Love all the tiles you show! I can't wait to see your vision come together.

I would hate to have a cooktop that goes into the less accessible section of the corner. I think it could be worth it to consider a corner orientation as you could use more counter space around your sink and between the sink and stove.

I know you specifically said you want a full-size fridge, but in this space, I'd seriously consider something like a 24" or 30" in one of the upper-tier brands, that offer spaciousness inside without as much width. Clearly every inch will count in this layout.

Best wishes!

Love the tiles and the doors and it's a very cute apt, but I'd give some very serious thought to the idea of a lift-up granite countertop. Have you ever lifted a slab of granite, even a small one?

Any options to take 18" from the LR
Or close the doorway to the DR and have the kitchen open into the LR instead?
Might give you a few more layout/storage choices???

Although I read most of your blog I apologize if I missed comments on wall/doorway changes.

BTW the tiles are beautiful!

Enjoyed your blog, agree with considering a smaller fridge and granite is very heavy. Be sure to try out cabinet interior fittings as sometimes they sound good but don't work for you.

Here's a recent thread about a similar kitchen.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tiny NYC kitchen

If it were me, I'd give serious consideration to using a set of refrigerator drawers in place of a regular fridge. Do you definitely need the capacity of a full-size fridge? Drawers are narrower (24 or 27 in.), and you would have all sorts of counterspace on top of them. Then, for overflow, I'd probably stick a freezer or minifridge (depending on if you get fridge or fridge/freezer drawers) into one of the closets somewhere.

They *are* expensive, but I bought my SubZero drawers on craiglist for $1000, so maybe you can find a deal.

Capacity isn't the same as a regular fridge, of course, but you are in the city, so I imagine it's easy enough to buy many things as you need them.

Love the tiles also, especially the first one, nice glaze and relief. Not a lot of people use that beautiful striking aqua in the kitchen but I think it would look great along with the Rock of Ages counter top or what ever brand. I have always had neutral paint in my kitchens and at one time I decorated with aqua colored pans and towels, etc., it always got a lot of positive complements and I really liked it. Your door selection is beautiful. Look forward to following your blog and pictures here too.

Cograts! I'm following your blog to watch progress. Love the floors. The layout seems good too. From your selections, looks like it will be fantastic. We'll enjoy watching your progress.

Allison

I didn't read the whole blog, but it sounds like a cool project. Here are a couple of thoughts.

As you noted, it is a small space and you don't want to feel like an airline stewardess squeezed into a 767 galley. Too many upper cabinets will make it feel very hemmed-in, so you might consider fewer upper cabs, more open shelves or bare wall, and for the upper cabs you do have I would consider glass-pane doors or mirror-panes.

Counter space will also be at a premium (unless you open things up, see below). I like the suggestion of undercounter drawer refrigerators. Or, how about a stack - wall oven with the microwave mounted above and drawer refrigerators below.

A drawer dishwasher seems perfect because it won't block the whole kitchen during loading. But your drawing has the dishdrawers placed under the sink which won't work (plumbing).

This may be impractical, but if you have any flexibility to partly open walls and move doors, you might use the half of the living room closest to the kitchen as the ''dining area'', with the kitchen opened to that dining area. Think counter over half-wall, accented by support posts if needed. This would relieve any claustrophic tendencies in the kitchen and give you 10-ish feet of new counter space and undercounter storage, as well as a larger dining area. The living room would now include the existing dining room, so it would be roughly the same size, just oriented differently.

Choosing tile is a personal decision, but sometimes in smaller spaces you want to use ''less busy'' patterns to create a more spacious feeling.

What a great place! I love the book niche and arches. Congratulations!

As far as the kitchen goes - I agree with Rhome that it's worth checking out the narrower, counter-depth options for refrigerators. The extra 6" - 12" gained in counter space is valuable real estate in your kitchen.

Is it possible to move any of the appliances? Even though it would be non-traditional, I think it might be worth it to swap range and sink. You could place the sink diagonally in a 36" corner sink base, and then have the 2+ feet of counter top under the window to place dirty dishes or for big cooking projects. On the long wall, you could then have an 18" dishwasher, the 30" range and the remaining 4+ feet to split between fridge and countertop. I know it interrupts the traditional Fridge - sink - range work flow to move the sink, but it keeps your stove out of the corner, and allows you a long span of counter near the sink, which is always nice.

I love your pop-up counter idea. They'll be small enough that I don't think the weight will be a huge issue. But, if you are going to tile part of that wall anyhow, I think I would tile the pop-up counters as well and work them into your design using accent colors. Is there any possibility of recessing them into the wall a bit so they disappear when not it use?

I might consider keeping the door to the kitchen so that you could use the wall space behind it as semi-hidden hanging storage for flat things.

The dining alcove is a bit snug, but such is the way of Manhattan. The wall where the little cupboards are seems like it would be ideal for a 5' - 6' bench for dining seating if that cupboard space could be absorbed into the adjacent closet.

Best of luck with this exciting project. I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

With granite, 3cm, plan on about 20 pounds per running foot of counter 12" wide - so for a 3 foot section, figure on lifting 60 pounds. Plus, you get to figure out how to attach it to the brackets and keep it from breaking. Personally, I'd consider something lighter.

The rails or something like gridwall should work well. So would very narrow shelves or baskets that are 6" deep. You could hang most of your pots, lids, spices, cans, cereals, etc. as well as kitchen tools.

Putting a dishdrawer under the sink sounds good, but the dishdrawer doesn't bear weight and doesn't fit into a cabinet, so your sink would be unsupported? Plus you're assuming it will fit under the drain and water supply pipes. If the drain and supply lines are wall mounted and high enough so the drain "U" clears the disdrawer, I guess its possible to make that work, but not if you're using a deep sink.

Be careful of putting a low full depth cabinet above the sink. For one thing, it could be a fire code thing with the minimum height of cabinetry to the side of the range. For the other, it could get seriously in the way - particularly with a lift door cabinet. You can get a taller plain cabinet (39") and put a shelf on the wall underneath, 4-6" wide, to contain an easily accessible set of glassware with interfering with lifting pots into and out of the sink.

Congratulations on your estate purchase.

Congrats on your new home.
I suggest first a set of the mechanicals plans for your space. Check with management or the city buiding department. A 14" drop for the livingroom suggests the water and drainage system is located in that space under the rest of the apartment. You could have flexibility for plumbing changes within that area.
And that is important because the real challenge is the bath.

Taking that flexibility as a given I would delete the dining room and slide it over so the space takes up the hall and closet. This is the new bath. About 9'4"x7'6". Two sinks a large glass shower with seat and steam shower setup inside instead of a tub. Travertine floor electric heated on a timer. Pocket door off the new hall
The hall from the foyer runs down the livingroom wall into an open L shaped kitchen running down the livingroom wall and the alley wall. There is no hall to the bedroom because the wall between the kitchen and the bath and the bath and the bedroom are gone. An island with seating on the bedroom side is where the wall was. 24" clearance on the alley side and 36" on the bath wall side. And the bedroom is your new livingroom, the space with the most dynamic views. As large as before because it includes an open kitchen where you can cook and be with your friends.
The stepdown into the new bedroom could be the beginnings of a creative and atmospheric development of that space. Lots of possibilities and quiet and peaceful.
But we have removed about every closet in the place. First the entrance to the old livingroom in closed and the new entrance is left off the hall positioned so that closet space runs the width of the new bedroom on your left as you walk in. You could do builtins all the way to the ceiling. You can go larger in width if you think it is necessary and move the entrance a little to get a walkin. The foyer closets are also reconfigured into one if that works without changing the parquet floor too much.
If the move of the drain is possible mechanically this is not that involved of a job. Open a temporary hall through the back wall of the bath closet and build the new bath first.
The new big kitchen layout will be fun.

Congrats on your new apartment. You may want to look at the undersink dishwasher instead of a dishdrawer. You can put more in it and it would also support the sink.

http://products.geappliances.com/ApplProducts/Dispatcher?REQUEST=SpecPage&Sku=GSM2260NSS

Hey Suzanne, as a fellow Big Apple dweller (Brooklyn) congratulations on your new apartment! That looks like a really cool space in which you are going to make some wonderful reno/design changes! Since I'm not much of a layout person, I won't comment on the plans you have already drafted beyond noting that I do really love the idea of the drop down counters for the kitchen. At the same time, I agree with others that the weight of granite in such an application is likely to be prohibitively heavy. Have you given any consideration to a really gorgeous wood instead such as Wenge, Zebrawood, African Mahagony, etc. which could be waterloxed or treated with tung oil? There are several GW members who have used these "designer woods" on their islands and other countertops and the results are droolworthy! I ditto Stef's suggestion that you take a look at that tiny NYC kitchen which Pllog shared with us; seems to me that jaw-dropping design could also be lifted and dropped right into your new kitchen. And, of course,Dan's suggestions, although considerably more involved than the ones you have initially shared about your kitchen, are fantastic.

Whatever you do, though, I'm sure it will turn out great and I'm really looking forward to following your entire project on your blog. You go!

You asked in your block about 18" DW. I have an 18" Miele and it has worked out fine: you also don't need to wait so long to fill it up before you run it and thats great for a couple or single.

I would also consider a 24" wide, tall, counter-depth refrigerator: Avanti, Blomberg, Danby, Fagor, GE, LG, Liebherr, SMEG, and Summit all make fridges in this size in various styles, configurations and price points. Or you could go up 3" in width to a 27" Sub Zero if you have $6K to spend.

Saving these inches in width (and depth) could add a lot to the kitchen.

A galley = optimize how you'll use the end where your window is.

No vent now = you'll be using the window as a vent.

(2 drawer) Ariston fridge : 34" high, 20" deep, 35" wide

Quartz 2cm, 3/4", is good for this small space.

Wall cabinets can be horizontal, with fold-up hinges. See Aventos HF.

Drawers can be any dimension you want.

Even Ikea fans cut cabinet bases down to 20.5" deep, or occasionally get longer Blum glides and have deeper-length drawers.

Suzanne, LOVE LOVE LOVE the cabinet choices! Oh how I wish I knew about that place before I got mine. (although I AM in love with my cabs!!)
Congrats on your UWS/NYC apartment. I MISS NYC SO MUCH!! I used to work in the WTC :(
We now live in Richmond, VA and we love it here, but the city of Richmond aint no city of New York!
Good luck!

it looks like it's gonna be great! I do like dan's idea of switching the bdroom and LR tho. you could make the end of the br (now lr) a huge closet and storage.

flip the b*ath and kit. then the kit would be open to the new LR - which would also have the 2nd window (more light and noise, not as needed in Bdrm).

lose the 2 'hall' closets - 1 would merge into the kit and one would open up the DR making space for a small table and 2 or so chairs. you could have a small island between 'k*itchen' wall and new LR.

of course, that does take away from the style of the apt as is. or if you plan to have lots and lots of friends over at the same time. would be more usable to me, I wouldn't have tons of people over at one time anyway. It would be more m*oney to do also. still... the plumbing, drains, etc that are the expensive stuff are along a common wall! you'd have bigger window in b*ath. the kit would have light from the small window and 2 LR windows...

I do love the idea of putting in some out of this world accent tiles. that'd really set things off.

also love the niche in the entrance. and the view out the front window, the arches ... I love old bldgs!

btw, they do make very small reg f*ridges. mine is rather small - it's just me! you could put a small chest freezer in your bdroom (my sister did this, so did my m*om) for extra stuff - like when snowed in / blizzard days. they are very low in cost - about 150.00. I always think I might fall in since I'm so short (trying to get something at the bottom) and one day my sister will come looking for me and there i'll be... head down in the freezer with my feet in the air!

keep us posted on the progress.

good grief! when i blocked everything the ads were picking up on... it attacked 'm*om' and 'm*oney'!!!

Hi Suzanne!
Thanks for sharing your blog. I enjoyed looking at it. The floor plan and video especially helped me get visualize it.

My first question was - how much reno are you willing to do? I also thought, because of your comment about the view, that you might want to switch the LR and BR. I think Dan had some great suggestions. I'd love if someone would be able to 'draw' his suggested floorplan.

I'm adding a link. I bookmarked this a while ago because we have a tiny powder room and I loved the way she addressed her bathroom. Can't remember where I saw this. Probably on GW. You may find some of her ideas worthwhile.

Keep us posted. I'll be checking your blog!

(Another) Suzanne :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Kittie's Tiny Tudor City Triumph

Thank you all so much! I love this forum!

As for moving walls - this is a co-op building in Manhattan. For those of you who live in a saner world, that means that I'm not just bound by the building code, the mechanicals, and the laws of physics - I need co-op board approval too. The board must review and approve my plans before I can do anything. The building's alteration policy includes the usual 'no wet over dry' (e.g. you can't expand a kitchen or bath into a space that's upstairs from your neighbor's living room or bedroom). Moving walls or plumbing is a huge deal and might well be disapproved - it would certainly add many months and uncountable headaches to the process, not to mention more-or-less having to pay bribes to the Department of Buildings to get the necessary permits and 'exceptions' from our loony accessibility code. I don't have the time or energy for that. Also I don't really like open kitchens, and the living room is sunken so it would look stupid.

I just revised my dishwasher plan in favor of an 18'' compact dishwasher - see http://suzanne10023.blogspot.com/2010/02/decisions-and-revisions.html

The chest-freezer-in-a-closet idea is really interesting! I use my freezer much more than my fridge. And I did fall into a deep chest freezer head first once - with my feet kicking in the air! I was working at a Carvel as a teenager, and my coworkers laughed so hard that they could barely stop to pull me out.

Horizontal cabinets are a problem for me, as I'm only five feet tall; I can't reach to close them.

My first plan had a double corner sink (oooo!), but then I went back and measured, and found that that would put the sink more than four feet away from the drain (boohoo!).

I was planning to make the pop-up counters out of wood, faced with thin granite floor tile, not countertop-thick material. And there will be two or three separate ones in a row, only about 16'' x 14'' each, which will raise and lower independently. They could be tiled instead - they just need not to show scorch-marks.

Here is a link that might be useful: blog post on dishwashers

That's an awfully large fridge for such a small kitchen. I would go with a built in cabinet depth 24" one. There are many on the market now. That will give you more room to the right of the sink and more breathing space in that area. Shopping is so close and easy in the city, do you really need a fridge that size? It overpowers the kitchen I think and takes so much needed space away. Something to think about.

It is unusual to have a bedroom stepdown. It does remove the other problems and gives you a 12' closet wall to your left as you walk in. A large 4x4 platform step into the bedroom with a pocket door where the railing is now is a compromise you can avoid with a higher but more expensive floor in that room. That's an investment option I would suggest you pose as part of a plan evaluation. Take your final configuration and one based on the larger bath open kitchen living room for an appraisal. Probably the agent who helped you find your apartment could offer some pro feedback. If the new plan has a significant impact on the market value and marketability of your asset you can use that in a more formal appraisal as part of your presentation to the board.
And you don't have to do it now or first. You can pick components for your kitchen which can be reused in the larger rehab. That way you can let them take whatever time is necessary. You can structure it so they are helping you learn the steps to accomplish this in the best way possible, always based on the professional opinion that this will make your property much more valuable.
This two part rehab is both a logical reasonably sized bath and the popular long island with the cabinet appliance wall behind it you see in many floor plans for new Manhattan buildings. You could submit 15 plan segments off the sites of developers all over the city. They all show the same design. Northside Piers has an open kitchen picture at their sight.
The Rushmore has a nice bath design when you click on the four bedroom park facing. Glass shower and tub.

It's not to much spread over time if you have the complete plan without needing to set deadlines.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rushmore

How many people are (usually) living there?

One or two people could definitely get by with a 24" fridge/freezer.

I have been living happily with my 24" for over a year. I actually have more usable space than when I has a big fridge, because I can see to the back and clear out all the old stuff. They are available at all price levels.

Of course, when I lived on the UWS, I often used the fridge as a big vermin-proof safe. So I understand if you still want a really big one!

Congratulations!

Here's another example of a tiny, but glam and very functional NYC kitchen, and one which includes a full-sized fridge. Surely you can remove a wall as long as you don't spread out the plumbed area:

Here is a link that might be useful: Pearl White kitchen

i had a long kitchen once.
its floor plan was a T.
that was in order to use the window best, and to break the counter instead of having one long sweep, or an L.
in L shaped kitchens you always lose a lot in the corner.
a T gives it back and gives you more maneuver room too.
suzanne give some thought to this.
you have an L today.
it could be a T with a passthrough to the living room.
on the exterior (window) wall you have room for a lot of counter.
it could be two freestanding ikea kitchen furniture pieces.
that would be a quick way to solve today's needs without rebuilding walls.
your kitchen isn't wide enough for two parallel counters, "pity".

Aaaaaa! If I'd wanted something that looked like the Rushmore, I'd have bought an entirely different apartment. I don't like what developers are doing now; I've seen new buildings and they don't tempt me.

I bought a prewar apartment because I love the prewar look and layout. I want to restore it, not butcher it. I want my renovation to be timeless. I want you to walk in and say "those can't be the original 1920s cabinets ... can they?" I want to shine up that railing on the dining balcony, not rip it down.

But I'm not a rabid purist. I want modern conveniences too, concealed cleverly behind panels wherever they can be. I'm not springing for custom inset-door cabinets, accurate though they may be, because I can't afford the price or the wasted space.

Of course I wish the builders had been psychic about dishwashers, and given another ten inches or so in the kitchen (the bath's just inexplicable). But I agree with the principles behind prewar design - squeeze the necessities into the minimum possible space, out of sight, and make the reception rooms large and elegant and symmetrical.

(BTW, those enormous kitchens and baths in new construction are not primarily driven by style - NYC codes require accessibility, e.g. 5-foot turning radiuses, when you're building new or gutting an old building.)

The about 7'6" by 9'6" bath the I suggested is enough for either a R2 occupancy type B unit minimum 7'6"x7'8" of Type A Option or the less restrictive Type B occupancy minimum 5'9 1/2"x7'9" minimum of Appendix P. See the link for a layout of each on page 23-24.
I responded to your original post where you noted your need for a new kitchen and bath. And especially to the "totally unspeakable bathroom" and hideous description of that space. The ideas went toward maximizing space use and resale value in a present day layout. Most consider a kitchen a public area because that is where everybody goes. Giving up the formal dining space for a larger bath and a kitchen/dining area is what I thought of. Except for a walkup on St. Marks with the bathtub at counter height in the kitchen yours is the smallest full bath I've seen. Using it for prewar space configuration is a new input and something difficult to pickup from your post. Given a no door option between the kitchen and dining room some change seemed ok.

Keeping the same floor plan I also suggest a 24" tall frig. The vestfrost unit on the Summit Appliances site listed as commercial is available in white for ~$800 more in stainless. CP171w on their site 79"Hx23.63"Wx24"Deep. Panels might go on it. Vestfrost is made in Denmark and their site offers an english option. That extra foot might make insets fit and Walzcraft can supply a complete face unit ready to mount for each segment. I'll do another post for Ikea alternatives

Here is a link that might be useful: Accessibility bathroom

This post has a link to the journal of light construction discussion of rta cabs. The units pictured from Scherr's would offer you an option for matching wood interiors beyond the birch from Ikea.

Here is a link that might be useful: RTA cabinets