Jenny Wolf Interiors
UPDATE October 2016 This post shares the before photos of our kitchen and our initial design thoughts when we first moved in. We are currently remodeling, so scroll through my newer posts to follow the progress.
Greetings, friends! I hope you’re having a good week.
If you’re new here or catching up, you might be surprised to learn we moved from the house we lived in for six years—the one featured in my latest book. Leaving it was hard because we loved so much about that home. Even after only a couple of months away, we miss many things about it.
Turning the page to a new house is bittersweet, but it’s also exciting. Even if a home isn’t your dream house from day one, there’s always potential. With a little vision and effort a space can evolve into something you love. I’m excited about this new chapter and grateful you’re following along.
Today I want to talk about the galley kitchen in our 1950s ranch. It’s small and ready for updates. Many readers love dreaming about kitchens, and this room is the one I’m most passionate about working on.
I’ll share before photos and inspiration, with the caveat that inspiration images aren’t exact matches for our layout, size, or finishes. They help us visualize possibilities and narrow our ideas.
I’ve had small kitchens before, so even though this one is compact, I’m excited to design it. Small kitchens can be the most rewarding to plan well. I loved the colors and choices in my old kitchen, but it served its purpose for years and now I’m ready for a new challenge.
I mentioned a project in this kitchen when I shared about a Dutch door. Our house has a cottage personality and wants to be refreshed rather than preserved as a time capsule. That suits me—my style leans toward eclectic modern cottage—so we’ll be sympathetic to the home’s character while updating it thoughtfully.
Even though the kitchen is small, it merits careful planning. You don’t want to slap one together and hope it turns out. I want to create a kitchen my family enjoys and that future owners will appreciate.
To keep this manageable, I’ll show ideas one side of the room at a time. We’ve already covered the Dutch door; now let’s look at the view side of the kitchen. I still can’t believe this house has a view of Puget Sound—what an unexpected gift.
The large window overlooks the backyard, water, and expansive skies, bringing light and a sense of openness to the galley layout. That corner window makes the space feel larger, but it also reduces available wall space. Below the window is a counter that sits lower than the rest of the kitchen counters because of the window placement. While the window aligns with other windows across the back of the house, the counter height is noticeably lower.
That lower counter functions more like a desk—too low to comfortably use for food prep unless you sit. After living here for a couple of months we’ve learned that area becomes a clutter magnet: dog food, recycling, random items—everything accumulates there. In our previous house we removed a breakfast bar because it had turned into the same kind of catchall.
The decision about this corner space comes down to function and aesthetics. Do we retain the lower counter but redesign it with organized storage below so clutter is hidden? Do we replace it with a bench seat with drawers beneath? Or should we remove it entirely? It’s not wide enough for a table, and we don’t need another eating surface because the dining table sits just outside the kitchen door.
We will remove the small wall cabinet to the left and replace it with a more useful built-in cabinet or counter for the microwave, which is currently improvised on a chair. Walls will be painted, floors updated, and lighting, cabinets, and counters modernized. Appliance decisions will come in a future post.
Whatever we choose for the corner under the window will be visible from the dining room, so it needs to look tidy and intentional. Counter space in a galley kitchen is valuable, but I don’t want another clutter magnet. So far we haven’t used that lower counter for prep; it’s simply an awkward surface because of its height.
Jenny Wolf Interiors
Ultimately, the right choice will come from living in the space and understanding how we use it. I’m glad we haven’t rushed decisions in the eight weeks we’ve lived here because our ideas have already evolved. We’re narrowing in on a direction that feels right, and that’s energizing as we make this house our home.
I’ll share more about the kitchen in another post, and next I’ll return to the dining room to reveal the idea I’ve been shaping.
UPDATE 2016 Check my newer posts for the latest updates to this house.