Tiny Galley Kitchen: Layout feedback needed

11 years ago

We've decided we're staying in our current house forever. We keep separate meat and dairy kitchens. We're converting the pantry/"baking prep" area into our meat kitchen but need to retain pantry function too.

The space measures 123 " x 88". The door to the basement takes 34" of the South wall, so we have 89" to work with. There's a few existing base cabinets with a sink and soapstone countertop. It all matches the existing dairy kitchen. After appliances we have an $11k budget. The range will be 24" and the fridge a true counterdepth 30". A stretch goal (which we ignored in our 2 existing options) is to enable a 36" fridge in the future with requiring huge changes and without compromising storage now.

One enters the meat kitchen from the dairy kitchen. On the far end of the galley is a slightly off-center window just above counter height. It overhangs the base cabinets on the north wall by about 4". We can't move the access to the basement; It's too hemmed in by a brick wall, new bathroom, etc. (The basement door is wider than the elevations show; it really uses all the "blank" space on its left.) Since the fridge is shared with the dairy kitchen it really needs to be near the entrance that comes off the dairy kitchen. It's also important to have a logical separation of shared pantry storage.

We have 2 basic layouts to choose from. Please help me decide! All constructive suggestions are welcome. If I left out any information, please ask.

Option 1 - Saves the existing cabs and counter as-is.

North Wall

South Wall

Option 2 - moves 1 cabinet and shortens the existing counter at an extra cost of $1 or 2k.

North Wall

South Wall

Thank you all in advance!

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Comments (7)

ant_farmer
Original Author
11 years ago
Oh, I should have said that we can still match the existing cabinets and countertop exactly. Whew!
llucy
11 years ago
I like option 1 for the convenience of having the sink and range on the same side; more pantry space on the other side.

Option 2 though, gives you more space on either side of the range. Which is more valuable to you?
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sena01
11 years ago
I know nearly nothing about dairy and meat kitchens, but since fridge will be used in both kitchens, it may make sense to keep it at a different counter.
Carrie B
11 years ago
Can you give us an overall layout of the two kitchens, showing how they relate to each other & to the other rooms around them? I like layout #1 for the north wall, for the reasons mentioned by llucy, but option one on the fridge wall gives you no fridge landing space, though, I'm assuming that regardless of where the fridge is, you'll have to bring meat items directly into the other kitchen without setting it down first.
User
11 years ago
Can you add a floor plan? I can't look at walls and tell how the work flow will go.

I'm not familiar with the rules for kosher kitchens ... what can share space with what? What absolutely has to be kept separate, and in what form? Utensils? dinnerware? pots and pans?

(the only meat/dairy setup I've ever been in had two complete but tiny kitchens so there was NO overlap. )

Would it make sense to have two small refrigerators? A neutral zone for the things that can be used in both areas?
ant_farmer
Original Author
11 years ago
Here's the existing layout which shows how the space relates to the rest of the kitchen. Hopefully it's still legible with all the extra writing on it. The space we reconfiguring is from the fridge up.
ant_farmer
Original Author
11 years ago
To answer lazy_gardens question: we keep all our meat 'hardware' separate: utensils, glassware, plates, dishes, pots/pans, etc, sink and range. We share space for dry goods storage and in the refrigerator where our meat things take up only a half a shelf and only part of the time.
Functionally the space to be reconfigured must function as pantry (including fridge) and a tiny kitchen.

To answer Carrie B's question: in the overall floorplan image the top and bottom are the edges of the house. The right side (aka North Wall) is the garage, with a door from our dairy kitchen in the lower right corner. The doorway in the lower left corner leads to the dining room. The empty rectangle area in the upper left includes a stairway to the basement, which is accessed through the meat kitchen, and a recently redone bathroom which is accessed through another part of the house.