Range on a pony wall?

16 years ago

I'm an old-timer here. Finished my kitchen in '08 and now we're moving and need to rework the kitchen in the new house before we move in. I remember a kitchen that had the large range & hood along a pony wall that separated the kitchen and family room and was wondering how that ended up working out. Does anyone have experience with such a set-up? Currently the kitchen in the new house has an island range top with an integrated pop-up vent (Viking), the kitchen sink directly behind on the exterior wall centered on a garden window. There isn't room to either side for the range and the perpendicular wall has a 5-foot opening to the family room and a 36" fridge that opens to the wrong side. Double ovens are on the other wall opposite the sink.

The easiest fix would be to move the fridge to the oven wall side, put my large free standing range from this home on the wall with the opening, add a hood and be done. DH even came up with the idea to pop a butcher block into the island where we'd remove the viking cooktop.

Just don't know how feasible having a range with a short backsplash would be but don't want to give up the view into the FR. I'll take pics next week when we have the home inspection.

Suggestions?

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Comments (9)

kathy_wa
16 years ago
I'm just tearing out my kitchen I did back in '93, which has a downdraft range on a pony wall that is 7 3/4" taller than the countertop. The pony wall is inbetween the kitchen & the family room.

It worked great, I like the way the pony wall hides the kitchen clutter. It did get spattered with grease a bit, mainly because of the grill (Jennair). It kept me facing the family room while I was cooking, which I really liked.
bmorepanic
16 years ago
Could you build just a section of tall wall directly behind the range?
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smiling
16 years ago
Another possibility is one of those motorized TV lifts that could raise a backsplash when you are actively using the range, and lowering it into the pony wall all the other hours of the day. Those lifts can carry quite a bit of weight, so you might be able to have a more intense behind-the-range backsplash than you would if it were on display all the time.
Jean Popowitz
Original Author
16 years ago
Kathy--do you think your family room was grimier because of the opening? I worry because I have to regularly clean the grease off the range backsplash in my current home. I do think the wall behind helps direct everything up to the vent.

I didn't think about a pop-up backsplash. I did have the idea of having a tempered glass sliding door to pull across when needed but was concerned that the bottom track would be a grease collector.

bmore--it's not a completely open wall...more like a 5foot wide window in the wall that divides the fr & kitchen.
julie94062
16 years ago
Paigeysmom has something like this. Not exactly, but similar.

Here is a link that might be useful: Paigeysmom's Kitchen
Jean Popowitz
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks Julie. I sent her an email! There was a Lacanche owner who did something similar to Paigeysmom, but I can't find her pics or posts in the archives. I've just now been researching wrought iron/glass fireplace doors which might look pretty but still close off the passthrough when I'm cooking something particularly messy.
kathy_wa
16 years ago
jaedwards - no, I don't feel my family room was grimier at all because of the range up against the pony wall.

In fact, I'm opening it up more - I'm actually removing the pony wall and extending that counter into a flat island :)

I really value the open feeling in the whole area.
cooksnsews
16 years ago
My range set-up is similar to what you are projecting. I have only at most a 6" backsplash on my range wall, which overlooks my family room which is 5 steps lower than the kitchen. I suppose some of my splatters rain into the lower room, but now that I have an exhaust system, it isn't nearly so bad as it was in the old kitchen. The family room sofa is along the wall below the kitchen, and occasionally DH would get grease droplets on his bald pate when sitting there. No complaints yet with the new kitchen...
bmorepanic
16 years ago
I don't know what size your range is, but "finish" the pony wall only in the area directly behind it - so if you have a 30", build a 30" wide "wall topper". A side benefit is you don't have to use an island hood.