Between the Kitchen & Dining room
The good news is my husband and I are still married after we removed a half wall between the dining room and kitchen. It was so much easier than we anticipated. It opened up the wall between our kitchen and dining room and brought light into the north side of the house that craves a little sunshine.
The decision to remove the half wall was the biggest project my husband and I have tackled. It was bigger than this project.
It required trust, grit, patience and an electrician to run interference and move an outlet. To appreciate the after here is a quick view of the dining room a few years ago.
And, yes I picked that color.
The dining room was the gateway to the kitchen. And, with a narrow passage and the half wall, the kitchen felt more like a cave. Here is the wall from the dining room. To the left is the door size entry into the kitchen.
Here’s the view from the dining room. By removing this wall we could take advantage of the light from the large dining room windows.
How to Remove a Half Wall | Before
Here’s the view from the kitchen.
We removed the half wall that housed the microwave and surrounding cabinets. Before we removed the upper cabinets along this “party” wall we cleared the contents from the cabinets. We wanted to make sure we would not miss the cabinet space.
We also had to reconfigure where to store the microwave. It has settled in a corner on the counter.
How to Remove a Half Wall | Electrical & Plumbing Details
We hired a plumber and electrician to move the mechanics to the left inside the frame. We had to add an additional outlet on the dining room wall side per electrical code. Total costs for the mechanical was just under $300.00.
Pain in the arch
The arch was the trickiest part of this wall removal. We had the small arch where the original entry into the kitchen existed. The main level of our house has arches in and out of every room so we wanted to keep the design. But, we had to remove the original arch before we recreated a wider arch to accomodate the extended lenght of the newly opened half wall.
Arch Solution
My husband found Archways & Ceilings, a US-based company, that specializes in creating arches. With simple instructions on their website, my husband measured the expanded wall opening. Within a week we had an MDF template ready to install.
We framed the top of the wall with 2×4’s and attached the MDF arch to the frame. It required a drill and screws. It was a great, affordable solution. The total cost of the MDF arch was around $100.00. The time saved: priceless.
We love the space between the kitchen and dining room and it looks like the way we envisioned it.
And, the best part of this half wall removal project was how quickly we finished it. From start to finish it was a total commitment of two-ish weekends. It took almost a week to find and wait for this solution for the extended arch. The quotes we received for half wall tear down project were north of $6,000.00.
We completed this project for less than $1500.00. This included the cost for the plumbing and electrical. Woohoo!
How to Remove a Half Wall
It was a simple project with 2 x 12 select pine from Home Depot. We went with select pine because it has a smoother finish. I cut the pine boards to size using a table saw (with an assist from my assistant (husband) to hold the end of the board).
to prep the wood shelves.
This was an easy Saturday afternoon project. I loved this project so much I added the same shelves to our aging basement kitchenette/bar. So the farmhouse shelf photos are from both spaces.
The coolest part of this mantel was the trip to a specialty lumber store.*** My husband loves this kind of thing so he took the lead to find the knotty alder wood. 
Mantel Installation
