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Small kitchen reno - please help asap!

Irene K
8 years ago

So, I've been planning to do my kitchen since we moved into this house, which is almost two years now. Had general idea in mind, was planning to go with Ikea. Few days ago we walked into Home Depot just to look at cabinets, and they happen to have what I wanted on sale with some additional discounts, but - sure enough - we have to decide by Sunday, that's when promotion ends. The designer at HD worked with me on layout, but I keep thinking there are some better ideas out there, which just are not coming to my limited mind :) I desperately need thoughts on how to make this kitchen work.

I will post a floor plan that HD designer had done for us, I've added the rest of the living room to it ( not exactly up to scale, but pretty close). Sorry for my ugly Paint job, no time to make it look nice lol :). Also a perspective pic is below. I'm planning to get high gloss white door fronts, butcher block counter top. Single sink. Have no idea about what tile to choose with it - any suggestions?

The house is small, inexpensive, and older, so one of our priorities is low budget, because this is just not the dream house or dream kitchen for us. Another priority is cramming dishwasher in there. And not putting the sink in the corner. There is currently a partial wall between kitchen and living room, we are planing to remove it and just leave a section wide enough to cover the fridge, this will give us enough space to have a dining table kind of half-way in the kitchen, half-way in living room. Also there is a baseboard heater by one of the walls, we cannot remove that thus the gap between cabinets and the wall. Those are the main limitations. Ideally, I would like the stove to be as far away from the dining table as possible, but we could only come up with this location.

I do understand that options of layout are extremely limited in such a small kitchen, but what I have now just doesn't look good enough, even though I'm not aiming for perfect or even close to it. May it's just a pressure of having to get it now b/c of a nice price. May be I just have to accept it is what it is. Please help with your thoughts!

By the way, price for all this Kraftmaid cabinets will be around $3500 (only cabinets, no counter tops included). It's less than what I would have to pay for similar ones at Ikea, plus instead of us driving to Ikea ( 3.5 hours drive) and assembling it ourselves (they told us we'll have over 300 boxes to open and put together) this comes to the house assembled. So I am motivated to get this by Sunday.


Comments (20)

  • desertsteph
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    why the empty space on the left end? what's the cab between stove and dw for? why no upper on the far left?

    can you make the LO larger? measurement from left wall to the right one and from the back right one to the one on the outer side of fridge.

    do you have fridge? stove? dw? if so give width of each. width of sink.

    does the amount from HD include delivery and installation?

    no windows? can post a pic of it now?

  • Irene K
    Original Author
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    On the left end there is a baseboard heater by the wall, we cannot remove that. Have to leave a gap per HD designer, I do not know what else to do with it. Above that - no upper cabinet b/c there is a window on the left wall, I was planning to have few open shelves there.

    The gap between stove and DW - that's a pull-out thingie for cookie sheets etc. HD designer came up with it because she said we should not have stove and DW next to each other, plus this way she got the floor cabinets to line up the best.

    We do have stove and fridge. Stove is 30", fridge is 28". No sink yet, so size doesn't matter that much. Just a single bowl. We are also going to have a 5" gap between fridge and the small piece of wall, in case we get a newer bigger fridge (likely we will).

    Price does not include installation, includes delivery.

    I do not have any pics of what it looks like now at the moment, but basically it isn't much of a kitchen. There are only a few upper cabinets, one long blind undersink cabinet (sink is in the same spot), and the stove. People who lived here apparently didn't cook much. Compared to the plan below - now there is nothing between the left wall and the end of the projected dishwasher.

    Thank you so much for responding!

  • sheloveslayouts
    8 years ago

    Can you post a pic of the kitchen so we can see the obstacles you're talking about?

  • Irene K
    Original Author
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    I will try to take photo tomorrow, not home now, sorry. I will mark them on the floor plan the best I can (see above).

  • mama goose_gw zn6OH
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    I don't know how this plays with the sizes of cabinets that you've chosen, but I switched the cabinets on each side of the range, then m/l switched the sink and DW. It looks as if there might be 16" between the DW and the counter on the left, which is less than the NKBA's recommended distance of 21", but it's workable--I have about 14". You still have 36" for prep space between the sink and range.

    Can the table be turned so that's it's more like a peninsula?

  • maries1120
    8 years ago

    This is what we did to get more storage space and still have a place to eat other than the dining room. There was a half wall diving the spaces that we removed.

  • sena01
    8 years ago

    I tried to have the DW and the sink on the same wall, but can't read the dimensions at all. On the range wall, from the left I have a tall pullout pantry (12" wide), fridge, cab, range, corner cab.

    I also moved your DR+FR furniture around. Not sure how it would feel to have the sofa across the DW or a chair next to it, but I'd love a dining table under the window, lol!

  • sena01
    8 years ago

    I think I can now read the dimension of the long wall.

    If it's 142, and if leaving 6" would be enough for the baseboard, here's another idea.

    On the long wall, 12" tall pullout, fridge, DW, sink and corner and range on the other wall. I wouldn't center the range on the wall, so as have a wider prep space.

  • Irene K
    Original Author
    8 years ago

    I would like to have sink next to DW like this, but there is a window on the left wall, the only one in the kitchen. So fridge would block all the light :(

  • huango
    8 years ago

    Re fridge:

    1. is this a standard depth fridge or counter depth (more expensive)?

    if standard depth: pull the base cabinets (such as the sink cabinet) out deeper to say 29" so that the fridge doesn't stick out that much.


    2. I know you're leaving 5" for when you change your fridge, but you should read about fridge install: you may need 37", not just 36" of space for the ~35.8" fridge.

    AND you may need additional space for a filler in case the fridge door doesn't open fully against a wall.

    I currently have a 32" fridge in a 37" space; yes, planning ahead to when we buy a new fridge.

  • sheloveslayouts
    8 years ago

    Can you extend the wall behind the sink 6" toward the front door and put sink-dishwasher-fridge on the sink wall? Does this line of cabinets have a 24" farmhouse base so you could use an Ikea Domsjo single?

  • sheloveslayouts
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    Also, did you consider Ikea Veddinge? It's just a painted white slab door/drawer front. It's what I have. I don't know anything about HD cabs, but I LOVE my Ikea base cabinets with soft close drawers.

    This is Ikea Veddinge with 40" wall cabs and all-drawer bases flanking the range. What's in the picture below is around $2250 including the Domsjo sink.

  • nosoccermom
    8 years ago

    I've seriously looked at Veddinge. How has it held up? Also, at my local IKEA, it looks kind of pinkish, maybe because it's right next to Ringhult. Do you notice a pink tinge in your kitchen, too?

  • sheloveslayouts
    8 years ago

    nsm - Great question. I originally wanted the Ringhult, but it's too dang expensive for this humble abode and I feared the look was too modern anyway. The pink undertone gave me pause--I even talked to the kitchen sales gal about it. She suggested it's because it's next to such a pure white with the Ringhult and the lighting in Ikea doesn't do it any favors. If you look at the other displays at Ikea--especially the sink display--that's Veddinge and it didn't read pink to me.

    The color is relative, I think. My walls are Sherwin Williams Snow Bound and they look very complimentary. I like the two together a lot. However, my fridge and range are closer to pure white and when I compare them to the cabs they look there iis a slight pink undertone. Of course, no one sees this but me and I actually like pink anyway. If one has stainless steel appliances I don't think they would notice the undertone unless they tried to pair Veddinge with a neutral counter or backsplash that has a yellow or green undertone, which would probably not look good.

    We've been using the cabs for about two months and so far so good. Since they're painted I don't expect them to last forever. In our last house we had the Adel white shaker style that I think was a thermafoil and I loved that finish. wore like iron. If the shaker style came in white rather than the creamy color I would have jumped on that style again, but I dislike SS appliances and white appliances with the Grimslov doesn't look good to me.

  • sena01
    8 years ago

    Ooops, sorry missed the window.

    Can you give us the dimensions of the kitchen and the LR.

    I wonder if something like this is possible.



    I'm thinking you shelves like alvmusick's next to the window.

  • nosoccermom
    8 years ago

    Great, thank you for the feedback, also about the Adel/Grimslov. Glad to hear that that foil wore really well.

  • cat_mom
    8 years ago

    I didn't read through the previous posts, so I apologize if this was addressed already.

    Can you move/remove the baseboard heat, and install a kickheater under the cabinet at that end of the cabinet run instead? As part of our kitchen renovation, we removed the baseboard heating along the outside wall of our kitchen (we wanted cabinets and our sink along that wall--previously there was nothing along that wall). we also removed a shorter run of baseboard heat when we removed most of the wall separating the kitchen from the DR (now LR). Our plumber installed Turbonics Toe-Kick heaters under our island (one on each of the two longer sides). They are tied into our heating system, and hot water runs to the pipes connected to the kickheaters, just as they do to the baseboards. We opted to use the supplied switches to turn the kickheater fans on/off as desired (when switched to on, the fans "kick" on when our wall thermostat (for that zone) "calls" for heat, and kick off when the desired temp is reached). There are various switch or no switch options you can configure as well.

  • flamingfish
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    If you're feeling under pressure because of the HD promotion, make sure it's not one of the promotions that goes away and returns every couple of weeks. HD has some "promotions" that are always in force, some that expire but return frequently, and some that are offered less frequently.

    Also, you don't necessarily want to rely too much on what a "kitchen designer" from HD tells you. They are not necessarily highly trained. I met with one last weekend who admitted that until about a month earlier, she had worked in appliances. She was very nice and knew how to work the software, but was far from being a design pro.

    Luckily, you have GW to come to the rescue!

    I second what benjesbride said about the DW being perpendicular to the sink. My current kitchen has that layout, and it's a pain in the butt. I see that your original layout has a narrow bank of drawers in that corner, but realistically that's not enough space for you to get in between the sink and the open DW door. Put the sink and the DW on the same wall, or at least more widely separated (less convenient for loading/unloading, but still better than what you have).

  • Irene K
    Original Author
    8 years ago

    to benjesbride - Yes, Ikea Veddinge was the initial plan. That was a compromise between what I really liked - which was the more expensive glossy white line at Ikea. The problem with Ikea is I live 3.5 hours away from the nearest one, and just a trip or two there with the trailer attached to fit all the boxes will run the price up. Plus, I've read online about how often something is missing from the Ikea kitchen order, since there so many boxes. If that's the case, I'll have to drive back who knows how many times :) Cabinets at HD are just like those glossy white ones at Ikea. And they come with quiet stoppers. And HD is 5 away minutes from home. Saying all that, I kinda trust Ikea more, funny sounding as it is. We've had a lot of their furniture and I have a pretty good idea how it works.

    to flamingfish - yes, I don't know how I didn't think about space between DW and sink. That's exactly white I need all this precious advice from GW :) When DW will be open, looks like there will not be enough space for me to stand and load dishes. Very good point.