Bye-Bye, Wall! Hello, Light!

About This Project

We removed the wall between the living room and kitchen to give this owner an open, brightly-lit living space. We also removed the laminate floor and stained carpet in the kitchen, living room, and hallway, replacing them with unified flooring. Before we installed the beautiful, wide-plank, variegated gray vinyl floor, we demolished a wall and doorway, removed 2 electrical outlets, leveled the floors between the 3 areas, and patched the drywall on the ceiling and walls. What an improvement!
 

    Photo Gallery

    1. Hallway, wall, dirty carpet with mismatched patch

    1.Remove Wall

    #BEFORE The owner wanted to remove most of this wall and the stained, worn carpet in the living room.

    2. Kitchen cabinets and vinyl floor on left and living room with stained carpet on right with wall and doorway between them

    2.RemoveWall

    #BEFORE This wall divided the kitchen and living room.

    3. Exposed studs and electrical outlets in partially-demolished wall with drywall debris on floor on both sides

    3.RemoveWall

    #DURING When we demolished this wall between the kitchen and living room, an electrician also safely removed the outlets (boxes on 2 leftmost exposed studs).

    4. Man uses crowbar to remove framing in corner of demolished wall with some studs removed and drywall debris on subfloor

    4.RemoveWall

    #DURING After we knocked down the drywall on both sides, we ripped out the framing studs and kitchen doorway.

    5. Open living room into kitchen and hallway with new floor and patched ceiling drywall

    5.RemoveWall

    #AFTER Look at how the light and unified floors flow through the house! We repaired the drywall, so there’s no sign of the old wall.

    6. Uneven ceiling drywall with fan vent and patched crack

    6.RemoveWall

    #BEFORE Can you see the damaged drywall in the ceiling from supporting a heavy fan?

    7. Ceiling fan vent and patched crack in drywall above kitchen doorway

    7.RemoveWall

    #BEFORE Can you see the damaged drywall in the ceiling from supporting a heavy fan?

    2 close up pictures of ceiling drywall crack circled

    8.RemoveWall

    #BEFORE Here’s a close-up of the damaged ceiling drywall.

    Large, dirty, metal ceiling fan and dirty insulation visible through holes in ceiling

    9.RemoveWall

    #DURING When we cut open the ceiling, we discovered that the fan wasn’t properly vented directly out of the roof. There was also dirty insulation and unsafe framing. We removed the fan and gross insulation. Repaired the framing and added new insulation. Then, we patched the drywall to match the rest of the hallway.

    Looking into open kitchen and living room with patched ceiling drywall where wall was

    10.RemoveWall

    #AFTER We patched the drywall to remove any hints of the former wall or damaged ceiling. Can you tell where the wall was?

    Stained carpet and wound up cable cord

    11.RemoveWall

    #BEFORE We removed this stained, worn carpet and most of the wall on the left.

    Open living room with new floor and partially removed wall

    12.RemoveWall

    #AFTER Beautiful, wide-plank, variegated gray vinyl floors now flow through the living room, kitchen, and hallway.