Help Me Design a Dream Kitchen!
redzone321
8 years ago
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sheloveslayouts
8 years agoredzone321
8 years agoRelated Discussions
My finished kitchen/fam.rm. pics - - Thanks GW!!
Comments (59)Thanks luvspring! I first saw the tile at a local tile store called Devon Tile Design (they have amazing stuff) -- but found for less at a larger store (Avalon Tile in Wilmington DE) and able to have the price matched. I also tracked it down by looking on the Walker Zanger website to see who their retailers are. shanghaimom, they also call the marron cohiba "antique brown" i think. I do love the Amerock pulls - - and I think they are better quality than the twice as expensive RH bistro ones I was looking at! breezy, I just checked the invoice and drawings, and all it says is "sigma fan" -- I know it's venting to the outdoors, and that the motor and everything else is in the hood (I'm vaguely recalling that it was called internal)...wish I could be more definitive on that! As for noiselevel, this is hard to describe, and I've got no expertise in decibels. On low, it's like a quiet background hum, definitely quieter than my microwave vent was before the reno --but if I'm cooking under it, I can't hear my kids' normal talking voices in the kitchen (of course that can be a good thing!). On high it is pretty loud, and I wouldn't want to run it for longer than necessary (unless those same kids are bickering!) As for whether the 600 cfms will be enough for you, think about you'd like to be cooking -- if you'll grill steaks inside or do alot of stirfries, it might not be enough. Good luck!!!...See MoreHelp me build my DREAM White Kitchen
Comments (28)HI everyone, Thanks for the responses. I'm going to bug all of you to help with my bathrooms too! The builder finished foundation today so onto framing!!! I'll be making final selections over the next 2-4 weeks!! kawfeeaddict: Do you know the name of the white granite you used? Can you share a photo? Look at my photobucket inspiration pic and you can see the irridescent tile backsplash...its different but really cool! erikanh, thanks for the thread link. I've look at it several times but some of the pics don't show anymore. I research a bunch of the granites online today and i'm interested in seeing some slabs in person rmkitchen. I'm going to search for my twin! I'm excited if I can find her b/c I'm needing some source info from that inspiration picture and hoping she might have it!! And YOUR kitchen....well i've printed out MULTIPLE photos from your kitchen last week. I LOOOOOOVE it! I even told my designer in the last meeting how I wanted to "frame" and paint a chalkboard area on the side of my fridge. Then I found your picture and I emailed it to my designer! I would love to do the inset cabinets like yours.....so cool. Also love the raised DW. Oh, the marble countertops are just so beautiful....I just can't do it. But its so fun to find someone who really has the same "style".....please share any other parts of you home as I'm building this house so its all a "clean slate". My basic approach to my home is I'm a southern girl and love southern, comfortable things. I live inland but the beach colors, textures, clean, crisp, cottage feel is what I'm going to try to incorporate in my home in a classic but fresh way. Did that make any sense? Thanks for finding me and thanks for sharing your AMAZING kitchen....See MoreNot My Dream Kitchen/FR - plan & layout. Help me choose? Please?
Comments (4)I want to be logical, and not try to design my whole house around a dream kitchen, but alas, I am after all, TKO. Talk me down? I am flailing here, as you will see. I feel your pain because I'm in nearly the same position as you except it's my roof lines that are driving me batty. I've gone through countless iterations of what I want on my first floor and because I have fewer room needs than your plans shows, meaning fewer combinations, I've tried my hand at playing with orientations in order to achieve my multiple goals. What I'm finding is that no matter what I do, when I pull on the string in one place the rest of the tapestry is affected, so design, as I see it (I'm no professional) has to flow organically, one feature flowing naturally into the next. I'm sensing that you're hitting that same wall - the combination of shapes/orientations isn't working throughout the whole house. I wouldn't hesitate for even a moment in scraping a plan that you don't feel completely comfortable with and I wouldn't for a moment think that you're illogical for building a whole plan around your kitchen. I'm pretty much doing that right now. What I found was that the kitchen was the room that was/is driving me the battiest, so if I start with a blank slate (still mindful of my conditions, which in your case would be the underground garage plus other points) and then play around with the kitchen shape + workflow + adjoining rooms & features and get those issues mostly settled in the kitchen then the rest of the house can flow outwards from there. I noticed that your architects original plan had an angled section and that he put secondary rooms in there, leaving the primary rooms in the traditional square/block pattern. The square rooms are definitely easier to work with. Your attempt at a compromise put a functional room into the angled wing and this created an awkward junction between the family room and the kitchen right at the kitchen. Why not continue the angle with the kitchen included and then try to use the space where the two wings of the house meet in a way that serves a purpose. So my words of advice to you are to break the problems down into individual problems and then try to solve one at a time before proceeding to the next. Count on a 3 steps forward, 2 steps back type of process as you'll find yourself going back to what you think you had solved which now presents as a problem due to something you've just done, and then begin the process again, one step at a time. I don't know what you want to accomplish with the kitchen design, but one thing I would try is to orient the kitchen with the family room. In your crooked picture, find the point where the DR meets the kitchen and draw your 45 wall starting there. Then draw another 45 line right at your door, losing the little window wall to the left of the entry. Now the awkward angled space is right where your pantry and closets are located and it is here that you can hide the awkward space into secondary rooms. You have a lot of room to work with in your kitchen space, so mix it up, try things that you normally wouldn't, and may well reject, but try these new ideas in order to see how they play out and how they affect other aspects of your plan. Try bumpouts, try peninsulas, try a banquette, try a bay window, try an irregular shaped room (beyond just a room at a 45 angle to the adjacent room.) Most importantly though is to spell out what you want in your kitchen and which of the designs that you posted most speaks to you....See MoreDesign Around This #6: I'm Dreaming of a White Kitchen, But...
Comments (82)That sounds good. I was thinking that the next post should star off with a call out to the lurkers, maybe with some of the quotes from this thread of folks who had never done this before we took it on in one of these threads. I think the lurkers have this wacky idea that everybody who posts on this thread is some uber-creative design professional, which isn't true at all (although we have some of those). Quotes: LWO: I only wish that more of the people who need design help were trying to participate. It IS a learning exercise. Or, it was conceived of that way. It's great that so many talented amateurs and pros are giving examples of "how to", but there's nothing like getting your feet wet to go swimming. Testimonials: Sochi:I had never done a mood board before the 3rd thread (1920s kitchen). I've learned quite a bit about Olioboard and Flickr since the first kitchen I posted. That alone makes these exercises worthwhile. Not only am I learning a little about design (mostly from others) but I'm also learning how to more efficiently create moodboards, navigate the web, identify where to find what I'm looking for relatively quickly, use Flickr, etc. Plus it's fun and quite addictive. I encourage everyone to try it out. cawaps:I had never put together a mood board before the Colonial Revived thread (Design Around This #2). It takes a bit of time, but if you can do a Google image search and can master the basic tips on posting photos, you can do this...I find that I am more likely to respond to other threads with pictures, since it doesn't seem like such a chore anymore, now that I have lots of practice. I've also learned not to overinvest in a particular choice. At the idea stage you can easily adopt, evaluate, replace, look for something else....See Moreredzone321
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