Kitchen remodel dilema . Help please!
This is my first post, tho I've been reading these forums for a while now. We are embarking in a a kitchen remodel project in our 1500 sf ranch. We'll be taking down a wall to open up the existing galley kitchen and connect the space with the family room.
I've decided to go with Ikea cabinets and Grimslov fronts (off-white). Counters will be black leathered granite with walls tiled all the way to the ceiling. The island I have in mind is a furniture piece 70" x 30" with a black metal base and white carrara marble top (it has plenty of open storage underneath).
So far I have come up with two possible layouts and I need help deciding which one makes more sense regarding flow and appearance. In the attached drawings I put a table to simulate the island because dimensions are close.
One important thing is I don't want upper cabinets, and would prefer open storage using floating shelves. In the forums most people are against open shelves near the stove and so I would like to hear your opinions.This below is my first iteration with the sink against the windows wall. I thought that floating shelves on both sides of the hood would look nice.
My contractor told me he could expand the current window to make a single larger window or as many as necessary, so that shouldn't be a limitation.
Also, in this space the family room is south and there is a small nook on the left. The DW is between the fridge and the sink in both versions.
Please, help me decide. Thanks much.
Comments (31)
Janie Gibbs-BRING SOPHIE BACK
4 years agoRelated Discussions
granite dilema...please help!
Comments (7)I wanted to do what you are describing but ultimately chose to stick with one type of granite for all surfaces. I think it depends on a lot of other things in your space. (And others may disagree with all of my opinions below.) If your kitchen is very large, it will look okay to have so many different elements. Too many different elements may overwhelm a smaller space. Is the kitchen open to other rooms? One reason I chose to stick with one counter selection is because my kitchen is open to my living/dining area, and I wanted the island (which is a different color than the rest of my cabinets) to be firmly linked to the kitchen. What will you be doing for backsplash/paint? If you want to make a big statement with those things, you may want to keep other elements simpler and more unified. I see lots of photos of stunning kitchens where the island has a different surface than the rest of the cabinets. It can clearly be done with great success. I'm just throwing out these points as things to keep in mind....See MoreDated Kitchen - Please help with kitchen remodel ideas
Comments (1)Are any of the short walls by fridge and stove arch load bearing or contain ducting or electrical chases? I would be eliminating as many as I could to improve layout possibilities if you plan to replace cabs....that means drywall repair but worth it I think. All those jigs and jags make the room choppy. For example, removing that little wall by the fridge means you could run cabs under the window in an L-shape and eliminate that tiny cubbyhole with window. I am not sure what the purpose of the stove arch was/is but that would be high on my list of things to eliminate. What is in that short wall by the fire extinguisher? What is the space between the fridge and the doorway? If a closet, that would be a candidate for removal too. You will need to decide on how extensive you want to go and that will probably be determined by eliminating or keeping the cabs. If you eliminate them and are on a tight budget, look at Ikea cabs when there is a sale. If you keep the cabs, I would probably forgo spending a lot of money on new countertops so big box stock laminate counters should run $150-250. Using LVT tiles on the floor, painting walls, demoing the brick arch, centering stove on the wall space, removing wood valance, ditching curtains and blinds for Roman shades, and I assume updating lighting but only because I cannot see what is there are all things that could be done within a modest budget. Additionaly, how old is the flooring...old enough to be worried about asbestos?...See MoreKitchen remodel design help, please!
Comments (41)Update- It's been 2 years and we are almost ready to start. We plan on doing a 6' × 3' window centered on sink (east) wall. I will attach pics of the outside. It will be a fixed middle with 18" slides on each side, clear no panes. The windows now are right against the fascia board so we thought making the window slightly smaller to the 3' height would give some breathing room. Questions: How high off counter should the window be? Does the size seem okay or would changing it be better? We haven't bought it yet so it can be changed. I'm adding the newest incarnation of the plan and this time it's more readable (hopefully!) Question: SE corner the sink wall and range wall - is lazy Susan the best option? Could something else be more functional? Range wall we are thinking of not doing uppers because of the box (24 deep, 12 high by 182 long) on sink wall and mismatch of space next to stove trying to get that 36" hood. Instead we would do 18" upper to counter in each corner of sink wall and 30" upper next to that. Thoughts? Pantries- getting the pantries less deep than 24" is quite a bit more expensive so we were thinking of making the 24" depth work, I would have to make the walkthrough to the kitchen/dining room 35" (better than the 30.5" now) instead of 40". I can also widen the kitchen/entry/living room walkthrough but didn't change it on the plan. We can just sheetrock the openings and these won't need trim. I'm unsure of what fillers I need exactly so those are most likely needing to be adjusted. the north side has that area that is 12" offset from the sink wall and has the stairs to the family room at the nw corner. The area that is usable would be about 91" x 12" but the upstairs ceiling is 57.5" from the kitchen floor. - idea as of now is to do 3 30"×30" 2 door uppers facing family room and building a box under them to raise to level of counter and adding an additional 15" (or bigger? but then that would cut into usable space on sink wall more) of countertop to make a breakfast bar. Question: Is this a good idea? Does doing a 18" full height door under the overlapping counter work? Or is a different solution better? I would really appreciate any constructive thoughts/ideas. I'm open to changing anything that would make this kitchen function to the best of it's ability! Thanks so much for the help! PS. Please ignore the messy landscaping, it's a project for another day....See MoreKitchen Remodel - Lighting Help Please!!
Comments (3)The can lights are installed to light up the counter over your should der to avoid shadows and any good lighting store will help with the layout. IMO fans in a kitchen are a bad idea get a good hood with a bit higher CFM and that will be a much better choice. All your LEDsshould be 4000k and IMO if the under cabinet lighting is on its own switch you really never need dimmable lighting in a kitchen...See More
mayflowers
4 years agoIn your first layout, I would avoid this silliness of shelves so close to the hood and stacked three high so you can't reach anything. I would allow one shelf on each side with plenty of breathing room around the hood.
I don't like fridges adjacent to a window where they block the light. Are you able to add another cabinet or a larger cabinet between the sink and fridge and downsize the pantry? Or can you add a cabinet and turn the pantry cabinet so its back is butted up to the side of the fridge? It can be anywhere from 8-12" deep with double doors opening into the nook. It's the most useful design for a pantry cabinet and cheaper than a pull-out.
Contemporary kitchen · More InfoI like your second layout. It looks functional to me, but if cpartist sees something wrong with it, I'd trust her opinion.
William Rincon
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoThanks for you input.
cpartist, there is room for circulation in the family room, so having the island pushed back out shouldn't be a problem.
Janie, this is the a sketch of the floorplan. As you can see, the kitchen is in the upper right corner, open to the family room. I don't have an electrical plan.
Mayflowers, unfortunately I can't turn the pantry since it sits next to the drop-down ceiling in the breakfast nook. Should I add another cabinet between the fridge and the sink to make this landing area larger, and move the sink closer to the corner and the range?
I agree with placing maybe two staked shelves at least 12" from the hood, like in the drawing below. The shelves shown are 31". I would probably go with 24" for a larger gap between shelf and hood. What do you think?
I also prefer the first option slightly over the second just because of the look of the continuous windows in the back.
cpartist
4 years ago
mama goose_gw zn6OH
4 years agoHere are a couple of quick variations of clean-up on the short wall, the one on the left with the range/hood centered between windows as a focal point from the family room. It also hides the dirty dishes and fridge. The plan on the right has the DW outside the work triangle, which would allow a helper to load or unload the DW, or to gather dishes to set the table, without entering the prep and cooking zones, although the cook's access to the pantry would be blocked when the DW door and dish drawers are open.
In both plans I drew a stack of drawers on the end of the work table/island. I have a very useful 3x5 work table with a cabinet in the middle, but in this case the cabinet would be more useful for dish storage, facing the DW.
I removed the bottom and left walls, since those are open to the family room and dining nook, then re-positioned the table. I also drew uppers on the clean-up wall, with open shelves over only the sink. With dish storage in the drawers you could instead have your open shelves all the way across, for display of pretty dishes or pottery.William Rincon thanked mama goose_gw zn6OHcpartist
4 years ago
thinkdesignlive
4 years agothinkdesignlive
4 years agothinkdesignlive
4 years agoI’m going to suggest you talk to local designers about this project. Only because I’m seeing some potential for reworking the layout of the family room off the kitchen. Maybe flipping it entirely and designing a TV into the island kinda like this
Contemporary Kitchen · More Info
I’m not convinced the open island idea you have is working...or how the family room is antisocial w the kitchen and they are so close....just a lot to consider thus the recommendation to work w a pro. Even just for a few hours to get you on the right track. The IKEA designers can be helpful too.William Rincon
4 years agocpartist
We are removing walls and even a fireplace. This below is the current floorplan. The current kitchen is a galley with a doorway to the dinning room, and there is a huge corner fireplace looking into the family room and anchored between the kitchen wall and living room. As you can see, the living spaces are very segmented and I'm looking to open the space up.
This is the remodeled floorplan again. I want to remove the main dividing wall and the fireplace to open the space and connect kitchen and family room. I am thinking that a tv and built-ins on the wall opposite to the sink wall would make for a nice focal point with an unobstructed view of the tv from the kitchen.
You are right in that the nook is small, and I will be blocking it some with the pantry in the proposed design. However, I'll be putting a cafe style table there (32" diameter) with sitting for two (mine is a two-person household).
The 10' room on the other side of the kitchen wall I would like to use as a smaller living/sitting area, separate from the family room.
thinkdesignlive, if you look at the current and remodeled floorplan, you can see there is plenty of changes. Would you recommend tackling the remodel in a different way? What's your take on the changes I'm proposing for the entire space?
Thanks a lot.
William Rincon
4 years agoWilliam Rincon
4 years agoH202
I've put a wall cabinet in that corner by stacking a horizontal door cabinet below a regular 2-door one.
I'm not sure, do you think it throws that wall out of balance?
mama goose_gw zn6OH
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoMy interpretation of H202's suggestion was a pantry cabinet in the lower right corner. I would not put a full height cabinet between the sink and range, in prime prep space.
ETA, Where are you planning to store dishes in the above plan? Will frequently-used dishes be kept on the open shelves? If you plan to keep them in drawers to the right of the sink, then the narrow cabinet to the left of the range could house a trash pull-out, with a super susan base in the corner.
cpartist
4 years agoSo what is that room that you now enter that is only 10' wide?
I might be inclined to completely change around the front rooms. Maybe something like this?
William Rincon thanked cpartistWilliam Rincon
4 years agocpartist
That's something I considered before, bringing the kitchen to the front of the house and having the back as the living/family room. The problem with that configuration is that there there are two floor to ceiling windows on the front wall looking into the porch. That would imply changing that exterior brick wall entirely, which my budget doesn't allow. I wish I could tho.
You are right, I misunderstood H202 suggestion. I reworked the first plan to include a second, deeper pantry on the stove wall. I put 15" wide drawers on both sides of the range, a lazy susan in the corner and a 15" waste drawer to the right of the sink. DW is still between fridge and sink. I think I like this much better than the original.
What do you all think?
Karenseb
4 years agoWilliam Rincon
4 years agoThere's two windows 36" wide x 72" high in the front wall. I drew their approximate location in red in the floorplan below.
The area east of the dining table I would like to use for a smaller, separate sitting area.
mama goose_gw zn6OH
4 years agocpartist
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agocpartist
That's something I considered before, bringing the kitchen to the front of the house and having the back as the living/family room. The problem with that configuration is that there there are two floor to ceiling windows on the front wall looking into the porch. That would imply changing that exterior brick wall entirely, which my budget doesn't allow. I wish I could tho.
There is a solution to most things and this one now avoids having corners in the kitchen. Corners are some of the most useless spaces.
Put the sink on the island. Extend the length of the island. Put the cooktop on the wall as in version 2 and put 2 windows on either side of the cooktop. Problem solved and front windows never touched!
William Rincon thanked cpartistJanie Gibbs-BRING SOPHIE BACK
4 years agoWilliam Rincon
4 years agocpartist
4 years agoWilliam Rincon
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4 years agocpartist
4 years agoWilliam Rincon
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4 years ago
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