Need suggestions from the Pros...help w/ my desk area, please!

13 years ago

I'm in the drawing phases of my remodel and I'm just not loving what's been proposed for this one area. Currently it's a wet bar but we don't use it as that. It's a catchall area of my kitchen. I'd like to turn into a desk but I'm not sure how to design it. Below is a picture of the space currently & the other is a proposed drawing. My only concern is there's approx. 41' in between the bar & island. Just seems really tight. So if I put the knee space on the other side of the bar what do I do w/ the side where my cabinet doors are currently? Would it look strange to have a judges panel on this side? Also, what can I do up

above? We put in a shelf after moving in and it's not the look we were going for. One KD proposed a wine rack & peninsula cabinet but I removed them for cost savings. Any suggestions would be great. Just need some assistance...THANKS!!

P.S. Sorry, I can't get the pictures in my message. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Here is a link that might be useful: Desk area

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Comments (3)

kgolby
Original Author
13 years ago
Not 41 feet BUT 41 inches.
Buehl
13 years ago
I was going to post your pictures for you, but they're much too big. If you could resize them to around 400x300 (40 300x400) the would be a better size for posting here.

As to putting in a desk...most people today are taking desks out of their kitchens completely b/c they're "clutter magnets".

Instead, I would consider putting in a Message/Command Center...a base cabinet + upper cabinet OR a tall cabinet. In the base cabinet or lower portion of the tall cabinet, you could store all the desk paraphernalia (staplers, tape, etc.) as well as phone books/directories.

On the counter or in the middle of the tall cabinet, include an organizer for mail, telephone & answering machine, pens/pencils, charging station.

In the upper cabinet or top portion of the tall cabinet, put in a calendar and/or white/dry erase board plus some Post-Its and pens/pencils/markers. If you don't want an upper cabinet, you could just leave it open and use the wall for the previously mentioned items.

The advantage of a tall cabinet is that you can close the doors and hide the clutter. OTOH, a base + upper cabinet setup allows you to have some things out and others closed up.

Here are some threads discussing Message Centers:

Thread: Let me see your: Message Center

Thread: Kitchen Message Center Help

Thread: Show me your message center!
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Gillylilly, Since your house is so new does that mean you think you can get matching cabinetry pretty easily? If you can... Right now you have that open storage on the uppers. If you were able to move the door on the left to cover the center storage instead so now you have the open cabinet on the left. Then you could pull out the open cabinet and the drawer set below them and put in a full height pantry with pullouts. So you'd need to pay to move the door, take down/cut down that newly open upper, pull out the drawer base and cut the ctop down, and buy/install the pantry from the original cabinet people so it matches well. Then you'd still have a small desk area for your computer and piles (I'm thinking 24"? but it's hard to tell from the photos, but an entire pantry of what? 12? 15? inches and all enclosed uppers for basically the cost of a single large cabinet and the labor for install and cutting the granite. You'd end up with a left over drawer set (maybe you need to replace a regular cabinet with some drawers somewhere else?). The second phase here could be that if you didn't want the knee hole any more you could buy a second set of office drawers and put the two sets side by side under the desk drawer. That will give you an area that is probably a little higher than the rest of the kitchen but that's usually more comfortable if you are going to be standing in front of it looking at the laptop at all. Just some guesses as to options since there are no measurements! Here is a link that might be useful: Example Cabinet
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Buehl
13 years ago
Hmmm...you probably do not want to close up the wall above the current bar...but you could still put a calendar, etc. on the side walls.

As to your comments/question, are you saying you will have 41" b/w the desk's counter edge and the island's counter edge?

If the aisle b/w the desk & island is a walkway, then 41" may not even be enough room for an aisle. let alone any kind of seating!

The appropriate aisle width depends on...

(1) how much traffic there is in the aisle (through-traffic as well as kitchen traffic)

(2) if you plan to have a chair at the desk

(3) whether you plan to use that side of the island as a work station.

If you're planning on seating on that side of the island plus have the desk w/seating, then you need a much wider aisle! I would venture to say as much as 5' (60"). If you make it a Message Center or no desk/desk chair on the kitchen side but still have island seating, then I would still like to see at least a 48" aisle with appropriate seating overhang on the island, and 54" if it's an aisle with traffic (i.e., not a "dead end" aisle) OR your overhang is less than 15"; 48" if there's no traffic.

As to the "judges panel"...are you saying you would have the desk front be on the other side and have the back of the cabinet(s) face the kitchen? If so, then I assume you're talking about putting decorative door panels on the back of the desk cabinet(s)...and I think that's a good idea.

If you're working on a layout, you might want to post here for comments...if you want comments, that is! (Not everyone does, so if you don't that's fine...just a suggestion.)

Need suggestions from the Pros...help w/ my desk area, please!

Comments (3)

kgolby
Original Author

Buehl

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Need suggestions from the Pros...help w/ my desk area, please!

Comments (3)

kgolbyOriginal Author

Buehl

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kgolby
Original Author