What's standing between you and your dream kitchen? Often, it's a wall — a relic from the days when a separate dining room was a must-have in every home.
Today, formal meals have gone the way of the rotary phone in most households, and a room just for dining seems like a waste of precious space.
"The formal dining room was popular for a while," said Cassie Frick, an Edina Realty agent. But most of her clients view them as so last-century. "Everybody wants the open concept. The vast majority don't want a formal dining room anymore."
Frick included. She and her husband recently remodeled their 1970s home in Minnetonka, extending the kitchen by eliminating an adjacent dining room.
"For us, with two kids, a formal dining room does not make sense," she said. "It was a big room but we never went there, and it was totally cut off."
More than one-third of kitchen renovation projects now involve increasing the room's size, according to the 2017 Houzz Kitchen Trends Study. Open floor plans continue to rise, with 51 percent of new kitchens more open to other rooms of the house than they were before the remodeling.
"Half the kitchens we do, we end up taking out a wall or partial wall," said Craig Weber, architect and owner of Bridgewater Construction. "It makes for a much more dramatic kitchen. Most people entertain in the kitchen — whether they want to or not."
Often the unwanted wall is load-bearing, so it's important to consult with a professional, noted Max Windmiller, an architectural designer with Windmiller Design Studio. He advised Frick during her project and also brought in a structural engineer.
