Design Critique for large kitchen/island plan
mksugarman
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
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GreenDesigns
8 years agoannkh_nd
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Roof design help? Need plan critique as well
Comments (41)My DS has 54 linear feet of books in his bedroom. 8*6=48. So that's 6 feet short. Of course, we homeschool and read LOTS of books here. Where is the babydoll's high chair going to be? The babydoll crib and stroller? Dress up clothes--how do they fit on a 1' deep shelf? In tons of buckets? Large toy weapons will fall off. Will each stuffed animal sit out individually? What about separating out "treasures" (which are really just for display--like models and trophies) from stuff that's to be played with? What about the dollhouse? Model castle? Duplo table? Train table? Crafts--will they only be done in the kitchen? Baby's play mat? Mini rocker? Play kitchen? Play vacuum? There are SO many things that won't fit on shelves--and so many more that will be impractical! But with a larger bedroom, you can store many of them--and with a real dedicated playroom, much more. Keep in mind that only the bottom 2' will be accessible to them at first, and after that, only the bottom 3' and then, for a LONG time after, only the bottom 4. All my kids' stuff is on shelves that are only 4' high--the 7-y-o can't reach anything higher. I had the BRILLIANT idea when I just had my first kid that I'd keep all his toys (that would fit) in a 14" deep wardrobe that was 48" wide. It was a DISASTER. Sure, I could fit all the toys that were the right size in it, but my son could only reach a small portion of them and couldn't put hardly anything up on his own. It was a nightmare! I'm not telling you these things to be mean. I'm saying them because I've BTDT. If you proceed as you wish right now, you'll sink a lot of effort and heartache into a house that will, within a few short years, become unlivable and will drive you to seek another option and that, with the current layout, be unattractive to potential buyers inside and out. (I have family friends who made the same mistakes in bedroom size and master bathroom. Their house was on the market for a year and a half in a hot market.)...See MoreNeed ideas for LARGE kitchen island......plans included
Comments (11)Grendal.....We do not have the measurements yet. This plan isn't the 'exact' copy with all the specs for the contract. However, the KD and I specifically talked about this and for some reason I have 42" in my head, but I may be off here. Lulu, you are so funny!! Actually, that IS a collection box! JK......we asked the same thing. We were thinking that each room was marked with dollar signs based on how expensive it was going to be!! Actually, the KD just put that in there to show that there is a light switch there. Again, we do not have any of the lighting/electrical schematics yet. I have to say that I made progress with DH today on the single-level island idea. What everyone is saying makes so much sense. This forum is so addictive....I was combing the internet today while the kiddos were in school for gorgeous photos of kitchens. Some things I just have to let go and not get too mired in the details....like my dishwashers being different brands. I really don't care about that and I don't want to care because I am going to have so many things to worry about, if I can let this go, it will help me with the stress level. Donations anyone???? LOL Melissa...See MoreCritique my kitchen plan please
Comments (76)You know....for a brief period of time in our last remodeling process, we had 2 dishwashers. It was nice in that there was almost always an empty dw waiting to be filled. But, it wasn't "all that" that I thought it might be. I found trying to load 2 dishwashers cumbersome. I had to try to jockey the contents between the 2 for the best fit, which could be time consuming. I'd get frustrated and think, "I could have washed this by hand and been done by now!" If both dw's were run at once, it seemed like a huge task to get them both emptied. My little kids, who were normally delegated to the duty of loading and unloading, could no longer do the task. It was overwhelming to them. Hey, some days it felt overwhelming to me! Then we got to planning this remodel. We planned for 2 dw's again. Cabinets needed to go in and our sink needed to come out. We moved the entire kitchen operation to the family room. We were washing dishes old-style, in dish pans on the table. One person washed, one or two dried and put away. All of a sudden, cleanup became this efficient, no big deal task (except for late night dinners when we were all tired.) "Why did we think we needed a dishwasher?" we contemplated for the first few weeks. Well, that style of cleaning lost its newness, and we came to the point we'd be glad to have a dw to stick stuff in and walk away, but we still enjoyed the camaraderie of working together. Pretty soon it was time to install the sink and counters in the new kitchen. We only had one dw in our possession. We started the process of looking around for a second one while we used the one we had. Life went on. We were functioning fine with one dw, usually running it a couple of times per day. It meant we had to hand wash some stuff, but a lot of these items were over-sized to match our big family, or they were hand washables anyway. It also meant the dish draining rack took up permanent residence on our counter. The hole for the second dw was "temporarily" filled with our trash and recycling bins. We love the convenience of tossing the trash and recyclables in their containers right next to the sink where we are processing them. We came to the conclusion that we are just fine with one dw. It loads and unloads quickly and easily. We wash the hand washing stuff with little fuss. I'm not crazy about the dishes drying on the counter, but it's a kitchen and that's part of what kitchens are for. Our kitchen is medium sized, and the storage is more valuable to me at this point that the second DW. We plan to do a pull-out in the 2' opening. If we change our minds later, a DW can still go in there. You may feel differently. Som families even half our size love having 2 DW's. I liked having 2, but it wasn't as slick of a process as I thought it would be....See MoreCritique my kitchen designer’s plan
Comments (48)I greatly appreciate the input! Here's what I've come up with for the rework with your help: Eliminate the 9" full height base cabinets by the range. Good they are useless. You don't need more cabinets. You need less cabinets that are larger. Instead: 21" drawer base to the right of range, 21" drawer base immediately to the left of range and 18" drawer base next to that. No. Move the range and and instead do 1 30" cabinet to the left of the range and one 30" cabinet to the right of the range. 3 drawers for each cabinet. You'll get a lot more storage than a useless and too small 21" cabinet and will allow you to put pots and pans next to the stove instead of constantly having to turn 180 degrees to grab pots and pans. The idea is to make the kitchen as easy to work in as possible and to get as much storage as possible. You can add dividers inside the drawers but you can't make too small drawers wider. After some additional thought I think I’m going to remove the drawer base next to the dishwasher. Instead, I’ll make that a full height door cabinet for baking sheet/cutting board storage. It’s 15” and we find the 12” we currently use a bit tight. I think this will also be more aesthetically pleasing as it will mirror the sink base and corner cab. I could also put the trashcan pull out there... but feel like it will have better function being on the range side of the island. Open to thoughts on this. Put the trash cans there. When we cook, we take food out of the fridge, bring it to the sink to wash and prep between sink and stove. You create more steps by having to bring food to the island to prep and then possibly running back and forth between island and sink to rewash stuff, etc and then bringing it once again across the aisle to the stove. Put the cookie storage in the island. This way you can have a base 15" cookie storage on the island and instead of two 27" drawers, have one 15" drawer and one nice sized 39" drawer on the island. Much more functional. (Do you see a theme here where larger drawers are better?) Additionally since baking doesn't require much in the way of water, your island can become your baking station more easily. Here's my next question. In those drawer bases next to range.... 2, 3, 4 drawers? Preferably would like to have them all have the same number. I’m leaning toward 3, but open to suggestions on This as well. Agree 3 drawers. That's what I have and it's perfect. That will allow for most of your pots and pans in the middle and bottom drawers. I appreciate everyone chiming in helping us make this kitchen the best it can be....See Morecpartist
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