Topping Road

This ranch had the layout ranches often do. The basement stairwell sat between the kitchen and the front of the home, and a wall closed the family room off from everything else, so the main floor worked as a series of separate rooms rather than a whole.

Removing those walls changed the way the house reads. The basement stairwell was opened up rather than closed in, which kept the circulation while letting light and sight-lines carry across the floor. The kitchen was redesigned around the new openness.

The front section of the home, previously cut off, became a mudroom, laundry, and office space that now sits visually open to the kitchen. What had been the most disconnected part of the house is now one of the most used.