Kitchen Design Feedback

Why not make a 2 foot by four foot island that will roll? We’ve made many of them for smaller kitchens that are U or L shaped. Usually when we show the demo in the showroom ladies with large kitchens want one even though she’s getting a much larger stationary island.

In the photo she’s using it as a divider between her kitchen and dining room as a bar.

The lady that owns the one in this photo uses her’s several ways. The side you can’t see on this one has drawers above two doors. I went over to her home last summer to measure for her new wall unit and she had it outside on her deck using it to prep her food on while she was grilling dinner.

She has all of her cook books in the end next to the wall.

-- Bruce http://plans.testsitem3.info http://www.sawmillgirls.com

thanks bruc,
are you suggestion of building this island in addition to what i already have, or instead of one of the cabinet runs?

Building the island as an addition to your already full run of cabinetry. Everyone we’ve built, and that’s a lot of them, the ladies love them and thank us for bringing the roll around island to their attention.

We’ve built them with open ends like that one, weth nothing but drawers in them, some with doors only..just what ever the boss wants. My wife has one she uses for her baking center, our oldest daughters have them both being different designs. My wife rolls hers all over the kitchen and loves it.

Everything my wife uses to bake with is in that island organized the way she wants it and she doesn’t have to go on the hunt for anything for baking. She mixes all her dough on the solid surface top on it.

-- Bruce http://plans.testsitem3.info http://www.sawmillgirls.com

Well, yes, I could build a rolling island.
But would that my existing layout?
Is there anything wrong with my existing layout?

I think the existing layout already has way more more counter space than I would want, so if I did an island, I think it would be in place of one of the walls of base cabs.

You can do that do and make it an extension of your cabinets. We’ve done that before too. As a matter of fact, we’ve built kitchens with rollers on the base cabinets so they can be pulled away from the walls to clean under and behind them. We never ask..why you want to do that. lol

-- Bruce http://plans.testsitem3.info http://www.sawmillgirls.com

My main question here is, assuming no island, is my layout OK?

Looks like you’ve done a good job with the amount of space you have according to your dimensions.

-- Bruce http://plans.testsitem3.info http://www.sawmillgirls.com

Are you planning this out and ordering the cabinets or are you building it all yourself?

—Can you put some open shelving in the dead corners? Storage for cookbooks or something?
—For you lower cabinets don’t just have drawers on top, and shelving and things below. Drawers will probably do a lot better job at keeping things organized and you can easily pull things out to look in. Ultimately you may lose a little storage space, but it will probably a better solution in the long run.
—Make sure that you provide some sort of spacing in the corners so that your drawers and doors on your cabinets and your dishwasher can fully open without hitting the handles of other things.
—If you do any sort of fixed or permanent island or peninsula make sure to allow enough space to easily remove and then move your appliances if they ever need.

Sorry if any of this is elementary, just figured I’d throw out a few thoughts

-- It's made of wood. Real sturdy.--Chubbs Peterson

Do not let the oven and dish washer door collide. They built our kitchen that way and my wife hated it! I fixed it when we redid the cabinets.

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence

beevis,

Is there a window on the wall with the sink and if so is it centered in that 148”? If there is and it’s centered, what do you plan on doing with the 8” between the dishwasher and the sink cabinet? You should leave a couple inches in the corner to allow for clearance so that will leave you about a 6” opening if you are doing a 36” sink cabinet as drawn. Not much space to work with. You can do a wider sink cabinet, but if you want to keep it centered on the wall you would need to add 12” to your sink cabinet.

Since your dishwasher will be almost tight in the corner no matter which side you put it, keep your upper cabinets in mind. When emptying the dishwasher, you will only be able to access the upper cabinet above the dishwasher from one side, so be careful of direction of door swing or you won’t be able to reach anything in that cabinet if the dishwasher is open.

Rev-a-shelf makes a number of different dead corner base cabinet pull-outs, so you have a few options there.

I have a few other questions about the layout, but I’m sure you have the details pretty well worked out.

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.

-- John @ http://www.thehuffordfurnituregroup.com

BTW, I like bruc101 idea about the island.

-- John @ http://www.thehuffordfurnituregroup.com

Huff,
Thanks a lot for the thoughts.

I really don’t have the details worked out at all in terms of exact spacing of things, and orientation of drawers/doors.
I will be building all of this myself. Also, since I am living in the house, I plan on installing the rough base cabinet carcasses immediately, and getting the sink and stove working ASAP. Stove used to be located to the right of the sink.

I noticed the 8” or so of “slack” between the sink and dishwasher as I was laying it out on the floor/wall today.
My first thought was to just eat up that space with wide stiles, at the cabinet ends, and also apply a cabinet door to the front of the dishwasher so hopefully I can just make it disappear.

The window is indeed above the sink and the sink is centered on the window in the above plan. I just built myself a soapstone sink that is 36” so unfortunately that is “set in stone.”

I’m curious to hear your other thoughts.

It’s not too late for me to totally rethink the floor plan.
Good point about the dishwasher. I can imagine unloading it might be a bit strange. Right now the dishwasher is located on the opposide side as the stove, for the very reason of not having the doors collide.

I’m not opposed to an island if it makes the location of appliances more pleasing, but I don’t want to have an island “just for the sake of having an island” in spite of a perfectly good layout with ample counter space and storage. But if the design sucks I want to hear about it now before I get in too deep.

Thanks.

We had a bit of “slack.” The wife wanted a slot to put cookie sheets and flat stuff like that in there.

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence

We had a similar dilemma when we remodeled our small kitchen in 2011, with a layout very much like yours. The end wall with the sink left difficult access in one corner, no access in the other. She said, “Let’s eliminate the end counter altogether.” So we moved the sink to the left (in your layout), put the pantry (full height, and as deep as the counters) in the left corner and the fridge in the other. No dead corners! Admittedly, our fridge is a tall, narrow Euro style, no deeper than the counters. The DW went between the sink and the pantry.Obviously there was considerable replumbing to do, including a new vent. Fortunately, we have full basement so I had good access. On the end wall (where the sink was) we took out the existing 5 foot window and put in a garden/greenhouse window, and altered the height so the wide sill (16” deep) is at or slightly above counter height. Under it I built a box on the outside of the house, instead of the usual support brackets. Cut out the exterior wall under the window and put in 9 drawers which slide into the box. It is carefully caulked and insulated. Though our original counters were only 22 inches deep, and the new ones are 25, we are still amazed that the kitchen seems much bigger than it did before. We also have what you might call a retractable peninsula. It fits under the granite, (the near corner on the left in your drawing) and has its own butcher block top. When she rolls it out to do her baking, drawers built into it come right along, and she can still get into those drawers. Rolls it back when she’s done.
When we were pouring over magazines and books for ideas, we ran into one designer who couldn’t understand why people insisted on a lot of storage in a kitchen. Storage in a kitchen is highly overrated, he said. Obviously a designer who never cooks, and possibly an idiot as well.
This all came together nicely, and we like it a lot. My wife was the main drafstperson, but a lot of it we had to make up as we went, with occasional rethinking. Fortunately we had good give and take, because kitchen remodels are said to be the source of a lot of marital dissension. I cook too, by the way.

Obviously a designer who never cooks, and possibly an idiot as well. Funny you should say that. My mother is retired RN. Seemed to think the same about those who design hospitals ;-)

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence