Worth it to get a 24-inch fridge to fix this layout?

14 years ago

We keep inching closer to demo on our kitchen, and are still really struggling with the layout of one wall. I've posted this at various junctures and the design has grown and changed accordingly. We're having some second thoughts on layout, though, so thought I would see what GW thought of our newest idea on this front!

Here's our working layout:

This layout has always been awkward, but we haven't been able to find a better solution to squish the refrigerator in; however, when we did a walk-through of our neighbor's identical kitchen with the original 16" deep cabinets along the right wall, we keep coming back to this option, which has great flow and storage while allowing you to see through from the dining room all the way to the backyard. However---that means we have to move the refrigerator off of this wall (he opted to remove the cooler and put it there).

After a lot of measuring, we are certain we can fit a 24" refrigerator in the space between the cooler and the window moulding. We *might* be able to get a 27" fridge in (I think Sub-Zero is the only option there) depending on how much of the wall we need to leave in place for the cooler. If we did this, we'd be giving up fridge/freezer space, but would solve the major layout issue here. We would then put a 3' wide work table/island in the center of the room and run floor-to-ceiling 18" deep cabinets (probably drawers with glass doors/shelves above) along the opposite wall. This gives us roughly a 36" aisle on the sink side and a 42" aisle on the other side.

We do have the option of using the cooler for typically-refrigerated foods (it stays at 45-55 degrees in our climate). We can also put a chest freezer in the basement easily. However, even the biggest 24" is still a pretty tiny fridge, even for a small house. I think our family would be fine given our shopping habits, but worry about resale if we design a kitchen that can't take anything bigger than this. (At the same time, though, I worry about missing the opportunity to fix the existing kitchen's biggest design issue!)

Is this worth it to resolve the layout problems, or are we likely to regret this in the future? Would love to hear any thoughts on this, especially from anyone who did opt for a smaller refrigerator.

(For those who weren't around for early threads on this layout, we very much want to keep the cooler cabinet--it's the only piece of the original 1915 kitchen remaining--and DH is adamantly opposed to an island with plumbing or electricity....complicated but suffice it to say there will be no island with plumbing or electricity.)

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Comments (4)

palimpsest
14 years ago
How about 24" of all refrigerator and an undercounter freezer placed somewhere else in the kitchen? Drawers or conventional?
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John Liu
14 years ago
I would fit a small refrigerator next to the cooler, so that the next owner can remove the cooler, slap up some drywall and paint, and have a correctly sized, appropriately located, already electrified and plumbed space for a nice big refrigerator.

You will be fine, since you know how to use the cooler, including what foods can and can't be stored at 45-55F, and your shopping habits can accomodate having only a limited amount of 32-40F refrigerated storage.

The next owner will be fine, since with a minimum of effort he can have the large fridge that he'll want instead of the cooler that he won't want.

The kitchen layout will be much better, with the sightline and table you want.
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bmorepanic
14 years ago
You can sorta do that if the widest thing on the right-hand wall is 16" and the actual island top is 36". That yields the aisles you're thinking about with maybe 1/2" of slack. If you're thinking of full depth cabs on one side of the island and wall depth on the other, you won't be able to fit that with its normal countertop width of 39". You won't be able to fit 18" deep cabinets either without sacrificing more in the aisles.

What about sub-zero ref drawers in the island or the f&p cool drawer plus a small freezer. The only issue is finding a new location for the dishwasher.
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artemis78
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks---@johnliu, hadn't thought of the fact that a new owner could just take the cooler out...that's a great point!

For the island, it would actually be a freestanding worktable (although with storage of some variety---we've looked at a few options for this over the past year) so we could definitely stay at 36" or smaller without much trouble. That should make the aisles work assuming the sink side is 25" deep and the right wall is 16" or 18" deep. Biggest factor just seems to be whether we can really make the small fridge work or not. We're going to try to go look at a couple of the brands in person soon, too, which might help!
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