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Design Dilemma Kitchens

Redesigning pantry wall for more counter space

last year

This pantry is 84” high x 87.25 wide x 24” deep. I have relocated half the pantry to another wall and would like this area to have 30-40 inches of countertop with on glass doored cabinet for barware. I would like to have two tall pantries on either end.

I had to commit $10k to the cabinet shop to get them to come measure and design. The first picture is the view from the dining room and the oak cabinets are what is there now (excuse the tape). The second picture is his design. I think iit looks out of proportion and boring. This guy had great google reviews but I am having a hard time and getting frustrated. The third is a closeup of the wall I am trying to do . Tha Thanks for your suggsuggestions

. Could someone graciously give me design ideas? i live in the boonies and its hard to find other CKD’s out here.

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Comments (7)

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Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
last modified: last year
To begin post pics we can see without standing on our heads . A to scale plan of the whole kitchen and honestly IMO get a different cabinet maker if he wants money up front to advise . IMO very little benefit to removing that wall of storage to get a piece of counter far removed from actul work space how badly do you need a bar area. I need pics of the whole kitchen to understand the dilemma. Sorry but 10K for the design how much is that mess going to cost by the time it is done? You can get lots of free advice here if you give us some info. From what I see you needed more storage and that is not being addressed .
rebasheba
last year
How do you envision this cabinetry being used? If barware, are you thinking of putting a little beverage fridge?

I don't know what's boring about it - it looks like what you asked for if I understand you correctly.

I would make sure cabs are taller than your current and bring it up to the ceiling with a crown molding.
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The opening is 91 inch and the pantry is on the right of the opening on another wall. The pantry is next to the fridge. I was considering to put in bottom cabinets from the fridge all the way if I close the opening. I would like to keep the pantry also but the pantry door needs space to open.
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We also converted from framed to frameless. All drawers. We did this first before making final decisions. We got so much more useable space, we decided not to have a pantry. We got more counter space. Today, it is still a happy choice. We kept moving forward step by step, re-using old counter material and fillers like plywood until we bought a new fridge. Even though it was a tall 24"wide one, we decided to hide it down the hall and buy an undercounter fridge. That shows you how much we loved having ever more counter! Later we recessed our wall oven and put a piece of counter in front of it. 9" by 24". More counter! -- Deep long drawers will astound you. They bring objects to you. Today, you get on all fours to rummage around in the dark. It's a disincentive. Your kitchen has a wide aisle. You could make your new counter overhang by many inches and still have a wide aisle. With full extension drawers it is not significant when your counter overhang is large. Make uppers deep, with frosted glass fronts, that swing up. We installed Ikea's Akurum base cabinets upside down (they are symmetric), so we got more room to install the deep drawers. Before doing it, I posted questions about this in GW and in Ikeafans; the response was the wildest hecklefest I could have imagined. But it worked and it increased drawer volume. Later I removed the crossbeams (MDF) under the new counter. More volume. It all worked. Our counter is 2cm thick; this also gave us more space. Prices are $24 Ikea 70107069 RATIONELL N 24"w fully-extendable (Blum M-height) $30 Ikea 90109977 RATIONELL N 24"w fully-extendable (Blum C or D-height) Deep Drawers and glides. They come with the clips for the fronts, but not the fronts. See http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0718520230561.html I added to this thread earlier today. In that post there is more information on other topics related to small kitchens. Here is a link that might be useful: Small kitchens HAVE to have __
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kandrewspa
last year
The 10K is going to be applied to the job, correct? It's not $10K for design services? It's possible that the rendering isn't doing the design any favors. Will the middle section be glass doors with a white interior, and will it be lighted? The rendering doesn't do a good job of showing that. Are your cabinets going to be natural wood? Are you going to have an island? Taking the cabinetry to the ceiling and having a molding is good advice. You could also have this section done in a different finish than the rest of the cabinets to make it more interesting. It's difficult for me to know if this is a good idea since I don't know what you have planned for the rest of the kitchen. But I think what you have is a good concept and will look nicer than you're thinking. I have some glass cabinets in my kitchen and I like them. They are good relief from expanses of wood.
ginjohn100
last year
Yes, the $10k is applied to the job. Thank you for wanting more details...I will try and get things more organized this weekend and post better info and photos
marylut
last year
@ginjohn100 based on your large family gatherings, wouldn’t that pantry area better serve you as banquette seating? Here are my thoughts, option 1 with island has banquette seating, wall oven and MW and pantry by fridge. Option 2 without island has banquette seating, diverts traffic out of kitchen and through new 42” wide hallway along side the kitchen but kitchen stays wide enough for 2 cooks, adds counter or bar seating for 5.
marylut
last year
someone posted you have 2 Usernames. 1 is Gin J and 1 is ginjohn100.
Gin J
Original Author
last year
I just figured that out…. apparently my username when I sign in from my phone is different than the one I must’ve set up on my computer … I used this site a long time ago for a landscaping project and musth’ ve lost track of my sign in data

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