Save my marriage - tiny kitchen layout help needed!

11 years ago

Hi ya'll happy spring.

So wish I could enjoy it right now but am MISERABLE over my kitchen design disaster. Existing kitchen is horrible - teeny tiny and very awkward layout. House was built in the 20s, and I think may have last been redone in the 70s... We can't move any exterior walls, windows or doors. Its a 5 bdrm house, and while DH & I have no children, we want to sell soon and most likely buyers will have them.

Current " design" for dining (which is meant to be a formal) and kitchen attached.(hopefully you can make it out)

Existing walls are in bold black except for the existing wall between kitchen and dining room which is in gray.

I am not at all happy with the diagram I have drawn now (btw orange lines are conceptual new walls and each box is 3" x 3") and am quite certain that I am breaking all kinds of rules of good design. The refrigerator is in an awkward place and I am really struggling.

(if you click on this it may be easier to see than the photo below)

March 24, 2013

I want to blow out that gray wall and have open kitchen to dining room. DH hates that idea but is coming around. I wanted to open up the space where the existing entry to the dining room is and take floor space from the dining room.

Originally I wanted open up the side of the gray wall with the existing entry way and push an island or partial island out about 2-3 feet into the dining room on the existing interior wall closest to the hall and put a sink or a stove in the middle. DH says we can't do that because we will destroy all the floor joists trying to get the plumbing to the sewer pipe or to down vent a stove both of which would need to be at the long back wall where I have the sink now. Our floor joists run from left to right across the dining room kitchen area.

Another issue is that we do not have HVAC, and there is a permanently installed wall unit (hate that too) on the exterior wall of the dining room to the right of the french doors that I will have to lose in order to move the existing gray wall more than 12". (not really gaining much space on that side of the kitchen for opening up a wall).

The yellow area is where we are adding/moving a powder room. That is currently a very, very cramped "eat in" area in the kitchen.

Any feedback, suggestions or therapy would be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks in advance!
e

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (3)

ideagirl2
11 years ago
So wait, is your drawing both (1) existing walls/doors/windows AND (2) proposed locations of fixtures (sink, stove etc.)? I ask because the gas range appears to be sitting right in the doorway to the dining room.

If that's the case, could you explain where everything currently is? In other words, what's the "before" picture?

Assuming what your diagram shows is where fixtures and cabinets WILL be in the future, I think with a little tweaking it would be great. Here's what I would suggest:

- Like you said, blow out the part of the kitchen/dining room wall that doesn't have cabinets on it (essentially, the bottom half of the wall).

- Put a wall behind the stove and the cabinets on either side of the stove. Since your space doesn't have room for an overhang, seating or clearance (i.e. space between the range and people in the dining room), you really would gain nothing from having that be a peninsula that's open to both the kitchen and the DR. But if you let that be a wall, then you gain space in the kitchen for some important stuff: (1) a good vent hood (if you're building a new wall it's very easy/cheap to put in the ductwork for the vent); and (2) wall cabinets on either side of the vent hood, for more storage in the kitchen. Yay!

- Instead of a 24" cab to the left of the stove, make it a 12" cab so the stove can move down. As drawn, there's not enough space between the stove and sink. 12" more and you've got an great work space that you'll use all the time--just make sure you don't put any appliances on that counter (coffee maker, toaster), just use it for prep space, and you'll be very happy with it. You could even consider making the cabinet to the left of the stove be 9". I wouldn't go smaller than that because you need some clearance between the range (in particular, the handles on your pans) and the doorway.

- I see you want a 24"x18" farmhouse sink. Want to save a LOT of money? Get an Ikea Domsjo farmhouse sink (link below). It's 24" wide, exactly as you want, but it has two HUGE advantages over anything else you're going to find: (1) it's REALLY inexpensive, and (2) it's 27" deep, in other words, you DO NOT have to put any countertop behind it--it goes all the way back to the wall. That makes your counters cheaper and easier to make.

Here's a link where you can buy the Domsjo -- the other link shows you how it's installed, so you can see why it makes the countertop simpler:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S49847479/

Here is a link that might be useful:
lazy_gardens
11 years ago
If you want to sell soon, you will never recover the cost of the kitchen remodel.

Clean it thoroughly, price it "as is" and let the buyer handle the headaches.
Related Discussions
Save my marriage - help with landscape design!
Q
Comments (15)
Sorry to be so absent here for the last few days. My wife and I read (and researched) each comment thoroughly and came up with a sorta-plan before we went out nursery-browsing on Saturday. We agreed with timbu that more of a minimalist approach would be best, as to not detract from the house, and to allow us to add plant material later if we want to augment it. It would also help with the water conservation issue, which I obviously did not consider early enough in the overall landscape process. We do plan on reducing the size of the right-side grass when we re-do the walkway in a year's time or so. I'll follow up with pictures soon, but here's what we ended up doing: On the left/right sides of the driveway, we sunk sandstone rock clusters into the dirt, and planted lavender around those (this mimics what we did in front of the 4' tall fence on the front border of the property). On the left had side, we added a tree - a different species Japanese maple. We couldn't resist. We really wanted something different, like an Autumn Fantasy or October Glory maple, but were concerned with a) it being to close to the driveway and b) it being too big. We had a flowering cherry on the cart at one point, but neither of us was in love with it - thought it might look out of place. We also places 4x trailing rosemary along the driveway wall on each side, spaced about 4' apart. Hopefully those will trail nicely and soften that harsh wall. In front of the windows, I didn't get my camelias. You're all absoultely right - TOO BIG! We ended up getting four rhodies to go nearest the windows, followed by a row of gardenias, and lastly a row of white azaleas (who knew costco sold azaleas). We plan to get a large truckload of wood chips delivered in the coming week to cover all the dirt that still is exposed. The wife is very happy with the finished product, and I'm fine with it (no love, no hate). Thanks to all for your inputs. I fear we're not nearly experimental enough for this group here, as we didn't budge too much from our comfort zone. But cost and time were unfortunate constraints here. I wish I could start over completely with the landscape design here (and wish I had $100k to spend on it!). Thanks again. -Shawn
...See More
I swear this is my very last layout for my tiny kitchen
Q
Comments (15)
Lavender_lass, I, too, prefer the sink under the window but we were so motivated by the ease of venting the stove, there was no way to keep the sink on the same wall as the stove. Desertsteph, hard to say who works in the kitchen more. I do 90% of the cooking, DH does 90% of the cleanup. Besides the sink and lazy susan corner, there is only the drawer stack already plus the 18 DW to the left of the sink and the 9 full height door to the right of the stove for the griddle, cookies sheets & jelly roll pan and cutting board. The filler to the right of the stove is 1 inch plus a fraction, the filler to the left of the fridge is 3 inches plus a very small fraction. The fridge requires a minimum 2 inches of clearance when placed next to the wall in the corner. Palimpsest, you just gave me a wonderful idea. I NEVER thought about going behind the crown above the cabs, we were going to break through to the garage, do something with this very large antique mahogany cab that I use as my pantry on that wall and go out the side of the house. Up is not an option as it would be smack in the middle of the landing when you go up the attic steps (someday we hope to finish that off and add a bath if the kitchen or DH doesn't kill me first). I think I was under the false impression that the vent had to be a 6, 7 or 8 in ROUND. I will have to investigate this! Thank you!! Fori, I too prefer #2. All of our pots and pans are kept in a 24 inch 1 door cab now which was fine with us and Layout #1 mimicked that same access but in a 30 inch 2 door cab and we just thought that was so much better but over the w/e, I saw a 36 lazy susan display and said we can do this instead! It did look very roomy. Marcolo, thanks! I just think that with the DW to the left of the sink that will be so much better and easier to unload to the right for the drawer stack and dish cab and I will have more room to the side of the stove. Oh, I hope I'm a happy puppy! Clueless & Buehl, thanks for your vote! Deedles, I thought that too about #1 especially since I am tall. I guess it's one of those things that you really have to see and feel in person. We were going to go straight back initially but it would be impossible to access that cab above the sink in the corner and I just couldn't give up a cab. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! It was nice knowing you as I am sure the KD will kill me when I go back to her this week and make her rework everything.
...See More
xpost - Save my marriage - tiny kitchen layout disaster
Q
Comments (1)
Yes, there is a rule, plumbing code, that says your drain line must slope, the entire length. BTW, I've found a 33" side-by-side refrigerator to be much less convenient that an over/under, and it holds less. I prefer the freezer on the bottom style. JMHO
...See More
Please help me with my tiny kitchen layout!
Q
Comments (27)
Hi Rosie! Thanks! Using the front room for dining is a great idea, however we DO use our front room quite a bit as well, because when I'm cooking/cleaning or watching a movie with my daughter, my hubby can go up front and sit in the sofa with our dog and read, so it functions as a quiet "away" room (Sarah Susanka, anyone?) but he can still feel connected to us. And vice versa. That's also where our fireplace is, and we like to hang out there, especially when our families come out from the east coast to stay with us. I think we looked into it being a dining room, but the proportions didn't work. Ah, the joys of small urban living! Maybe I should post that plan too! However, I also love hearing about your lack of need for a prep sink. Does your husband or anyone else use the kitchen at the same time as you?
...See More
Buehl
11 years ago
I agree with LazyGardens. If you plan to sell soon, you would be better off leaving it as-is - just clean, paint, and add some decorative touches.

If the current design is really bad, then price it accordingly - reduce the price by a few thousand dollars (or use it for bargaining later). It will cost more to remodel than the amount you would have to reduce.

However, if "soon" is really 5 to 10 years down the road and you want something to enjoy now, then accept that you probably won't get back more than about half of what you put into it (%-age will depend on how long it will have been since the remodel, economy when you sell, & housing market in your area) and continue with the remodel.

If you choose to continue, could you please post a drawing of the current space with no cabinets/appliances, etc....i.e., a blank slate, along with labeled measurements. Those boxes are awfully tiny to sit here and count and labeled measurements are usually more accurate than relying on counting boxes.

Save my marriage - tiny kitchen layout help needed!

Comments (3)

ideagirl2

lazy_gardens

Related Discussions

Buehl

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US