For almost twenty years, Laura and Tim’s 1929 Queens townhouse served because the backdrop for elevating their household. However whereas wealthy in historical past, the house’s getting older galley kitchen was cramped, crumbling, and affected by water injury. What started as a vital replace quickly developed right into a transformative imaginative and prescient: not simply transforming the kitchen, however extending the rear of their house completely, in search of a vivid, trendy house that seamlessly blended improved circulate and storage with the dwelling’s interval character.
A household reenergizes the again of their house—and provides an extension
- Owners: Practically a few a long time after they purchased their house, Laura and Tim posted their galley kitchen transform on Sweeten
- The place: Rego Park, Queens, New York
- Main renovation: Including sq. footage to the again of a townhome and updating an ill-organized kitchen
- With: Sweeten common contractor
- Our function: Sweeten matches house renovation tasks with vetted common contractors, providing steering, instruments, and help—totally free.
“After” photographs by Pixy Interiors for Sweeten
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Time for a change
In 2001, Laura and Tim purchased and moved into their first house—a 1929 brick townhouse in Queens. The only-family house measures 1,360 sq. ft on two flooring, plus a completed basement. Having raised their household there, the pair have been lastly able to deal with among the points that had plagued their charming, however problematic, home.
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The galley-style kitchen was falling aside and had additionally suffered water injury from a leaking bathe upstairs. A kitchen transform with new cupboards, flooring, and wall therapies had been the preliminary plan. They’d not too long ago bought new home equipment however the remainder of the house had gotten “outdated and grungy,” in keeping with Laura.




A full-extension undertaking
They wished to create a “comfortable, trendy kitchen that also matched the interval really feel in the remainder of the home whereas offering extra storage and higher circulate.” The kitchen additionally had a drafty door to the patio, which they by no means used due to its impractical location. An inside designer pal, Suzy Leon of Suzy Leon Design, Ltd., made recommendations, and one factor led to a different—taking the owners from a kitchen transform to a full-blown townhouse extension undertaking. Laura and Tim posted their undertaking to Sweeten to be linked with vetted transforming corporations who labored in her Queens neighborhood. They then selected their Sweeten contractor to carry out the townhouse kitchen extension undertaking.
At Sweeten, we’re consultants in any respect issues common contractors. Right here’s how Sweeten works: We pre-screen them for our community, fastidiously choose the most effective ones to your transforming undertaking, and work carefully with lots of of common contractors every single day.

Reorganizing the house
Because of the townhouse extension, the outdated patio turned a part of the kitchen and eating house, and skylights have been added to the brand new ceiling to usher in extra gentle. The kitchen is now a fantastically organized and cheerful house for the household. Because it remained a galley structure, the owners selected easy textures and lightweight colours to distinction a wide-plank darkish wooden flooring with some grain and character.
A vivid and trendy really feel
The cupboards have Shaker-style fronts in a minty inexperienced, which “matches the texture of the outdated home however can be clear and trendy on the similar time.” A tall pantry cupboard opens to disclose a column of drawers for optimum meals storage. The white quartz countertop lightens up the house, and an unlimited sink means there’ll be sufficient room for even the biggest pots. The outsized undercounter sink has an instantaneous scorching faucet, disposal, and chrome steel end to match the home equipment. At one finish, a wine fridge offers further house for drinks subsequent to the fridge.
“The kitchen extension got here out fantastically! We love the brand new circulate, the sunshine, and the additional house.” Laura stories that the extension is a stunning addition to the home the place company naturally gravitate, and the skylights add gentle and recent air. Shifting the doorway between the eating room and kitchen improved the circulate to the basement.

Getting issues to code
As a result of domino impact usually seen in renovations, the basement additionally needed to be introduced as much as code—with updates to the toilet and boiler. In addition they took the renovation as a possibility to put in mini-split methods in the entire home in order that they might now not must take care of inefficient window items. The owners love their new house, and are happy with having addressed their lengthy listing of damaged or less-than-perfect issues in the home.
Thanks, Laura and Tim, for sharing your property!
Able to get began?
Publish your undertaking on Sweeten totally free and make your dream kitchen a actuality. Sweeten places you answerable for your renovation, from discovering the right contractor and gathering design inspiration, to utilizing price guides to plan your finances properly.
Townhouse Kitchen Extension Renovation Supplies
- Design advisor: Suzy Leon Design
- Kitchen cupboards: customized.
- Cupboard paint in #466 Backyard Path; inside paint in Chantilly Lace: Benjamin Moore
- Schaub and Firm Northport {hardware} in brushed bronze: Construct.com
- Flooring in Deerfield Seashore: PID Flooring
- Kohler Prolific 33” sink: Kohler
- White quartz slab counter tops: Marble Techniques
- Sliding patio door: Andersen
- Photo voltaic-powered “Contemporary Air” skylights: Velux
- Park Harbor Summerlake ceiling gentle fixture in vintage brass: Construct.com
- Acrylic Tiffany counter stools, Parsons desk (customized top): Room & Board