Remodeling a Kitchen in an Oklahoma City Brick Bungalow

Oklahoma City’s historic core — Heritage Hills, Mesta Park, Crown Heights, Lincoln Terrace — runs on the brick bungalow: one-and-a-half stories of 1910s–30s masonry, original millwork, and a kitchen tucked at the back of the house that was never meant to be the center of anything. Remodeling one plays by different rules than the open-plan houses on TV.

Plaster Is Not Drywall

Bungalow walls are lath and plaster over masonry or full-dimension studs — heavier, harder, and full of surprises. Moving a wall means plaster dust, possible knob-and-tube wiring in the cavity, and a chimney chase exactly where you wanted the opening. The written scope should name what’s structural, what’s hiding in the walls, and what the plan is for each before anything comes down.

The Chimney Chase Decides the Layout

Most bungalow kitchens share a wall with an abandoned flue — the old stove or furnace chimney running up through the room. Sometimes the chase can come out and open the kitchen to the dining room completely; sometimes it stays and becomes the anchor for a range wall or a pantry. A pro who works in these houses knows which is which from one look.

Peninsula, Not Island

Bungalow kitchens are galley-proportioned — long and narrow, with a door at each end. In most of them a peninsula earns the same seating and prep space an island would, without starving the aisle clearances. Where the dining-room wall opens up, the peninsula becomes the serving line for the whole back of the house.

Keep What Makes the House Itself

Original millwork, built-in hutches, and hardwood under later flooring are the bungalow’s value — a remodel that respects them reads as restoration, not renovation. Cabinets in a period-appropriate profile, counters that don’t shout, and lighting in keeping with the house: that’s the pattern that works in Heritage Hills and Mesta Park kitchens, repeated across the district.

Live in a brick bungalow with a kitchen that’s ready? One call connects you with a local pro.