Kitchen remodel in my future
Hi Gang! I've been participating here for years, and did a kitchen remodel in our previous house, in 2013. We moved 2 years ago, and while the kitchen in our new (to us) home is pretty good, I know it can be better. I did add pullouts as soon as we bought the house, but they are no substitute for real drawers.
The longer we live here, the more the "not perfect" is getting annoying. We want to get new cabinets, but there's no way I'm taking this journey without my Houzz friends!
Goals for the remodel:
- smaller sink cab (36 to 30"); move trash pullout to the left of the sink.
- Upper cabs from 30" to 42"
- Upper cabinets deeper (currently 10" inside depth)
- Pullouts over the fridge
- All drawers (naturally)
- Drawers sizes to allow for cake pans sized sideways
- pullout cutting boards next to the sink and range
- new counters
The aisle width is only 40" (counter to counter), but there is a walkway to the guest room, bathroom and garage going past the pony wall, so it can't really change. We have no interest in stools (the photos are from the listing). The house is a twin home, with the kitchen on the shared wall, so no windows, and the hood will have to be vented out the ceiling (the OTR MW will go). There is a laundry/pantry next to the fridge.
I'm pretty sure that the current footprint is the most efficient, but I would appreciate y'all checking to see if I missed anything.
Comments (9)
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My wife is requesting your advice on her future kitchen.
Comments (6)Garage will be detached and to the left of the house, the primary entrance is in the mud room. Our best views are from the back and the right side of the house. The left side where the pantry is located is facing a neighbors property which isn't unsightly now but I can't guarantee what the future holds. We put the pantry there to keep path for groceries and traffic to a minimum when coming into house. The left side of house will be simplified by the time we build, we kept load bearing walls to a minimum so we have flexibility to change as we want. I originally didn't post entire house so we could focus on kitchen but I saw your point and went ahead and added pic. I also chose to keep the left side of the house the service area of the house, I wanted to do my best containing dirt,noise,normal clutter to one area, with 3 kids and a Bernese puppy (100lbs) we have a lot of traffic. Going back and forth to schools, practices, taking dog out,kids running upstairs and downstairs, trips up and down for laundry etc. it all adds up. We knew hallways are considered wasted space to some but to us the hallways are important for their function. Hall to left of stairs and hallway from mudroom will be the most traveled area in our home, the main corridor from our front porch to back door, the laundry path from the upstairs, and our path to our bedroom. Which is why I made them extra wide, it's not for everybody but to me a giant foyer and huge master bath is my idea of wasted space. The kitchen will serve as a link between our hectic side and living room/dining room area which is to be our sanctuary. Not to noisy or busy when guests are over you can chat and visit without interruption (hard to do with family) and with the dining room in between it seemed as a good conduit to separate the noise from the kitchen not only dishwasher, banging cabinets etc.. but If you prefer to listen to music as you cook it's not drowning out a movie in the living room. I think my wife likes to have the kitchen to herself sometimes so not having directly next to living room but still in line of sight is perfect. We have huge extended family so holidays will mean 30-35 people and so the expanded space will allow the crowd. I did forget to mention that the media/fireplace wall is just a concept at this point something will need to be there but I don't want it to block LR out, possibly a knee wall The back wall and right side of house face the east and with 14-3' x5' windows along the mudroom, kitchen and dining room I cant see light being an issue, I know the pantry window is a small nuisanance but its in line with the island, plus I can see out mudroom windows and I can also see the other 3 sides of the house from standing at the island (try finding a stock plan that does that). I'm trying to understand which wall you think I should bump out, I'm assuming you mean the jog at the rear of the pantry? The kitchen itself is already bumped out the entire back of the house. Are you suggesting further out or removing the jog behind the pantry. The red walls indicate the load bearing walls, not walls that I plan on removing.I think the biggest issue at the moment is trying to determine what the best placement would be IF we had no option to change, then if the best options seemed insufficient then we would have to consider further changes. It's hard for me think that a 17' by 12' kitchen would be so challenging, I guess the lack of wall space is the sticking point. Let me know if you have any further suggestions. Thanks again for taking time to look at....See MoreKitchens of the Future or The Future of Kitchens
Comments (4)I think that the size of the kitchen has some relation to how long one expects to live at a particular address. When I was in my 20s in San Francisco, I moved fairly often and generally had very small kitchens and did not do very much cooking, outside of the work I did in a restaurant. What I did cook back then was fairly simple, but it was also very easy for me to go to a lot of different markets to get ingredients just before making a meal. Now, as I am older, I like to have inventory and not have to shop as often. When I was younger, I liked to shop often. I do not think that the trend has much to do with what generation you are talking about but what age group you are talking about. I was very much like the Millennials when I was the age that they are now. When they get older, they will change as well - otherwise they would stagnate. However, my ex-roommate from San Francisco who visited me last week-end still maintains the lifestyle that we had in our 20s, but he grew up in New York and finds it normal to go to delis every day for food. He still only stocks condiments and beverages in his fridge. He can make tea or coffee, but not much else....See MoreBest things I did in my kitchen remodel(s)
Comments (17)Great topic crl_ ! I spent a couple years figuring out what I wanted in my new kitchen. I had a pretty good kitchen before my reno, but there were definitely improvements to be made. My best changes: Drawers! Love lifting dinnerware up from drawer rather than down from upper cabinet. Love having my coffee cups in drawer immediately below coffee machine. Love not having to crawl around on the floor to access whatever is at the bottom and back of a cabinet. Induction! Probably the best surprise of my new kitchen, for all the same reasons listed above. Wall ovens! I don't know if I love my ovens because they are at the perfect height for me, or because I finally splurged on good equipment. Probably a combination of the two. I can tell you that my waist line is paying the price though! Big single sink. There's lots of discussion here about this. I grew up with double sinks, thought I'd probably get a low divide (best of both worlds, right?) but bit the bullet and got the single. It was, for me, the right decision....See MoreAnother kitchen remodel in my future
Comments (3)Thank you Build Beautiful, love that look! We have a small kitchen window over the sink and would be moving the range to the same location as in that picture with a 36 inch drawer base under the window. The only upper cabinets I would have is on the wall with the refrigerator, a 30 inch pantry, fridge with cabinet above, a 24 inch and two 30 inch cabinets that would end at the wall left of the sink. I chose a medium green for the drawer base cabinets, nice to see that green is a trend now also!...See More
rebunky
14 days agolast modified: 14 days agoHi AnnKH! I have seen your name ever since I joined GW around 2013. Nice to see you working on a new to you kitchen.
I see you have a 36” fridge in the corner butted agaist the pantry wall. Are you planning to get a fully integrated zero clearance fridge? Something like these?
I believe a 3” spacer is what they recommend, but with your door trim, I would add a little more.To use every inch, I liked this idea for a very narrow P/O. I think this is still with an integrated fridge, but maybe you could get away with a built in? You would have to ask your KD as I am not familar with either. I wish, but it is out of our price range.
Now if you are wanting a regular CD french door fridge, you will need more space to the wall. Your model’s specs will say how much clearance you need for the doors to fully open. I would say at least a 9”-12” P/O or normal pantry with doors. Also you would have an additional spacer next to the wall so it clears the door trim. The pullout would be like these.
As far as the island not moving. The isle space at only 40” is pretty tight.Since you don’t need stools can the island be pushed back to where the overhang ends or a little less perhaps? 40” with the DW opened will impeed the work flow from sink to fridge or fridge to stove or at least make it very awkward. Ideally 48” would be awesome, but I would at least push it out so the isle is 45“. Also you could then make the island all one level, unless you like the sink more hidden.
I have never used a pullout cutting board. Were you thinking one like this over the trash? Cool!
AnnKH thanked rebunky
AnnKH
14 days agoThanks, rebasheba! We've been using that fridge for 2 years, and won't replace it (until it dies). The wall to the left is short enough that the fridge opens just fine. It's a full size fridge, so the right door isn't an issue.
There is a bathroom toward the garage (shares a wall with the short side of the U) that has a big linen closet - that's where I keep the broom and dustpan.
I'm planning on a toe kick drawer to the left of the range for baking sheets and shallow pans. Cutting boards hang on a rack on the back of a door under the sink.
The MW is a small unit with a round back - it's in the corner of the L. I replaced the OTR MW with an under cabinet hood last year (recirculating, until I can get someone in to put a vent through the ceiling).
Thanks, bpath! I thought about doing just that with the pony wall - I think I could eliminate the wall and have the cabinet maker build shelves there instead. Not sure I want to add the clutter on the living room side.I liked that coffee table too - the top lifts up, so one could use it as an actual table at the couch. All the furniture is from the previous owner (it was easier to just use the listing photos than take my own). We had living room rugs, so the rug in the photo went to our daughter.
I have plans for almost all of the old cabinets: most of the base cabs will go in the garage (replacing a crappy old cabinet that's there, and about 40" tall, which is inconvenient for my 5'4" self). I do a lot of projects, and the old cabs will be great for storing small power tools, flower pots and birdbaths in winter, etc. We have a huge closet in a bedroom in the basement that I use for storage - I'm going to move a bookcase and a plastic shelving unit out, and replace with one base cab and all of the uppers. The stuff from the bookcase (mostly jigsaw puzzles) will go in the cabinets.
We're also replacing the flooring. It's Coretec, and I think it's fine, but we had hardwood in our last house, and Hubby really misses it. Eventually it has to be replaced anyway; we might as well do it with the kitchen, do it right, and get it over with. I hope to salvage the LVP to use in our son's townhouse (he has cheap crappy laminate that was not installed well). I'm not one to throw things out that still have use.
I'm out of town for a week, but I found a more recent photo.
AnnKH
14 days agoHi Rebunky ! Thanks for chiming in!
I know the aisle is not ideal, but the entry from the garage goes right past it, and we have more furniture in the living room than the previous owners, making the walkway tight (even without stools). But I plan to reduce the width of the counter atop the pony wall from 18" to 12" (maybe less), so I could probably squeak out a few more inches on the kitchen side, especially if I have the cabinet maker build something. We're replacing the flooring with hardwood, so moving it shouldn't be an issue.
We're keeping the existing fridge. The laundry room (which you can see in my last photo) has a lot of shelves for pantry storage - I have more need for counter and drawer space in the kitchen, rather than pullout pantry.
anj_p, I do like that counter - we use it for fresh flowers, a candy dish, outgoing mail. The outlets for the island are on the pony wall. I appreciate the bit of separation it provides between living room and kitchen (since there is nothing else separating them).
AnnKH
14 days agoWe had a pullout cutting board in our last kitchen. The cabinet installer commented that he doesn't understand why more folks don't have them. My Mom had one in her house, and it was used all the time, which is where I got the idea. One of the few regrets we had on our last kitchen remodel is that we didn't put another cutting board next to the fridge. I love how it didn't interfere at all with the top drawer, and it could be pulled all the way out for cleaning. This time around I'm planning one next to the sink (above the trash) and one next to the range.
AnnKHOriginal Author