I think I had a dream last night, in which my whole kitchen was completely redone already… I walked in, made myself a cup of tea, snarfed some chips… mmmm what a good dream. But I awoke yesterday to the same reality that has been there since Sept 1, which is what you see below.
That mess of atrocious handwriting represents the mess of atrocious kitchen planning. In their defense, it probably is the original 1926 kitchen, and back then they just didn’t have things like Kitchenaids and electric toasters that required much more than a sink and a little bit of surface for chopping things (chickens!). Needless to say, the kitchen is in some pretty desperate need of remodel.
Some notable challenges that my current kitchen gives me:
1. It’s roughly 7.5’x9.5′ (~71 sq ft) so… it’s small.
2. There is one stretch of counterspace- one (on the left). The microwave sits on a table under the window.
3. The stove is off in its own little world in the corner (not that it’s a big trek over there or anything).
4. The fridge is out on a little landing in the stairwell (top of page) so I have to actually exit the kitchen to get to it.
Here are some design challenges:
1. The fridge should really be in the kitchen, which may mean knocking out that wall to turn it 90° clockwise.
2. The kitchen should be bigger, which means knocking out the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. This will be a pain because that wall contains some electrical and heat vents.
3. That window is oddly placed.
4. It may be hard to extend into the dining room without it feeling like I just stuck some cabinets in the next room.
5. There’s an old chimney that runs up the wall (on the side of the stove) and sticks out about 4 inches.
6. It’s narrow- running cabinets down both sides would mean about 3.5′ of floor space in the middle.
7. It’s SMALL.
We took a trip to Lowe’s, where the nice lady drew up a little plan.
As you can see, her plan involves taking out the wall and extending into the dining room to make a nice little galley kitchen. The fridge turns around to face into the kitchen, and the sink basically stays where it is now, and a dishwasher is added. However, I forgot to stress about the kitchen window, so she kinda covered it up. But hey, I’m just gathering ideas.
Here’s a view from head-on:
And for reference, here is a view of what it looks like now (shot from the front door):
We’ve drawn up a few other designs in Google Sketch-up (well, Stan did and I kinda watched), so I’ll post those soon too. But meanwhile, just in case anyone has any strokes of genius concerning my kitchen, I’m going to put up a blank diagram of the dimensions so you can download it and plan my kitchen for me. Plumbing can be moved. Aaaaaannd… go!
Hip House Girl 
January 5, 2010 at 3:35 pm
what if you turned that lengthened part where you knocked out the wall into a lazy susan and brought it out to the side a little bit so you could have a little two seater bar? Would you have enough walk-into-the-kitchen space? Maybe not cause of the dishwasher (which you NEED!). Unless you extend it down into your dining room one more cabinet and then turned. You’d be running into the window, but that might be cool. And then you’d just have to turn your table horizontally. Oh I need to come visit again. Love this.
January 6, 2010 at 9:06 am
First of all, LOL about that first pic you posted of your kitchen plans and you sanscrit.
Second of all, what if you took and extended the wall between the kitchen and the hall to make it’s even with where the cabinets extend into the now dining room? If you’re going to do a galley kitchen that is. It’d make the hall longer but it might give you more counter space, possibly make it look a little more normal, simplify your planning a bit and you could probably fit the fridge in that corner instead of that weird-o spot it’s in now 2 feet off the floor. Toy with that idea for a spell. I like the bar idea, maybe you could still do it with this idea.
The place where the brick JUTZ out of the wall, put regular base cabinets everywhere else and in front of that, put an upper (not as deep) and cut the counter top around it and it’ll look pretty normal I think. In some cases, normal is good. Like if you’re planing on selling this joint some day or renting it.
But I still don’t know if 3.5′ is enough. I wonder how much space is in my 13th south kitchen. Maybe Liz could measure it for us.
January 6, 2010 at 9:07 am
Oh and I love how misty makes it into these pictures. She’s so funny that bowzer dog.
January 6, 2010 at 3:56 pm
How does Misty always manage to look forlorn when she is integrated into your household pictures? Also, I think that after this whole ordeal is over you will be qualified to quit USTAR and get a job at Lowe’s coming up with nice plans for kitchens.