Second-guessing, talk me off ledge AKA charging station in drawer?
Those who have been following my kitchen remodel thread know that our cab maker goofed and made our kitchen hutch out of the wrong wood. They are building a new one but we're taking advantage of this goof by doing a slight tweak of our hutch plan. I thought I had it all figured out over the weekend but now I'm considering all the possibilities and I'm driving myself crazy!
Here's the revised plan:
I increased the height of the upper cab's bottom third from 10" to 12", which allows enough room to add cubbies for bills, etc, above the charging station area. It also is a better split for the upper cab, which initially was set to have 2 adjustable shelves. I thought I had done the math before but I must not have because when I checked it over the weekend, I realized each of the 3 shelf areas would only be about 9 1/2" tall, which isn't really a good height for display purposes.
Stealing 2 inches from that upper cab and going with only 1 adjustable shelf would give me nearly 13" of height for each shelf area, which is a good scale.
Plus, having 12" interior height for the open spaces on each side of the doored cab will allow me to use that space for cookbooks, if I wish to move them from the island display area to the hutch.
I contemplated opening shelving for the upper section, ala this hutch (this served as inspiration for our hutch):
I don't plan to add upright dividers. We had that and it always looked messy. That's why I want things behind doors this time.
We decided against opening shelving since we already have quite a bit of it in the kitchen/family room: a 24" wide section of shelves on the backside of the island and lots of shelves in the bookcases on either side of our fireplace. But I do like the idea of not having door stiles divide up the display area. But I also hate to dust and glass doors cut down on dusting chores.
I'm also trying to watch the visual clutter factor.
As I perused Houzz for charging station/hutch ideas, I see a lot of charging stations in drawers. That's another option since we have plenty of drawer space in the hutch. But I wonder: do the cords get tangled up and caught as the drawer is pulled out and pushed in? Is this a great idea in plan but not so great in execution?
Bills and such would get moved to the den. It will be a new habit since we're used to sorting mail in the kitchen. Hubby may vote against that.
The other idea that occurred to me would be to reduce the height of that bottom section to 5" interior height, run the charging station and cubbies the whole width of the hutch with flip up or flip down doors and go with 2 adjustable shelves above (11 1/4" height for each section). It would be sort of like this:
and be sort of like this behind the doors
I'm seriously driving myself crazy with this second guessing! I'd love to hear from those of you who have command centers. What works, what doesn't? Any advice for me?
I have a little bit of time to figure this out - the hutch top won't be delivered until after counters are installed 6/17 but I do need to get this figured out quickly, all the same.
TIA!
Comments (9)
- 9 years ago
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9 years agoI have a drawer charger in my master bath for my Kindle (read in tub) and my electronic tooth brush. I have not had issues but only have two things plugged in. I don't think I would do this for items that I regularly charge like my phone and iPad because I think I would get annoyed w/ opening and closing the drawers all the time.
We have our command center in our dog room and there are holes for respective cords to come out, which I find to be very convenient because it totally prevents tangles.
In-drawer plug:
Dog room charging station/ command center:
9 years ago
9 years ago- 9 years ago
- 9 years ago
Thanks, beagles! You pretty much confirmed my suspicion about a charging drawer. Scratch that idea.
MamaRachel, my DH is the same way so while I like the idea of putting
charging items behind a door, I wonder how well that will work IRL for
us.
Crazy as it may sound, I'm tempted to forgo the doored cabinet and leave that lower section open. It would be similar to these hutches:
Traditional Kitchen · More Info
Historic Blue Hutch · More Info
I like the division of 3 spaces below the glass doors.I'd get a simple napkin holder or basket (as shown in the pic above) for bills. lol, I found a pig napkin holder at PB! Pity I don't have a towel pig to go with it. But I kinda think DH would squash the idea of a pig napkin holder. ;-)
Anyhoo, in preparation for remodeling the kitchen, we moved the filing sorting trays to the den, which is actually a good place for them to reside permanently since that's where the file drawers are. Maybe I don't need a bunch of cubbies in the kitchen hutch after all.
I'd also get a decorative basket to hold items as they charge. That would put them out of sight, MOL, but accessible, a plus if the phone rings. The other option - and I need to wait for our GC to see if it's possible tomorrow - is to add a USB outlet to the 9" deep cab opposite the entry aisle from the hutch and use a shelf in that cab for a charging station.
Maybe simple is the way to go. I'll talk to DH tonight and see if we can make up our minds.
Thank you, everyone!
9 years ago- 9 years ago
I am coming to that same conclusion, javiwa. It sounds good on paper but will it be used as planned? I'm starting to doubt that.
This is our old hutch (oh, dear, pardon the mess!):
We ditched the desk that was planned and had them add the cubbies for paperwork. Three were used, the other 2 not so much. They were an awkward size for display, too. That's one reason why I'm trying to be smarter about the design of the new hutch.
I drew up this redesign based on the hutch pics I posted above.
I divided the bottom section into thirds but I could also divide it with the center section slightly wider. The blue hutch looks to have a slightly wider center section and it looks good, IMO.
I found some baskets at PB and Pier 1 that would work to hold cords and items getting charged or waiting to be used (tablets, Kindles, etc).
The more I think about it, the more I think this is the way to go.
Thanks, everyone, for helping me process this decision!
stephanj