Help with my kitchen layout please
K H
12 days ago
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Comments (13)
K H
12 days agoRelated Discussions
Help with my kitchen layout, please!
Comments (10)Do you need a formal dining room as well as a table with full seating in the kitchen, plus seating at the island? An idea: Can the fridge and or pantries be sunk into the wall between the kitchen and the family room? I've spent months trying to figure out how best to use our 13' x 14' something kitchen (It always feels like I want just a little. more. room!). 13' feels like it should be big enough to stick an island in it... until you actually try to force it in there. It works, but it has to be skinny, and your aisle widths end up being compromised somewhat. Here is something that might help if you can push through the walls a little bit. Would you be interested in opening up the wall between the kitchen and formal dining room? This would let you get the clean up sink off the island and keep it as the good prep space that it should be, while providing a nice view while cleaning, if wanted. I pushed the fridge and pantries through the wall of the family room. Without a whole house layout, I'm not sure if this works or not. I also slid the doorway down between the kitchen and family room. It might be nice to get the microwave into a upper cabinet (or in a MW drawer) next to the fridge with a small base cabinet for landing the food coming out of the fridge and micro. With 4 hungry boys, I'll bet the MW sees a lot of use, so it could be helpful to have it where they can use it without interfering with the main cooking zone. Since the walkway along the fridge would be narrowed while the fridge door is opened, I eliminated the seating under the island across the way and replaced it with 12" deep storage cabinets. These would be great for canned goods, cereals and snacks. Deep enough to hold a lot, but shallow enough to keep things from getting lost. If you can sink the fridge into the wall of the garage, I'd consider swapping the fridge and wall ovens, possibly making a baking zone where I stuck the fridge instead. You'd have to evaluate whether it's more important to have the fridge by the cooktop for your convenience, or more important to have the fridge out of your zone so that fridge lurkers would not be in your work space. Or if you use your ovens a lot, then maybe you'd want them more protected behind the island than out in the walkway to the dining room....See MoreHelp my kitchen layout, please
Comments (8)laughtablemoments, thanks for the help. You've given me some good ideas to consider. desertsteph, thanks for the further explanation. Yes, the current layout is to scale. The edge of the peninsula ends at the beginning of the opening to the living room. The walk space between dishwasher and island is 45" but feels cramped right now with a full depth fridge. The walk space between the oven and island is 42", and the space on either end of the island to their facing cabinet is a narrow 32". I plan to move the island to create more walk space on the dining room side, and removing the peninsula eliminates the problem on the breakfast room side. I don't mind the corner sink. The current cabinet is very deep, which can be helped slightly with a smaller sink and sink base. It's not optimal, but I don't see a lot of opportunity to change it without moving/enlarging the window as laughablemoments has suggested. I'm thinking about that idea, and will ask about the feasibility of it. As to the fridge, I am considering either 36 or 42. If I go with a 36 I can move the dw away from the sink enough to minimize the boxed in feeling. I can probably fit a small pull out base between sink and dw to store cleaning supplies. If I go with a 42 I get more space in the fridge, but less space to move the dw over. I can move it to the left of the sink, but then I risk blocking the path from cooking area to sink with an open dw. It's not that big of a deal because I can't stand having an unattended open dw. :) Thanks to both of you for offering the helpful advice!...See MoreThose darn corners - Please help with my awkward kitchen layout!
Comments (8)Thanks, everyone, for your ideas so far! Stan Z - Nixing the upper corner cab is an interesting idea! I love the balance it would bring to that wall. I'm just not sure if I would be able to reach everything, and I'm paranoid about not having enough storage (especially if the W/D goes in the "pantry"). Do you think it would look better if I put another upper cabinet to the right of the stove (instead of open shelves) to balance that out? If I end up with the second design (corner Susan and larger 24" to the right of the stove) I was planning on putting an upper there. I've definitely gone back and forth on the peninsula thing... but we're pretty set on keeping a separate dining room. desertsteph - sorry about the measurements on the floorplan not showing up well! I didn't realize the image would post so small. I will simplify the drawing so it's easier to read once I get home. The curved line is a door (in my terrible drafting skills). Those are the stairs to the second floor, and the stairs to the basement are underneath it (enter through the dining room). I just included that to show that the flow of traffic is going in that direction. The kitchen originally had the opening on the other side, but I think it makes more sense to direct the traffic on that side. No bathroom on the first floor, unfortunately, but we have a street level walkout basement with another bathroom. There really isn't space for one on the first floor, and probably less than half the houses in the neighborhood have added one, so I'm not too worried about it. mgmum - Switching the DW and sink is a definite possibility. I thought if I kept the bar seating there I thought it would be better to have the dishwasher next to it instead of the sink (since we probably wouldn't be loading the dishwasher while someone is there, but we might be working at the sink). Maybe that's just not true, though. That is an exterior wall by the bar - it's a garden window looking out at the patio (the shape in the mockup is correct but I couldn't figure out how to make the panes see through). buehl - I'm open to the sink going somewhere other than by the window... it just seems like the most obvious place that people think is "correct". I've never had a dishwasher so I keep thinking in terms of my old paradigm. It's going to be an adjustment (the good kind!). Honestly the window doesn't have a great view - it looks at the brick wall of the house across the street. I'm more concerned about the dishwasher door or sink being too close to the breakfast bar if someone is sitting there and snacking or chatting with the cook. At first I was being stubborn about the blind corner, but once I realized it might not fit into the design, I began to think that a corner Susan would be better anyway. I'm kind of the same size as a small child, but that sounds like a royal pain to deal with. I think I just got dazzled by the fancy pullout at Ikea! Maybe it's better to void the corner to fix the issue of the stove and sink being too close. I'll take another look at what that would look like. mama goose_gw zn6OH - Yes, that window is pre-existing. It's actually not a pass through and doesn't even open except a little vent at the top! It's not the highest quality window but I don't mind it and would probably prefer to change it out later down the road to save some money. It does seem like one of those "while you're at it" things, though... it's probably more cost effective to do everything at once if I can scrape up some more. I do like your U shape design a lot, but I was reeeeeally hoping to put some seating in the kitchen since the dining room is separate. Good point about the fridge - for some reason I was thinking it would stick out enough (though it definitely doesn't the way I drew it) or we would put a filler piece there to allow it to open. I'll have to double check on that. lavender_lass - You just said the magic word! I blew my bathroom budget by a mile because I went on a tiling spree... but I'll probably wait to tile the kitchen and DIY it later on, so that might make it feasible. I do love those feature tile walls in a kitchen! Is the breakfast bar what's screwing me up here? Do I need to give up that dream?? Would people think I made a giant mistake if the sink is still under the window but not centered? I could tell that idea gave my contractor a twitch when I brought it up!...See MorePlease help choose from my final two kitchen layouts
Comments (19)Erica, I realize that you don't have a whole-house plan, but it's so difficult to think through the various obstacles and options for you without one. The only way to provide one is to go around the house with a a tape measure and sketch something yourself on graph paper. It's a fair amount of work, but I think you'll be so glad you did it. We (layout people) LOVE a challenge like yours, so if you give us a complete floor plan to noodle on, you're sure to get an avalanche of suggestions. As it is, I don't even have a strong sense of where these various doors go or what's beyond them. I know you've mentioned it, but there is an ocean of difference between saying something once in a different thread and have a clear floor plan visual with all the relevant information on it for me to tinker around with. In general, verbal description of spatial relationships are clear as mud unless you already have a good sense of the space. At least to me. I really would like to help, but this currently is like being handed flour and being asked to make a cake while the rest of the ingredients -- butter, chocolate, eggs, etc. -- are all hidden somewhere else. I might be the best cake baker in the whole world, but what am I going to bake for you with just flour? I need more ingredients. Then I will make you chocolate bomb flambe!...See MoreJAN MOYER
11 days agoK H
11 days agoJAN MOYER
11 days agolast modified: 10 days agoK H
10 days agoJAN MOYER
10 days agoBuehl
10 days agolast modified: 10 days agoJAN MOYER
10 days agoK H
10 days agoJAN MOYER
10 days agolast modified: 10 days agoK H
4 days ago
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