Crowded kitchen design?
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I’m designing my new house kitchen. The house is a scandinavian rectangle: 34’ w x 52’. There is a loft above the kitchen that begins to the left of the dotted line. The area on the left side of the kitchen has an 8’ ceiling, at the dotted line, the ceiling height is open past the loft and is 20’ high. Here’s the issue: I want a wall oven with a microwave over it. I don’t want to look down on the tops of cabinets or walls from the loft (plus a cleaning nightmare). So everything except the sink has to be on the one wall under the lower ceiling but it’s not ideal to have them lined up. I am willing to put the microwave in the pantry or possibly under the island, but I need a place for the wall oven. I don’t need a lot of upper cabinets. This is our retirement home and we are trying for ease and convenience.
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A couple things I noticed: 1) it's a long way from your refrigerator to your sink, and the typical work flow is ice-water-stone-fire. 2) You have very little landing space to the left of the cooktop.
Do you need a pantry that large? I'm asking because just one idea (BUT I'm not a pro) would be to move the pantry door around the corner, move the fridge and wall oven cabinet down but put a narrow pullout between fridge and wall oven. Then your island can be longer and you'd have room for a prep sink. Rough mockup below but others might have better ideas.
Finally, with a 20' ceiling over it, how will you light the island?
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Comments (153)Purplepansies Blue Louise--I love the combination of the copper brown and the blue. Florantha Starry Night--Good job finding swirly tile. I tried this exercise, but was stumped searching for swirly tile. I love the dark blue drapes. Purplepansies Approaching Thunder Storm--Oooh, I love the artwork! You did a great job of capturing the colors and the mood of the painting. I love the magma supreme granite. Honorbiltkit Vuillard--Also a beautiful painting, full of interesting details and patterns. You captured the color of the rug in the painting, and the painting you chose for your design does a great job of mimicking the painting in the painting. If that makes any sense. Palimpsest Vuillard--You also did a great job of capturing the colors of the painting, playing up the neutrals a bit compared to Honorbiltkit. The floor--is it Marmoleum?--mimics the colors of the rug. Style-wise, the table is unexpected, but I really like it in the design. Pricklypearcactus Lanadscape with Butterflies--I like the interplay of colors in your kitchen just as much as in the original painting. I just want to say how very much I've enjoyed this thread. I liked the artwork, I liked the kitchens, and I liked all the creative thinking that went into putting them together....See MoreCrowded kitchen - can you help?
Comments (11)"We are very crowded in our kitchen." "Things I don't like: - the corner sink makes it hard to open the windows or clean the counter - the d/w is a bit closet to the sink, although it does work - nowhere to put trash (it's in the dining room) - the very useless pantry that has fixed shelves 24' apart." "Things I like...the peninsula..." An observation... The reason your kitchen is crowded, you have a corner sink you don't like, you have no room for trash (although you could make room), and the DW is too close is......the peninsula. Have you considered eliminating that peninsula or at lest making it shallower and eliminating the seating on it (and thereby gaining more space on that wall)? Have you considered replacing the doors in the bay with sliding doors (freeing up space) and then adding a table? I think it would give you your desired (I think) table space in the kitchen as well as use what appears to be wasted space to the right of the kitchen - a lot of wasted space! [Except for the desk - do you need it? I'm asking b/c one of the big things people want to get rid of when they remodel is a desk in the kitchen as it's a clutter magnet.] Would you be open to moving the range to the area protected by the peninsula and the sink to approx where the range currently is? Add a 90-degree corner susan and you'd be surprised how much more space there is inside the "U". How about something like this? It keeps most of what you like and solves everything that you don't like... You have two "tray" type cabinets, one 12" wide and the other 9" wide. One can be used for cutting boards and the other for cookie sheets, etc. The trash pullout is in the Prep Zone and next to the Cooking Zone (ideal) plus, as an added bonus, it's also in the Cleanup Zone! The DW will be easy to load/unload now that it's on a straight run and, for the same reason, the sink will be much easier to use! The primary Prep Zone is in front of the windows. The majority of people spend 70% or more of their time prepping, so it's nice to have the Prep Zone in front of a window! [The paradigm of the "sink must be under a window" is a hold over to when all dishes were washed, rinsed, & dried by hand. With the advent of DWs, this is no longer necessary.] The peninsula is nice secondary Prep Zone. The MW is next to the refrigerator and is in a "Snack Center" Instead of the fixed-shelf pantry w/deep shelves (24" is definitely too deep for this type of pantry!), there is pullout pantry cabinet b/w the DR and refrigerator. The Refrigerator is "built in", so you can still hang lunch bags on it! The only real negative I see to this is the DW opening into the path to the DR, not in the doorway, but in the path. With work zones marked......See MoreRemodeling Kitchen. GC/ kitchen designer/design build
Comments (33)So it is unrealistic to know what you are paying before you basically agree to buy with someone? I have an estimate right now for my exact layout from one place, but he doesn't seem to want to give me a quote for another line, other than it would be 20% more. Which is fine, I can do the math myself (about $8,600 for Medallion Gold), just as long as it really is close to 20%. The thing is, I know I don't want to keep things exactly as they are. I need mostly drawers rather than regular cabinet bases, which I know is more expensive. The current oven and microwave are also currently smaller than anything on the market, so I would need to make space for regular sized ones, either by extending the cooktop peninsula next to them or moving the refrigerator on the other side of them to the other wall. Either way, this is adding expenses that probably have not been accounted for in this bid. Sometimes he seems super easygoing and other times I feel like I am bothering him when I ask questions (which may be just different communication styles as well). I do understand his time is valuable, and I don't want to waste it, but he never asked for any kind of fee or retainer for work and I can't just sign on the dotted line when I don't know if there are thousands of dollars of changes needing to be made. I did call another place because they have Diamond Cabinetry, which I have also heard is a good midlevel brand, and since I was feeling a bit uncomfortable with how the interaction was going with the guy at the other place. They have been so friendly and patient every time I have had any interaction with them. They also came out and measured and are even going to do a couple different designs and go over them with me. When they gave me a ballpark though, it was 10-15k, which I don't think is unreasonable, just after hearing under 9k, 15k is tough, especially considering this reno was not planned and we have a lot of other expenses right now, so 6k does make a difference. That 9k might be a big illusion though, since I think he was basing it on what is in place currently, but I'm not sure because I have gotten to the point where I am worried I am asking him too many questions. For a big budget, a 2-5k difference might not really matter, but for us right now it does....See MoreHelp! Kitchen layout and design for small retro galley kitchen!
Comments (2)Yes, I have thought about that.. Ikea only has one depth wall cabinets which are the same depth as their shallow base.. (Previously that wall had the same thing (wall same depth as base.. But the previous cabinets were built in place.. 13" depth instead of 14 3/4.. ) That's why I designed it with the top 21" shorter than base so that the counter will be useable.. Also thinking of mounting the cabinets a bit higher than normal (19"-20") above counter so counter is more useable. If you have a suggestion of where I could get 12" wall frameless quickly w/o doors?? and maybe use ikea doors with them?...See MoreRelated Professionals
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PROlast monthMove the pantry so it’s IN the kitchen. Eliminate the inside corner because they are a waste of space. I don’t understand not wanting to look down onto cabinets but we all have our quirks.
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Mark Bischak, Architect