Help plan this space! Need help with initial layout. (long)

12 years ago

We are about to embark on a kitchen remodel and need a few opinions before we get off track. We are a family of four (for now) and my wife cooks many gourmet meals. We definitely want to get this right because we plan on being here for a long time. We currently don't have a lot of cabinets because our decent-sized room (14' by 21') does not give us a lot of flexibility. Note the number of doorways and windows.

Background info:

� We are planning on lightening up the space with the classic off-white inset cabinet look. Cabinet uppers will be run to the ceiling with crown. An apron front sink and granite/marble will be added. The faux wooden beams on the ceiling will be taken down.

� We are planning on keeping the Jenn-Air range in the corner for venting and gas supply ease. Also, as you can see below, there aren't a lot of options for moving it.

� We are increasing the current fridge space from 30" to 36" (as indicated on the sketch). We will also open up the solid area above the fridge and place a regular cabinet above it.

� We would like the DW to remain to the right of the main sink and move the trash pullouts to the left of the main sink.

� My wife really wants to keep the planning desk in the current location.

� ALL of our food storage is in the large double-door pantry. We are planning on leaving the pantry alone and painting the 6-panel doors to match the rest of the house.

� We would like to add a single wall oven, a prep sink, and possibly a set of refrigerator drawers.

Questions:

1. The island seems to be the key to adding what we want. The current island is 2' by 4' with a 10" granite overhang. How much bigger can we go? If we have an eat-in kitchen, is seating at the island necessary? If we scrapped seating at the island, would you build an island that is two cabinets deep?

2. Where can we put the single wall oven? In the larger island?

3. Where in a larger island would you put the prep sink?

4. Our current fridge is framed in by regular walls/drywall. It is almost standard depth in size. We are expanding that opening to make room for a 36" fridge. Is a counter-depth fridge necessary in our layout or can we frame in a standard-depth fridge? We feel we would need a set of refrigerator drawers( in the island?) to make up for the shallow counter-depth fridge.

5. We currently have a 36" sink base with a 36" sink. Would you reduce the size of the sink and base to add a few inches to lower cabinets?

6. Our current cabinet layout has angled upper cabinets adjacent to the wooden range hood. Would you copy this design or stick with regular cabinets and allow the tile/wall paint color to flank the sides of the new wooden hood?

I realize this is a lot of information. I hope we aren't trying to add too many things given our space. Thanks to anyone who can lend a hand. This is the first and maybe the last kitchen we will ever do and we are trying to accomplish it with a medium-sized budget.

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Comments (5)

blfenton
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
With your eat-in kitchen and the window ledge seat (for when you have company) I would reconfigure the island without seating. Make it double deep for storage/oven/prepsink and maybe make it 4' x 5 1/2' size. Get some cardboard and mock up different sizes and locations and see what works for you. Keep aisle widths in mind at all times.

The fridge - I have a 36" counter depth fridge which I really like but my kids are almost gone. With a young and maybe growing family I would be tempted to use a normal depth fridge (with french doors - saves on crowding the aisles) and use the place where fridge drawers would have gone as storage for kitchen stuff. That's just my opinion on that. You and your wife know the look you want and how full your fridge is now etc. The counter depth fridges definitely hold less.

Are you going to extend your counter run and upper cabinets to be closer to the larger window? If you downsized your sink to a 33" single bowl (with a prep sink in the island) and then extended your cabinet run by 9" you would gain 12" of counter and cabinets.
If you think about extending that cabinet run don't go out too far towards the window because you don;t want to create a pinch point between corner of the counter and your table.

Your point #6 - I think it would depend on whether or not that corner is going to be become a focal point. I would, aesthetically, like to see the cabinets squared off because I think it would feel more spacious, and if you do a tile backsplash you could run the tile right up to the top.

Hopefully this gives you something to start with. Happy planning!
dad4diy
Original Author
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Great insight blfenton...we appreciate the help.
We had thought of extending the cabinet run towards the large picture window but then decided against it because we thought it would ruin the symmetry around the window. When you walk in the front door, you can see straight through the house and that large window.
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Thats the ticket...However be sure the island is deep enough. I would suggest 42"-48" you need a minimum of 48" between island and range more if available. angling the wall at door from office area on the office side will open the path into the space a bit. You could do the same to laundry room door, but not needed. I would also make the pantry into the oven stack. This keeps traffic to them from in front of cooktop if two cooks. Put the pantry to the left of the Ref. this will push it closer to the aisle and reduce traffic clutter in fron of the Ref door. I believe you should be able to make the island about 8 ft long minimum.
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I prefer the first layout to the second, but admit I'm having a hard time placing the second into the overall layout of the house. So, I'm just going to comment on the first layout although many of my comments can be carried over to the second as they have similaries. I would be concerned about the butt to butt aspect of the cooktop and sink too. But then, I don't really want an open DW behind me (no matter how rare that may be) for me to trip over when I back up from the cooktop or turn around with a pot of boiling water in my hands, either. So, if you are not going to move the cleanup sink and DWs off the island, I would leave them as is. If you do move them, unless you get one of those huge 3' tall industrial looking faucets that really screams for attention, it doesn't matter if the faucet is off center to the hood. I only worry about faucets being off center against windows, since they are right up against each other. You are not going to prep next to the cooktop unless you have water there, so if you move the fridge, put a prep sink on that run. If you REALLY expect to prep there, deepen the counters to 30" instead of the standard 25"-ish. If you will have a MW, make sure to put it next to or very close to the fridge because for most people, most things going into the MW come out of the fridge. Now.. here comes the part where I try to point out things you maybe haven't thought of and maybe to change your mind. Dreaming on paper is cheaper than regretting the choices of the build once it's done! :) Here we go.. Is there a reason you don't have a separate prep sink? Do you really want to prep over dirty dishes in the sink, and over the DW when you're on the counter? Also I assume that's your family room over to the left - do you want to see clean, drying (or dirty) dishes on the counter from there? I never understand why people have these nice open layouts and put the mess of the cleanup sink front and center where there's always dirty and/or clean dishes to view :) Honestly I'd tuck the cleanup sink where the serving station is and do a mirror over the sink (perhaps something window-shaped like Ballard carries), or a mirrored backsplash, etc to reflect those gorgeous windows in your breakfast room and bring more light into the kitchen. Turn a drawer cabinet in the island to face the cleanup sink for dish storage. Then I'd put a prep sink on the island and leave the fridge where it is. Or, you can put the fridge and ovens in the serving area space and cleanup sink/DWs where they were, although that's a bit more directly viewable from the family room. HTH!
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petra66_gw
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
One thing I notice in your current kitchen is that all the base cabinets have doors. Try in the new layout to get in as many drawer (3, 4 or 5 drawer) stacks as you can. Drawers are wonderful, they let you store so much stuff and the great thing is it all comes to you when you open the drawer. No more rooting through the back of a cabinet.

HTH, Petra
lascatx
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I would also suggest looking at frameless cabinets rather than inset. You will lose storage space with inset, especially in the drawers. Switching to frameless and adding a lot of drawers could increase the function of your existing space 25-50% (my guess based on my use of a fixed space and MUCH better and easier storage now).

I need to head out for a vet appt but also wanted to tell you what we did with our island. It is 21" deep cabinets on the main side with drawers, warming drawer, trash pullout and sink base. The back side is 13" deep doored cabinets -- basically wall cabinets set on a toe kick. They are great for small appliance, outdoor dishes and I intended holiday dishes to go there but they haven't so far. I'm passing that along because it looks like you can enlarge your island, but even within the space you currently have, you could do something like that and greatly increase the function. Because of all the doors and desk, I don't see the island in its current orientation being a good eat-in location.

What are your priorities for this remodel?
dad4diy
Original Author
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
petra66 - We do want to work in drawers in a couple spots. Once we get a general layout, we can tweak it. It's good to know that you have found them to be more versatile.

lascatx - You've helped us confirm that abandoning the seating on the long side of the island is the way to go. The main traffic pattern through the house is there. Could we possibly just do 2 stools on the new wider end of the island as a compromise?

Help plan this space! Need help with initial layout. (long)

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blfenton

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Help plan this space! Need help with initial layout. (long)

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blfenton

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