Which looks better - French doors or open between kitchen and fam
lucretzia
14 years ago
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teppy
14 years agoccoombs1
14 years agoRelated Discussions
Please help! Which french-door refrigerator LG or KitchenAid
Comments (16)We have the first generation of LG French door, purchased about 4 or 5 years ago for our renovation. At the time, it was the most highly recommended fridge both in here and in other media. Big mistake...we never had any problems with the lights burning, but the cheap plastic interior crisper bins and shelves kept breaking. Now the freezer door will not stay closed. We are getting rid of it and replacing it with the Samsung CD FD. We just purchased it today at Lowe's for $2069...it's about $3300 at Sears. Lowe's is having a big sale, plus some rebates and WA State energy rebates brought it down to the price we got. It's frustrating...originally I wanted the SZ 650, but didn't want to spend 5-6K. Now between the LG and the new Samsung, I could have purchased the SZ. And I hate the idea of getting rid of a fridge only 5 years old...talk about a waste of resources. By the way, customer service at LG was horrible every time I called. Never again....See MoreKitchen Layout: Two (very) different drawings - which is better?
Comments (31)I would like to see even more of the existing layout and how the different levels relate to each other ... to pool, 'down' to game room, 'up' to bedroom, to garage, etc. Is the pool on the same level as the existing kitchen ? Is it right by the house or across the yard ? Is there any type of patio, covered porch, or deck off of the back of the house now ? Where does the driveway run - do guests park by the front door and come in that way, or does driveway have them parking by the garage entry ? Do the stairs at the front door go up ? Up to what ? Where does the door go under the stairs at the end ? Also, what are the dimensions of your existing furniture and any appliances you will be re-using ? What about items you are planning to purchase ? I am concerned that you may not be allowing enough room for clearance around your breakfast table because I do not know it's dimensions. Take the size of your table and add a minimum of 36" on all 4 sides just to edge/slide past or scoot around seated diners. You need 44" on the sides to allow someone to walk past a seated diner. In other words, if your table is 42"x60" and you add 36" to each side, you need a minimum of 9'6"x11'0" totally clear area just to scoot around seated diners. I am thinking something totally different than the plans you have shown. To get you thinking outside the box . . . . How about if you carve a niche out of the existing LR for a more formal entry with walls and doorways so the first thing a guest sees when they walk in the home is not the mess in the kitchen. Use the current Piano room as the family room overlooking the pool area. Put the baby grand in the current dining room and the dining table where the butler is currently. The table will run long ways from the front of the house to the rear. Open this new baby grand/dining space up as much as possible into one long room or, even better IMO ... depending on the size of your dining table, move the wall a couple feet so that the new dining end is longer and the baby grand end is smaller and they are separated by a wall with a wide doorway or arched opening. If the new dining space was 11x15 or 11x16 instead of 11x13, you could easily have a dining table 4x7 that would seat 8 and have room to pass around the end of the table to the doorway into the new family room. I imagine the new baby grand room to house the piano and some limited seating. A much better view when a guest first walks into the house. : ) Where you currently have the living room, it will now be somewhat smaller because of losing space to the foyer. Use the old living space for a combination keeping room with breakfast, desk/homework, sitting room space. The remainder of the current living room along with the current kitchen/breakfast will be the new kitchen. In my experience, most people congregate around the kitchen at parties and gatherings. This layout would make the kitchen and keeping room one big space which would be a great area for entertaining. Between the new kitchen and the new dining room (old butlers) will be a wet bar and storage space similar to what you have shown on option B. Be sure to also carve out room for a coat closet, vacuum storage, toys storage, and a designated space where mail/bags/junk, etc can land very close to the garage entry (but be easily hidden by cabinet doors or something if someone comes over). Depending on the pool and patio location, it could be nice to turn the double windows at the end of the of the old butler/new dining into French doors opening onto the patio. It could also be very nice if this was opening to a covered Lanai or screened porch....See MorePeninsula: Which way looks better design-wise?
Comments (21)als6w, There are lots of neat ways to finish off cupboards and peninsulas. It wasn't even something on my radar until I started frequenting GW! Doesn't bother me in the slightest, but I do like it when I see those finishes in other kitchens. For us, seeing the side of the pantry instead of the side of our fridge was such an improvement- we're happy, and we jealously guarded every inch of space on that wall, losing a couple of inches to add a fake door on either end just wasn't an option, let alone the $$$. We actually had ordered an angled cupboard to finish of the run of cabinets for the fridge side- had to reject the first two attempts, and ended up hiring a carpenter to build us a winerack/bookcase combo- far more functional, and we're happy with it. letter100, Our kitchen is 10.5' wide(actually an inch or two less than that). Yes, our walls our 8' high and the cupboards are 39" with a 3" molding and an 1.5" light rail (DH made the light rail, so he made it as small as possible). The peninsula overhang is 12" on the table side (so glad we added an extra 3" from the original plans). There is 5' from the base of the peninsula cabinet to the table. Wouldn't want it any tighter than that. Would have loved 2 more feet of length and depth to the DR part- but as we basically live in the kitchen and eat 95-98% of meals at the peninsula, we stole as many inches as possible from the DR. Our fridge is flanked by two 18" pantries- one is used as a broom/storage closet, the OTF cabinet is 29" deep+ 3/4" door. Any narrower, and I wouldn't be able to reach my pans/trays. I wouldn't recommend the cabinet manufacturer to anyone- (you could search to find out my long sad story)- my kitchen company has gone bankrupt and good riddance is all I can say!...See MorePocket doors between kitchen and dining room or open concept?
Comments (27)Oh, if I could do a wider opening and pocket doors between my kitchen and DR, I would. But I'm losing mine when we remodel. Like heidihausfrau, our pocket door between kitchen and DR is narrow; even narrower than hers, mine is only 27"! It's ridiculous. We're widening the doorway to 31" or 32" (can't go wider than that). We had initially planned on installing another pocket door but since the wall that currently houses the pocket door can't accommodate a door any wider than we currently have (runs into exterior wall), we would have to switch the pocket door housing to the other side of the doorway, which meant changing the location of the light switches, tearing into the stairway support wall, changing the shelving in the pantry so that it wouldn't interfere with the pocket door ... in the end, we decided to nix adding a pocket door. We're also widening the doorway between kitchen and hallway, from 29" (swing French door) to 47" (no door). We can't install double pocket doors, either one on each side or double-upped with bottom rail nor do we have room for swing doors (would block light switches, etc). At first we weren't sure about going sans doors for both entries. We used the doors between kitchen and hallway and kitchen and DR when our kids were little but we hardly ever close them now. In fact, we took the hallway/kitchen doorway off its hinges months ago to see if we would miss it and we don't. judeny: thanks for the great idea to do a hinged swing door! I had nixed going with a swing door because my DR is narrow enough as it is; I don't want a swing door eating up space (it would also have to swap sides so it would run along the wall between wall and table). But if I can do a hinged door like you did and keep it folded up against itself along the same wall the pocket door occupies now, I just might be able to install a door between kitchen and DR after all. (I wish you had pics to share with us.) Do you remember how far from the wall the door extends when it's folded against itself? TIA! AujS, don't forget to plan for where your light switches will go on the pocket door wall. I'm sure you want them close to the opening so make sure your contractor knows so that he makes sure there's room for an electrical box to house the switches....See Moredeegw
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