When Sudipta Bhowmik and Dwipal Desai first reached out to architect Mona Ying Reeves, the couple were only calling about a potential bathroom remodel for their Eichler home in Palo Alto, California.

“They bought their dream bathtub,” says Reeves. “And then it showed up behind their garage. And they realized, ‘We don’t have a bathroom plan. We don’t have a contractor yet. And we need to fit this into a tiny bathroom.’”

During that initial conversation, Reeves learned that it wasn’t just a small bathroom that troubled the couple: “We realized that there were many little, modern amenities that they wished to have.” Reeves, who founded the San Mateo design firm Re:modern, worked with Sudipta and Dwipal to reconfigure the first floor of the home to eke out bigger living spaces within the existing footprint and fully embrace the indoor/outdoor vibe that Eichlers are known for.

In the original plan, the kitchen was in an odd spot, positioned in the middle of the living spaces and blocking views to the backyard on one side, and to the atrium on the other. The layout cramped the floor plan, creating a series of small rooms “which seemed to go counter to the open, indoor/outdoor feel of the home,” says Reeves. Despite floor-to-ceiling glass, the solid mass of the kitchen also prevented natural light from flowing throughout.

Before: Kitchen and Dining Room

The team took down the interior walls and swapped the location of the kitchen and dining room in order to create one fluid great room that accommodates living, dining, and cooking areas. This was done without moving any exterior walls. “To start off with such a compartmentalized house and open it up without adding square footage was quite a bit of a challenge,” says Reeves.

After: Kitchen and Dining Room

Before: Living Room

After: Living Room

Before: Hallway

After: Hallway

Another key to modernizing the home was reconfiguring the number of bathrooms on the main floor. The team forfeited a bedroom in order to enlarge the bathroom attached to the primary bedroom, create a suite for the second bedroom, and add a powder room. (The home now has six bedrooms instead of seven.) “That was really the heart of the project: how to give them bigger rooms without adding on to the house,” says Reeves.

The new plan creates two bedroom suites on the main floor. While one is a child’s room for now, the setup can be flexible in the future to accommodate visiting family and international houseguests who stay for extended periods. Now, family members can retreat to bedrooms yet come together easily in the great room; previously, “you didn’t know where you were in relation to anybody else in the house,” says Reeves.

Before: Main Bath

After: Main Bath

Fitting for a midcentury remodel, cheerful colors now accentuate much of the main floor. “[The homeowners] were drawn to really deep and saturated colors, and also midcentury classic colors,” says Reeves, pointing to the cobalt blue in the kitchen, the sunny yellow in the main bath, and midcentury mint in the kids’ bath. “There [are] lots of moments of color now.”

Before: Kids’ Bath

After: Kids’ Bath

After: Powder Room

More Before & After:

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A Remodel Connects an Isolated Kitchen to the Rest of a Pre-War Brooklyn Apartment

A Philadelphia Architect Opens Up Her Historic Row House

Project Credits:

Architect: Re:modern (@remodern)

Builder: California Home Improvement Solutions

Structural Engineer: Rick Lennen

Interior Design: Re:modern

Custom Cabinetry Design: Woodmaster Custom Cabinetry

Other cabinetry: Ikea and Semihandmade custom doors

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