Small Island Dilemma
kel_kat5
4 years ago
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eam44
4 years agokel_kat5
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Small island too small to support overhang for seating?
Comments (12)Some of the things hollysprings mentioned may be code, depending on where you live. It was required for us to run electrical through the cabinet. The code even specified that we needed an outlet on the floor next to the cabinet - but luckily the inspector didn't notice that we didn't bother. We did need an outlet on the cabinet side wall. We thought we would need 15" overhang for our counter, but we did it at 12.5" and it works great. If this was your main eating area and you wanted it to feel like regular table seating, you might want 15" but we sit there a about 5-6 hours per week and it's fine. Our counter with overhang is quartz. Depending on whether you are using 2cm or 3cm, you may need support -- which any good GC can do, you add 3/8" steel bars under the countertop. At either 12" or 15", there is no need for corbels or other more intrusive support....See MoreKitchen design dilemma...space for small table or pantry cabinets??
Comments (9)Thank you everyone for your time and great feedback. Let me try to answer some of your questions and clarify a few things… The kitchen and current dining space combined is 11’5” deep by 23’8” wide. Our budget is around 20K and we could and are willing to do some plumbing or move a gas line for our oven/stove. We recently replaced our dishwasher and oven/stove. Our fridge is still fine but could be replaced if necessary (but we don’t want to spend 6-10K on a new counterdepth fridge). So the budget would be primarily for cabinets, countertops, any plumbing or gas line work, etc. We are one of the largest houses in the neighborhood so we aren’t wanting to spend a ton on the kitchen and overprice the house for the area, but for the size of our house our current kitchen is not working (we only have one drawer for silverware and then a small 12” drawer for utensils…it’s just not very user friendly or functional) and needs redone. We tinkered with flipping the current kitchen and dining space but run into some problems. 1) The large 72” wide picture window in the dining space is only 29” up from the floor, so it would be below the cabinet and countertop. The smaller 36”x36” above the current sink would likely need to be altered to fit the space more appropriately. We have stucco so it is a lot more involved and costly to change window sizes or placement leaving us pretty much stuck with the present windows. 2) We have soffits above our current kitchen cabinets that we were hoping to be able to open up but we realized the one along the top wall over the sink is filled with plumbing from our 2nd floor main bathroom as well as HVAC. Too costly to move for our budget so it would have to stay and look out of place all alone over there without cabinets or something else to help camouflage it. The one along the shorter wall can be taken out and we plan to do so in order to have taller cabinets on that wall. There was a wall between the kitchen and current dining room that we took out (only a small 30” deep stud wall remains next to the fridge). We have a standard fridge and would like to try to decrease the amount of space it takes and projects from the wall. We realized there is a double wall on the right wall in-between the kitchen and bathroom. We have decided to move the fridge there because we can recess it back 3-4” making it appear closer to a counterdepth fridge. Our current “living room” acts more like a family room for us, but we also just refinished our basement in the last year and that area serves more as our present family room. Since it is a large room, it would be a bit awkward to put our kitchen table there and have some extra space in the living room that leaves us wondering how it would be used. Our current “family room” with the fireplace is a room we don’t use because our fireplace isn’t functioning. It is merely a room we walk through in order to access our backyard and why we thought taking some space from the room for a mudroom might be a good option. Our current kitchen table is large (40x72) with a bench and 4 tall/high back chairs. It takes up a lot of space in the current “dining room” space and why we were tinkering with a smaller table for the kitchen and moving the larger table to a new dining room in the back. However, it does make sense that we would likely no longer use that second table and would be a wasted space. @emilyam819 Yes, we will be removing the small stud wall by the current fridge to allow more freedom in the design. Please see note above about the wall removal and possible fridge relocation. @latifolia Our current dining area is the left part of the open space in front of the large picture window. We are considering putting a smaller table there so we can still have a place to eat yet have more room for cabinets and then moving our large kitchen table to the back room with the fireplace. It currently is an unused space as the fireplace is nonfunctional and why we are considering making a mudroom back there as well. But we understand dining rooms often go unused so maybe that area is better served as a den or office space like you suggested.Our laundry room is in the basement as we have a laundry chute and don’t have the room to put it on the 1st or 2nd floors. @Cherie “Too bad you can't remove the walls.”—I know, right!?! It’s so frustrating! But we have sulked about it too long and need to accept it and move on, but it is such a bummer in our books!...See MoreLighting in small kitchen with small island
Comments (1)https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2699918/looking-for-layout-help-memorize-this-first...See MoreSmall Island or No Island?
Comments (9)The island workspace would not be used for prep because you won't be facing the family room/folks sitting at the peninsula, so I don't think it will enhance your cooking. It could be very useful as breakfast or lunch station though. I also agree, it should be open and not closed cabinets, if you choose to do it. Having said that, because you have the cabinet already, the storage space could be very useful for prep and cooking even if you don't use the counter for that. It's nice to pivot from the sink for colanders, bowls etc....See Moremegs1030
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