Kitchen Remodeling in Hillside, NJ
Almost three-quarters of Hillside's housing went up before 1960, and most of it is modest single-family houses built between the wars and just after. The kitchens are small, the framing is straightforward, and the wins come from reclaiming space next door to the room.
- NJ HIC Reg. #13VH12107200
- Based in Irvington
- 14+ years in North Jersey
Hillside is a Union County township just over the line from Irvington, and it has a more consistent housing profile than most of our service area. Roughly seven in ten homes were built before 1960, about 57 percent are single-family detached, and two-thirds are owner-occupied. That mostly describes modest houses built for families in the 1930s, 40s and 50s: Cape Cods, small colonials, bungalows and the occasional two-family.
- Median year built
- 1950of 7,457 housing units
- Built before 1940
- 29.7%71.5% before 1960
- Single-family detached
- 57.1%93.2% in 1–4 unit buildings
- Owner-occupied
- 67.3%2.77 sq mi, Union County
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 5-year estimates. Figures describe Hillside township, Union County, NJ.
What Hillside houses mean for a kitchen
These are honest, well-built houses with small kitchens. A typical one is 80 to 110 square feet, arranged as an L or a galley, with a door to the basement, a door to the dining room and often a door to a back porch or breezeway. Three doorways in a small room is the real problem, because each one sterilizes wall space that could carry cabinets.
Construction is generally more cooperative than in the prewar towns nearby. Framing is more consistently square, ceilings are eight feet, and the later houses have drywall rather than plaster. Supply piping varies: the 1930s and 40s houses often still have galvanized steel, while the 1950s houses are more likely to be copper.
The most common electrical finding is a kitchen running on one or two circuits shared with adjacent rooms, in a house built with 60- or 100-amp service. That is fixable and it is worth pricing before demolition rather than discovering mid-project.
Because the rooms are small, the biggest gains in Hillside kitchens usually come from annexing space next to them (the back porch, a pantry, a rear hall) rather than from reorganizing within the existing four walls.
What we handle in a Hillside kitchen
Demolition, framing, cabinetry, counters, tile, flooring, and the plumbing and electrical the room needs. Permits filed with the township and inspections scheduled.
Wondering whether the back porch can become kitchen? How it was built decides it, and that is usually visible from the basement.
Call (862) 218-7292Small Kitchen Remodeling in Hillside
The Hillside kitchen problem is doorways more than square footage. Before adding anything, it is worth looking at what the current room gives away: a basement door swinging inward, a soffit holding a foot of dead ceiling height, a blind corner cabinet you cannot reach into, and a full-depth refrigerator projecting six inches past the counter. Fixing three of those often produces more usable kitchen than any addition would, at a fraction of the cost. Uppers to the ceiling after soffit removal is usually the single biggest storage gain. See small kitchen remodeling.
Kitchen Layout Changes in Hillside
Most of these houses have full open basements, which makes moving a sink genuinely straightforward, new supply, a drain with correct fall, and proper venting, all accessible from below. The layout changes that pay off here are usually about circulation: rehanging or relocating the basement door, widening the opening to the dining room, or absorbing a rear porch. A range can move with a gas line extension or a new 240-volt circuit; the hood duct route to an exterior wall is the practical constraint. See kitchen layout remodeling.
Kitchen Cabinets in Hillside
Stock and semi-custom cabinetry generally suits these houses well, because the rooms are relatively square and the dimensions are conventional. The place to spend more is the sink base: a plywood box survives a slow supply-line drip that would swell and delaminate a particleboard one, and in houses of this age slow drips are common. Deep drawers instead of base cabinet doors make a much bigger practical difference in a small kitchen than any door style does. See kitchen cabinets.
Kitchen Countertops in Hillside
Runs here are short, which keeps countertop cost proportionally lower than in larger kitchens and usually means a single slab with no seams. Quartz is the common choice and needs no sealing. Laminate has improved a great deal and is a perfectly reasonable option where the budget is better spent on electrical or on absorbing the porch. Templating happens after cabinets are installed and level; allow one to two weeks before the counter arrives and the sink can be connected. See kitchen countertops.
Open Concept Kitchens in Hillside
Opening the wall to the dining room transforms these houses, because the ground floor is otherwise a series of small separate rooms. In most cases that wall is carrying the joists above, so it needs a properly sized beam, posts, and a load path down to the basement: often to a new post and occasionally a footing. Straightforward work with an engineer's drawing and a permit. A wide cased opening rather than a full removal keeps some wall for cabinets, which in a small kitchen genuinely matters. See open concept kitchens.
Kitchen Flooring in Hillside
Subfloors in these houses are usually in reasonable condition and reasonably flat, which opens up more options than in the older prewar stock. Luxury vinyl plank is the practical favorite: waterproof, warm underfoot, and tolerant of a subfloor that is close rather than perfect. Tile works where the floor is stiff enough, sometimes with an added plywood layer. Watch the finished height, since raising the floor can mean the dishwasher no longer comes out for service. See kitchen flooring.
Kitchen Backsplashes in Hillside
A backsplash is the highest-impact standalone job in a kitchen that otherwise functions, and in a small room it changes the whole feel. The technical details are the same everywhere: the wall gets repaired and flattened first, outlets get box extenders so the devices sit flush with the tile face, the tile ends in a finished edge rather than a raw cut, and the counter joint takes flexible sealant rather than grout. Countertop receptacles need GFCI protection, which is worth confirming while the wall is open. See kitchen backsplash.
Permits and inspections in Hillside
Hillside issues and inspects construction permits through its Building and Housing Department under New Jersey's Uniform Construction Code. Kitchen work altering plumbing or electrical requires one, and structural work such as removing a bearing wall brings in the building subcode and generally a sealed drawing. Rough plumbing and electrical are inspected before they are covered.
Township of Hillside, Building and Housing Department
- Department: Building and Housing Department
- Address: 1409 Liberty Avenue, Hillside, NJ 07205
- Phone: 973-926-5546
Contact details verified September 2026. Permit requirements depend on your specific scope of work and can change, so the department above is the authority on what your project needs, not this page.
Where we work in Hillside
Across the township, from the Irvington line down through Hillside Center and the Saybrook area toward Elizabeth. It is one of the closest towns to our shop.
Kitchen work in Hillside
Small kitchens reward planning. Tell us the room and what rooms sit next to it.
Where Hillside sits, and where we work
Hillside township covers under three square miles of Union County, sharing a border with Irvington to the north, Newark to the east, Elizabeth to the south and Union to the west.
Hillside boundary map not yet published.
Import maps/kml/hillside-nj.kml into Google My Maps, then paste the embed URL into
src/_data/locations/hillside-nj.json.
Township of Hillside covers about 2.77 square miles of Union County. Boundary drawn from U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line data.
Kitchen questions from Hillside homeowners
Can we take in the back porch to make the kitchen bigger?
This is the most common good idea in Hillside houses and it depends on how the porch was built. An enclosed porch on a proper foundation with a heated space below is often straightforward to absorb. One built on piers over open air needs insulation, a properly conditioned floor and sometimes foundation work before it can become year-round living space. Which one you have is usually visible from the basement or from outside.
Our kitchen has a door to the basement that swings into the room. Can it move?
Often, and in a small kitchen it is one of the cheapest genuine improvements available. Rehanging the door to swing the other way, or converting it to a pocket door where the stud bay is clear of plumbing and wiring, recovers several square feet of floor that is currently unusable. Worth checking what is inside that wall first.
Is the wall between the kitchen and dining room load-bearing?
In these houses it frequently is, and the check is which way the joists above run. If they are perpendicular to the wall, it is probably carrying them. There is often a beam or a wall roughly below it in the basement too, which is a strong hint. Removing it means a sized beam, posts and a load path down, which is normal work with a permit and an engineer's drawing.
Does a 1950s house have enough electrical capacity?
Sometimes and not always. Houses of this era were often built with 60- or 100-amp service, and a modern kitchen wants several dedicated circuits on top of the rest of the house. Adding those circuits while the walls are open is straightforward; whether the panel and service can carry them is the question worth answering before demolition rather than mid-project.
How much of a difference does removing the soffit make?
In a room with eight-foot ceilings and 30-inch uppers, quite a lot: it gains you a full shelf across the entire run. Some soffits in these houses are empty framing built purely to fill the gap, in which case removal is easy. Others hide a duct, a vent stack or wiring. A small inspection hole answers it in about ten minutes.
Call about your Hillside project
We are a few minutes up the road in Irvington. Describe the room and what is behind it.