Help with awkward kitchen and small budget!
L. H
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
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Jamie Ludwig
3 years agoRelated Discussions
Budgeting a small kitchen remodeling - help needed
Comments (9)Have you been over to the kitchens forum? I'd recommend spending a couple of weeks reading over there and just absorbing. Sure, there are a lot of drop-dead $100k kight-end kitchens, but there are also some 10k DIY ones... and lots in between. I think you can do this and get the kitchen you want without hiring it ALL out to a GC. Sort of your option B. The first thing you need to do is come up with the layout. That's where the kitchen forum can really help. If your current layout is great, that's one huge hurdle overcome. REmember that changing plumbing will add a lot to the cost. Second, get some cabinet quotes so you can see what you're working with, budget-wise. I'm currently helping a friend with a budget, semi-DIY kitchen remodel. She really wants Carrara marble counters like mine, but may need to trim her budget elsewhere to afford them. WE're looking at Ikea cabinets (some googling will show you some gorgeous otherwise high-end kitchens with Vikings and Liebers and marble that used Ikea cabinets, so don't discount them out-of-hand.) as well as mid-priced semi-custom ones. Her strategy is to do the design and sourcing herself, but hire out the electrical (maybe), cabinet installation (unless Ikea), and countertop fabrication/installation. If there was any plumbing involved, she'd probably hire that out too. She'll remove the old cabinetry, install the faucet, tile the backsplash, paint, do minor electrical, patch drywall. In this way she does not need to hire anyone terribly skilled = expensive. Countertops are what they are, cabinet install is usually done by some subs the cabinet-seller recommends, etc. If you are a good planner, organizer, and scheduler, this might work for you....See MoreLayout help please for small budget kitchen
Comments (11)I just had an image of you wandering around with a large large soup pot. It actually looks just like my biggest one, which I keep in my office instead of the baseement. :) As BMore says, there is a limit to how much you can "cram." However, where 2 cabinets meet, you have the thickness of 2 sidewalls. (On both sides in some kitchens, although not yours.) A normal sink, undermount or set-in, is "hung" from the counter, anyway, so part of the side walls can be shaved out to fit a larger sink in. Since the walls hold the counter up, though, you need to leave "enough" to support. Again, though, you can add thin but strong metal brackets to the insides of those walls for additional support that nobody'll ever see. Child's play for a handyman. This kind of thing may sound complicated, but it's not. It's a little task for any skilled worker and can return TREMENDOUS benefits. When you're working with a smaller space, it's important to find ways to fit more in than the standard one-way-for-all methods offer. Also, it's important to note that some salesmen and contractors may do a bunch of **-covering, or work-avoiding by telling you something can't or shouldn't be done when it is, in fact, done all the time. Our sink is "crammed" and nobody knows, not even me because I forgot about it a long time ago. Regarding drawers versus shelves, don't forget that in order to reach back and get stuff on shelves you need to leave empty areas for your arm to reach in and to shove stuff around in to get an item out, plus empty space above for lifting an item over others. Drawers these days are almost always full-extension (don't buy anything else--they're that good), so you pull them all the way out and see and reach everything. You can stack pots MORE than on a typical shelf because you don't need to leave that waste space overhead. Also, your stacks of pots can be right next to each other--no need to leave empty space to push them around to get to them. As for under the sink, BMore said how to do it. Regarding water leaks, drawers just lift right out whenever the under-sink pipes need to be gotten to--unlike 95% of a home's plumbing which, such as in our bathrooms runs from the water heater to the sewer, is totally inaccessible, with long runs and many joints hidden behind and above expensive tiled walls, delicate wood paneling, and thousands of dollars of cheap drywall. I might do an 18" DW but for myself would want a 30" drop-in stovetop and 30" oven, which both fit into a standard-depth counter and don't stick out. A glass cooktop can also double as counter space and the oven for pot storage. This is what I chose. Actually a 36" cooktop, but that's just a detail. BTW, it was my son who pointed out that I could fit in more cabinet storage by putting the 36" drawer stack to the side of the 36" stovetop and a 30" drawer stack under the stovetop (the oven goes elsewhere, where I don't have to stand in front of it when it's hot). This shuffling around allowed me room on one side for an 18" stack instead of 15". Since all the drawer lines and finishes merge in one continuous sweep, it still looks good too....See MoreNeed layout help for small/budget kitchen
Comments (22)You're welcome! Since the slider opens on the left, I think they can increase the seating overhang to as much as 18" and be okay with a 36" aisle for the seating area. That would give them a bit more counter buffer between seating and sink. I tried a few other ideas to see if I could move at least the sink off the peninsula but I wasn't thrilled with the results. Still, it's not my kitchen so I'll throw them out here for you to consider. I reduced the sink cab from 36" to 30" to keep the 30" drawer cab to the left of the sink. The con is that there's a lot of twisting from sink to DW to load the DW but moving the sink farther from the corner meant shrinking the prep space between sink and range quite a bit. Ikea uppers are 15" deep so I only put cabs on each side of the sink not over the sink. They could put open shelves above the sink for dishware and glasses but with dogs, open storage for these items might not be a good plan. They should also carefully consider what they'll store on the shelving to the right of the range. Plan CI moved the sink and DW to the perimeter, shrinking the sink cab to 24" (still a stock size from Ikea). To gain enough clearance between DW and range, I shrunk the peninsula cabs from 24" deep to 15" deep. Ikea offers this depth in 15" and 30" widths. Yes, this means that the DW is in the prep zone but an open DW won't block peninsula cabs. IOW, they won't have to unload the DW, close it before putting items away into the peninsula cabs. If that's not a big deal and they'd rather not have the DW in the prep zone, they can swap DW and sink. That does shrink prep space between sink and range, though. It's all trade-offs and they'll have to figure out which ones they prefer to make. To make up for loss of drawer and upper storage, I added two 15" deep, 15" wide floor to ceiling pantry cabs. The peninsula is shorter to allow for the depth of these cabs. It can still seat 3, just cozier than with a 90" long peninsula. Ikea hack: reduce the depth of a 24" w x 24" deep base cab with shelves to 15" deep and use it in place of Ikea's stock 15" w x 15" d base cab under the peninsula facing the seating to get the most storage possible in this area. One last option requires 2 hacks to make Ikea cabs work.The first hack requires modifying a 38 x 38 corner Susan cab into a corner sink cab. It will mean a smaller sink than you'd get in a 36" sink cab but likely the same size as in a 24" sink cab, especially if they do a drop in sink. The 2nd hack is reducing the depths of two 15" w x 15" d pantry cabs (with shelves, not drawers) to 12". Ikea offers one that has glass doors in the middle section if they want to create a dish hutch. The aisle between peninsula and pantry cabs shrinks to 37" but with there's a decent aisle between fridge and peninsula so doable, IMO. Oops, I forgot to note that the trash goes under the sink. You'll only get one pull-out and you'll need to work around the disposal and drain. Have fun sorting through the possibilities! Oops, I forgot to add peninsula depths. In Plans A, B, and D, it's 40 1/2". In Plan C, it's 31 1/2"....See MorePlease help. Small budget, small family home kitchen partial remodel.
Comments (14)Perhaps I wasnt clear. I'm looking for layout suggestions because Im aware that I need to add countertop and cabinents. L or galley? I like this color, I'm not repainting. Kind of pointless to add a backsplash when money needs to be spent on cabinets. no? The color is not an issue it's the lack of cabinets and countertops. Pantry cabinets to the left of the fridge would extend into the doorway. So you would turn into the kitchen and into the side of cabinetry? I'll add additional images with measurements. Currently there is a double sink and the plans reflect a single sink. Yes the stainless appliances are the new pictures....See MoreL. H
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Jamie Ludwig