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Layout for large U Kitchen with island, dry bar, minikitchen

8 years ago

last modified: 8 years ago

Hi all, I got some great feedback on my new construction kitchen a while back and am now back with more detailed plans. I would love some more help with my kitchen :)

Click here for larger version of plans

Background:
We are a young couple (age 24 and 32) in the SF Bay Area (zone 9b) planning to have 1-2 kids after we finish our house. The guest suite minikitchen may be used by visiting parents (early 60s), my brother-in-law, my step-sister-in-law, and perhaps also by local tech interns. And of course in-laws will also use the main kitchen.

Notes

The sink in the island will be the 33" Kohler stages prep sink (though the 45" seems tempting at times...)
We will have a 36" induction cooktop plus a 15" gas (wok) unit, with a 54" wall range hood

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Comments (7)

girlguineapig
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Kitchen Cabinetry

Specific concerns:

- How does my island skylight look (facing south)?

- Trash/recycling pullout widths? 15" or 18"? Since there are two of them, maybe one could be smaller?

- Pantry door swing in, out, or sliding?

- Should I stick with the current design for the appliance wall, or change it to one of these alternatives? (no additional freezer in the pantry if we change to the fridge columns)
girlguineapig
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Dry bar:

Minikitchen for guest suite:
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I can now show some pictures of my layout (although I tried to make them smaller and place one below the other but apparently did it wrong) for any and all suggestions. We are about to build our retirement home. We cook and clean up together most of the time. We will have 6 young grandchildren visiting for possibly 3-6 weeks out of every year (2 at a time with their parents). We will entertain a few times a month, casually. We have a separate dining area that I hope to use at least for dinner every day. Doorways and windows could be changed but we like general floorplan. There is a small home office behind the refrigerator wall, and a sunroom beyond the current seating counter. The sunroom, dining area and living room (to left of dining area) face the water. On the other side of the pantry closet is a game room. There is 6' of space from the current island to the pantry closet wall. Appliances: slide-in range, OTR MW, standard DW, standard size FD refrig, recessed. I would like a baking center but it's not a deal-breaker. My main question to GW: Is the counter seating as currently planned (room is 16' square) too far away from the cooking/cleanup area for conversation? Or should I take out the far counter and make this an L-shape with larger island w/seating for 2? I can get distracted when guests come in while I'm cooking, so only want two seats somewhere in the kit, whether it turns out to be at the island or at the counter as currently planned. The current plan is a 3'x4' island. Any ideas, though, about the placement of anything will be much appreciated. Oh, we have changed the upper, glass-door cabs to 15" rather than the 18" pictured, and taken the 6" pull-out spice cabs next to the MW out.
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Some of this is personal taste and some is guidelines. I tend to do technical comments - any humor is incidental! Guidlines - I would allow 42" between sink and island and ref and island. If you get another size fridge, have kids, try to get past an open ref door or cabinet door, 3 feet is pretty small. On the other hand, you could allow a bit less room between cooktop and island. You must have fillers on both sides of the corner to avoid having doors and knobs get hung up on each other. Mixed in a bit with personal taste - be really sure you want the tall, deep cabinet beside the ref. I would like a tall, narrow cabinet in that position, but not a deep one. Why? You can't open a left or right swing door on that cabinet all the way because it will run into the counter or the ref. The last one to two feet of counter on the cooktop wall becomes unusable to a righty because a righty elbow will hit the cabinet door when closed. The counter will be blocked when that cabinet door is open. A narrow depth cabinet doesn't elimate all of those issues - it increases the usable counter. I like drawer base cabinets and I could get another foot of them if that cabinet wasn't quite as deep. Full depth also means you'll mostly be taking things from the appl garage with your left hand because it will be awkward to use your right. You could be a lefty and then it would work fine for you. The personal taste part is breaking up the depths a bit so there isn't a monolithic wall for very little storage space cost. I would also consider trading the refs - the big one by the clean up sink with the wine, and a ref drawer unit over by the cooktop or reversing the ref and the wine storage. If I'm getting a microwave meal from the ref and need to put in on a plate - I'm crossing through the cooks area to get a plate. Move the micro towards the ref - even if the ref moves. A micro is a shared use item and often the first cooking appliance a child is permitted to operate. Where you've placed it - it becomes exclusively the chefs or kids and spouse invade the chefs territory. And it would be problematic to open both the micro and the oven. I don't know how often that would happen, but I don't want to replace any appliance doors. If the ref stays where it is, move the prep sink out of the corner. With an sxs, the best landing area is behind you as you stand facing the open doors. You'd be dumping stuff into the sink or backing out (cause the aisle is so small) and placing stuff on the other side of the sink. I also like to have over-sprays on the counter instead of the floor. I would probably put the oven beside the cooktop, not under it. The oven would be a little higher and I see the contents without having to back up and bend over.
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Small technical note - if you pull the wall cabinets out an inch, fillers in corners or blind corner cabinets can become challenging to figure out as both runs need to now be an inch shorter. Also, remember to leave a little slack because your walls will not be square, level or straight - and I do mean little, like 1-1.5". Personal opinion is that it would be just fine to break the line in the uppers and just use single doors over the refrigerator. Why? Visually, the cabinet depth is already changing and it's a big box anyway with the side panels. Also, because you won't be able to open those upper doors except with a ladder. With taller doors, you might be able to reach more stuff before pulling out the ladder. I have bakeware stored on the cabinet floor with trays on a fixed shelf above with tray dividers. I can reach both things without a ladder because I only need to grab a bottom corner to slide out trays.
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An 8' wall really can't handle a 4' range on it, cabinetry wise and scale wise. You'll need a minimum of 27" for a blind corner, and that's the worst kind of corner. That only leaves you 21" of room for a cabinet, and that's if you shove the range right into the corner. If you use 9" for a pantry pull out next to the blind corner, then that only leaves you 12" for landing right next to a doorway, for what is a very large range. If the door to the outside shown on the right could move down quite a bit further, that would be the better wall for the range. Of course, if the fridge is gonna be on that wall too, then it's still too small for that as well as encroaching on what I'm assuming is the dining area. The undefined area between the living room and the wall to the right, in front of your entry, what is it's designated purpose? Could that serve as your dining area? Please take away the ideas from my very quick cut and paste. I'm sorry that I didn't have time to check it dimensionally. I'm still a little unclear about some measurements from your diagram and didn't really have enough time to look too closely.
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mrspete
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
Good layout, comfortable flow.

You're talking about more than 4' of cooktop. That's overkill. I'd downsize the main cooktop to 30".

On the other hand, if you're going to go with two dishwashers, I would go with two standard 24" models. The smaller, specialty model is going to be just as expensive.

I can't tell what's in those 15" end-of-island areas, but I'd try to work in more drawers for the island. Since you're going with the Stages 33, I'm assuming you see that as your prime prep area; I know I have tons of little things I'd want nearby for prepping: Silverware, sharp knives, pinch bowls, garlic press, can openers, cutting boards, measuring cups ... and so much more.

I'd go with a pocket door for the pantry.

And a caution: You're a young couple, and you don't yet know how many children you'll have or how they'll affect your family. This house is chock-full of luxury bells and whistles; just be sure you don't end up house poor.
girlguineapig
Original Author
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
The 15" deep end-of-island areas would have shelving. On the clean-up side of the island I envisioned putting dishware there, but now that I think about it I don't even know if we really need the extra space for that. On the side facing the fridge, I was thinking tupperware and other stuff for storing leftovers or packing lunch? Hmm, maybe drawers facing the other way would be more useful.
Oaktown
8 years ago
Hi ggp, nice kitchen!

The plan shows a lot of cabinets. Personally I would lose the uppers, at least on the range wall. What were you planning to put there?

On the current fridge wall plan, I'd suggest breaking up the 45" drawers into smaller drawers. Otherwise, no one can get to the microwave if a drawer is open. You'll also avoid weight issues with the drawer glides.

If you think you might want the 30" columns, try to figure what you will typically store. When we did that, we realized that refrigerator space was more important to us than freezer space, so we went with a 48" combo unit.

Good luck!
girlguineapig
Original Author
8 years ago
mrspete, how would you work in more drawers for the island? I was thinking of making the shelves on the left side face forward, creating an 18" wide drawer stack, and then making the shelves on the other side only 12" deep. Although then I don't know how useful those shelves would be.

Oaktown, that's a good tip to break the 45" drawers, if we go with that plan. I'm still not sure about the fridge(s). We are planning on putting oils, vinegar, soy sauces, etc. in the uppers (although they could go in the pullout on the left of the cooktop). I don't think I'm ready to give those up yet!
sarahbr2
8 years ago
Hi girlgineapig. How has your kitchen been progressing? You saw our kitchen layout awhile back and it is quite similar to yours. I was wondering what you decided with your cabinets as we are now trying to figure out ours!

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