Planning our DIY kitchen remodel— tentative layout and design.
The kitchen is the only room in the house that has not dictated its own layout.
Even the bathrooms, which seemed to have no end to the decision-making, really only had three items that needed to be triangulated.
And even though the tile search drove me insane, I was not trying to redefine the CONCEPT of tile… I was willing to accept the theory behind a water-resistant material applied to the floor in a semi-permanent manner.
But with the kitchen, I wanted to redefine EVERYTHING… it became a grueling slog through ideas that went nowhere, Craigslist purchases that were misguided, and my fantasy of Newport-Gilded-Age-Butler’s-Pantry-of-Fanciness-That-Only-Cost-Five-Dollars.
Getting the piano as our island finally helped eliminate some options and we are planning traditional cabinets around the perimeter of the room.
Here are some details you need to understand to help make sense of the kitchen design… (if you REALLY want to understand the space, you can go back and look at these three posts: kitchen, addition, overall layout.)
— you enter our kitchen from the left of the refrigerator, and the sink wall is the first thing you see.
— did we consider swapping the sink and the range? Yes. But the current layout is the most visually pleasing to me: I do not want to walk into the kitchen and see the stove… I’d like to keep the width of the room feeling as open as possible.
— even though we are going to have traditional kitchen cabinets around the perimeter, I would prefer to keep anything distinctly kitchen-y out of the immediate line of sight.
— plus, our repurposed antique piano kitchen island is the immediate focal point when you enter the room, and I would like to complement that.
— the entrance to the kitchen is cut on an angle… (there used to be a swinging butler’s door.)
—in the mockups, the unused wall appears to be suitable for cabinets, but it is actually too tight to accommodate anything countertop-depth… (possible if we’d gone with a smaller island.)
We could do shallow, pantry-type-storage; either recessed (like our DIY medicine cabinet), or slightly bumped out, but with furniture-details to make it look built-in… even just 8″ deep would be a huge amount of storage when spread from floor to ceiling.
BUT I’m running out of wall space in this house. And at some point I will find something giant and fancy that I’d RATHER put there. LIKE THIS, so I am unwilling to commit to boring practicality.
Here’s the inspiration anyway… I don’t love the barn doors, but they illustrate a shallow space hidden by something repurposed. (I would do salvaged pocket doors instead.)
— my overall goal is to keep the kitchen as open as possible.
The room is long in relation to the width, especially if you consider the addition… I would really like no upper cabinets at all, but I’ve explored the extent to which that would be a LOT of open shelving. So we are going to do glass-front upper cabinets which should help make it feel less boxed-in.
—unconventional window layout.
On the sink wall, we have a window in the corner, and one to the right of where the sink will be. We’re not going to move either of them and we’re not going to add a window. We considered it. But ultimately, our house was built in 1890… not everything will be like new construction.
— the window in the corner is only 10” off the range wall, and goes nearly to the ceiling.
We considered cabinets with glass sides, and also having the cabinet end directly into the window, forgoing molding… but have decided that a short run of open shelving will be the best solution.
We can float the shelves, so that the window molding is uninterrupted, and we don’t end up with issues trying to connect the cabinet’s crown molding into the window’s 120 year old/totally different molding.
I’m still sorting out details; you can see I’m using a mix of designs and perspectives… the overall plan is working itself out now that I’ve accepted traditional cabinets, but I haven’t started on the specifics, which is the miserable part… for me, decisions = paralysis.
Where we are now/ what’s next:
– move the makeshift kitchen BACK to the kitchen area so that we can
– remove the half bath in the addition.
– gut the back wall.
– sheet rock the wall where we remove the bathroom.
– sheet rock the ceiling in the addition.
– install recessed lighting in addition.
– gut / sheet rock the sink wall in the kitchen.
– decide about kitchen floor.
– decide if we are taking up the flooring in the addition.
– paint back doors— inside white/outside color.
– paint everything else– no more orange!!!!
– make decisions about kitchen details/layout/cabinets.
– find piano drawer hardware.
– figure out some window configuration for the back wall.
– order windows.
– install windows.
– scrounge up matching molding for new windows.
Like this, but fancier:
September 24, 2015 @ 1:03 pm
Yeah!! Serious kitchen progress. Can’t wait to see how it goes. I have two questions: Did you think of leaving the little space to the right of the upper stove cabinets empty? If the side of that upper were finished it might look more like furniture, no? Also, how many hours have you spent obsessing about using open shelving between the windows over the sink wall? I LOVE that you’re leaving your windows alone. Some sort of blind that starts at the ceiling would mask the difference in their heights a little. Good luck with everything!!!
September 24, 2015 @ 1:09 pm
The best oven arrangement I’ve ever seen, which I’d have for myself if my space could accommodate it, was a microwave installed over a double oven. EVERYTHING was at the right height! The microwave at chest level, the top oven at waist level, the lower oven at knee level. Could easily be varied to replace one oven with a warming drawer, or a microwave drawer (which didn’t exist at the time this kitchen was remodeled).
September 24, 2015 @ 1:52 pm
Why not move one of your ‘Kingdom” mirrors to that blank wall space? Or find another one on Craigs list! The kitchen will be beautiful. Can’t wait to see the end product…..you too no doubt!
September 24, 2015 @ 2:11 pm
I love the idea of glass fronted cabinets, with just 6 or 8 inch shelves and put mirrors on the back wall which would double the light and keep the kitchen having an open feeling to it.
September 24, 2015 @ 2:17 pm
I am so happy to see you have donned your commandant garb again and marching with courage and your usual fortitude into the Fray. Obtain copious quantities of mind altering liquids,call a complete truce with the Magician Paul as to decisions- work orders -ETA of completion and maintaining friendly relations until first party /dinner babtizing
September 24, 2015 @ 2:22 pm
I am so happy to see you have donned your commander in chief garb again and marching with courage and your usual fortitude into the Fray. Obtain copious quantities of mind altering liquids,call a complete truce with the Magician Paul as to decisions- work orders -ETA of completion and maintaining friendly relations until first party /dinner baptism of beautiful kitchen. Good Luck and excuse the first attempt at comment. My keyboard and mouse have go Nuts?
September 24, 2015 @ 2:47 pm
Hi Victoria,
I have emailed you a couple of times. I have two friends who do kitchens. So let me know if you want their info. My friend Kristen is amazing. She did my kitchen. view my kitchen on my blog.
http://www.leeshideaway.blogspot.com just do a kitchen search in the search box.
Let me know okay.
Lisa
Love your ideas.
September 27, 2015 @ 11:01 am
Lisa I checked your site…beautiful home and grounds ,however if you have a search block for your kitchen I couldn’t find it-looked at every page and where is it? Very curious to see what your designer came up with although I do think that the design genius and intuition of someone like Victoria & Paul surpasses someone trained in the formal mechanics of design. The kitchens I see created by designers all seem sterile- with a concentration on money spent whereas I love the kitchens developed out of someones personal whimsy and inventiveness.
September 24, 2015 @ 4:07 pm
Drawers are the best…like one of your other readers mentioned. When our kitchen designer said this is what she would install I thought she was nuts. Now that I have them they are so much easier to organize and to see what you have when you can pull out a drawer. I’m looking forward to hearing about the cabinet selection process. So this kitchen may be finished…?
xo,
Karen
September 24, 2015 @ 4:09 pm
Great ideas, as usual I love it when you get it worked out to suit you. You are so clever and talented and adorable. I have tired of almost all the others blogs. Not yours though Unique.
entertaining.
September 24, 2015 @ 4:21 pm
Oops. I posted before finished typing. Your blog has staying power,dearie.
September 24, 2015 @ 5:42 pm
Giant fanciness and rice cooker married togheter behind a piano altar? I’m sure you’ll succeed it & I can’t wait to follow your kitchen adventure. When I built my house I remember kitchen design was the most time consuming part of my plans…kitchen has to be my glamorous but yet practical own snail shell.
September 24, 2015 @ 7:55 pm
We ONLY have drawers below the countertops. Even under the sink we have two pull out drawers. I designed our kitchen in 1986 and love it still. We do have an over the stove microwave but it’s framed in its own box. This predated built in fan microwaves. I had to have a downdraft range because it was an interior wall. Okay if I could magically change anything, it would be to have an exterior wall for the range…
Looking forward to seeing the finished island.
September 24, 2015 @ 7:57 pm
I have a microwave/convection oven. Perfect, can use as second oven at holiday time, or for smaller items not requiring entire big oven space, or as a microwave. One thing to consider with over stove microwaves…..it can sometimes be difficult, and potentially dangerous, to stretch up and remove big, heavy, hot items! I find countertop height or slightly higher safer and convenient for everyone. Just a thought. Love your sense of humor through your remodel.
September 25, 2015 @ 12:37 am
It is going to be marvelous, and I don’t know how I will be able to wait til it’s done!
September 25, 2015 @ 12:41 am
Your blog is fantastic! I just want to get on whatever train you’re riding to the real-life, non-fairy tale remodel world. I appreciate that! We are in the beginnings of a kitchen remodel too, and it’s fun to see new perspectives.
September 25, 2015 @ 2:10 pm
People with fancy kitchens sure do drink a lot of Pelligrino. I don’t think I could ever have open shelving like that since it would just feature my 2 liter bottles of diet shasta, wadded up bags of brown sugar, and ancient boxes of almonds from Christmas gift baskets of years past.
I need the hidden vault for my messiness. Although I do covet all that gorgeousness. Why can’t my life be more stylized?
September 25, 2015 @ 3:40 pm
My grandmother ( in the house I later grew up in) insisted that on the one short wall of her kitchen the builders give her custom cabinets that were “one can deep”. There were 4 sets of double door cabinets, 2 high and 2 low. It was the best storage “pantry” I have ever seen and if I ever build a custom home I will insist on duplicating it. The house was a California mid-century modern built in 1960, but with the right cabinets it would work in any style kitchen.
September 26, 2015 @ 2:15 pm
Victoria,
I have remodeled/built about five houses and would never consider anything but drawers or pullouts for the lower cabinets. You will love them and not lose track of where that mixer/casserole/wok went. Also, SUPER important – do not do a silly over the range microwave that supposedly is a vent fan – they don’t work well at all. Looks like your range is on an outside wall – direct vent to the outside is the way to go. Otherwise your house will always be scented by what you last cooked! Good luck!
September 27, 2015 @ 6:31 pm
Looking at the first layout…consider where your electrical plugs are going to be & local codes. Here, electric outlets must be at least 15″ from water. With your sink in the middle of the wall, you may be messing up the working counter space. And turning to the island everytime will be a pain, even if Paul does run electric to it. I would bump the sink & dishwasher one way or the other
September 28, 2015 @ 6:18 pm
May I ask what software application you are using to generate the kitchen layouts? They’re so clean and immediate. We’re struggling to find something that 1) is easy to grasp and 2) we can use to draw a layout that doesn’t look we used crayons. Thanks!