Manhattan Beach Kitchen Remodel: Opening a Closed Kitchen Into the Living Room

An older Manhattan Beach kitchen, closed off from the rest of the house and long overdue for replacement. The kitchen was gutted, the wall between it and the living room came out, and the two rooms became one space under a vaulted ceiling.

The finished kitchen, looking back toward the range wall

Project at a glance

Location	Manhattan Beach, CA
Completed	2024
Project type	Complete kitchen remodel
Scope	Full demolition, removal of the wall between kitchen and living room, new white shaker cabinetry, quartz counters and island, tile backsplash, appliances, lighting, flooring and finishes

What was there before

A dated kitchen, walled off from the living room, with the cooking, the counter space and the people all competing for the same small footprint. Nothing about it was worth keeping, which simplified the decision: strip it out completely rather than reface and patch.

Taking out the wall

The wall between the kitchen and the living room was the whole project in miniature. Opening it is what turns two ordinary rooms into the space people actually want, and it is also the part that has to be engineered rather than guessed at.

Before anything is cut, the question is what the wall is carrying and what has to replace it — and whether anything runs inside it. Plumbing, ducting and electrical in a wall that is coming out have to go somewhere, and that somewhere is decided at design stage, not on the day. Our guide to what it costs to remove a load-bearing wall covers how that assessment works.

Cabinets, counters and the island

White shaker cabinetry runs to the ceiling on the range wall, with dark quartz on the perimeter and a lighter marble-look quartz on the island so the island reads as a separate object rather than more of the same surface. Plantation shutters were kept and the new pendant run was set to line up with the island rather than the old ceiling layout.

The sequence in the photographs below is the ordinary one and it is worth understanding if you are planning a kitchen: demolition, then framing and services, then cabinets, then the stone is templated to the cabinets as installed — not to the drawing. That is why counters arrive weeks after the cabinets and not the same day.

Ventilation is the specification people get wrong

Appliances get chosen carefully and the hood gets chosen last, usually on appearance. It is the wrong order, because the hood is the one appliance whose performance depends on things outside itself: how far it is from the cooking surface, how wide it is relative to the hob, the duct that carries the air, and whether the house will give the air back.

Wider than the hob, not equal to it. Cooking plumes spread as they rise. A hood the same width as the cooktop lets the edges escape.
Duct size and length decide real airflow. A hood rated at a given cfm achieves it on a short, straight, correctly sized duct. Undersize the duct or add elbows and the number on the box stops being true.
Metal duct, smooth interior (California Mechanical Code §504.3), terminating outdoors at least three feet from the property line and from any opening into the building (§502.2.1). A kitchen requires exhaust discharging directly outdoors (§405.4).
California’s energy code sets the standard. Title 24 §150.0 establishes kitchen range hood requirements based on the dwelling’s floor area and the fuel used, in a range of roughly 110 to 280 cfm.

The make-up air problem

A powerful hood removes a large volume of air from the house, and that air has to be replaced from somewhere. In a leaky old house it seeps in through the building fabric and nobody notices. In a tight, well-sealed house it does not — and the hood pulls the replacement air down the nearest available opening instead.

The symptoms are recognisable: a hood that runs loudly and clears very little, doors that resist opening while it is on, and in the worst case combustion appliances backdrafting. That is why high-capacity hoods need make-up air designed in rather than assumed, and why specifying an enormous hood is not automatically better.

Choosing appliances before the cabinets are drawn

Appliance selection is not a late decision, because appliances determine cabinetry. Panel-ready refrigeration needs different framing than a freestanding unit. A range needs specific clearance to combustible surfaces. A wall oven needs a cabinet built to its cutout, and those cutouts are not standard between manufacturers.

The practical rule: model numbers before the cabinet order. Not categories, not “a 36-inch range” — the actual specification sheets, because the cabinet shop builds to those dimensions and a substitution afterwards means a modified or replaced cabinet.

What the coast adds to a kitchen

Salt air is hard on appliance finishes and on any exposed steel. Stainless steel is not immune — the lower grades pit near the ocean, showing as small rust-coloured freckles that are corrosion of the surface rather than dirt. Hardware, hood housings and outdoor kitchen components near the water are worth specifying with that in mind. It is a small consideration in a kitchen and a significant one in an outdoor cooking area.

Before, during and after

Wall between the kitchen and living room being opened up during a Manhattan Beach kitchen remodel — The wall between kitchen and living room coming out

Manhattan Beach kitchen remodel in progress with floor protection and dust extraction in place — The wall between kitchen and living room coming out

Living in the house while it happens

Most kitchen remodels are done with the family still in the house, and the difference between a tolerable few weeks and a miserable few weeks is almost entirely about containment. Floor protection down the route, plastic across the openings, negative-pressure dust extraction while anything is being cut, and the site swept at the end of each day.

It costs a little time every morning and it is the single thing homeowners mention most afterwards. You can see it in the progress photographs above, which is the reason we publish them.

Questions about kitchen ventilation and appliances

Can I use a recirculating hood?

The code permits it in limited circumstances, and ducted outside is materially better. A recirculating hood filters grease and some odour and does nothing about heat or moisture, both of which then stay in the room and end up in the cabinetry.

How high should the hood be?

Follow the manufacturer’s specification for the specific model, because it varies with the hood type and the appliance below it. Mounting a hood higher than specified to keep sightlines clear reduces capture, which is usually the reason a hood underperforms.

Do I need make-up air?

It depends on the hood’s capacity and how tight the house is. It is a question to answer at design stage with the actual hood specification in hand, not something to retrofit after the kitchen is finished and the doors are hard to open.

Induction or gas?

Induction is faster to boil, far easier to clean, puts much less heat and no combustion products into the room, and needs a dedicated 240-volt circuit and compatible pans. Gas gives visible flame control and works in a power cut. The electrical question is the one that affects the build: if the house is not already wired for it, that circuit and possibly the panel belong in the budget.

More kitchen remodeling work and our Manhattan Beach service area page.

Thinking about a similar project?

We remodel kitchens across Los Angeles County, the South Bay and the San Fernando Valley — see where we work. If you want a sense of budget before you call, what a kitchen remodel costs in Los Angeles sets out the ranges honestly, and kitchen remodeling covers how we run the work.

The site visit takes about two hours and it is free. You get a written proposal within 48 hours. Call (800) 348-3050 or tell us what you are planning and we will come back to you within one business day. More finished work is on our projects page.