Modest City Kitchen almost done, inset and Taj Mahal
ratrem
11 years ago
We finally moved into our condo after a couple of months of staying with family after our house sold. Still have a lot of painting and finishing touches and unpacking to do, but I thought I would share our kitchen. Still needs final touches but the basics are there.
it is open to our modest living area and dining area, my office is next to the living, as you can see a work in progress with all the painting.
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cluelessincolorado
11 years agoratrem
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Modest 1940s and 1950s house: period appropriate update
Comments (14)A couple of questions: Is this a house you actually own already, or is this a hypothetical? Leading to: Is there a kitchen there already? What is there? There's no point in worrying about finding cabinets if you have a kitchen full. Don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles you, as they say ... In your area, who is the most likely person to rent to? Students? Low income people? Health care workers near a hospital? Is it a resort area? A retirement community? These things may influence your decisions. "What people want" in incredibly subjective. Each of those groups named -- and there are so many not named -- would want different things, and individuals would want different things. Basically, though, in a rental, do as little renovation as possible without serious thought, and learn all your legal rights and responsibilities. Maintain scrupulously though. (I know I have rejected many apartments just by smell alone. Sometimes just by the smell in the hallways.) As for "vintage" hardware -- try salvage houses. People sell it by the baggiefull. I have rented several apartments and houses with simple, modest kitchens and strict, honest landlords. Personally, I prefer this style to the owners who watch too much HGTV, get dollar signs in their eyes, have their brother in law slap in bargain granite, triple the rent, and throw a badly-spelled, hyperbole and exclamation-point laden ad on craigslist. Bottom line: I would make the best choice based on the house for the area and the market, maybe access to public transportation and the things the renters would be interested in: schools if that's part of the target, the local business park if that's the target, the beach, shops, medical facilities, pool etc. THEN I'd look at the kitchen, and me? I'd look to making what you have the best it can be. At least while you get the hang of being a landlord....See MoreKitchen open floor plan remodel, 6 months later. Thanks GW
Comments (57)Laughable- thanks so much for the link, perhaps we can do something like that this summer when we have more time. Looks like a great fix for now until we can save the 3K for window treatments. Whit- our kitchen is just over 16' long and 12' wide. For the lighting plan we actually have a small pendant to still put in over the kitchen sink. We originally purchased 2 pendants over the peninsula, but with the kitchen light fixture, dining chandelier so close by we nixed it. We used the highly GW rec. home depot LED 4" lights. We had the electrician put them where we needed them most and have 8/9 in the kitchen and then more threw out the first floor. They are all on dimmers. With out the uppers to worry about shadows on the countertop we rarely turn them all the way up. During the day I rarely turn on any lights as the place gets lots of natural light. Good luck with your remodel. I really working in this kitchen and find it plenty big for us. We hosted Christmas and had about 5-6 people cooking/prepping and it was great. Cleans up well and the peninsula has been perfect for my 3 year olds meals and craft time and keeps her at bay while I cook. Just wanted to ad our much anticipated new addition finally made her debute fashionably late on 2/13/13, a successful VBAC: We are enjoying her just as much as the kitchen ;)...See Morestructural changes for more efficient kitchen
Comments (40)Alrighty, here's an idea. I've moved a bunch of stuff around, but left the door and windows alone. This gives you a good sized kitchen with an island and prep sink. I left the window facing the fence alone. My guess is that it goes down lower than counter height, so perhaps a window seat would be cozy underneath. It would be a great spot to snuggle down and chat with the the cook, or to sit with a cup of tea and look up recipes. : ) I left the cleanup sink on the outside wall, but didn't put a window over it since you said the view that way wasn't that great anyway. Supposedly, we spend about 80% of our time on prep and only a small amount of time on cleanup, so some people don't miss the window over the cleanup sink so much. It lets you do something creative like this over the sink area if wanted. For the majority of the time you could prep facing the view through the dining room. I'm wondering if you'd need a support post connected to the island, or a large beam overhead. You could do a sink and DW in the island, but that wipes out a huge chunk of it that could otherwise be used for prep. Most of us prefer facing out for prepping than facing a wall for prep. I combined the function of the pantry with the office, giving it the view to the north rather than a fence. If you left the door open or did a pocket door, the kitchen could enjoy this video, too. I annexed the office for the bathroom, with a door to it from the entry and spun the coat closet. I like this option for a half bath, but if you truly use this shower regularly, I'm not so sure about it opening to the entry way(?) Since the linen closet is so deep, the back half could be turned into a bookshelf or closet for the dining room. Table linens? Cleaning closet? I do like how this plan connects the kitchen to the back yard without traffic going through the main work zone. It would be easy to grab something from the fridge or pantry and take it out to the deck....See MoreI hope to get some input re Taj Mahal costs!
Comments (43)I’m honestly not entirely sure how they calculate their sf or prices….all I know is that for roughly 63 sf we are paying a bit under $13000, perimeter counters only (we have an L-shaped kitchen, plus another small piece next to the fridge, which will be our breakfast station); the 63”x90” island top will be walnut (the cost per sf is about the same). We at first wanted to do a 4” backsplash between the countertop and the windows, but just that alone would have added another $2600, so we dropped that idea. This fabricator “doesn’t charge for unused pieces” of the slabs, you “only pay for what you actually use”, but you know that there’s no way we don’t get charged for unused pieces, even though we don’t own them once we’re done….this is why the cost/sf is so high. We’ve made peace with the cost, and if all comes out well we’ll be happy. Obviously, we’d rather pay your prices, but it is what it is….I do wish I knew how much MSI is actually charging for the slab, if we were to buy it directly from them, but that’s not how they do it, and we won’t ever know. ☹️...See More
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yeh_yeh
8 years agoJudy Bee
7 years ago
Joanne Hulse
5 years agoWorking on my Taj Mahal kitchen.
Still not sure which paint to use on the walls. White Dove BM cabinets, wood medium color 6 inch planks.
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ratremOriginal Author