Dear Dominos,

Having not interviewed you I have no idea what you’re trying to
accomplish. So I have reviewed your kitchen design with this in mind. A kitchen’s purpose is to provide food and
beverage service. If you design your kitchen well it should last 50 years and
remain current and valuable regardless of changes in design trends. Being a
simple machine with the only moving part being whoever is working in it. It
should perform its purpose as efficiently as possible and look great while
doing it forever (50 years).

I believe you should buy your kitchen once, use it, enjoy it,
and reap the benefits of owning a kitchen that doesn’t need to be replaced in 8
to 12 years when your appliances start to fail. If it’s designed to meet the
latest trendy, new, and wow, and most are. The Impact You Expect your kitchen
project to have could be extremely short lived. And you’ll quickly find you own
a kitchen much like the one you so desperately wanted to replace.

Hopefully, whomever you decide to buy your cabinetry from will
re draw your kitchen layout and add fillers and end panels you’ll need to
actually get all of your cabinetry to fit and your appliances to work properly.
And produce 3D perspective drawings so you’ll know exactly what to expect
before your new kitchen shows up so you can make all of your mistakes on paper.
I’m assuming you want a permanent long term solution to your kitchen design
dilemma.

You’ve done a good
job but there are some common mistakes you’ve made in drawing your kitchen
cabinetry. You're not showing any fillers where your cabinetry meets your walls
to the right of the microwave and to the right of the dishwasher. Your walls
are not plumb and level but your cabinetry is. So you'll need filler strips to
scribe the cabinetry to the uneven wall. If you purchase framed cabinetry your
end panels are part of the cabinet. If you purchase frameless cabinetry the end
panels are added to the sides of the cabinetry.

Let’s Review your
layout:

Your work triangle is as large as you can make it. You'll do a
lot of walking every time you use this kitchen (walking is a good thing it's
the time you waste that's not). There is 10 feet from the sink to the fridge,
6' from the fridge to the range, and another 6 feet back to the sink. If you
spend an additional 5 minutes each time you use your kitchen. If you use it
twice a day you'll spend over an hour per week, 52 hours per year. An additional
10 minutes 104 hours per year. If you shorten up your work triangle what will
you do with all the extra time?

Because of that door and
the location of the seating on your island when you entertain you're
encouraging family and guests to congregate in front of your fridge, pantry,
and bar. Getting to your fridge when you entertain will be a chore.

Your fridge is far from the dining table and (I'm assuming far
from the family room for beverage service). When you open the fridge door (to
the left) you have counter to the right and it's 30 " wide. That's good
but because you'll be trapped between the wall and the fridge door it won't
feel like it. In such a large space this may not be the best location for this
appliance.

Your microwave by the fridge makes sense because most use it to
heat things we take out of the fridge. Buy most microwave doors open to the
left so like your fridge although it's not, it may feel tight to work between
the fridge and the wall.

If you draw a line from the lower left corner of the kitchen to
the upper right. Below that line is work space and above that line is gathering
space. Your fridge is in gathering space (we covered this already). On your
clean up wall you have trash, sink, dishwasher. Good. large wall cabinets left and
right of the sink for dish and glass storage. Good. It's easy to set the island
or table, when the meal is done...trash, sink, dishwasher, and store your items
for the next service. Large base cabinet to the right of the dishwasher and a
corner susan to the left. Good.

Your cooking wall you have plenty of counter space left and
right of the range. I am assuming wall cabinets left and right of the range
hood for active pantry item storage. Large base cabinet to the left of the
range for pot, pan, and lid storage to the right of the range you might have a
spice and oils pull out in that 12"
wide base cabinet. The corner susan is good for storage and you'll have access
to all of that corner space.

A large base cabinet is your island. On your refrigerator wall
your pantry is shallow so you can't bury back up pantry items. But if you buy
in bulk you'll need additional storage somewhere else (pantry may be too small).
Your beverage center with a 15 " uc refrigerator less end panels leaves
you 24" for utensil and liquor storage, and the wall cabinet above gives
you glass storage and a little over 3 feet of counter space to set up a drink
area when you entertain.

You can keep making incremental changes and wasting your time or
you could get some trace paper and sketch every possible combination of
appliances and cabinetry you can produce that meet your needs. Analyze each one
and decide which is the best to use for you and the space you have to work
with. This is the quickest way to design a great kitchen that's beautiful, efficient,
works intuitively, and almost no one does this.

You should be able to produce
at least 5 very different kitchens in the space you have to work with. Your
sink wants to be on the window. But your range could be on the refrigerator
wall, or on a peninsula coming off of your sink wall, or on your island (not
the small one you have now).

How many different combinations of appliances
and cabinetry have to tried that would work to meet your needs and the space
you have to work with? If you want the absolute
best solution this is where you should start. Once you have your best plan making your kitchen look however you want is easy.(see attached drawings).

Hope this has been helpful

Sincerely,

Joe Brandao