crazy (former) layouts

11 years ago

I have had a new kitchen (in our old house) for almost 2 years and have gotten used to a functional layout and plenty of storage space.

I ran across a pic of our former kitchen and had to laugh at the craziness of our fridge/range layout. Right across from each other in a doorway that led to a busy family room.

I remember having to yell my warning of "DO NOT come in here - opening the oven!" so small kids and/or large dogs would not lope through the kitchen. I cooked in that kitchen for 7 years before we were prepared for our reno/addition. It was good character building, as my dad would say :)

Anyone else cooked with a nutty layout that makes you realize the glory of a functional layout?

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Comments (27)

a2gemini
11 years ago
LOL!
At work, we yell, printing on special!
rosie
11 years ago
I could offer some of mine, Laura, but none tops yours. :)
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angie_diy
11 years ago
Who thought this was a good idea?
thirdkitchenremodel
11 years ago
Or this:

Acres of space on the left side of the U and they stick all the appliances together into one corner.

Laurainlincoln, my last kitchen started like yours, stove sat in a corner sticking out next to a doorway and no counter space.
numbersjunkie
11 years ago
LOL! Keep em coming!
bellsmom
11 years ago
Laurain, I think I can better you for worst former kitchen. This was the kitchen in a 3000 sq. foot house! And we bought the house and I cooked in this one-butt wonder for nearly 20 years! Simply couldn't imagine a way to remodel. (The only drawers are the 12'' stack you can see peeking around the fridge!) That's the range on the left, with the fridge less than 24'' away on the right.

Thank you, oh, thank you all, GWers!!
Sandra
lala girl
Original Author
11 years ago
Bellsmom - that is crazy small! (I don't know if my butt could even fit in there) And in such a big house - that is incredible.

LOVE the fridges wedged right next to the range - nutty.

Thanks for sharing!
poohpup
11 years ago
laurainlincoln, that looks awful! I bet you did a lot of yelling. It looks like your range was sitting in the corner by itself with no counter for landing space. Yikes!

Angie, yours would be perfect if the sink was just moved further down to the right. lol

thirdkitchenremodel, yours just has me scratching my head. All that valuable real estate on one side of the kitchen and everything is all squished together. I'm curious. was that vacant side also a bar area? Trying to figure out why on earth anyone thought that made sense.

Bellsmom, your former kitchen leaves me speechless! And the fact that it was in a 3000 sq ft home makes it all the more bizarre. Was it a 3000 sq ft home with 10 bedrooms??? Makes you wonder what the heck they were thinking when they drew up the plans and said to themselves "This will work!" lol

I don't have pictures, but my first home had a U-shaped kitchen with the sink tucked up against the corner. Just fine except some dimwit decided to install the DW on the other corner so the DW door dropped down right in front of the sink! Weird thing is there was plenty of room to the side of the sink where it would have fit perfectly. Don't you wish you could track down the original designers and ask "What were you thinking???"
Pipdog
11 years ago
We bought our house with the intention of remodeling the kitchen in 2-3 years, but after a month of living with the kitchen, we decided we couldn't live with it. I've lived in tiny NYC and SF apartments with kitchenettes, and this was by far the most poorly designed kitchen I've ever used.

Here's the former layout. The door in the hallway to the left is the front door to the home. So when you walked in the kitchen from the front door, you could not have the dishwasher open and the fridge doors would block the entrance.
Pipdog
11 years ago
uh, that would be door in the hallway to the right. :)
bellsmom
11 years ago
Poohpup--
Not 10, only 5 bedrooms. Up to seven kids lived here. And a mom fed them all from that kitchen. The real boggler is that we found the architect's plans when we remodeled the kitchen. The plans showed a 15 or so x 10 kitchen and a 7 x 8 banquette. Either the builder or the original owner decided to switch them, putting the dining table where the kitchen was supposed to go and the whole kitchen into the 7 x 8 banquette space. It boggles the mind. But it was really efficient.My work paths were only 2 feet long!
cakelly1226
11 years ago
Opening the fridge while I was cooking dinner was always cause for me to lose it! I would constantly yell, I am trying to cook here!

What the heck do you do with this spot? Double windows? Why? You can't even fit a table here.

I know this is a layout post but can we admire the lovely fruit paint job on my cabs? So hated it:(
hags00
11 years ago
Here is mine, 1959 house, 1975 kitchen renovation! Expensive Quakermade cabinets with bells and whistles. 33" upper placed, under soffits so way low to the counters.

First picture is looking towards the little den, they had a chandlier and table but you had to move the table to open the cabinets!!
From Judy's New Kitchen

Next picture is looking the opposite way, how about those handles on the cabinets?!?!
From Judy's New Kitchen

Third picture is the same view after I started demo but shows a better view of the major layout issue. When you open the refrigerator you blocked the door way to the rest of the house and almost hit the stove!!
From Judy's New Kitchen

Ahhh the memories!!
thirdkitchenremodel
11 years ago
Pooh -yep, its a breakfast bar type of thing, here's a pic:
bellsmom
11 years ago
These are wonderful! Who knew there were so many ways to design a kitchen with out workspace and/or passage space. And that wallpaper!! I remember that wallpaper.
bob_cville
11 years ago
Here is the overhead plan of our original kitchen and the surrounding spaces. Its size of 7' 10" by 27' 10" was more suited to a bowling alley than a kitchen.
{{!gwi}}
Both the fridge and the broom closet would block the main door to the kitchen completely, and both could not be open at the same time.

and a few pictures of the lovely way that not-so-great-design was realized (click for larger versions):

{{!gwi}}{{!gwi}}{{!gwi}}

This is why, whenever someone here mentions a wanting a yellow kitchen, I experience a involuntary shudder. :-)
debrak_2008
11 years ago

Lived with this for many years.
katsmah
11 years ago
While househunting recently with my DD, we toured a house where the kitchen had recently been remodeled and the range was placed right next to the sink. Not even 6 inches of counter space between them. The kicker was that it was a large U shaped kitchen with a long expanse of counter space in front of the window. The sink and range were shoved together on an interior wall. I wish I had taken a picture.
angie_diy
11 years ago
Debrak: Ummm, wow. We may have a "winner"!
bellsmom
11 years ago
Bob and Debra
You two made me laugh aloud. Unbelievable! That yellow! And I cannot imagine trying to cook in your entry, Debra.

a2gemini
What a great idea to start this thread.
Sandra
lara9143
11 years ago
Here is our stupid layout. I've since painted the cabinets white so it looks prettier, but even that doesn't fully mask this mad awkwardness that is impossible to ignore. We are saving up for a full reno and are living with it in the meantime. :)

...We inherited the appliances from the PO - they thought a side by side fridge is a wonderful thing to have when jutted up against a wall so you can't open the freezer door all the way unless we want to remove the handle.
...There is a small drawer to the left of the sink you can see in the pic that will not open unless you lean on the dishwasher door to close it all the way in. Otherwise the edge catches the dw door.
...Not to mention the obvious problem that the stove is snuggling with the fridge.

I have dreams of sledgehammers... :)
lala girl
Original Author
11 years ago
These are cracking me up! Debrak - I cannot even picture how that would work, completely crazy.

Here is the rest of my kitchen.

My sink and ONE functional kitchen cabinet - it held ALL of our food. I put the ceiling tin fragment below the sink, because the cabinet had those old school vents and some former owner cut into them and placed the disposal switch there. Yes, so you could lean against it while you were doing dishes and turn it on accidentally... it was even a "quiet switch" and not a toggle so it turned on even easier.

My one run of countertop.

The sick part is I loved those open shelves and having a yellow and white kitchen. And I could scrub the kitchen top to bottom in 45 minutes! I kind of miss it... wait, no not really. Maybe a little?
debrak_2008
11 years ago
Laurainlincoln, I like your old kitchen! The open shelves did it.

We talked about the old kitchen at dinner and I started to tear up. NOT joking. We had alot of good times in that kitchen. Cooked many Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners. Our babies were fed there. Oh no the tears again. Maybe that is because right now I don't have any kitchen at all!

One good thing was I could hide any mess over by the sink.

No matter how small or awkward it was, everyone congregated there. It does have a nice view of our backyard.

That weird kitchen did have that beautiful linoleum at one time.
bob_cville
11 years ago
Our kitchen reached the mostly-finished in September a few years ago, we were planning a big Halloween party and wanted the kitchen functional by then. I told my wife that I was planning on making a "really scary" costume for her for the party, but wouldn't say what it was.

This is what it was:

{{!gwi}}{{!gwi}}

Its the old kitchen! I made a tunic from the wallpaper, a miniskirt from the curtains, a cape from one of the cabinet doors, and even shoe covers from the black marble patterned vinyl flooring. Pretty scary.
CEFreeman
11 years ago
LOL!
It haunted you, didn't it?
nini804
11 years ago
OMG, Bob, that is absolutely fricking hilarious! What a fun couple! Bet it was an awesome party.
bellsmom
11 years ago
My old kitchen wore on me, but I never considering wearing it! Avocado and gold, the original colors---hmmm, I don't think so!!

Thanks for the laugh, Bob.
Sandra