Fixing Common Space Problems in Pacific Palisades Home Remodels
Home remodeling in Long Beach homes and neighboring areas like Pacific Palisades goes way beyond paint colors or tile selections. It's really about making your home feel comfortable, usable, and easy to live in every day. At KrimsonHAUS, our interior design studio in Long Beach, California, brings 25 years of combined experience in full home, kitchen, and bathroom remodels, so we see these layout challenges often. For homes with outdated layouts, crowded rooms, or areas that never seem to work the way they should, these problems become more noticeable during winter when families spend more time indoors.
This is usually when homeowners realize that their kitchen feels too tight or their living room doesn’t connect naturally to the rest of the house. If you're starting to feel like your home isn't working the way it should, remodeling may be the right time to make real improvements that aren't just cosmetic. Let’s talk about some space issues we see often in Pacific Palisades homes and what adjustments can help make them more functional, open, and comfortable.
Choppy Room Transitions That Disrupt Flow
Many homes in Pacific Palisades were designed around smaller, separated rooms. This often leads to broken-up layouts where the kitchen feels cut off from the dining area or where the living space can only be reached by moving through a twist of narrow halls.
The fix doesn't require gutting your whole house. We usually look at light construction changes that can make a big difference, like:
• Widening doorways between the kitchen and living room without removing full walls
• Replacing a solid wall with a half wall or open shelving to keep sightlines clear
• Adding consistent flooring to visually connect multiple rooms
Sometimes there's a step-down between rooms that breaks up the natural flow. Realigning floor heights or adding gentle transitions can smooth things out. Before any walls move, we often create full 3D visualizations of the proposed space so you can see how wider openings and new sightlines will feel in daily life. These small tweaks help everyday traffic move more naturally and make entertaining feel easier, too.
Oversized or Mismatched Furniture in Small Rooms
When furnishings don’t match the room they’re in, the space can feel cramped even if the square footage is decent. A bulky sectional in a small den or a dining table that’s too wide for the room can create pinch points that hurt function.
This problem often starts with designing around existing furniture. But rooms aren’t designed for furniture, they’re designed for how people move and use them. During a remodel, it’s a great time to fix poor proportions.
We like to start with the layout. Before buying anything, we adjust floor plans to suit how the space will actually be used. Some go-to ideas include:
• Adding built-in seating along walls to free up floor space
• Reworking walls or storage that intrudes into the room too much
• Creating open space near windows to prevent heavy furniture from blocking natural light
By planning ahead instead of decorating after the build, the space ends up more balanced and easier to use.
Underused or Dead Spaces That Could Be Working Harder
It’s not uncommon for a Pacific Palisades home to have large hallways, oddly shaped corners, or stair landings that serve no real purpose. These areas collect dust, but they could be doing a lot more.
A remodel can turn these dead zones into something helpful with only a few adjustments. If we find an unused hallway wall, that might be a place for floor-to-ceiling storage or a built-in bench with under-seat drawers. An empty corner in the primary bedroom could become a reading nook or small workspace with the right lighting and finishes. Even a stairwell landing can hold built-in bookcases or a desk setup.
We look closely at these spaces because they’re often easier to change than full rooms. And once they’re planned into the remodel, they make the rest of the house work better, too.
Kitchens and Bathrooms That Feel Too Tight
Tight kitchens and small bathrooms are some of the most common layout complaints we hear in Pacific Palisades. These aren’t just aesthetic frustrations. A poorly designed kitchen creates daily stress when there’s no room to prep or cook, and a crowded bathroom makes mornings harder.
These problems often come from older design rules that made kitchens smaller and separated from the living space. During remodeling, we look for layout changes that open things up without having to expand the home’s footprint.
Here are common improvements that leave a big impact:
• Rearranging appliances to create better movement flow
• Swapping a full tub for a walk-in shower to free up floor space
• Adding pocket or sliding doors in place of swinging doors that take up extra room
These types of changes show up in many projects across home remodeling in Long Beach neighborhoods as well. They work best when we focus on how the space is used every day, not just what looks good in photos.
Space That Works for Your Life
Every family has different needs, so no two remodels are the same. That’s why we focus on how you use your home, how you move through it, and which spaces get the most pressure during a typical day. Our process covers everything from the first consultation and design presentations through project administration and installation, including working with contractors and managing orders so the space you see in the plans is the one you move back into.
Fixing layout problems like tight corners, disconnected rooms, or awkward transitions can change everything. A house that once felt too small can suddenly feel spacious. A kitchen that used to cause frustration can feel easy and open.
By paying attention to space during remodeling, even older homes in Pacific Palisades can be transformed into spaces that feel comfortable, connected, and built for real life. When design supports how you actually live, home feels a whole lot better.
Your home in Long Beach, CA or nearby areas may need better layout, storage, or flow. We are here to help plan out what really works by paying close attention to how rooms connect and creating spaces that feel natural and easy to live in. We have helped homeowners make improvements that lead to long-term comfort and better function. Learn more about how we approach home remodeling in Long Beach that focuses on how people actually use their spaces. Reach out to KrimsonHAUS to start a plan built around how you live.
