Apartment kitchen design - please comment

9 years ago

I'd love to get comments on the kitchen design of this apartment. Everything in the old kitchen is going to be replaced. Since it's a small, windowless kitchen, we're thinking of white shaker cabinets with light gray subway tile for the backsplash; not sure yet about counters and floor tile. A couple of likely changes to the drawing: a shorter cabinet over the sink for more room, and probably replacing the trash base cabinet to the right of the sink with drawers (we'd just put a couple of trash bins under the sink).

The big change to the current layout is removing most of the wall between the kitchen and the LR/DR area, in order to open up the kitchen and bring in natural light. We want to keep part of the wall to screen the refrigerator from the LR, though. The kitchen drawing shows a couple of cabinets forming a peninsula which would have a stone counter, possibly with enough overhang for seating (maybe kitchen-side seating for the view out the windows?). Other ideas: Take out most of the wall and not have a peninsula or anything else there. Or take out the wall and put the cabinets and counter on the side wall, opposite the fridge and range. Which option would be best? (The apartment's ceiling is concrete, and the wall opposite the fridge and the wall to come down are not hollow. Any lighting for the new counter may have to come from overhead track lights.)

Many thanks.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (8)

rantontoo
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Do the thick walls mean that they are load bearing?

If you plan to stay in the same footprint, your proposed plans improve the prep space; you could gain more if you encroach into the dining area by a foot or so.

You could try recessing the fridge into the closet space with a beverage, coffee snack/microwave built-in; that would allow the cook-top to move down and a pantry could be on the end.

You may want to consider an easy reach type upper cab in the corner; they are a bit more in "vogue" than a diagonal one. It will "lighten the look of the upper corner, and it is difficult to find/store items in a diagonal cab...really disliked mine!

How large is your fridge?
sheloveslayouts
9 years ago
Kind of what rantontoo suggested, I'd consider moving the refrigerator over to the closet wall so your range can move down and make more workspace between your sink and cooktop. In this drawing, there's a shallow pantry on the side of the fridge that opens toward the dishwasher. Open the design
Related Professionals
Elizabeth City Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Muskogee Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · San Jose Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Bend Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · London Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Kissimmee Kitchen Remodelers · Covington Kitchen Remodelers · Atlantic City Kitchen Remodelers · Stockton Kitchen Remodelers · Logan Kitchen Remodelers · Portsmouth Custom Countertops · Abilene Custom Countertops · Akron Custom Countertops · La Crosse Custom Countertops · Toronto Custom Countertops
a b
Original Author
9 years ago
Yes, the thick lines show load-bearing, concrete walls. We'll have to look into the easy-reach cabinets you mentioned. We'll be getting a new fridge (model to be determined). The design left 36" for it.

We'll have to think about moving the fridge to the other wall. If we want a water line to it (not sure yet), that wouldn't work. Anyway, this is more food for thought. It would mean making a bigger opening to the LR/DR area but getting rid of the peninsula idea. We really don't need the peninsula seating, since a table will be nearby in the LR/DR area.

Thanks for the suggestions.
rantontoo
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
My idea was eliminating the closet space, filling in the openings to make a solid wall and recessing the fridge into the existing closet space with the rest of the space filled in with cabs. If you did peninsula, cabs, and then fridge, you could keep the peninsula which would be a nice feature. How long is that double closet wall? Basically, you would be making the closet space open to the kitchen and filling it with fridge and cabs.
rantontoo
9 years ago
Maybe these will help.

Imagine DW being a cab with an upper cab then fridge

Imagine fridge where sink is.

one more...peninsula where plate is
rantontoo
9 years ago
What kind of ceiling do you have?
a b
Original Author
9 years ago
The ceiling is a concrete slab, as is the floor.
rantontoo
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Are your openings into the kitchen open to the ceiling or is there framing/drywall at the top of openings to the ceiling? If the latter option is the case, you can run the fridge waterline to the hallway wall...it would require some drywall repair which it looks like you will have to do anyway.