There’s nothing quite as depressing as a large home that feels small the moment you step inside. You’ve got all this space, and yet it feels like you have barely any room to walk. How did this happen? The short answer: many older homes, or those with poor design, simply have too many unnecessary divisions. Luckily, there’s an easy solution. When you remove walls that cause unnecessary divides in your home, you can make it feel exponentially larger. Let’s take a closer look at that process.
Galley Kitchens
One feature in any house that’s sure to make it feel cramped is a galley kitchen. If your kitchen feels like a hallway with counters on either side, leading from a breakfast nook to, perhaps, the living room, you’ve got yourself a galley kitchen. These kitchens are meant to save space and be compact but, in the end, they feel unbearably cramped.
Removing the dividing wall between the galley kitchen and the rest of the house can open it up considerably. Depending on what’s behind that wall, it can be turned into a half-wall, a breakfast bar, or removed entirely. If removed entirely, the half of your kitchen that was against it can be left as is, the back of the cabinets covered in paneling or wood, or renovated entirely. This is a great opportunity to give yourself an island and move those cabinets slightly further from the others, providing more kitchen floor space.
Separate Dining and Living
Another way that houses are often unnecessarily divided is by putting a wall between the dining room and living room. While this may be suitable for a formal dining room, most of us aren’t hosting formally. Because the majority of us just use our dining room for family dinners, a dividing wall is providing nothing but a sense of encasement. Removing this wall will allow better light flow, easier conversation between dining and living spaces, and a more open appearance.
Entryway Borders
A feature in many homes that can cause a surprising amount of tightness is the presence of entryway borders. These borders usually come in the form of a wall, 1-3 feet in length, beside the front door. This wall is often between the entry and living space. Perhaps its original intention was to keep solicitors from seeing into your living space when you open the door. Regardless of its original intention, these borders do little more than cut off light and visibility.
Walled-In Stairs
Last, but certainly not least, let’s address walled-in stairways. Stairways that are walled in on both sides are incredibly stifling. Even walking up them can feel cramped and unpleasant. Fro the outside, the stairs are invisible, but so is the open space above them. Removing any unnecessary walls around stairs can really open things up.
If your stairs border an external wall, this will add some more visible space to the living area your stairs are bordering. If your stairs fall somewhere in the middle of the floor, you can even remove the walls on both sides. Replacing these walls with stair to ceiling bars or glass will allow a huge increase in light-flow and visibility, opening up the area noticeably.
