hello Big problem small kitchen dilemma!!
I’m having the hardest time putting this kitchen together !
I would appreciate all the help I could get! I cannot change the countertops or floor! As this is a condo , that I do own , but still cannot change because they are brand new , but the cabinets were not changed and it costs to much to replace them! So do I just replace the handles or paint or stain the cabinets?
Comments (32)
Pam Lamping
3 years agoRelated Discussions
Small kitchens: how big is your primary prep space?
Comments (35)The room that holds the kitchen here is not small, at 14 ft x 17 ft. But the ceiling is only 7 ft, and the working part of the kitchen is concentrated in a 14 ft x 10 ft area on one side of the room. The other side is a traffic corridor -- between the dining room, the back door/laundry room, and the bathroom. Before our mini-reno three years ago, the only real prep space was the 30" stretch of counter between the cooktop and the sink. The old double enamel sink was functionally a small single sink, since the far side was given over full time to a dish drainer. Behind and to the left of the prep counter, several steps away, a worktable against the wall offered about a foot of space along its front edge -- helpful for assembling spices or putting aside prepped items, but a little too narrow for any real preparation work. An expanse of work surface materialized -- just under four feet square -- when that long worktable was turned short side to the wall to form a peninsula. A bit more prep surface was tucked in by moving a rolling cart from the other end of the room into the space between the worktable and the wall oven and topping it with a big cutting block. Now, just by turning, I can put aside prepped ingredients, and do tasks that need a lot more space or a bit more leverage (a benefit of the worktable's lower height). This arrangement also makes it possible for both of us to cook at the same time despite the snugness of the kitchen's active-cooking corner. I can slice on the cutting block on the cart or mix/assemble on the worktable while the SO's at the stove, or the main prep counter, or the sink. Neither of us realized how how dramatically the new sink itself would expand that primary prep space -- effectively doubling it. The big single sink fit perfectly into the cutout for the 50-year-old double sink it replaced, but does a lot more with the space. The stainless grid rack that sits on the base of its vast interior provides a level, dry surface. With the drain set well off to the right side, the grid makes the sink base a real adjunct to the prep counter. All kinds of tasks happen right in there, at a more convenient height and in an environment made to handle mess: straining and quick-chilling stock, using the food mill, buzzing things with the immersion blender, wringing the liquid out of yogurt or salted vegetables.. The grid is also a space for hands-off prep, such as thawing frozen items in water or draining salted vegetables in a colander. There's room for these things to go on undisturbed while someone washes produce or fills a filtered water pitcher at the drain end of the sink. When there's not strenuous faucet action, cookware and utensils can drip dry on the grid, leaning on the sink walls -- a powerful aid to washing as you go along. That's not prep, strictly speaking, but it happens during prep....See MoreNeed Layout Help- Small Kitchen causing big problems
Comments (67)Newbieremodeler, This is my opinion but there are few things that are necessary in making a small home function well for a family for a LONG time, not temporarily until you buy a bigger house. But a well functioning home where you can raise a family. I am thinking about this alot lately because we are buying some rental properties and trying to make these homes "livable" for a family so they are easily rentable. These are things I am thinking about.... 1. Eat in kitchen is not necessary but a kitchen that is close and CONNECTED to an eating area is. (there is a difference) You can connect to an eating area with visual and physical connection. 2. Easy access to the nice green space in your backyard/sideyard that allows you to connect to the outdoors. This allows you to enjoy summer BBQs and perhaps entertain easily in the summer. (I would put sliding glass door from your dining room to make it happen easily in your house). You can't afford the linear foot without cabinets in the kitchen. So you have to put the slider in the dining. This is a typical small home solution. An easy way to make your house livable is to put a deck across the east side of the house (kitchen dining side if this give you a nice access to the yard and increasing the entertaining space without adding on to the house.) 2. Dining area that accomodates a larger group of people with rearrangement of furniture to host occasional parties, ie Thanksgiving, birthday parties, having another family over for dinner is ABSOLUTELY necessary for long term staying power of a small home. I think this is a more important criteria than actual eat-in kitchen. When the house cannot accomodate life's meaningful events in your own home, you feel that your house is not "good" or "big" enough. I think older home designs (pre-WWII) understood this well and gave generous spaces to the dining area even though they did not give enough to the kitchen. Imagine feeling that you can never host a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 at your house because there is no way to make it happen even with rearrangement of the furniture.... In your current kitchen, you can probably seat 6 to 8 adults in the dining and a card table with kids in the living room. Set the table close to the dining opening near the fireplace and have a nice Thanksgiving/holiday party at your home for 10 or more people. This allows you to create memories for your kids. In many of your plans, there is no way you can host the holidays at your home: ie the banquet kitchen and the kitchen eat in table.... These are great for larger homes where there are other areas to host a large party but not in a small home, IMHO. Do you forsee yourself hosting family parties? Dining rooms that are somewhat open to living room rearranges furniture easier for parties. There are people who never host sit down dinners (informal for families. I am not even taking FORMAL) at their homes because it is impossible. On the other hand, I have been in homes that are much smaller but the house makes holiday dinners happen. If you think having these life's events in your home is important to you, then you need to design for it. I think many of your designs show 36 inch opening between the dining and LR. I think this is smaller than what you already have. (58 inches, I am reading). I am not sure what the reason is behind this.... I would open up dining area as much you can given the load bearing condition. Figure out the house first then the kitchen. This is really important! This is not easy because you have to optimize everything and look ahead to the kind of family you will have. You need to have a reasonable plan for various phases of your family's life. For example, if you are a family that will watch TV in the basement, then you need to plan for the basement media room. More questions about the house: How will you use your basement as you have kids? Will you be satisfied with 1 bath on the main or wil need/want to add 1/2 or 1 bath on the main? Where is the nice part of the yard? How will you access that? Do you use the garage to park? If so, do you enter the house through the kitchen? Do you just use the garage as a storage and never enter the house that way? You can add storage in the garage easily to put overflow kitchen stuff in there IF you move the kitchen to where the dining is currently. (as is one of your ideas) In a small home, I actually prefer this type of arrangement than making a kitchen that is too big for the house... (there should be a balance of rooms in a given house) Do you have places for young toddlers/school aged kids to go and play on a rainy/cold day? Where will the toddlers eat? (I had a small toddler table next to my kitchen island for couple years until my kids were old enough to climb the stool easily. The booster chair streapped to the stool did not work for us as well.) Do you have places for teenagers to hangout and have some privacy? Do you have a place for adults to have a little quiet and solitute from one another. (Bedroom is fine for this if you design for it) Do you have a place for occasional overnight guests? How do you enter the house? Where to you drop your stuff as you enter? When I look at your LR, it looks underutilized to me. i would close that opening, and put a wall there so you can cluster the seating arrangement next to the FP. Then you move the kitchen where the DR is now. You create some storage in the garage that stores all your large occasional kitchen stuff. The dining room should have a large opening to the LR which makes the rearranging for large parties easy. You can see into the dining and you feel more connected to the family. (if you DH watches TV and he won't budge from that, then you need to be able to see the TV from the kitchen to feel connected to the family) The couch should face the FP and you can have a console behind the couch which will create a space near the front door a sense of entry. These are some ideas to get you started.... Good luck....See MoreTiny '20s kitchen, big problem: Marcolo needs layout HELP!
Comments (102)Oh, sorry, Marcolo, I thought you'd seen my table before. There's no leg. Just a couple of strong folding brackets. It is supposed to be able to support more than a hundred pounds of pressure or something. I can't remember for sure, but my cabinetmaker said I could roll dough (i.e., lean hard) on it if I wanted (I'd rather not for other reasons, but I could). I don't know if this is a good application for stone, but you could easily do the counter extension from wood, metal wrapped wood, or even formica if that suits. This plan does give up a little storage by the sink, and keeping the sink centered on the window requires either the smaller DW or a blind corner, but you gain all the pantry space above and below the oven, as well as where the old oven was. By not remodelling the structure you also gain money to put into better slimmer appliances. I have a new full sized DW, but I swear it doesn't actually fit that many dishes because of the way it's laid out and how it works. An 18" Miele might hold just as much or more. I didn't want to get into details in putting this sketch in, since they can get in the way of imagination. One thing you can do to maximize storage is to have a run of short upper uppers that go round the room, with some decorative brackets or corbels to "support" the places where there aren't wall cabinets under. You could have the hood over the window go up just to the cabinet as its support as well. On the wall where the table is pictured, you could put art, beadboard, shelves/cupboard above head height, or even standard uppers if you don't want to be sitting back to the wall. The kind of table I've shown doesn't even need the castors unless you want it topped with stone to match counters. It should be light enough to just lift. Though the castors allow you to move it while lunch is already set out. Here is the picture of the table side of my island. The stone overhangs the table by 6". When the table is folded flat it's entirely underneath the overhang. I think it's about 3" thick folded. No more than 4". You can just see the bottom of the bracket on the right side, against the side of the island. These brackets do have a diagonal brace. I can find out more about the hardware and take a picture of the underside if you're interested....See MoreCalling small kitchen owners/small space layout problem solvers!
Comments (22)Continuing to beat the dead horse. Whack! Whack! I'm sorry about this, if the realities of the house structure means this layout simply isn't possible then just ignore me. It is just that I think there is the possibility of a kitchen that is far more functional than the current plan. If you're going to live with this kitchen for many years, the $600 cost of replacing the refrigerator (appx price for 30'' wide Frigidaire left-hinge top-freezer) or the $2,000 (?) cost of modifying the basement stairs (assuming a basic rough carpentry stair run, not a finacy finished stairwell) seems money well spent, in order to double the useful workspace and get well-defined, separate work zones. The wash zone is to the left of the sink, where a full-size dishwasher lives. Dish storage can be across the aisle, if the lower and upper cabinets are deep enough. Dirty dishes go immediately to the wash zone, without even passing through the rest of the kitchen. The dishwasher door might block traffic, if so you could consider dish drawers which still stick out but are easy to slide in and out. The prep zone is to the right of the sink, something like 80 inches of unbroken counter. Room for a trash pull-out, drawer storage for prep tools and supplies, and then some drawer storage for food staples. If the upper cabinets are used for food too, that lower-right corner functions as a sort of pantry. If the refrigerator sticks out, a sort of blind-corner cabinet arrangement may be needed. The refrigerator is adjacent to the prep zone, so that the prepping cook has everything in reach. Some people like to have the microwave in the prep zone. The cook zone is across the aisle. One person can be cooking and two others washing and prepping, without crowding each other. Plenty of landing space on either side of the range. The lower-left corner could be small appliance storage, home for a microwave or toaster oven, maybe a baking center since the counter can be decently deep. I think the kitchen will also ''feel'' more spacious since you won't have a big refrigerator looming right in the center of it, cutting apart one counter and blocking the sightline....See Morelferg92
3 years agoMark Ellis
3 years agoshirlpp
3 years agopartim
3 years agoLisa McLeod
3 years ago
PROAggie dba Aggie Designs
3 years agoEverything looks fine. You could probably do some nice window treatments and call it a day. Otr if you want to go for drama, consider a bold wall color. Benjamin Moore China Red
Gcubed
3 years ago- PRO
Aggie dba Aggie Designs
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoOr if you're feeling frisky, wallpaper! Pottery Wallpaper
https://www.finestwallpaper.com/store/p4793/Missprint_-_Great_Leaf_Wallpaper.html
btydrvn
3 years ago
Ellen S
3 years ago
jlj48
3 years ago
Lisa T
3 years ago
Sammie J
3 years agoPam Lamping
3 years agoThese are the additional photos. At the other end of this tiny space I ordered a settee and chair to pull up to the table for holidays. I plan on a large art piece with a black frame for above the settee
Gcubed
3 years agoHU-938037633
3 years agoYour kitchen has the same exact cabinets I just purchased last year to upgrade my kitchen. I put a quartz countertop in with light brown with a tiny river rock design. I do think the black quartz/granite (?) in your kitchen is too dark and busy, and it was one of the reasons I didn't choose granite in the first place..
BACKSPLASH: You would not want to take out the back splash because, yes, it serves a structural purpose and protects your wall from water damage. My sister's hobby is fused glass, and she started overlaying her backsplash with colorful little fused glass fishies of all types that she made, and it looks great. So, I agree the dark and broadly patterned backspash is not helpful, but you should probably look into some kind of thin overlay instead.
PAINT: I have the feeling you don't like the overall darkness of the room? If that is the case, then choose a cheery paint color for the walls. Pick a color that gives you a lot of joy - for instance, I like blues and greens in my own house - and since you are working with black and brown, that should not be difficult.
WINDOW COVERING: Coordinating the wall color with a cheery window covering will help a lot, although you will have to make sure the granite design looks good with it.. I drove down to Old Town in San Diego and bought some boldly striped Guatemalan fabric for my window, and it ties the whole kitchen together.
LIGHTEN COUNTERTOP: Also, you can lighten the countertop up with large white, tempered glass trivets/cutting boards. Lennox, Farberware, and many others make these. You can buy 3-4 white ones and line them up on the countertop where there is no electric appliance, and you will have instant lightening - and if the effect is not what you want, they are returnable!
FLOOR: Your floor is beautiful, but again, you may want to lighten things up. A kitchen throw rug that goes well with your cheery paint should help (non-sllip).
HANDLES: I loved my cabinets plain look and didn't want to mess them up with handles. I put a combination of spring-push and recess pulls. It is too late for that because of the drill holes, butyou can see what a dark flat handle can do to the look here, like others here have recommended.
CABINETS: Also, I am not sure how well these particular cabinets would handle paint. Mine are more of an oiled surface.
My house is block, inside and out, as well as more than 80 years old. We were very limited with many things in a small kitchen, but the rich warmth of these cabinets have made the room warm and cheery.
My fabricator sent me out to pick out my own countertop from the wholesaler, so I know how competitive it is to actually get a particular color, or for that matter, a suitable color and design. Big builders settle for whatever is in big supply at the moment, and that may explain the countertop. That said, I think there is too much emphasis on white cabinets everywhere, and I think it is hard to keep a clean look long-term with white. My family and I find my brown kitchen very relaxing. I just go rid of 80-year-old cream cabinets, myself, and when I bought the house over 40 years ago, everything was a light yellow with that paint splatter antiquing. It was not pretty.
Below gives an idea, with the floor still TBD, the curtain still hanging free instead of doubled up across a dowel. Bad lighting, but you get the idea. I accented the counter top with beautiful old copper hammered plates that had been in a drawer for decades.
btydrvn
3 years agoHU-938037633
3 years ago
Fori
3 years agoeld6161
3 years ago
Snaggy
3 years agopartim
3 years agoSnaggy
3 years agoeld6161
3 years agoGcubed
3 years agohousegal200
3 years agoYour cabinets are just fine and so's the countertop. The floors are wonderful and do harmonize with the cabinets--not sure why everyone thinks they don't complement each other. What would help hugely would be repainting all the walls a warm, creamy white instead of taupe. The taupe walls don't bring out the warmth of your cabinets, floor, cabinets, or furniture.
https://www.houzz.com/magazine/11-terrific-paint-color-matches-for-wood-details-stsetivw-vs~9025200
Here's Gentle Cream BM
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One cosmetic feature you could add is a stained-to-match deep molding across the cabinet tops the take them to the ceiling.fkurban
3 years agofkurban
3 years agoshirlpp
3 years ago
flopsycat1
3 years ago
roccouple