LOVE my kitchen but whats missing???
smu techi
5 years ago
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J Williams
5 years agoDiana Bier Interiors, LLC
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Can you look at my kitchen layout and tell me what I'm missing?
Comments (49)Wow, thank you all so much. Lavendar_lass thank you for posting that layout, I really am liking it (thank you Buehl as well, yes I have two growing sons and a huge husband, never thought of leg room!). Rebunky thanks for posting the pics I'll have more to say on that later because I love love love that buttery black counter with those pretty white counters and am guessing you are deciding backsplash? :) I am dying to see your kitchen. Excuse my absence, we've been in heavy duty talks. Thanks to the so many of you that posted, each and every one of you has given me something to consider, that's what I was looking for. I was dragging my feet on ordering cabinets (which is about to delay us), and I realized it was just that I wasn't really happy with the kitchen layout, but couldn't figure out why. I am really starting to get a better grip on the issues, challenges, and space requirements. I am embarrassed to admit we just didn't re-visit the issue of expansion of living space vs. screened porch, and I think this has to do to the evolution of our project. Which has been less than ideal. We spent months and months thinking based on one contractor) that it was out of reach. I think we just let that dream go, and didn't go back to it. DH who I thought might kill me, based on yet another design change, just loved it. Of course it comes down to numbers, for my interior contractor, I'm approved. I need to verify with the framers the true cost difference. He was talking additional baffles (?) and flooring framing (it's not over heated living space) however we wonder if treated vs. untreated wood and some other things may just really offset it. We will see. This has gotten me actually excited about the kitchen. Finally. This is the whole reason I love to have other eyes on a project, sometimes you just really gain a fresh perspective that shakes you up and lets you think out of the box. I'm notorious for getting stuck in that box, so I try to compensate. Main Line, I appreciate your opinion, I agree that professionals make a difference. I did go to a professional for the original design. She did know my thoughts, and designed accordingly without critique, so I see the downfall. We did buy our bath vanity from them ( it fell in budget). There were a few bath drawings with all this extra cabinetry. My husband said from the start, her job is to sell cabinetry of course she is going to add additional pieces in. Hmm, never thought of that. Good point DH. I certainly thank you Main Line for the point that this could've been designed in a similar but more efficient and more inexpensive way. Perhaps I got a bum designer. That's a shame, I really like working with her. But, I wouldn't know, unless I went on a board like this. As I said, I like to have FRESH eyes. I'm trying to learn A LOT to be an educated consumer, in a short period of time. This board has been truly sanity saving in the amount of generous people willing to share. Some of the best features in our previous home, and this current home, have been due to our own design work. Now there are code and clearance issues, as seen in this kitchen example, that we aren't educated in. And I did have a professional KD. So I like to get more than one opinion. I have more to say on this, but I won't here. I am going to post some pics, which show our floorplan. Again, we hired a designer, but honestly I gave him our window dimensions, and I don't think he drew them correctly (even after a prelim revision). Whole point was to see how the big windows would look placed in the space. This was an expert recommended by a neighbor who used him on numerous home flips and had known him for years, and I had visited her home he designed. So I'm sorry Main Line, maybe I've had some bad luck, but when I base work off of recommendations and it doesn't work out, well there's problems. And I'm the one stuck, so I prefer more than one recommendation on design. Thanks to you all, pics in follow post....See MoreMy kitchen design, is anything missing?
Comments (43)Dear Matt, Your drawings look great! Observations In your current appliance and cabinetry arrangement I feel that the island should go the other way, perpendicular to your kitchen table. But that would place the island up against your table- NG. If your island’s job is to separate work space from gathering space, it’s not doing its job. When you’re working at the range you are out in the open…exposed and guests will be literally right on top of you. I believe to have your island make sense (feel right) the range and ref/f need to switch places. That makes sense, now that you’re cooking behind the island. Your ref/f is closer to your table and closer to the outside. Easily accessible for family and in your work triangle, but it won’t look as good as your range and hood do on that wall. Kitchen Critique Work Triangle: Is relatively small because the kitchen is small. Appliances Requirements Range: at least 18” of counter to the left and right for staging items used during cooking. For baking you need counter for prep and staging items to cool. You have a little over 2’ to the right of your range. You can also use the island since it has no seating and the counter adjacent to the ref/f. Sink: A little over 2’ to the left means a tight staging area for clearing the table and cleaning up pot and pans. To the right you have plenty of counter top that wraps around all the way to the ref/f. And you can use the island but what you clear to it will be center stage. Ref/f: Plenty of counter to the left to stage items going in and coming out. You can also use the island. Prep Sink: Is usually used to reduce the size of a work triangle and supply a second water source and useable sink. This prep sink bowl should be 15” i.d. to provide good utility. Esthetic Performance The range wall looks very good, like the way you centered the hood on the tile so you don’t notice that the hood is not centered on that wall between the windows. The wall sconces may be too small and too high up on the wall to light the counter tops below. Also you may not like looking up at those bulbs glaring at you when working in the kitchen. If these are not task lighting (hood light is enough) you might consider silver bottom bulbs. You’ll get the light reflected off of the shade but not the glare from the bulb. You should add an end panel to the side of the tray cabinet so that it’s flush with the face of the door, and covers the door edge. It will look better because you won’t see the gap between the cabinet box and the door, or the door edge. I believe one wider spice and oil pull out would look better, and you can store your trays in the cabinet above the ref/f making good use of that deep cabinet. Be careful finishing around your apron front sink. It looks a little messy and water will run down the apron and be deposited on or inside of your sink cabinet if you’re not careful. You want the water, when it does, to run down the apron and onto the floor. Ref/f, pantry wall look good, but check the massing on this elevation. From the ref to the right is this huge solid mass and to the left…an open shelf, very light massing you can see this in your rendering. This large mass also makes the island “feel” out of place. Like all that mass is pushing the island and table toward the doors. You may “feel” that all that mass is counter balancing the lack of mass on the cooking wall with no uppers and all that glass. And you would be right…Design is opinion. The cabinetry to the right of your ref/f is very busy. I like how it looks initially but it leaves me wondering how is it practical. Functional Performance: Five Tasks 1. Storage: I believe you will be light on storage because you don’t have a large pantry, have open shelf instead of wall cabinets, and the blind corner cabinet holds a lot of stuff but whatever is in the blind you can’t see to know you have. Half susans don’t work well and if you knock something off of the shallow shelf you may have to take your susan apart to get it. Not great utility. You might be better off killing the corner, sliding the 30” drawer base all the way to the ref/f end panel. Then a base cabinet with a filler so when you open the drawer and door, or drawers you don’t hit the dw handle. Or consider a 27” drawer base if you want to get a wider second cabinet. Also you may want to go with wall cabinets in lieu of the open shelf. Open shelves are a big trend right now, and they require a lot of maintenance because everything on the shelf get covered in dust. And if you store active items there the shelf edge could get banged up so it won’t remain looking very good. And you’ll probably never redo this kitchen for as long as you own it. You may find the 12” pull out pantry relatively useless. After subtracting the cabinet box and space for the glides and the wire frame or roll out sides you’re left with 8 ¼ “ in width x 21” deep. Maybe go with a 39” wide pantry built around your microwave to get more storage space? Or a walk in pantry done in drywall with a door and shallow shelves floor to ceiling. 2. Preparation: Working on your island you have counter, a sink, and hopefully everything you use during prep in the island or in the cabinet adjacent to the ref, or in the pantry. Everything is just a step or two away, including your ref/f. 3. Cooking/Baking: If you can fit the spices and oils and the pots, pans, lids, and bake ware you use most on a weekly bases this area would work intuitively, because everything you need is where you’ll use it. I believe you have enough counter for cooking but could use more for baking. 4. Service: You can set the table from the cabinetry behind the island or from the cabinetry adjacent to the ref/f. Getting dishes and glass ware from cabinetry adjacent to your ref/f for your table or outdoor space will requiring lots of steps and right through work space. Delivering food and beverage service can be a little dicey when you are serving more than six. You need counter space to plate and serve from after the meal has been prepared, cooked/baked. The two counters areas you have large enough are the island and counter adjacent to the ref/f. When you serve buffet style you won’t have this problem. Beverages from the ref are far and behind the island. So getting beverages from the ref to and from the table and outdoor space is time consuming, requiring lots of steps and right through work space. 5. Clean Up: Trash, sink, dw, the trash is on the island far away from the sink. So you’ll clear to the island use the trash, go to the sink to rinse and to the dw. Staging area to the left of the sink is marginal at about 27” wide to be big enough to stage all of the items that need washing from the kitchen during cooking and baking and from the dining table. You can’t really use the counter to the right of the sink because you’ll have to reach over the dw door, when it’s open, to get items off of the counter to get them into the dw. And unloading the dw you can’t get into the cabinetry blocked by the open dw door. To work efficiently, in this layout, the dw needs to be on the left side of the sink, but that kills your utensil, pot, pan, bake ware, and lid storage. You could try your oven somewhere else, but you’d lose the top drawer for cooking utensils. You could try your dw adjacent to your ref/f. If you put it there you’ll need an end panel to support the counter top. This at least gives you access to all of your cabinetry, but is awkward getting from the sink or prep sink to the dw. Hope this has been helpful. Joe Brandao Kitchen Design Company...See Morewhat is missing in my living room
Comments (15)Right off the bat These are the glaring things that stand out to me 1. everything in the room is hung too high. 2. What purpose does the end table serve ? its sitting all alone 3. a loveseat alone is too small for the space 4. fireplace/mantel is way to high to have a TV placed over it 5. lamp is too small for space Questions 1. is this the room your front door opens into and if so where is the front door in relation to everything we are seeing 2. why is there and area rug under the plant? Possible Solutions 1. place the TV on the console 2. place a sofa in front of the windows facing the TV 3. remove area rug under plant 4. if there is a matching sofa to this love seat keeping the love seat where it is and snugging it up to the sofa so arms meet but don't overlap will work, then place a round table at there with a nice lamp 5. Once furniture is in place move plant to left of fireplace in corner 6. place one large piece of art over fireplace. NOTHING art wise on walls at either side however a floor mirror on each side could work if you feel it looks empty, These would need to be large and tall 7. remove the vase with the dried arrangement in it completely 8. turn rug so it accommodates sofa and loveseat layout Another option would be to get two smaller scaled chairs to sit where loveseat is with the sofa arrangement mentioned and move love seat out of the space....See MoreWhat’s my living room missing??
Comments (41)Bright colors. I think your brown woods and gray flooring clash with each other. How about painting the coffee table? Maybe gray to pick up the tones in the flooring, or something unexpected, like yellow, orange, or acid green. If that's not your cup of tea, how about a navy printed throw and some coordinating (NOT matching) throw pillow? Carry the idea over to the mantle with funky candle holders or maybe a mini collection of blue and white vases or jars. The mirror is ripe for DIY adventures. Look for videos about 'dipped' mirrors and painted mirrors. The light fixture is dated. There are some great DIY videos that show how to make a modern bamboo 'basket' light fixture out of dollar store wastebaskets. A can of spray paint (gold, silver, or an exciting accent color) could really bring the whole thing home. You have some great things to work with and it won't cost much to take your living room to the top. :)...See MoreAnthony Perez
5 years agoDiana Bier Interiors, LLC
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5 years agoAnthony Perez
5 years agoDiana Bier Interiors, LLC
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoJ Williams
5 years agoDiana Bier Interiors, LLC
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoAnthony Perez
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