Updated layout: What do you think?

13 years ago

After I posted a rough layout a week or so ago, I've taken others' comments to heart and updated the floor plan.

The layout below seems to allow us to have most of the things we want in this kitchen and integrate many of the suggestions we were given. (Updated with floor plan instead of 3D.)

In addition to having a functional layout, we'd like:

-- to open up the floor plan.
We're removing the wall between the kitchen and the living areas next week!

-- a large, cabinet height island with seating.
The island below would be 42" x 110" when an 18" seating overhang is added to the depth of the cabinets.

-- lots of drawers and few uppers.
The room has two huge windows and we'd like to keep them, so we're willing to have fewer uppers.

-- to plan for storage for my Candlewick (glassware) collection.
The glass front upper cabinets above the large windows are for the glassware. They're too high to be used for everyday items, but might work for this purpose, as the items aren't taken out for use more than a couple of times a year.

Questions:

1. The cooktop is currently penciled in on the island, and the sink is on the long wall in this drawing, though I know that some would suggest that the sink should be on the island and the cooktop on the long wall.

If the cooktop is put on the long wall with the windows, we'd likely have to have a downdraft vent that is vented straight out (not up through the attic, as it's currently configured) due to the windows across the top wall. Is this feasible?

2. Will the horizontal cabinets feel like they loom over me if they're higher than typical? (FWIW, the ceiling height is almost 14' on this side on the wall with windows, and there are long transom windows above the cabinets shown.)

3. In this drawing, the island is 47" from the front of the fridge, the island is 48" from the cabinets on the window wall, and there's 70" between the island and the blank wall to the right. (This is the main path from the back door to the rest of the house.)

Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?

Thanks,

Lisa

This post was edited by PaintAnything on Thu, Jul 25, 13 at 18:44

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Comments (7)

liriodendron
13 years ago
Floor plan?

Can't really see what you're planning w/o one. You'll get more comments if you can add it. Doesn't have to be computer generated, just a simple sketch (with dimensions) on graph paper is very useful.

HTH

L.
liriodendron
13 years ago
deleted /duplicate post
L.

This post was edited by liriodendron on Thu, Jul 25, 13 at 18:52
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PaintAnything
Original Author
13 years ago
Liriodendron,

I changed the view to the floor plan. Thanks for the suggestion.

Lisa

P.S. Here's the original view, for anyone who'd like to see 3D version.
rosie
13 years ago
Hard to say how something would "feel" to you, but the upper cabinets would be glass-fronted and hold glass, and they'd be half the depth of the counter, like regular uppers, plus you'd be looking out the window and the counter while working there and probably not noticing them after the first day in any case. Do you worry that the larger, heaviermass on the end would loom? :)

As for venting straight out the wall--absolutely. Your suction would be that much stronger because the vent pipe the air is pushed through would be barely more than a foot long. We have that because our contractor forgot to do the "traditional" roof vent before the roof was finished. We ALL of us, family, crew, friends, literally gathered to admire it and remembered the stove vent--a month and a ton of construction late. The exhaust has never noticeably injured any plants below it, but their leaves flutter when it's on and I wouldn't choose to transplant Greatgrandma's special rose below it just on general principles.
liriodendron
13 years ago
Merci!

What are your range hood/venltilation plans? Island hoods are very prominent visual elements so you have to think about them right from the start.

I don't much like the hanging-down cab between the window, but I think the upper horizontal cabs, if very carefully scaled to work well with the overall proportions of the windows (width and height proportions of front faces having a rhythmic relationship to the fixed dimensions of the window opening) would be very nice. And good place to store and display your glassware. Are you planning on using the glassed cabs as a form of lighting as well?

One thing that might make them less looming is to have them made in some less-than-standard depth. At that height several rows (arrayed back to front) of glasses might look cluttered whereas fewer would not.

Since it sounds like you already live here, I would install a sturdy shelf above the windows and then mock-up proposed cab front widths/heights and put the glasses up there to see how you like them. (Beware if you have cats - mine seem to be able to get up to impossibly high shelves, apparently for the express purpose of testing whether the Law of Gravity is still in force. You could check how the glasses look by penning the pests up, or out, while you study the visual effect.)

One possible improvement would be to move the fridge to the other side of the kitchen to make unloading groceries easier: al your incoming food would be stowed from one central dropping-off point and going at once into the pantry or the fridge.

This is the biggest issue for me that I would really try to work on. You also have your work areas predominatly stacked towards the left of the drawing in a kitch where you have plenty of room to arrange them differently.

One question I do have is whether your scale on the drawing is correct. The called out measurements don't seem to line up with the graphed squares which is the usual convention (and one of the inherent advantages of using graph paper.). It will be easier to move stuff around if you decide on a common increment of inches for each square. Twelve inches per square is easy to work with, but six or three inches per square also work well, but one foot and three and three-quarters inches per square (15.75 inches per graph square) is a lot of unnecessary math!

If this were my kitch, i would want to do some more work on how the zones are laid out relative to each other, and how the food and utensils move around within the kitchen with an eye to avoiding backtracking while cooking..

HTH
L.
lavender_lass
13 years ago
I'm sorry, but I don't like that little upper cabinet, between the two big windows. It looks like an after thought. I like cook tops on islands (at times) but with you window layout, maybe swap the sink and cook top?

Here are a few ideas :) {{!gwi}}From Farmhouse plans
{{!gwi}}From Farmhouse plans
{{!gwi}}From Lavender Lass farmhouse pictures
{{gwi:1443515}}From Farmhouse plans
blfenton
13 years ago
I didn't see your first post so excuse my remarks if they are not appropriate.

You have 21' of counter and everything squished into the corner. That corner is going to be one busy little corner with DW drawer (clean-up), fridge doors, microwave door and oven doors all opening into one little corner of the kitchen.

Move the sink to the right, put the DW on the other side of the sink. You need some prep space in the corner. You need some space for the MW, fridge and ovens to operate safely.

Failing that, center the cooktop on the out side wall and put the sink and DW on the island.