers with friends. &amp;quot;We spoke with a number of architects,&amp;quot; says the wife. &amp;quot;Everyone offered piecemeal solutions, but no one attacked the problems more globally to achieve a more useful space.&amp;quot; Enter architect Jeff Soler, who, after taking one look at what he refers to as &amp;quot;a rabbit warren of rooms,&amp;quot; said, &amp;quot;You need to blow out the whole thing.&amp;quot; At the crux of the trouble was the kitchen, &amp;quot;a wide galley with a dysfunctional small island,&amp;quot; says Soler, &amp;quot;that merely served as an obstacle to circulation. Its location precluded opening the rear of the house to the backyard; the room lacked storage space and felt cut off from the rest of the home.&amp;quot; Implementing Soler&amp;#039;s far-reaching plan meant removing several walls in the back of the house and relocating the kitchen from the south rear corner to the heart of the home \u2014 doing away with the notion of individual-use rooms, instead creating one large, family-friendly, sun-filled space with dining, seating, desk, and play areas all centered on an open kitchen. &amp;quot;Jeff said,&amp;quot; recounts the wife, &amp;quot;that if we are going to disrupt our lives, we should do something that really addresses the problem, not just take an interim step. And he was right. Now we are very comfortable using this space. Some can be eating, others playing, reading the newspaper, or cooking, but we are all together in one spot. When we have guests, we slide open the doors to the backyard and everyone can come and go. The flow is amazing.&amp;quot; Adds Soler: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s a more comfortable kitchen, in which two or more cooks can move around freely. We added an incredible amount of functional storage that not only provides room for kitchen-related items, but allows for easy stowing of kids&amp;#039; supplies and household products.&amp;quot; For materials and finishes, architect and homeowners chose bamboo-veneer cabinetry; terrazzo-like flooring; translucent glass tiles in lemon, olive, maroon, and pale green for the backsplash and island; and &amp;quot;indestructible&amp;quot; quartz countertops. It all adds up to a muted color palette\u2014spiced with a pop of bold color from the orange pendant lights\u2014that successfully complements the homeowners&amp;#039; eclectic collection of furniture and art. Interior designer Wendy Schwartz credits the homeowner&amp;#039;s involvement in the design process. &amp;quot;She really enjoys the hunt, and the idea of salvaging something undiscovered and then redoing it to make it worth having in her home.&amp;quot; Designer and client trawled the Internet (&amp;quot;She&amp;#039;s probably better at eBay than I am,&amp;quot; says Schwartz) and scoured local stores; the designer also reworked existing pieces and mixed them with new ones. The result, says Schwartz, &amp;quot;is a space that seems to have evolved naturally, rather than being contrived or overly decorated.&amp;quot; Click here to see the resources. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elledecor.com/home-remodeling-renovating/home-makeovers/a1371/one-fell-swoop-48349/>