Must haves for kitchen cabinets?
6 years ago
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- 6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
- 6 years ago
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What is your favorite kitchen "must-have"?
Comments (33)Hi Asovey, How great that you're at the beginning of the process--it's a blast! Top of my list is an open, light, bright workspace that's beautiful--a place where I love to spend time and can easily work. Under this category fall an excellent KD and cabinetmaker, great lighting, natural light, and in my case white cabinets and white marble counters (personal taste...) Second is an excellent, quiet vent hood (I have the 54" Best by Broan with inline attic-mounter blower). I tore out an entire section of perfectly good kitchen in order to be able to install this with the custom wood hood around it. Third would be drawers, drawers, drawers. Deep pot drawers, plenty of drawers for utensils and wraps, etc. They're the best thing since sliced bread...literally :) ...in the kitchen. Fourth is a spacious, well-lit, easily accessible pantry. Fifth is pull-out sink faucets and a veggie sink in the island or main prep area. I love my new higher-end appliances, but I was pretty much just as happy with my Kenmore rangetop as I am with the new Wolf range, my Viking fridge is nothing to write home about--the previous Jenn-Air was just as good and quieter, and although I love my Miele DW, it's had so many problems that it was replaced by the company after 16 months. Never had a problem with the previous Kenmore. My point is that in my case and IMHO, form, storage space, layout, construction quality, and lighting are more important than my appliances. Have to agree with the 48" Wolf in the island being a potential problem. Your island would have to be massive to accommodate the range and still leave room for landing space and everything else that goes on around an island, that space could easily lose the intimate feel. I also hear people with in-island ranges complaining about splattering guests and family members while cooking, and always having a big mess in the main gathering area. It looks great for cooking shows, but ask around and see if people with that arrangement like it IRL. Personal choice, of course. Good luck, and enjoy the process!!...See MoreUnder-Cabinet lighting, must-have or budget-buster?
Comments (18)Best thing about undercounter is that even if a weak light, it counteracts shadows. You don't work in your own shadow. I have each one wired separately so that I don't turn it on unless I need it where I'm standing. If you're not able to wire for undercounters, Ikea (and other vendors?) has a product that allows you to switch install undercounter rectangular units OR puck lights that connect to a regular outlet. OR you can hardwire them. And, you can daisychain them so that you can cover more distance than a single unit would allow you to cover. Pretty slick option, esp. for retrofit. We bought one of their rectangular ones containing 3 little hallogens if I recall correctly and used it in our old kitchen for 6 months to evaluate. It served the purpose well, but because we mounted it at front of underside of cab, I burned myself occasionally when switching it on and off using built-in switch. If I had switched it on and off by plugging it in, there would have been no chance of burning my fingers. We ended up deciding that we liked our traditional fluorescents more than the modern harsher, brighter light of the unit so that's what's in our new kitchen. Not sure if there are various other kinds of lights "out there" to use in daisy chain. My daughter eagerly claimed the discarded light and she likes it for retrofit in her tiny kitchen....See MoreCabinet construction must haves??
Comments (23)Designnov, good luck! I am so happy with my cabinetmaker! As my KDs pointed out, she is local, so if anything ever goes wrong, she'll come over and fix it. She threw in the hardware for free, too. I went over to Louis and Company and picked it out on Wednesday. Also, and this is a BIGGIE, she is delivering the pieces as they are finished! Yay! She has a small workshop, and I already have a living room full of appliances, so I don't need a gigantic stack of cabinets in there or in the garage. She's doing the bar and buffet first, then the walls one by one, with the island last. So we should be able to install the wine fridge and fridge/freezer drawers in the bar, then the fridge and oven/micro in the pantry wall, then the sink and DW, so we will have a minimum of kitchen-less suffering :-) And a minimum of packing, as I can move things from the current cabs to the new ones. Only the granite will be installed after everything is in, then my lovely BlueStar RNB last of all :-) The GC seems to be balking--apparently he wanted to tear out the WHOLE kitchen, disappear, then come back eventually and install all the cabinets. I plan to speak sternly to him later today. Interesting about drawers vs ROTs. I will have both, but mostly ROTs. I have miserable, sucky, half-depth shelves in my current base cabinets and HATE them with a passion. I can't wait to pull out my ROTs and see my pots and pans neatly arranged, not STACKED in a teetering pile. I have big stockpots and giant roasting pans, so I need height for them. I am putting the lesser-used pots in a lazy susan in the island, since my pot rack is going away *sniffle*...See MoreTell me what a 'must-have' is for my new kitchen!
Comments (30)We're just weeks from moving into our new house, but we built in 2001 and I've reproduced the things I loved most about that house in the new one. I'm one who loves deep drawers -- I kept my daily dishes -- heavy stoneware -- in one and my shoulders appreciated not having to lift them into a wall cupboard. I hated the two "door" cabinets I had because I had to sit on the floor to dig things out. The new kitchen is almost all drawers -- and the two door cupboards have pullouts this time. Full extension drawers -- wouldn't be without them. Under cabinet lighting -- ditto. The best quality cabinets you can afford. It's easy to fall in love with a look and sacrifice quality. Resist the temptation. For me, a fridge with a freezer on the bottom. The apartment we're in while building has a top freezer and I curse it every time I have to stand on my head to get something out. My old fridge was a single door, bottom freezer -- I loved it. The new one is a FD bottom freezer. I hope I like the FD as much as my DS and DDIL do. I know I'm WAY in the minority here, but I've had a ceiling fan in every kitchen since 1977, and I can't imagine not having it. I thought long and hard before sacrificing snazzy over-the-island pendants for a pedestrian fan and light -- but I love having cooling breezes while I'm cooking. The snazzy pendants are going over the sink. We loved our island in the last house, but found it a bit too small when entertaining. The one in the new house is more of a continent. I'm almost embarrassed . . . but we'll never find it too small!! Have fun planning! The link below has a lot of great ideas . . . Here is a link that might be useful: Maybe more than you wanted to know!...See More- 6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
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