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I need a creative solution!

13 years ago

Our kitchen is going to be a U with short-ish sides. The cabinets were pulled from the reno of someone else's kitchen, so what we have is all we have and isn't really match-able. The problem is the space between stove and door. I would like to use about 30" of space or less to keep the walk path more open. We thought we had a 33" base cab to put there, which just barely fit without being getting cramped, but I had failed to note that was the sink cab. What could/should I put here? I started to think to have our guy build a cab type shell, just have open shelves for cook books and hope there is BB left over to top it with. Any other ideas?

Also wondering about the backsplash. We are using Ikea BB counters. Should I get a couple inches of BB backsplash from somewhere (can I even do that?) to stain to match (we're staining the counter too) or just have the counter against the wall? The rest of the wall/backsplash area is going to be painted for the foreseeable future, with possibly some type of glass behind the stove. Money is definitely an issue here.

Here is a pic of one of the drafts of our layout, though it's not really accurate anymore, we made changes last night and I don't have access to the program that made it anymore. There will be a peninsula sticking out from the bottom of the pic near the dishwasher and the bit of wall that sticks out. Also, you can see the 33" cab next to the stove that we don't actually have. Above it will be some short open shelving to end the upper cab run so that we don't have to shorten the soffitt. If that makes sense?

Here is a pic of our cabinets before they were pulled from their previous location:

Thanks!

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Comments (3)

brickton
13 years ago
Okay here are some thoughts:

If you have the sink base and don't need it for the actual sink, then you could add a drawer behind the panel, add a shelf and make it into a cabinet that matches, pretty easily.

You could paint the cabinets and then buy a builder stock cabinet from a big box store and have it match simply by painting it.

You could make it a 'hutch' in a different finish by adding a stand alone cabinet with a chunk of beadboard behind it again in the same finish, some corbels and an upper cabinet in the same finish. That way it looks like a free standing piece of furniture that isn't supposed to match. If you do it all painted you could even paint the countertop to really make it look like a separate piece.

For cheap backsplash options you can look at subway tile ($.33 each), beadboard, tin ceiling panels, etc.
bmorepanic
13 years ago
You can ask a millwork shop or at a hardwood store for red birch lumber 3/4" x 4" 4 sides sanded (just like "real" lumber), unless you specify, you might end up with rough sawn lumber. If you ask a millwork shop, you can get them to cut a fancy edge on top.

I would get a cart from ikea to fill that space beside the range. Other thoughts are a pre-made hutch or bookshelf unit that is roughly counter height and put counter on top.

Ikea also has pretty reasonable backsplash panels including a few plain ones and stainless steel.
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blackcats13
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the ideas! Unfortunately we do need it for the sink. We discussed swapping it out with one of the unplanned base cabs, but they are all bigger and really throw off the layout of everything. I don't want to paint the cabs (they are natural cherry and high quality, so pretty in person), but I love the idea of making it look like a free standing piece next to the stove! I could really play around with that as far as colors, etc. Hm. We also have all the corian that came with those cabs. It's too expensive to fabricate for the whole kitchen, but if I did the freestanding hutch type thing we could just have it fabricated for that... Hm. a 28" ikea cab would fit there nicely and could be painted. Or we have a 30" in the basement that I think can be repaired... The ikea cart was another idea floating around my brain.

bmorepanic - you kinda lost me on the first paragraph ... oh, unless you are talking about the backsplash? That's a pretty idea!

Thank you! More ideas floating around in there now ;)

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