Completed client project. The owners came to us with a kitchen they wanted to make feel more connected to the living room, while keeping the electric fireplace wall as the room’s anchor. Their house on Red Barn Court in Petaluma was built in 2026, with about 3,364 square feet on a 5,908-square-foot lot. It was a newly constructed, two-story home with stucco walls, a tile roof, four bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms, an attached two-car garage, and a covered front porch. The kitchen record included an island, pantry, electric range, dishwasher and built-in oven, though the kitchen itself was not visible in the available images. The living room’s electric fireplace gave us the fixed element around which to organize the kitchen work.
The photographs on this page are from the Designed & Curated portfolio and show finishes we have used on other projects. They are not photographs of this house.
My first question was how the owners used the kitchen in relation to the fireplace wall and the rooms around it. On site, we found that the fireplace wall gave the living room a clear focal point, while the kitchen already had the island and pantry that supported its daily work. The house’s two stories and tile roof also mattered: a new hood route through the roof would have meant penetrating the tile and routing exhaust through a two-story structure. We kept the range in its existing position and designed the changes around the kitchen’s established footprint.
The fireplace wall and the kitchen connection
We kept the electric fireplace and its wall intact. Rather than make the kitchen compete with that feature, we chose finishes and lighting that made the connection between the two rooms feel deliberate. The island remained in the kitchen, and the pantry stayed in place, so the work did not disrupt the existing storage and preparation zones. We refreshed the cabinetry and work surfaces, then tied those changes to the living room with a quieter finish palette that let the fireplace wall remain visually distinct.
The new lighting addressed the work surfaces without turning the ceiling into the main feature. We installed layered kitchen lighting and placed task light where it served the counters and range. The house had all-electric utilities, an electric range and a seller-owned photovoltaic system, so we kept the appliance layout rather than adding new electrical demands through a range relocation. The home’s electric forced-air heat pump and central air also meant we coordinated the kitchen lighting and finish work with the existing systems, rather than treating the kitchen as an isolated room.
The range, the tile roof and the existing services
The house’s two-story form and tile roof made the existing range location the sensible choice. We kept the range where it was and worked with the hood route already serving that location, instead of adding a new roof penetration. Before the cabinetry went in, we traced the exhaust route and specified smooth-interior metal duct and a backdraft damper in line with the City of Petaluma’s residential kitchen guidance (City of Petaluma residential kitchen remodel guidance). We also kept the continuous ventilation requirement in view as we coordinated the hood and its controls.
The kitchen retained its electric range, dishwasher, built-in oven and pantry. We kept the island as the existing work surface, not as a reason to move the sink or alter the plumbing. That decision let us focus the project on the room’s cabinetry, counters and light, and left the house’s public water and public sewer connections undisturbed. The laundry record listed electric hookups only, so we kept the kitchen work separate from any assumed laundry-room buildout and did not invent a new utility connection or route.
The lot was recorded as a court lot, with a wood fence, a landscaped front area and a back yard. The covered porch and attached garage remained outside the kitchen scope. Inside, the kitchen now read as part of the living area without losing its own working zones: the island and pantry supported cooking, the fireplace wall held the living room’s focus, and the lighting gave the kitchen a useful task layer after daylight faded.
The City of Petaluma required a building permit for a kitchen remodel involving plumbing, electrical or structural work. We checked the scope against the city’s residential remodel guidance and permitted the work that involved the kitchen’s regulated systems (Residential Bathroom Remodel handout).
Get in touch with Amy to talk about your kitchen project.
