Yet another kitchen lighting plan review request
funkycamper
9 years ago
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funkycamper
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Another Day, Another Plan to Review..
Comments (21)Custom -- unique -- those can be euphemisms for weird and bad. While this house contains some nice features, it also contains some bad ideas that will not live comfortably -- things no one's going to like in real life. And it is expensive in ways that don't help the looks or efficiency of the house. - The entryway has a barrel vault that leads into an arch . . . and beyond that is a coffered ceiling . . . and then you have another arch off to the left. These are all expensive, showy ceiling features -- but having all of them within arms' length means they will "compete" with one another. One feature of good design is that it contains "enough" . . . without going overboard. Note that your inspiration plan contains multiple coffered ceilings, but it doesn't mix and match ceiling features. Repetition in design creates a sense of harmony. - On the subject of arches -- I love them and wonder why people aren't building them anymore. But they're an expensive feature, and I would never spend the money to build one between the kitchen and the mudroom, especially since it's tucked behind the kitchen cabinets and would literally only be seen as people come /go from the house. Unless your budget is genuinely unlimited, put your resources in spots where they're going to show. - I agree with the poster who mentioned the difficult turns necessary to enter either of the secondary bedrooms. If the aforementioned elderly relative needs a walker or a wheelchair, this will be difficult. It would be easy to move the door to the smaller bedroom to an easier-to-access spot. Will this relative live with you all the time? If so, he or she will probably need more than an 11x11 room with a small closet -- could you happily move all your personal effects into this room permanently? I ask because this was a MAJOR FIGHT with my easy-going grandmother only a few years ago, and she NEVER got over having to get rid of so much stuff. I agree with the poster who suggested making the larger office room a bedroom for the elderly relative. - An ADA bath in a 9x9 space. Is that possible? Okay, it's possible, but I mean, is it possible to do it well? - The master bath is large but contains SIX DOORS. Stop and visualize six doors in this space. The master bath is also laid out poorly: When you walk in, your sightline is the corner of the shower. And the toilet closet is tiny and cramped -- backing into a 6' deep closet and scootching over to the side so you can close the door (plunging yourself into darkness) won't be comfortable. Why plan two sinks in such a small vanity? It means you'll have no drawer space. What is the dry area in the shower? What is keeping it dry? Note that when you walk into the bathroom, you'll have to close those double doors and reach behind them to turn on the light switch. With all this space allotted to the master bath, you can absolutely have something better than this. - The great room is a positive ray of sunshine in an otherwise chaotic plan. Ditto for the foyer. - The odd extra hallway (containing a butler's pantry?) near the dining area is wasted space. Why would anyone walk through this hallway when the foyer is literally two steps farther away? - The kitchen doesn't work on any level. It's huge, but everything is so far apart! Your "major players" -- the sink and the stove and your prep space -- are all disconnected from one another. Why would you want your ovens in the dining room? Look at the floor plan and imagine yourself going through the motions of preparing one of your favorite meals. Likely it's going to include too many "walk across the kitchen" trips. I think you're falling for the oh-so-common idea that a BIG kitchen = a GOOD kitchen, and that is axiomatically false. An EFFICIENT kitchen = a GOOD kitchen. - What you're calling the Hearth Room could be an incredible dining room, and it's completely wasted as a sitting area. Because it is connected to the great room, it has no privacy and serves no purpose as a separate room. - The table, in its current position, is blocking access to the kitchen and the Hearth Room. Imagine squeezing by either end once chairs are in place. - If you move the sink in the mudroom to the same wall as the washer/dryer, you will save significant money. Why? Because you'll limit your water needs to one wall. That means only one wall needs to be thick enough to run water, and the plumber only has to work on one wall. I don't love the island in the middle of this room. This is a storage room / a pass-through room. The island actually creates a barrier. - I personally dislike the "friends' entrance" concept. I'm making the front door nice. I'm arranging guest parking to encourage people to see /enter through the front door. I'm setting up a table for purses/keys, etc. I don't want people traipsing in through the back door where I'm storing plastic bags, recycling, and dog food. And if this is a "friends' entrance", for whom is the front door? Enemies? I don't invite them over. - I agree with the posters who say most rooms are over-sized. You could easily reduce most rooms by 25% and still have comfortable spaces. The exceptions are the two secondary bedrooms, which don't seem to fit in with the rest of the sizing. - The hallways could be vastly reduced, and that could make up the price difference you mentioned -- you need the foyer hall and the two small halls to reach the bedrooms, but the giant freeway running through the middle is just expensive wasted space. I do like the inspiration plan's connection between the mud room and the hallway -- it promotes good flow in two directions, without being over-sized. Were you the poster from a couple months ago who loved hallways because of a wall treatment you saw in a model home's hallways? - A garage sticking out on the front doesn't make for a very attractive exterior. - You're going with a basement AND a bonus room over the garage? I'd pick one or the other, which would eliminate one staircase -- do not underestimate the cost of a staircase. Actually, staircases cost in both money and square footage. Either a basement OR a bonus room will give you a secondary living space. Again, this house has some redeeming features, but they are so buried under the oddities and mistakes that it's hard to find them. I vote for a fresh start. This post was edited by MrsPete on Thu, Sep 11, 14 at 18:21...See MoreYet another request for paint color help :)
Comments (15)Thank you everyone for your suggestions and photos! Much appreciated. Some things I forgot to mention about my kitchen - first, it is small. Secondly, there are two windows, but there is a covered porch outside of them, so it doesn't get a ton of natural light. I don't mind the pine cabinets, but I prefer more of a rustic look than a country look (if that makes sense). The hardware on the cabinets now is a dark pewter color and the tile on the counter tops has beige/peachy/terracotta tones in it. I would totally redo this kitchen if I could afford it, but it isn't an option at this time financially. I do currently have two rugs of decent size that have warm reds, beige, sage colors in them in the room. I should also add that I'm considering selling my home in the next 6 months, so I have to take that into account when choosing a paint color. I took some additional photos tonight. Forgive the quality of the photos - I had to turn off the flash to get a more accurate color representation. Here is the tile countertop, with the pine floor color: Here is my wall of colors. I've tried to label the ones you've mentioned Colorfast (thank you so much for your detailed thoughts!). Here are two additional photos showing the island after I painted it. The Kittery Green Point was too dark for my taste. So was the Shagreen. The Sagey was too light/minty. Palladian Blue I liked, but it was a bit dark and the shade seemed to clash with the sage green sofa in the room next to it. I forgot to mention that when I tried Rainwashed and Tradewind, I did them at 50%. The "MI" in the photo is Mellowed Ivory. "GG" is Guilford Green. Colorfast, I looked up the colors you mentioned from Devine on their site and I did like them. I will try to swing by the store on my lunch hour tomorrow to take a look in person. Thank you!! I'm starting to think that maybe I should just forget color on these kitchen walls and go with a cream/ivory/off-white (although I'm not sure how that would look with my white trim). Then bring in color through accents. The frustration has become paralyzing! :)...See Moremy kitchen plans and yet another backspash question
Comments (4)They have some amazing tiles. Truly creative, but the website is a pain to navigate. I love seeing something different, and they have a lot of that ;)...See MoreIkea Kitchen Plan - Review Request!
Comments (15)Lisa, funny you asked about the configuration of the pantry because I am actually unsure about how I want several of the drawer stacks to be set up! I originally thought I would do 5-10-15 for all of them but laid awake just last night thinking that there was probably a better configuration for several of them. I'm now actually leaning toward 5-5-10-10 in a couple of places. And I left the pantry with the 15-15 bottom drawers and then 2 internal drawers as the planner showed. I'm thinking it will be mostly for renters use, so I have no idea if that will work well or if there is a better way! Since we have the owners closet/pantry, that is where we will store most of our food. There will be open shelves to the left of the range also which could be good for renters to store food. Finally, I was thinking that both the 21" upper cabinet on the left end of the window wall and the 30" drawer stack below it could be for food like cereal, snacks, etc. I would love to hear everyone's thoughts about the best storage options! If I order before the sale ends, I was planning to order only the frames for several cabinets that I am unsure of. Then I can use the gift card later to add the drawers and fronts for those units. A few other things I want to mention and get everyone's thoughts - first, the cabinet I have for the prep sink is a smidgen too small for the sink I want and will require the front edges of the frame to be notched to allow for the sink lip. We did this in our regular kitchen (also frameless cabinets) to squeeze in a small second sink and it was no big deal. Its either that or give up 3" of passageway space leading into the kitchen. WWYD? Also, I'm surprised no one commented on the wide "filler" pieces at the ends of the uppers on window wall. I really want DH to build me some of those cubby cabinets to go there - one for wine glasses, and one for coffee mugs. Ikea has them but they are a bit too wide and they don't look very well made to me. The other option would be to move the glass cabinets away from the window frame to eliminate some of the filler space. Thoughts? Thanks!...See Morefunkycamper
9 years agoDavid
9 years agofunkycamper
9 years agoDavid
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9 years agoontariomom
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agofunkycamper
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9 years agoDavid
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