Galley Kitchen Makeover – One Room Challenge Week 1

After living in our home for a year, we’ve learned what works and doesn’t work for our family in the dated galley style kitchen. This home was built in the 1940s and went through a significant remodel in the 1990s. Fast forward 30 years to the real estate listing pictures of the kitchen when we purchased the home in 2020.

This view is looking out towards the dining room. The entrance to the basement is on the left.

This is the opposite end of the galley. The entrance to the living room is on the right.

The wide angle lens makes the space look much bigger and brighter than the kitchen really is (notice the lights are on in the middle of the day). In actuality it is narrow and dark and feels small with less than 200 s.f. of space and a 7 ft 2 in ceiling height.

As we experienced the kitchen through our day to day living, I started a list of things to make it a more workable galley kitchen.

1. Vault the ceiling to visually enlarge the space
2. Add skylights to bathe the room in natural light
3. Relocate the entrance to the basement from the kitchen to the dining room (thru an existing closet) to allow for more cabinetry
4. Replace the tile flooring (it has almost as many broken tiles as it had good ones!)
5. Eliminate most of the upper cabinets to visually widen the space
6. Paint and reface the lower cabinets and add a few new specialty cabinets
7. Replace the cracked and stained countertops
8. Replace the barely functioning appliances and rearrange them as needed
9. Widen the entrance between the kitchen and the dining room
10. Update all lighting
11. Give the space a casual yet classic coastal vibe

While most galley renos I’ve seen on Pinterest involve opening up a wall (and thereby eliminating the galley), our kitchen butts up against a stairwell so this constrains us from taking down a wall. We will however be closing off the basement entrance and widening the opening to the dining room. The refrigerator will move to the opposite side of the room where the basement opening was.

The most dramatic change will be raising the ceiling height to about 11 feet at the highest point and adding skylights. Here’s a rough sketch of the new elevation looking at the kitchen from one end of the galley.

Mr.HomeSpunStyle and I love to diy, but this time we are hiring some professionals because 1) the vaulted ceiling requires structural changes beyond our expertise, 2) we are living In the house and need to get the shell of the room opened up and closed back in quickly and 3) we’ve made a considerable investment in this house and frankly don’t want to screw it up! We also need to bring in a hvac contractor to replace and move the air conditioning system so that the ceiling can be vaulted. (Presently, the a/c unit sits directly above the kitchen ceiling.)

We actually began preliminary work on this reno back in the fall, realizing that there would be long lead times for materials and contractor shortages. For the first time ever I consulted with a real interior designer! I booked a mini consult with Moose Designs. Katherine’s expertise in space planning, materials, and sources was invaluable. She was just what we needed to give us the confidence to move forward with this reno!

So here are some of the images from which I’m drawing inspiration for our new coastal cottage galley kitchen:

Finally, here’s the design board I put together for the space – casual yet classic coastal, with a bit of of the “English cottage” look I love via brass finishes and mini prints, plants and texture.

Be sure to follow Home Spun Style on Instagram for sneak peaks of our progress. And stop back here on my blog for weekly updates where I’ll be sharing the design process and budget and time saving tips and tricks.

And you can check out the design plans of the other guest designers on the One Room Challenge Blog.

Thanks for following along! 

Debra