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navymomma77

Planning new-ish kitchen, need help.

Navy Momma
3 years ago

Hello! So about 5 years ago we renovated our kitchen and eat-in dining space. I got some great help from this board designing and making the space functional. It's served us quite well since then, as well as it can being a very small space.

We are now in the planning process for a whole-house renovation/addition and will be enlarging the kitchen space. I am planning to reuse many of the cabinets I have, and fill in with more of the same since the current ones are in very good shape with the exception of the trash pullout door (which I will replace). I need help filling in some of the spaces with new cabinets and also making sure that in reusing what I have, that I'm still making good choices for a functional kitchen. I don't want to reuse something that doesn't make sense to reuse as this will be our final chance to make this right.


Here is my current tiny kitchen:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3874710/tiny-kitchen-dining-reveal


Here is the floor plan for the new space- the refrigerator will remain in place and then the back wall where the stove currently sits will push forward towards the fridge (to widen the bathroom that sits behind this wall) and widen out to the back of our house (current back porch).




I'll put my idea for the base cabinets in the next post.





Comments (8)

  • Navy Momma
    Original Author
    3 years ago

    So here is a rough sketch I made. My questions:

    How do I center the stove on the wall? Do I include the 24' of corner in the centering? Or just the open wall part?

    I definitely want to reuse the corner super susan and the 36" drawers. The 21" pull out cabinet is a maybe. Not sure it makes sense to reuse on the right side of the stove, but with the door orientation as it is not sure it makes sense to stick it on the left side. Or I can get rid of the 21" and do something else (add inches to the 23" open for a new cabinet and then another skinnier cabinet?

    Also on the island, I have about 15" of space available to fill in. What would make sense there? And one more question- the current width of the island is 48" but since I want an overhang for stools I am only having it be one row of cabinets deep. That leaves a 24" overhang (I plan to have legs come down from the overhang). That seems really overkill on the depth. I may have her pull back the width about 6" which would widen the walkway (will be a major traffic path in the house) and still provide 18" of stool overhang. Thoughts?


    Help!

  • Navy Momma
    Original Author
    3 years ago

    Hmm. I don't think a peninsula is a good fit because I don't want to close the kitchen access to the family room and dining space where my family will spend the most time gathering. Also I think the trash at the end of the island near the family room is ideal (and 15" would be smaller than I have now- 18"... which is needed if not more for my family of 5) because people are always throwing away stuff or scraping plates and this way they don't have to come into and block the main part of the kitchen to do so, plus it's close to the sink where I use the trash often.


    My main prep space is about 50" right now and it's okay except that someone always needs to get to the trash while I'm standing directly in front of it becuase it's below my prep space. I'm feeling like the space to the right of the cooktop can be my prep and even using the island as well.


    For context, here is the main floor kitchen entire area. You can also see that there will be 2 tall pantry cabinets (one I have currently and one additional to match) and then across from the stairs will be a 60" bank of upper/lower cabinets to house a microwave (upper cabinets) and on the counter there, toaster oven and coffeemaker:




  • Navy Momma
    Original Author
    3 years ago

    Any other ideas? If you look at my hand-drawn plan, the only "new" spaces are the 15" in the island and the 23" on the back wall. I can certainly split that up but I need help figuring out what would be best. And where along the wall to put the cooktop for aesthetic purposes.


    Also thoughts about how wide the island should be- do I need to keep it at 48" if I'm only doing the one bank of cabinets and then an overhand for stools? Would 18" suffice for the overhang/stool area (not raised, counter height) and then I can have a 6" wider walkway between the island and pantry cabinets for family room entry?

  • rebasheba
    3 years ago

    I think decreasing the width/overhang of your island makes sense.

    Would you benefit from having a little bit larger sink? That would require a 30 or 33" base cabinet. You could use the 9-12" "extra" spot as a vertical cab for sheet pans, cutting boards and so on.

  • mama goose_gw zn6OH
    3 years ago

    You aren't going to have much prep space beside the sink--27" on DW side and 34" on the other side. Neither meets the NKBA recommended minimum of 36", so I wouldn't increase the sink size. The only improvement I can think of would be to switch the DW to the left of the sink, and store dishes across the aisle in drawers, so it's not in the middle of the prep path. But that doesn't help the 38" aisle, and your plan doesn't seem to be accounting for counter overhangs, which will decrease the aisle by at least two inches, nor does it account for the fridge door:



    Navy Momma thanked mama goose_gw zn6OH
  • Navy Momma
    Original Author
    3 years ago

    My fridge is a french door counter-depth model and when open, there is still about 2 feet of clearance behind. There will be about 2 inches less space in the new design including the countertop overhang, but there is another way into the kitchen so I feel that is doable in the instances of fridge open and someone wants to get by. We don't stand around with the kitchen doors open all the time. If I reduce the island width by 6" for an 18" overhang, that gives me room to move it out further into the open space a bit if needed but I know that doesn't help the tight corner near the fridge. I can shorten the island a few inches, maybe do a 9" cabinet between sink and the trash which would give about 27" on either side of the sink? I know this is short of the recommendations but I have far less usable space than that right now and it is working out okay. I'm not worried about the dishwasher unloading so much- I think for my functionality it is better for the trash to be on the famiy room side because that is the heaviest use cabinet by my family and it is a more direct path from the dining space; I envision walking from there to the island and scraping plates and leaving them there for me to do the dishes/load the DW after dinner.


    I'm also wondering what is the best use of the space on the back wall for stove placement. I do want to keep my 36" bank of drawers and they already have the finish end panel.... what if I do the 12" super susan back wall side, then 33" set of 3 drawers, then the 30" stove, then a 9" spice rack pull-out, and the 36" drawer base. That would put 45" on the interior side of the stove, and 45" on the outside. I don't have to use that 21" pull out cabinet, I can see it doesn't really make sense to do so. I could put my plates and bowls into the 33" drawers, right now they are in upper cabinets but this way they'd be right there near the dishwasher.


    Thank you for this insight!


  • Navy Momma
    Original Author
    3 years ago

    Okay, I have one more idea but it is iffy. Inspired by this listing I just saw:

    https://www.redfin.com/VA/Arlington/3513-N-Jefferson-St-22207/home/11226563


    The kitchen is similar to what I will have in terms of setup. However, my fridge to back wall is not as wide. I could do the oven right next to the super susan (12" cabinet means the oven doors would easily clear the fridge doors but would impede fridge access while someone is standing at the stove cooking and someone else wants to access the fridge- someone other than who is cooking). Then a 27" bank of drawers or cabinets with pull outs, then the sink, then the DW at the end. I think this would allow me to put a window over the sink, but it wouldn't be a full coverage window it would be partially over the sink and partially over the dishwasher because of where the exterior wall begins. This would allow the entire island to be just counter space but I'm unsure of the optics of having the window not centered..... as well as having the stove right there near the fridge.....thoughts on that idea? or is the original idea better? HELP!

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