She Built a Wall Through Her Open-Concept Layout, Turning 800 Square Feet Into a Kitchen With Serious Storage

Open-concept layouts have been the default for new-construction homes since the '90s, but after Molly Miller and her family moved into their new house in 2018, they realized the living room, dining room, and kitchen were "all crammed into one big space" — which made storage a real challenge. She says even if they'd wanted to add cabinets, there was simply nowhere to put them. "What we needed," she says, "was a wall."

The solution was direct and specific: build a wall to separate the living room from the kitchen and dining area, within a combined space of about 800 square feet. Once the wall went up, both sides still felt spacious and functional — and Molly took the opportunity to renovate the kitchen and dining room while she was at it.

From Taping Out the Layout to Full-On Construction, She Did It All Herself

The first step in building the wall was taping out its position, then framing it. Molly and her husband handled the electrical outlet layout, door casing details, baseboard installation, and painting themselves — the only part they hired out was the drywall, to make sure it met building code and was structurally sound.

"The hardest part of doing it ourselves was finding time in an already busy life," Molly says — which is also why the whole project took longer than expected. Construction on the wall started in January and wasn't finished until April, after which they moved on to the kitchen renovation, tearing out the old cabinets and flooring.

The New Wall Becomes a Full Row of Storage, While the Kitchen Gets New Plumbing and Appliances

Molly decided to install a full row of cabinets along the new wall to serve as a food pantry — her first time DIY-ing cabinet installation, guided by her more experienced husband and father. "Once the pantry was done, we felt a lot more confident about tackling the rest of the kitchen," she says.

From there, Molly and her husband kept going on their own — running the plumbing for a pot filler above the stove, installing a new sink and appliances, laying new flooring, and finishing it all off with crown molding and baseboards. The entire kitchen renovation took about seven months, and for a long stretch of that time, they had no countertops and were living on subfloor.

Once everything was finished, Molly's favorite spot became the built-in coffee bar in the dining room — she says it adds a cozy touch while also providing tons of storage. She's just as happy that the kitchen and dining room now feel visually separate from the living room without feeling disconnected. The key was making both new doorway openings extra wide, creating sightlines from one space into the next for a "natural flow" — "so it never feels cramped."

Renovation cost details for this project were not provided.