Please help: cabinet layout/oven height/pantry options/island size

last year

I am attaching photos of our old kitchen, demolished because of flooding, and a new plan that I am trying to devise. The soffit/bulkhead was torn out, so now the walls go straight up to the (vaulted) ceiling. The west wall runs 154.625" south from the door/opening to the Florida room; south wall is 210.325"; east wall has (30" south wall to door/opening to back hall, 30" for opening, 6" to where tall oven cabinet starts) and then runs 96" north. The entire north end is open to the living/dining area, but had an island with cabinetry dimensions of 24" (N/S) x 60" (E/W) with toe kick originally only on south side and overhang of 12" on W/N/E sides that worked fine for us.

What I liked about the old kitchen:

(1) basic layout with space for rinsing/dicing to right of sink, just enough space for dredging to left of cooktop and for straining/pouring out on the right, and plenty for baking on island;

(2) upper cabinet storage for dishes over dishwasher & silverware in drawer immediately to right; upper cabinet storage for glasses to right of fridge;

(3) bookshelf for cookbooks over the desk area;

(4) corner lower susan for blender, measuring cups, mixing bowls & juicer;

(5) lots of space "in" kitchen so that 3 people could be working at sink/cooktop/oven-island and not be in each other's way;

(6) drawer space on island for tin foil/saran wrap/baggies + baking tools + potholders/placemats;

(7) the height of the wall oven was perfect (unfortunately I don't know how high it was) and the height of the microwave worked for us since we're both tall;

(8) while I didn't use the desk (east wall) as a desk per se, a broken leg & stint in a wheelchair convinced me of the convenience of at least one ADA height surface;

(9) between the end of the kitchen cabinets on the west wall and the door to the Florida room was space to put our dog's bowls--definitely a priority in our house.

What I didn't like was

(1) no good space for spices (I had them in an upper susan in a former kitchen and I liked that);

(2) no vertical storage for cookie sheets/trays;

(3) having to get down on my hands and knees to dig out frying pans and the stand mixer from the lower cabinets;

(4) pantry cabinets to left of fridge were deep shelves that didn't pull out, so things would get lost in the back--I imagine that is easy to solve.

The kitchen is in the middle of the house (dining room to east, Florida room to the west, living room to the north, back hallway to master to south) and has a vaulted ceiling that we couldn't change without rebuilding pretty much the entire house.

I'm attaching my tentative plans. (Note: my measurements on the whole room plan don't exactly match up to the wall plans because I realized after drawing the whole room plan that my old oven was 27" and the new one I had ordered is 30", so the cabinet has to be wider. Also, I don't know what dimension an upper cabinet has to have to accommodate a lazy susan large enough for my spices--in a previous kitchen, it was 24".)

Aside from the measurements and layout of the plan, I am flummoxed by style/color of cabinetry and countertop. I tend to gravitate to contemporary light wood slab doors, Mike likes painted white Shaker, the house style is what I'd call generic brick 80's ranch, and we replaced the former white tiles/carpeting of the kitchen/living area with slate-look porcelain tile. Former cabinets & countertop were a light gray Formica, which although not "in style" we loved. Neither of us likes granite or marble because of the noise it makes. Maybe quartz, but the only one I've liked so far was a honed dark color that looked like soapstone, and I think we need a light colored countertop for our aging eyes.

Thanks for having the patience to read through this and for any advice you have.

Featured Answer

Lynne Om (9A, New Smyrna Beach,FL)
Original Author

last year

@Sena01, yes that type of storage is exactly what I was thinking about for cookie sheets, but do you happen to have a vertical dimension for any of them? I wanted to see if I could fit them under the wall oven without its being too high. The mixer lift…I think probably not; it’s not that big a deal for me to lift it up on the island, as long as I have a cabinet there to store it in. If I add up all the numbers on the south wall, I get 209, at least if I added correctly. There are a couple of places where I sort of randomly put in 2” (like around the fridge) because I wasn’t sure if those sidewalls would need extra reinforcing.

@Joseph Babcock, you are probably right about the position of the sink, but I really dislike them in islands (I know this is a personal foible.) plus I truly use all the available space on the island when I am baking, especially Christmas cookies and I can see the back yard from the sink’s current position.. When the oven door is down & I’m taking something out of the oven, I just have to pívot to my left and the island is right there for hot things. Same applies to the microwave, situated above the oven. Since the front door is on the same side of the house as the garage door/back hall and we have no young children at home, that “back” opening to the kitchen only gets used when Mike and I are bringing in groceries, but I can see how it might be a problem if more people lived here.

@Patricia Colwell Consulting: thank you for your advice. I did not realize that Houzzers such as yourself would think that my previous specific questions on lighting placement and vent adaptation to a vaulted ceiling would be considered as the same subject as the oven height and cabinet layout, although you are certainly correct in that it is the same kitchen. My apologies. I perhaps erroneously assumed that the title of the former posts would prevent anyone from reading a separate question further down in the comments.

I created the drawings posted, not a cabinet designer, so if you want to blame someone for faulty design, please feel free to blame me. This is only the second time in my life that I have done it. I realize that some people prefer their spices in drawers; I prefer mine at eye level in an upper cabinet. I used to have my oils in a narrow upper cabinet by the cooktop, but with the larger hood, I’m not sure that’s possible; I’ll look again. I think I allowed 4” between the hood & upper cabinets, but I would have liked 2”. I’m not sure how narrow cabinets or drawers can be before they look “off”. As it is, the difference in height between the uppers and lowers seems off-balance me, although that seems to be the style.

The space in the middle of the kitchen has worked well for me when I have had multiple people cooking or setting out, as in community Christmas cookie baking and potluck dinners. I would probably feel differently were I the only cook in the kitchen or if I had’t lived with U-shaped kitchens most of my life. I thought I had drawn mostly drawers on the lowers, but perhaps that wasn’t clear or I got confused at the end about how many drawers versus cabinets to have. I need at least a couple of lower cabinets for the tall stand mixer, iced tea jar, and tall dry dog food containers. And maybe for the slow cooker and the tall stock pot? The induction cooktop specified no drawers under it…seemed weird to me. I don’t know if I drew the drawer under the oven tall enough for cookie sheets (14 x 17) but I know that I want the oven high enough so that I don’t have to bend over for the middle rack.

Finally, although you are undoubtedly right about the wisdom of hiring a kitchen designer, between the contractor charging triple what insurance allows, having had to replace my car (totaled by Ian’s flooding) and a failed (but unfortunately very expensive) contract with a designer—not a cabinet salesperson, by the way—I don’t feel that I can risk any more. Right now, we have just gotten drywall. I need to come up with a kitchen plan because even if I turn it in tomorrow, we won’t get it until mid-June.

I understand that what I end up with may not be a kitchen designer’s ideal, but I am working under constraints—on a slab that local plumbers have advised not to rip up for plumbing changes, with a basic layout that should its footprint change much would involve ripping out and replacing the tile throughout most of the open-plan house, and I’m trying to get back in our house before the next hurricane season starts at the end of June. Any help in doing that is much appreciated.

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