Would love opinions on glass cabinets and passthrough please.
We are going to create a passthrough between the kitchen and dining room (drawing attached). There will now also be a 36" farmhouse sink in this counter (with DW and trash below) and a prep sink on the island. The passthrough is 66.5" wide with the counter moving to bar height behind the sink and into the dining room, FYI. Also the upper cubes are now 18" based on suggestions of many on here. :)
We realized that we needed the glass uppers higher so that people wouldn't need to duck to see under. So they are now going to be roughly 25" cabinets set with the valence starting at 75" off the ground. The passthrough is the one thing I am really excited about but now I feel like I'm losing a lot of the "pretty" factor by shortening the glass uppers so much. These will now be just items for display like our china, etc.
So... I'm thinking of turning the cabinets that flank the sink into glass cabinets (except for the drawers of course). As the DW will be below these, I will be using these cabinets for our daily dishes (which are pretty and I'm fine having in glass cabinets).
Now my questions:
1. What do you think of those flanked cabinets being all glass rather than just the top cube?
2. Would the sides of the cabinets need to be glass or could they be regular cabinets like I have shown currently but with glass doors?
3. I'm planning on no mullions - just the doors being framed. I think I want wood shelves versus glass - is that okay? I will have LED strip lighting up the sides of each cabinet so it would like the whole cabinet (versus puck lighting that would stop at first wood shelf).
Thank you!!
Comments (19)
Erica L
8 years agoThanks for your thoughts!
To answer some questions, this is a passthrough to a formal dining room. We wanted to open up the wall that's currenty splitting the rooms without fully opening it since the dining room is connected to living room. We didn't want one huge room to be seen when walking through front door.
The sink wasn't my first choice but it's the best place for it to allow me to have a clean up zone and prep zone. This is not changing... too far down the road at this point. This is kind of what it will look like except we will have upper glass cabinets instead of a panel. I would almost do what they have here with the side cabinets but bring down to the counter (with drawers on bottom):
I know it's not a place where people will hang out between the two rooms, but we will pass dishes back and forth between them. Hence why they need to be higher than shown.
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Comments (8)Welcome Kellym2! When you say you don't want to change the footprint, I assume you mean you do not want to change the location of any appliances or the locations/sizes of windows and doorways...is that correct? If so, you may not have many options. However, if you're willing to consider other layouts, you may get more input. You do seem to be open to swapping the refrigerator & range...which would help with a point I was going to bring up...that your range would be better protected on the other side. It would also make it easier to drain pasta, etc. if you don't have to walk across the room to the sink....you could even "slide" it if you needed to! If you don't move the refrigerator, does the cabinet b/w the wall & refrigerator have to be 9"? Could it be 4" or 5"? 4" is big enough for a 4'' Broom Closet and it would give you another 5" to use b/w the DW & sink...a 14" cabinet (or 12", if 14" not available in your cabinet line...which would then give you a 6" broom closet). Do you know the dimensions of the space...wall lengths, window/door/doorway widths, distances b/w walls/windows/doors/doorways? It's a little difficult to put it all together. It would also be helpful if we knew what rooms adjoin the kitchen in all directions. BTW...if you just sketch your kitchen out on graph paper and label the walls, doors, windows, etc., it would be easier to get the whole picture. Here is a link that might be useful: Thread: Read Me If You're New To GW Kitchens!...See MoreI would LOVE some opinions on this kitchen layout
Comments (10)I like your general layout just the way it is! The Prep Zone in the island so you can face others or just look out while you prep (70% of the work & time spent in the kitchen). The Cooking Zone very handily nearby on the wall where it's so much easier (and less expensive) to adequately vent (and where you only spend 10% of your time). The Cleanup Zone (where you spend 20% of your time) in front of nice big windows with plenty of counter space on both sides for dirty dishes as well as a secondary Prep Zone when needed. I would leave the DW and sink where they are. Even if you prep mostly in the island, if you have two prepping it will be very useful to have two nice Prep Zones...one on the island and one b/w the range and sink. It will also be better if you have one person prepping and one cleaning up...no collisions! As to the prep sink location...there are pluses & minuses to both locations! :-) As it is...there is room on both sides of the sink for you to put things. E.g., putting unwashed veggies/fruit on the left, washed on the right. That does mean cutting down on the workspace you have on the right. But, to be honest, you already have plenty...18" + 18" + 15" 1.5" overhang + 2" or so b/w the sink edge & sink base edge = 55.5" I have approx 42" in my primary Prep Zone and find it sufficient. However, YMMV. Moving it to the left edge...It will add another 15" to your island prep workspace, giving you approx 70.5". You will also be able to access from two sides of the island. However, you will only have about 1.5" overhang + 2" b/w sink edge and sink base edge = 3.5" b/w the sink and the counter edge...which means it will be easy to accidentally knock things off the edge and, of course, no work or landing space to the left of the sink. Which is better? This is one of those things that has no "better" option...it's what will work best for you! A couple of things that I think might improve it... Trash pullout...do you really need so much trash space? You're devoting a lot of valuable base cabinet storage space to trash & recyclables. What type of recycling do you have? Mixed? Or, do you have to sort everything? Our county went to mixed around 2009, so we must put everything (except newspapers) in the same recycle bin. For your setup, I think an 18" double-bin trash pullout on the right end of the island facing the range will be your best arrangement. That would place the trash & recycling in your Prep Zone and across from your Cooking Zone...the two places they're used the most and for the longest amount of time. It will also place it very near the Cleanup Zone so it can be used at cleanup time. That would free up the left base cabinets for dish storage and, possibly, a dish hutch. Of you need more recycling space, them get one of those "recycling centers with 3 or 4 bins...one for trash and the rest for recycling. I'd still put it in the same location. Seating overhang...have at least the minimum overhang recommended by the NKBA...15". If you're a tall family or a family with long legs, then I recommend going to 18" (I wish we had!) You already have plenty of linear space for the three stools you show (24" per seat is recommended). You might even be able to add another on Great Room end....just add about 3 or 4" to the length of your island and shorten the 36" cabinet to 27" (assuming you have a 15" overhang already in the layout) and it will be perfect for four! * Width of island: 15" for overhang for seat on Great Room end + 3 x 24" for each of the three seats on the long end = 87" * Minimum Depth of island: 15" overhang + 1" decorative door on back of island + 24" deep base cabinets + 1.5" counter overhang = 41.5" * On Great Room end: 24" for seat + 16" for a cabinet + 1.5" for counter overhang (Your island is already deeper than the "minimum", so your cabinet can be wider than 16">) One piece of advice: Do not plan your kitchen, storage, seating, access, etc. around small children. Children grow up very, very quickly (as you already know!) and they will quickly outgrow anything you plan for them while they're small. You want this kitchen to last past when they leave the nest, so plan it with adults/adult-sized teens in mind, not young children. That doesn't mean make it a kid-unfriendly kitchen, but it does mean to not design it with small children in mind...unless it's temporary and can either be changed later or adapted for something else. Good luck!...See MoreHas anyone used clé cement tiles
Comments (1)I'm sorry cpartist, I can't help you... but I wanted to get your attention. I can't message you... I need your magic skills to help me with my glass cabinet passthrough... pretty please! :) http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3505799/would-love-opinions-on-glass-cabinets-and-passthrough-please?n=4...See More
mama goose_gw zn6OH
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoErica L
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoErica L
8 years ago
mayflowers
8 years ago
Erica L
8 years agoMimipadv that is basically what ours will look like on the dining room side except it will be a wall on both sides as well as base cabinets. Yours looks awesome!
Mayflowers - There will be 15" of full counter space on each side but then where the cabinets flank the sink, those are set back so there is about 13" of counter space in front of the drawers. Something similar to this:
There will also be about 16" of counter space behind/above the faucet where the counter is at bar height and goes to the dining room (at 66" wide).
mama goose_gw zn6OH
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoI cannot claim magical powers ;), but here's a quick copy & paste of each shot above.
Click to enlarge:
Erica L
8 years agoStan B
8 years agoErica L
8 years agomama goose_gw zn6OH
8 years agoThe second pic is easier to line up, but I tried both, and altered the side cabs, too. I like the all-or-nothing treatment.
mayflowers
8 years ago
ControlfreakECS
8 years agoErica L
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoI agree on too many lines and that's being revised. It was a last minute decision to add glass on the flanked cabinets.
Here is what I just sent my cabinets guys... Hope it can be read.
But I'm thinking deco panel goes across where there are currently glass cubes. Then I would have 6 glass doors/cabinets that are all the exact same height (75" off floor). I would have 2 additional glass cabinets on the side under the outer glass cabinets that would hit drawer and then counter.
cpartist
8 years agoErica L
8 years ago
mrspete