Kartra,

This site being 99% American users I would suggest you convert your measurement to US dimensions, (feet, inches). Even though I'm Canadian and we have been on metric for many years now basically only the Government speaks in metric here in Canada.

welcome to the forum katra.

Kitchen design might better be helped on the kitchen forum. If you feel more comfortable here, that's fine - we'll be glad to help you too. A lot of us are on the kit forum also. Many here are in the process (or planning to) of redoing a kitchen.

In order to get the proper help you'll need to post a graph paper layout to scale (on either forum). Mark (with measurements) all doorways and windows. Also, give room measurements in feet/inches (that's what my brain cells work with). And identify where each doorway leads. A bit of the surrounding layout helps. Which door leads to a hallway (to where?), a LR, DR etc. List the size of appliances you plan to put in it.

printable graph paper is available online

buehl has a great thread on p1 of kitchens on starting the kitchen redo process. Her thread starts with 'New to Kitchens?' It isn't the STICKY at the top of the page.

Katra, I think with your kitchen going to remain in the 4m range, this might be the right place for you. On the kitchen forum, they are accustomed to a larger format kitchen.

I'm presently working with a kitchen that is 7ft x 12 feet, and I have a back porch to drag into the kitchen by taking down an old exterior wall....and widening the doorway into the dining room...almost removing the whole wall but not quite.

I see the possibility of a small squarish island in the middle of your "C" if you put it on wheels. You might be able to have a pot rack over the island, or a drop leaf on the island which allows you to pull up a stool for enjoying a cuppa tea or decorating a cake or waiting for the oven to shut off.

In my kitchen, which will not be so symmetrical, but it will have the sink beneath a nice window, I plan to put in a garden window. Somewhere I have a picture of a kitchen in Ireland which has the setup which inspired this idea for my kitchen. It is really just a window with a deep sill. But it is level with the countertop and that increases the feeling of depth. Maybe you can "bump" it out with such a make-believe garden window.

Sorry I could not find the real closeup of the window. This is the best I could do. This kitchen is in the Coach House of Ballyhannon Castle in Quin, County Clare. We self catered there a few years back.

Oops. This is it. My booboo.

Katra, could you make your image larger? My eyes cannot read the red script, and the difference in the lines for walls are not self explanatory.

Plus, could you tell us what rooms are out each of your pair of doors? And what is that in the corner, a small window and a window box outside? Or is it the power box?

I know we have a few terms that are different from the British, but we can all communicate with enough words, and
then you can pick and choose, or add to the story as time goes on.

I would like to know if that wall of apparently cabinets between the two doors is about 12 inches deep, and is it all cabinets going to the ceiling, or is it simply counter height, or armoire height? I think that is a great space, and potentially a charming and efficient kitchen.

Welcome Katra and congratulations on your new home,

I think your kitchen will be the first one from India for this forum. I encourage those here to 'stretch' a little and give you feedback in metric, which is surely how you need the information. Of course we will need some information from you. We don't know standard sizes of ranges, counter depths, etc. in metric.

I live with the rather improbable hope that someday we will be using the metric system consistently also. Odd how we cling to the bad old ways simply because we are comfortable with them. I suspect that people can't get beyond the idea that they have to convert from one system to the other, to realizing that once its done they will simply be in the other system with no conversions needed.

Here is a link to a calculator for doing the conversions: http://www.csgnetwork.com/csgcvtmeters2ftincalc.html

Seems you have a good sized kitchen (for Americans, about 13 feet 1 inch by 13 feet 5 inches).

Oh for heaven sake! Orcas, you are so observant, and I FLAT MISSED IT!!!

Of course! I totally did not think to check Katra's profile page. Sorry, Katra! When you said "flat" I immediately thought England. You see, our familiarity with international terms for places to live is not as good as one might hope.

So, you say a "flat." Now, does that mean a place you own which is part of a complex, a duplex, or multiple housing units? One story or two stories or levels? And, could you identify the rooms leading off the kitchen so we get the feel for the traffic flow through the kitchen?

Which door is your "back door" or which door leads to your dining area?

Hopefully you will find your way back to visit, it's been a long time since we had anyone from your side of the world drop by. We enjoyed an Australian for a couple of years, but she must have solved all her remodel/decor problems.

Moccasinlanding,

Makes me smile to be called observant. Mostly I get accused of, and confess to, being lost in the ozone. I checked Katra's profile page because I thought the origin might have been north-central Europe. India was a nice surprise - one of the benefits of the internet.

Katra I also hope you find your way back to visit.

Hello Katra, and welcome!
When adding an island, we generally want about 1.1 to 1.2 meters between the adjacent counters and the island edge. I have far less than that between my island and the perimeter cabinets, because I have a smaller kitchen, and neither my husband nor I have difficulty with it. I am a very large woman, as well. You may find that 1 meter works well enough for an aisle between a counter and the island, and you do seem to have enough room to do that.

Can you give us more information about the symbols in your design? I see the stove on the "west" wall, the sink on the "north" wall. What is next to the sink? A dish drying rack? In your drawing, there seems to be a shallow counter on the "east" wall of the kitchen. Are there storage cabinets there? If there is a counter, how high is it? What will this counter space be used for?

I am quite interested in learning how an Indian kitchen differs from an American one. We tend to shop weekly and have a large fridge and use a freezer for meats and vegetables sometimes. I tend to use dried herbs and few real spices. What size refrigerator will you be using? How often do you shop for food? Do you have any baskets or other storage for fresh or dried herbs and spices? What are your major food storage needs and what volume of these things do you store? I know that some people in India are vegetarian. Does your family eat meat, poultry or fish? My husband does not eat any of these, but I do.

I am looking forward to learning more about your kitchen needs and working on your design. I hope you come back and give us the information we need to help you with your design.

SouthernCanuck, Desertsteph, moccasinlanding,orcasgramma,nancy,

Thanks everyone for your response and warm welcome :). Have been travelling and couldn't respond earlier.

The base drawing was in metrics and I couldn't change the measurement system on Autocadws. While Metric system is popular in India, when it comes to Real estate and homes, people here are equally comfortable with the old British system of yards,ft and inches.

I thought the kitchen forum was for 14 by 14 kitchens and above and hence posted my query here.

I have booked this 5th floor flat in an 9 floor apartment which is again part of a larger gated community. The building is still under construction and is expected to be ready for moving-in in an year.

The orientation in the drawing is off by 180 degrees. So the stove is actually on the East side.

The kitchen is 13.1 by 13.6 ft (as orcasgramma already pointed out). The layout is only indicative and is as per the builders drawings.If needed I can ask him to make modifications as long it doesn't interfere with the structural construction. However both the doors can't be moved.

The door at the bottom leads into the Living/Dining area. The door on the top leads to a small 4.2 by 9.3 balcony, which I plan to use for laundry (placing my washing machine)

The height of the room is 9ft. The height of the proposed platform is 3ft and it is 1ft 10 inch deep.

On the left (East side), there is provision for a 3ft high by 7.5ft long window (would start from 1 ft above the platform/stove/cooking range). I really want to keep the window as it would bring in early morning sunlight. However I need to figure out how to position the stove in front of the window ..

On the bottom side (to the left of the door), I plan to place our refrigerator, micro wave, grinder and toaster. We do get refrigerators in all sizes here with multiple doors etc. Our refrigerator would be 6.2 ft high,2.4 ft deep and 2.3 ft wide.

Nancy, for us, it is the other way round. My wife is a vegetarian and I eat meat. However we do not store much meat in the refrigerator, but we do keep eggs all the time. We also shop once in a week over the weekend visit to the supermarket. Dried herbs/ spices are normally stored in steel container sets will small partitions. We normally stock these for the month. Fresh herbs are bought along with the veggies over the weekend. So our refrigerator has large closed sections to keep veggies and fruits fresh and the freezer section is comparatively smaller.

On the right side there is space for wall to wall 1ft to 1.3ft deep cabinets/ platform. Need to decide whether to go for crockery storage/ high cabinets/ 3ft cabinets or whether this place can be used in any other way

On the top side a stainless steel sink with drying area to its right is shown. Looks like an ideal place for the sink, restricting the wet zone to the top right corner (washing machine in balcony and the sink). We don't use dish washers here. All utensils are hand washed.There is a provision for a small window (3ft high by 1ft 10 inches wide), again 1 ft above the platform towards the left on the top wall.

My wishlist :)

1) use the windows and balcony to maximize natural light and ventilation
2) Try and fit in an island with probably two stools
3) Stove/Cooking top would need a chimney as Indian cooking tends to generate quite a bit of smoke/vapour

I will try and edit the drawing with better font size, back ground colors and with measurement systems in ft/inches over the weekend.

Cheers
Katra

Hi Katra स्वागत
Here are just some of my spices:

I store all of the rest(Italian etc in used pickle, jam, herring jars.)Since my sweetheart takes turmeric/powdered ginger on alternating days(I love powdered ginger in water) I keep a large quantity of those jars up front in a cupboard so he doesn't have to search through the multiple Masala Dabba that I have. I do not like people messing with my spices(territorial). I reguraly shop at Patel's the largest Indian grocer here. My mouth is watering just thinking of Karela. :)