True to form, we’ve been juggling a lot lately. After refreshing the blog design (and tracking down why the header disappeared for some readers), we’ve been slowly working through a $6 cabinet makeover that still needs a bit more painting and trim before we can share finished photos. Alongside that project we’ve squeezed in yard work, a small bedroom update, and early brainstorming for the next kitchen phase. This post is a quick brain dump of where our thinking is at the moment.
We’re still saving for larger items like new appliances to begin the next step of our gradual kitchen overhaul. In the past we’ve updated the fireplace and added wood paneling, and now we’re waiting until the budget allows for a new wall oven and a microwave that match the vision (no more bisque or black). While we save, we met with an old friend and professional to gather ideas for the kitchen layout: Nancy Kulik, the certified kitchen designer who helped us plan our first kitchen makeover through Home Depot years ago.
Nancy was invaluable during that first renovation, not so much for style suggestions (we already knew we wanted white cabinets and light counters) but for space planning. She understands how kitchens are used and where appliances and work zones should go to maximize function. Her advice helped us place the dishwasher, relocate the refrigerator, and build in the microwave in ways that made the space far more useful. Lesson learned: pros can offer perspective that’s worth taking, especially when their guidance is free or low-cost.
We stayed in touch with Nancy since that reno, and when she offered to review a current floor plan and some photos of this house’s kitchen, we gladly accepted. Keeping relationships with knowledgeable people pays off: she spotted a key issue in our older whole-house floor plan that we’d missed. The fireplace in the room is actually much closer to the corner than our initial drawing showed, which changes how a potential island could be placed without blocking the nearby doorway.
Our original idea had been to replace the small dining table in the eat-in kitchen with a built-in island, partly to avoid lining two tables up between the kitchen and dining room when we eventually open a large doorway between the spaces. We imagined a big round dining table in the dining room and a smaller island near the fireplace. But because the fireplace sits off-center and nearly kisses the door to the hall, a centered island would block circulation or feel awkward.
Nancy proposed an alternative we wouldn’t have considered on our own: a floating L-shaped banquette that faces the fireplace and the framed wall. At first we both reacted skeptically, but the idea grew on us as she explained it. The banquette would essentially be a cozy nook that responds to the fireplace’s off-center position in a way an island cannot. It would create a comfortable dining area, align visually with the flow of the room, and provide built-in storage behind the seating—similar to the storage function an island would offer, but arranged to suit the fireplace’s placement.
To test the idea we taped Nancy’s layout on the floor. The concept uses two L-shapes: the smaller inner L is the bench seating that faces the fireplace and frame wall, while the larger outer L is built-in cabinetry wrapping behind the bench. This configuration creates a nested nook that looks finished from all sides and gives concealed, island-like storage accessible from the back. Matching the tops of the banquette and cabinetry to the height of existing base cabinets would keep the look cohesive and maintain an open flow through a widened doorway to the dining room.
We tried sitting at the taped “banquette” to get a feel for scale. The table in that space would likely be a pedestal style (square, oval, or round) to maximize legroom. We’ll also need to move the lighting on that side of the room regardless of whether we build an island or a banquette, so centering the light over the table—rather than the seating—makes the most sense.
Admittedly, seeing taped outlines on the floor isn’t the same as visualizing the finished result, and we expect many readers will be skeptical. Still, the banquette idea makes more sense in person than many of the island shapes we tried over the last eight months. It resolves the off-centered fireplace in a balanced way and creates a cozy, functional nook that could be more useful than a small island in this particular footprint.
Other future updates we’d like to make include painting the cabinets white, selling our mismatched appliances and upgrading to stainless steel, redoing the backsplash for a lighter look while keeping the existing granite counters, and replacing the fluorescent lights and the large ceiling fan. Flooring is another question: hardwood may run under part of the kitchen, but it’s unclear whether it covers the whole room and whether the existing joists can support stone or tile. We’ve considered lightweight options like cork or vinyl alternatives, but no final decisions have been made.
For now, the taped banquette is staying on the floor as a possibility. We may build a mockup or do photoshopped visuals to better imagine the finished layout, since many inspiration photos don’t show the back of banquettes the way we need to see them. No matter what we choose, we’ll keep testing ideas until something feels right. In the meantime, we’re heading back to the bedroom project and the office cabinet update—DIY life keeps us delightfully scattered, and that’s probably not changing anytime soon.