Ideas for our kitchen remodel (and living/dinnig room)
Hmm, I posted this on design dilema but maybe it fits better here...
Hello all,
I've been sniffing around houzz for a looooong time and finally got the courage of asking a question. I was wondering if anybody would like to think along with me about the design of our ground floor. I am mostly focused on the kitchen renovation but we'll actually need to renovate the whole floor so generic ideas are also fine.
There are more things to consider (not everything is in the pictures):
· * The oblique kitchen wall (260cm – maybe 265 towards 270, we have very thick ceramic tiles leftover from the previous owners, I am not 100% sure how wide it will get once those are out) has a window spanning along the wall width and starting some 15 cm above the current cabinets (where the sink is)
· * The back wall (340cm) is currently all brick, both lower and upper cabinets. I definitely want a window on that side as it would look directly at the garden (and I can use the extra light). The window can be as big as possible, I could live without top cabinets if needed; though it might be more complicated with the range if the stove stays on that wall. I’ve seen some interesting examples on houzz, those might work as well. I like the first example the most but I’d make it a bit higher like in the second example.
· * There is a door on the right wall (280 cm) of the kitchen currently leaving 165 cm of free wall. I thought of maybe moving this door to the middle somewhere, then I could use both corners of the room but I don’t know if that brings any gains.
· * There is water/drain where the sink is currently depicted and gas where the stove is but it is relatively easy to get both on the other side through the wall as the small square is the technical room where the central heating is (and it has connection to water, gas, drain and an extra vent for an exhaust if needed)
·
We’d love a living island (with seats where we can have breakfast or just sit while the other one is cooking etc.) but I cannot manage to find a place for it unless I move the kitchen in the living room part and leave the kitchen area as dinning. This might be an option but I don’t know if it’s not too much in the way with the entrance door from the hallway? In any case, we want a place where to put at least a small table for eating quickly with 4 people near the kitchen. We now have it in the empty space at the entrance of the kitchen.
I made a schematic with the measurements, I hope it’s readable as I did that by hand during a meeting (shhh, don’t tell anybody). And a schematic with the current situation and one idea I had (with the island).
And another schematic with the kitchen extended a bit so that the fridge goes to the side, but it looks like there is little space for the table.
Any better ideas?
Island idea
Measurements
Current situation
Extended kitchen on side wall
Comments (10)
mama goose_gw zn6OH
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoI tried converting your cms to inches and feet. The scale of the furniture is off, so there would be more space in the kitchen in this plan than it appears. The window in the current kitchen becomes sliders to the porch/grill area, and the current sliders become windows similar to your inspirations pics.
As for function in the plan, there is no zone crossing--someone can be loading or unloading the DW while another is prepping and cooking. Fridge is convenient to the family room and island seating. The upper cabinet in the corner is optional--I put it in to center the range hood. Do you have a separate pantry? If the range is only 30", you could have a tall pantry cabinet between the fridge and stub wall--18" wide.
However, this might be more work and expense than you'd planned:
Click to enlarge
idioteque
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Original 1966 Kitchen/Living Room Remodel Ideas
Comments (61)Hi Guys, Long time no post. :) We've been quite busy! We replaced the boiler (a rather harrowing experience), talked to a well known MCM architect here in Minnesota, visited various cabinet construction facilities (got a tour of the shop!), visited Ikea to see the new sektion line, visited flooring stores, etc. In the mean time I've been thinking about some of the advise I've gotten here and from the architect we talked to and tried to make some modifications to the original design. I sort of like it, but it didn't pass the wife test. She likes the stacked stone look, and in some ways likes that the upstairs is more closed off, but doesn't like how it segments the living room away and is afraid it might make it too dark (I think that might actually be nice for viewing the TV, but oh well). She liked the original design better in that regard, so it's probably back to the drawing board. Figured I'd post it here though in case anyone had any thoughts. Other things we are kind of generally gravitating toward after visiting cabinet/flooring shops: - Rift sawn white oak or quarter-sawn maple slab cabinets. Probably horizontal grain. (yes, the picture shows shaker, that's just what the program has available) - strand woven eucalyptus flooring. Worried about cupping with humidity, need to find out how stable it really is. Also concerned about ability to refinish in 5-10 years. Not particularly green if you have to replace it all! Alternatives might be doing quarter/rift sawn oak or maple (should be very stable) like the cabinets. Costs a lot more though. - Want to integrate some stacked stone or long tile. There's a MCM house we almost bought (so close!) that had an entryway we loved with long pieces of mixed height ledgstone or stacked stone. Trying to see if we can integrate something like that into the design....See MoreKitchen, Living room, dining room combo remodel ideas needed!
Comments (1)I guess I should have mentioned there's a fireplace on the all brick wall of the living room on the far side of the living room, and the current entrance has a partial (3/4 height) wall/bookcase to separate it from the family room....See MoreIdeas needed on remodel of kitchen/fireplace/living/dining room
Comments (4)Leave the wall with the fireplace on. No one wants to see into your kitchen if it is at a time, you just made a meal, and havent had time to clean up yet. I would leave the wall between the dining room, and nook,kitchen too, for the very same reason. I have a dining room open to my kitchen, and no good way to close it up. I hate it. If I have people for dinner, then anyone sitting on one side of the table, has a direct view to my kitchen sink. Not exactly what you want to look at when you are having a nice meal....See MoreKitchen remodel (dining room & maybe living room too) - Ideas Wanted!
Comments (10)@ SapphireStitch While it would be nice to wave a magic wand with an unlimited checkbook - I don't have that. I do have access to some money (got a HELOC). If some of the changes need to be done in stages and can be done effectively - we can do that, because the more money I have to pull upfront from the HELOC, the more I'll end up paying in interest. (yuck). I'm also not averse to acting as my own general contractor/project manager, if needed; I've done that before (successfully) But I'd rather not have to overall manage the project, just because my current employment is a boatload more demanding than my previous employment. The nice thing is that we don't have a defined deadline where "this must be done by" - no one is getting married, boatloads of relatives aren't coming to visit, etc. However, the kitchen as it currently stands is a source of daily irritation. We're getting to the point that if anyone is already in the kitchen, we try to avoid going in there until that person has left the kitchen. Tempers flare....we've got my boyfriend (who was envisioning a quiet, child-free retirement), my teenager (while she's not as much of a drama queen as some teens - she's just starting the teenage years, LOL), and me - frustrated as the primary food purchaser, preparer, organizer, clean-up person. And if my boyfriend happens to suddenly realize his blood sugar has dropped - get the hell out of the way in the kitchen. He's not very good at listening to his body - he literally passed out one time when his blood sugar dropped too low - he dashed into the kitchen, grabbed a glucerna and the last thing he remembered was opening it up - but he woke up on the floor sitting in a puddle of the stuff. (I wasn't home at the time). When either I or my teen are in the kitchen and if boyfriend does the mad dash into the kitchen - we pretty much have to drop what we are doing so he can grab something and while he stands there and he starts shoveling whatever down his throat. And since the space is so tight - it can mean leaving stuff cooking on the stove, etc. One time he dashed in, grabbed a breakfast sandwich out of the refrigerator, yanked what was already cooking in the microwave out, and threw his sandwich in. Anyhow, I digress. I know that some of the things we want are going to be big-ticket items - new cabinets, granite or quartzite countertops, slide-in induction stove. That's why I'm also looking for cost-efficient plans, such as instead of moving the sink to the middle of the room, let's keep it on the same wall and just shorten the distance from the hot water heater to the new sink location. Let's not blow out any of the exterior walls, and we can keep the current windows, dishwasher, and refrigerator. If replacing the 10'x13' current laminate would be cheapest to match new hardwood to the existing hardwood, rather than ripping it all out and putting tile down in a 20'x13' space, I'm fine keeping hardwood. If a nice, medium-stain maple cabinet is cheaper than white painted cabinets, I'm find with the the stained version... I prefer it, personally. Rather than a huge pantry cabinet, if building a pantry closet with adjustable shelves is cheaper, I'm fine with that (plus with all the small appliances and bulk-purchases from Costco and BJ's - I think it would suit our storage needs better). If getting an island fits the layout, but is out of reach - I'm fine holding off on installing island cabinets and countertop and using a kitchen table in the meantime. And because we don't have a "get it done by" date... once I have a really solid design/layout... I have the time to shop different cabinet lines and stoves, wait for sales and then to be ready to capitalize on hopefully a decent deal. I don't know if it's true, but I did see some articles that indicate the best time to shop for kitchen cabinets is November to early January....See More
John M
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agomama goose_gw zn6OH
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoThat's too bad about not being able to vent the hood on the left wall. I
like the idea of an island, but at 13' x 9.5', you don't have space for
an 8' x 39" (minimum depth) island in your first plan. And with the
doors situated as they are, traffic will naturally pass through the work
aisle.In the plan I posted, there isn't space to have seating on two sides of the island, which became apparent once I drew it on a grid:
In your last plan, with the addition of a prep sink, cooking could be done in the new space, using the current kitchen as a scullery. It looks as if there is plumbing on the other side of the wall, so adding a sink should be easy. The range is still in the traffic path, though:
idioteque
7 years agoThat was a rough sketch, some doors and most windows were missing.
(Okay, garage door still missing here as well, it's at the front. The main entrance is also there, facing the toilet. The staircase goes upstairs.) The hallway & garage are pretty much set so I didn't take them into account. The only thing is, the freezer is in the garage. We only store meat (and ice-cream :) ) in the freezer so it's not a big problem it's a bit out of the way. Sometimes veggies, mineral water, beer, etc. land up in the garage as well but mostly stuff that we don't use everyday. Fruits we have in the pantry on the counter. And stocks of tomato sauce, oil, cereals etc in the cabinets in the pantry.
This is the current situation. There's water & drain where the sink is as well as near the stove (somebody had the "brilliant" idea to put the dishwasher there). Gas/electricity and possibility to get a pipe out where the stove is. The technical room has water, drain, gas & electricity and an empty/unused pipe that goes to the roof so in principle we can also easily mount a sink or a stove on the walls around it.
MelEdwards
7 years agoidioteque
7 years agoidioteque
7 years agoIn theory the wall to the pantry could be removed but we already renovated the pantry (except for the floor, I want that to be the same with the rest). Also, it would mean having the washing machine/drier as well as the door to outside/door to the garage in the kitchen so I'd rather not do that.
Please excuse the mess, this is the pantry.
idioteque
7 years ago
MelEdwards