Upper Arlington, Ohio
Rear Kitchen Addition
A home addition in Upper Arlington, Ohio, that moves a cramped kitchen into a new rear wing so the one-car garage holds a car again, without growing past setbacks.
The project
The Rear Kitchen Addition pulls an old kitchen expansion out of a one-car garage and moves kitchen, dining, and living into a rear addition in Upper Arlington, Ohio. Because setbacks kept the garage from growing, it returns to parking and carries a bonus room above.
A garage lost to an old kitchen expansion
The project is an interior renovation and rear addition to a small house. Its main floor was tight. At some point a previous owner extended the kitchen by taking part of the one-car garage. The kitchen gained a little room, and the garage stopped working as a garage. What was left held storage, not a car.
The owners wanted that parking back, plus a kitchen, dining, and living area large enough for daily life and for hosting holidays.
The garage cannot grow on this lot.
The kitchen grows behind the house.
Upper Arlington setbacks fix the footprint
Upper Arlington enforces strict setbacks, and the existing garage already extends past the current line. Enlarging or reshaping its footprint would have meant seeking a variance. Settling that early shaped everything after it: the garage keeps its size on the ground, and the house grows in other directions.
The design pulls the kitchen out of the garage to restore the parking bay, then builds up. A new second story over the garage adds a bonus room that can serve as a playroom, an office, or a bedroom as needs change.
A rear addition for kitchen, dining, and living
With the garage off-limits, the room the kitchen needed comes from the back of the house. The old kitchen relied on a small peninsula that never worked well. The new one is organized around a large island and opens to an extended living room and a much larger dining area with views to the backyard. The addition also brings in a wet bar.
The kitchen was redesigned as a whole, in relation to the living room and the new dining room, rather than enlarged in place.
A back entry through mudroom, laundry, and pantry
Coming in from the garage used to mean a corridor that led down to the basement or up to the kitchen. That route stays. A new door at the back of the garage adds a better one for daily use. It opens into a new laundry room on the main level instead of the basement, a mudroom, and a fully equipped butler's pantry. From there, one path leads out to the patio and another into the new dining area.
One garage now does three jobs: it parks a car, it carries a bonus room above, and it opens straight into the new mudroom and pantry. None of that required a larger footprint.