The unkitchen, or the stealth kitchen is something that I really like the idea of. My kitchen, while clearly a kitchen because of the range was designed to mimimize its impact on the rest of the main floor of the apartment which is essentially one large room.

If you could, I would reduce the impact even more by using a paneled fridge and DW. A regular undercounter fridge generally needs a certain amount of space around it for air circulation and those inches can be a pain to clean around.

For a minimally used sink, you could probably have the upper cabinets set at 18" above the countertop. I had this in one of my kitchens and it worked fine. I would set the height by that needed for the convection oven.

I would further refine the layout by making the upper more balanced. Put the shelf and shorter cabinet in between the two taller cabinets. You could have a dedicated outlet for a possible on-the- counter portable burner or induction cooktop.

Summit makes the least expensive compact fridges that accept a panel.

GE makes the least expensive 18" DW that accepts a panel

Avanti Summit and Supentown all make portable single burner induction cooktops .

I would not suppress the fact that this is a kitchenette so much design-wise that it would make anything inconvenient, but I think you have a real opportunity to make something that is both fully functional and discreet.

You might want to take a look at the sample rooms on the yestertec site, too, for more design ideas:

Here is a link that might be useful: yestertec

It looks like a great idea! People do this type of thing in their basement all the time. With bonus rooms moving upstairs, why not kitchenettes?

The mint green is going to be fun, with the white and butcher block. Seems like a practical and enjoyable plan :)

Those convection microwaves get darn hot and require good ventilation. You can't just stick a countertop model in there. I would make sure that you can find one of adequate size for your needs that can fit in that 24'' cabinet.

The Miele ovens are all built in, and a categorized with "ovens" on the AJMadison site rather than with the microwaves :)

When you say "coffee pot shelf" do you mean a built-in unit or something that you will have to fill from above every time? If the latter, might it be hard to use in situ, tucked on a shelf with a cabinet above it restricting your access?

Wine fridge/cubbies, beer fridge? Needed?

My gosh - thanks for all the quick responses!

blfenton - we aren't much of a beer/wine family, so a plain fridge fits us.

mnerg - we have a keurig, about fourteen inches tall, where you remove the plastic reservoir to fill it. I'm more worried about vapor damaging the cabinet over it, but maybe it can be lined with something, or painted heavily.

I am a little concerned about the appliances - heat and vapor from the dishwasher, built-in oven and coffeepot. But I don't have space to really spread them out. There's a ceiling fan in there, but no real exhaust other than the dryer vent.

yestertec was interesting - thanks! They all seem to want burners- but we don't use ours as much as the toaster oven. A portable is a great idea there. The contractor was saying this will take a lot of electrical.

palimpsest - Thanks! I will look into those panels. The oven cavity is about 18 inches tall, so then it depends on the insulating layers. H4042BM is the oven.

It would be a lifesaver if the contractor could get this set up before they demo the real kitchen downstairs. Pretty sweet for a temp kitchen!

I'd go with an induction single burner for safety issues and to keep you versatile. They are not expensive and can be put away when not in use.

Um... Where's the dumbwaiter? Before we get too far into layout will you please explain how the food and leftovers and all of that is going to get to the unkitchen when people can't do the stairs?

All of my groceries come up a flight of stairs. Bringing them up is a lot more of a deal than bringing self down from bedroom level to cook them.

My teen daughter and I do fine on stairs. So far, it's only DH on bad days, which are maybe twenty days a year, and currently even on those days he manages the stairs. In twenty years, I'll be seventy, and if I can't do it, and darling daughter can't swing by weekly, I shall hire out that part. As long as it's a weekly chore and not daily, we'll be fine there. We actually do carry plates of food upstairs now for movie nights. So there is a plan, but thanks for the thought. I'm actually thinking it will be good for me to go up and down more at least short term.

Another teeny kitchen, not stealth by any means, but with a lot of clever ideas for squeezing plenty of stuff in a small area (including induction-in-a-drawer):

Here is a link that might be useful: Tudor City micro-kitchen