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Kitchen Layout Critique

15 years ago

I am signing off tomorrow to get my kitchen started (very scary). The cabinets will be KM Cherry cognac on the perimeter and either cherry cognac on the island or white - I am sleeping on that decision. Door style Sedona. The pendants in the current pics(moved over new island), the stove and dishwasher but everything else goes. Any opinions greatly appreciated. This is my first kitchen reno.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen Pics & layout

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Comments (5)

rhome410
15 years ago
I see that in your kitchen photo, you have fillers between the sink cabinet and the angled ones to each side, but I don't see them on your plan. Make sure you have them so you don't have clearance issues with doors at the intersections of the cabinets.

It may be personal preference for rectangular islands, but I would not shape the island like the bay. Seems like something to navigate around when going from sink to stove and back.

I can't really tell what's planned for the other wall at the bottom of the plan.
remodelfla
15 years ago
Right off the top of my head... you're not going to be able to stand at the sink and load the DW without the door to the DW banging you in the legs.
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OK, that's two votes for too skinny of a wall, I'm going to work on changing the balance of the pass thru - I'll layout having two pantry cabinets with the pass thru in the middle and see how that feels. Marcolo, I think its a challenge for every kitchen - where does your dishware and glassware go? I plan on keeping the glasses closest to the fridge in the upper cabinet. Grab a glass and get some OJ type of operation. And the dishwasher is somewhat close to it as well for off loading glasses. As far as the dishes, I plan to keep them in the lower drawers in the island. I'm pretty sure most of my prep will be closer to the range which will be plenty of room for someone to grab a dish while I'm prepping. And close enough to the range for times when I want to grab a dish to plate a seared entree or whatnot. I'm also the only cook/baker, and I do all the prep, which makes it easier for me. So there isn't many others in the kitchen with me other than tasting and keeping me company aside from an occasional dinner party when friends help out. One day that might change when I have kids that love to cook and bake. Good luck with your planning! What stage are you at?
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The original home and the addition are both rather small for what you're trying to do. The living areas in the addition are too crowded to support the functions you are planning for them to have. You've got to account for the paths that the people need to move through the space. In other words, you need at least another 3' in width and length just to have the not quite right layout you have to work. The old portion of the home isn't configured optimally either. The master is especially awkward, and would be improved by a complete reconfiguration. And that's where you start to spend a lot more money than you think you will. Doing an addition that large to an original house will be quite expensive. A lot of times, because so much of the original home needs major work and upgrades, it can be cheaper to do a teardown and whole new construction than to try to upgrade, rearrange, and attach new to old. Even if you gut the old house to the studs and start completely over, you will still have it's 8' ceilings and structural layout that interferes with how you can approach the remodel. New homes typically are built to higher standards in insulation, electrical service, plumbing materials, and window efficiency. You're just not going to get in a retrofit without a lot more money than building it fresh as new construction. What's the layout of the current home, as is, without moving anything around? If you want to keep things cheap, that's where you start. You keep what's there and only alter it minimally. But, you also give up a lot of the space and convenience of a modern home. So, a lot depends on exactly what your budget might be, and what you hope to achieve by doing such an extensive reno.
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Comments (10)
I'm pretty sure Sektion makes sink cabinets with drawers designed specifically for garbage underneath. If you're handy, they could be modified, if needed, for your RO. Personally, I've never had a kitchen big enough where I've been willing to give up a lower cabinet for garbage. I've always kept it under the sink. Instead of a drawer, I use a garbage container installed inside the door. It's handy and removable when you need access to plumbing, etc. Regarding your DW placement. I would do anything to keep the DW out of the prep area. Almost anything but sacrifice a goat at midnight to Satan. I have that situation now and if my world's slowest remodel ever progresses, it will be moved outta there. It's the biggest irritation in my kitchen and one of my main motivations for the remodel. If I'm prepping to the right of the DW, next to range, and DH is loading/unloading the DW, and I need to use the sink. Grrrr! Sure, he closes the DW and steps aside but I usually need to do this several times during prepping and the time wasted adds up and the aggravation builds. I've tweaked your proposed layout below only to illustrate what the kitchen in my previous home looked like regarding the DW. Yeah, I stood in that teensy area with the red spot. I doubt it was even a full 12" wide. Narrower than you or Mama G I would stand there to put the items away that went in the poorly drawn upper corner cabinet. Then, because the fridge blocked exiting, I would close the DW and exit, then re-open the DW to put the other items away that were stored in other parts of the kitchen. It was tight but not a big deal and I would take that set-up any day of the week over having the DW in the prep area. Oh, I also would not go with a sink smaller than 30". I would rather make that red spot area to stand smaller than lose those inches in the sink. 30" is wide enough, just barely, for someone to do some prepping on one side while someone else does a bit of clean-up on the other side. I doubt you would be able to share a 27" sink. Of course, we're all different. You really need to think through which situation would work best for you. I wish I were creative enough to come up with a sink/DW placement superior to either option but I'm not clever enough to do that within your placement restrictions.
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Comments (8)
Here's another way of looking at your space. I think your plan is too crammed to one end and the dishwasher in the corner is a compromise I'd try to avoid. This give you seating in the kitchen, but it adds work space. the compromise is that if you have a counter depth fridge, it's about a foot farther away from the sink than the recommended maximum of 9 feet. however, by being on the other side of the kitchen, all quick drinks, snacks, microwave use, coffee maker, etc. could all be contained on that left wall outside of the clean up and cooking zones around the range and the sink.
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kmo1
Original Author
15 years ago
I appreciate the quick replies!

rhome410: i agree on the island but it was done this way to give enough clearance and yet still have an island. I can't think of another way that will give clearance/seating and storage trash. If you think of another way i would be very interested in hearing it. For the other wall I don't have a decent drawing but it will be a 24" wine frig with cabinets on each side. upper will be glass front in middle and smaller cabinets on each side.

remodelfla: i can't get bigger legs or i won't be able to do dishes:) currently the dw is just on the other side of the sink and you are right - it is tight.
bmorepanic
15 years ago
On the sink wall - decrease the depth of the base cabinets to 12" where NOT in the bay and then pad out the base cabinets in the bay so their fronts aligned with 12" depth ones.

You get almost 6 feet of straight cabinet fronts with normal depth in the bay - some room to have wine bottles or shallow shelves (or other creative uses, like lid racks, towel holders, wrap dispensers). You can have plants or canisters or cookie jars or a small Venus de Milo in the extra depth behind the sink.

You can then decrease the width of the island and increase its length. Same quantity of cabinets, but more usable counter. Move the sink and dw into the island or keep them in the bay.
Buehl
15 years ago
I agree w/what everyone else has said...

We had a similar situation but instead of following the contour of the bay, we "filled" it in.

In our old kitchen, our kitchen table was in the bay; in our new kitchen, our sink, DW, & trash pullout all fit in the bay. (We had to replace the windows with "shorter" windows so they could be counter height.)

I do have to comment though that if you're spending all this $$ to redo your kitchen, why not look into making it more functional? You already know it's tight w/the DW in that location, now add the trash pullout and you're in a difficult position (literally!) I strongly advise you to find a way to improve your kitchen rather than just perpetuate the existing problems.

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