Browse Forums Kitchen Corner 1 Oct 03, 2013 8:45 pm Hi there, I am really very interested in any opinions on the way we've laid out our kitchen/drawers/cupboards/appliances etc. We weren't free to design from scratch but we made adjustments that we hope mean the kitchen is laid out sensibly. The easiest way to make sense of it initially is to look at the bottom right diagram, that shows a birds eye view of the whole kitchen area. I do worry about the amount of bench space (one of the things we increased) but hopefully it'll be alright! Any opinions would be appreciated! Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 2Oct 03, 2013 8:48 pm I've just realised that may not be big enough to see detail so here's a bigger version I think (well, it should be bigger when you click on it): Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Kitchen Elevations2 by Em_Brisbane, on Flickr Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 3Oct 03, 2013 10:05 pm I think it looks great. Plenty of drawers which I love in a kitchen. Bench space seems fine and you will have plenty of storage with the overheads and pantry. Very similar layout to mine actually - must be why I like it!! Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 4Oct 03, 2013 10:33 pm What judydg said! Especially like the mix of doors under the cooktop - have been wondering how to get a mix of 2 and 3 and 4 and that might just about be the solution Almost identical to ours as well (I'm still playing with the drawers, etc, especially on the island) although our fridge is on the same wall as the oven at the other end of that bench and then we have ANOTHER 2m bench where your fridge is (which will be the catchall area for phone, mail, etc). It's about triple the benchspace we have now so I'm going to be in absolute heaven! ~ Anne I used to be indecisive but now I'm not quite sure. Eeek - We're embarking on a knockdown rebuild! Click here for our build thread Our blog: kdrhome.wordpress.com Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 5Oct 04, 2013 10:29 am judydg I think it looks great. Plenty of drawers which I love in a kitchen. Bench space seems fine and you will have plenty of storage with the overheads and pantry. Very similar layout to mine actually - must be why I like it!! Thanks Judy! We couldn't decide on the pot drawers whether they should be 3 equal or 2 equal. It was doing my head in so eventually we just randomly decided one 3-drawer and two 2-drawers hahaha. I hope it works!! We've got 4 very wide shallow drawers on the island that will be used for cutlery and utensils and bits and bobs. Slightly Random What judydg said! Especially like the mix of doors under the cooktop - have been wondering how to get a mix of 2 and 3 and 4 and that might just about be the solution Almost identical to ours as well (I'm still playing with the drawers, etc, especially on the island) although our fridge is on the same wall as the oven at the other end of that bench and then we have ANOTHER 2m bench where your fridge is (which will be the catchall area for phone, mail, etc). It's about triple the benchspace we have now so I'm going to be in absolute heaven! Wow jealous of your benchspace SR! Yes the doors and drawers under the cooktop caused us a lot of angst. The rear bench was too wide for only 3 banks of drawers, but then 4 banks of drawers would split the stove and look strange, 5 banks of drawers were way too narrow. Eventually our kitchen guy suggested pull-out portrait doors to break up the drawers which I think is a great idea. I hope to get some inserts so we can store oils and baking trays and stuff in there... I think... haven't fully got that figured out yet! I hope they are as useful as they seemed in his showroom and we don't end up regretting them! Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 6Oct 04, 2013 12:54 pm I am not sold on the different thickness panels from one side of the island to the other??? I would have the same thickness on both sides! Cutting Edge Kitchens and Cabinet Making http://cuttingedgekitchens.net.au http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cutting-Edge-Kitchens/290484196676 Mobile : 0419 430 575 PH: 9452 4772 Fax :9452 4772 cuttingedgekitchens@outlook.com Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 7Oct 04, 2013 3:01 pm Thanks CEK. Our kitchen designer suggested doing it this way. In real life you would never see the two different thicknesses at the same time so I don't think it will look as strange as it sounds. The thicker side panels under the overhand are purely decorative and from any direction it wouldn't be obvious they don't match in thickness and this way we save 20cm of cupboard space. Do you think it will look strange? Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 8Oct 04, 2013 3:32 pm Hope this doesn't show my lack of reading a plan but you can't line up your sink and oven? I have a very similar kitchen design, unfortunately mine won't be able to be lined up because of appliance space etc it's the only thing that I'm abit bummed about as I do think it looks better if it can be done. Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 9Oct 04, 2013 8:06 pm I think most people avoid lining up work zones gonecountry as then it makes it hard to have more than one person working in the kitchen. EmyN, I think its great. I'm jealous of all your drawers. We've only got one measly set, but I'm yet to fit out my pantry so there'll be a few in there I think. Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 10Oct 04, 2013 10:05 pm Have you considered where you'll want power points on the island? Also, if you want down-lights or strip LED's either side of the range-hood, you'll need to include extra fabrication of double bottoms to the overhead cupboards in the design phase. I'd also consider suggest having a utensil drawer under the cooktop - very handy! ----------------------------------------------- http://pab34newdigs.blogspot.com.au/ ----------------------------------------------- Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 11Oct 04, 2013 10:40 pm My kitchen plan is very similar to yours so will share my experience. There will be plenty of room either side of the cooktop to sit stuff while you’re cooking. I find I do most of my prep above the bin on the island bench. Check the height of your microwave, mine is 1055 FFL and I find it ideal (my height is 162cm). Maybe put a mark on your wall and see if you would feel comfortable lifting bowls of hot food from that height. Most of my drawer sets are one small at the top and two equal below and my stockpot fits in the bottom one, they hold heaps. I am not a fan of the two equal sets as I think they waste too much space. I also have a set of 4 drawers in the island and you will be surprised how much fits in them. Mine are next to the dishwasher so the cutlery and all the crockery is stored there and they are only 600 wide. Good luck with it all! Regards, Grumbles Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 12Oct 05, 2013 7:17 am I like it, and wish mine were going to be quite so generous. Love the drawers, and the relationship of the fridge and bench to the pantry. I think I would have a teeny preference form putting the oven cabinet on the other end of that line of cabinets, across from the dishwasher. That creates a natural landing area for hot items between the oven and cooktop and away from the prep area between the cooktop and pantry. It would also give a bit more separation between the cooktop and the stove, making it easier for one person to work on clean up or wet prep while someone else is working at the cooktop. Lining up the stove and cooktop does look nice, but it makes for more of a one-person kitchen. Chris On the threshold of retirement... and trying to check my assumptions at the door Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 13Oct 05, 2013 2:18 pm EmyN Thanks CEK. Our kitchen designer suggested doing it this way. In real life you would never see the two different thicknesses at the same time so I don't think it will look as strange as it sounds. The thicker side panels under the overhand are purely decorative and from any direction it wouldn't be obvious they don't match in thickness and this way we save 20cm of cupboard space. Do you think it will look strange? As long as your happy that's all that matters. Its just something I wouldn't want in my kitchen. I personally would have stone waterfalls. Cutting Edge Kitchens and Cabinet Making http://cuttingedgekitchens.net.au http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cutting-Edge-Kitchens/290484196676 Mobile : 0419 430 575 PH: 9452 4772 Fax :9452 4772 cuttingedgekitchens@outlook.com Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 14Oct 06, 2013 9:43 pm gonecountry Hope this doesn't show my lack of reading a plan but you can't line up your sink and oven? I have a very similar kitchen design, unfortunately mine won't be able to be lined up because of appliance space etc it's the only thing that I'm abit bummed about as I do think it looks better if it can be done. Thanks gonecountry. Would you believe it never even occurred to me to try and line those up!! To be honest I don't think I've ever noticed in any kitchen if things are lined up or not! I reckon if it was a streamlined-look, minimalist kitchen that we were going for I would try to do that, but it's not that at all. The sink was originally on the other end of the island (close by the fridge) but that's similar to the layout in our rental at the moment and it really annoys me when wanting to do dinner prep or do something simple like make cereal or a sandwich I need to take things PAST the sink to where the bench space is greatest on the island. So I wanted the bigger stretch of uninterrupted island space to be on the same end of the island as the fridge and pantry, does that make sense? And Stacey makes a good point in that we'd be bumping bums if we did that. Thanks Stacey! PAB - you always have such good, helpful suggestions, thanks! We are actually going to have two LED downlights on either side of the rangehood and will indeed have the false bottoms. The two overhead cabinets either side of the rangehood will be glass doors, and we will have an LED downlight inside these two cabinets also. The island powerpoints are another issue - we'll have one or two double powerpoints on either end of the island, but I'm also considering one of these badboys popping up somewhere in the middle of the island (obv different version for Au but you get the idea). Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ pop up powerpoint by Em_Brisbane, on Flickr We'll have a white countertop so it will stick out a bit but I also think it would be incredibly handy. I can imagine kids sitting at the other side of the island doing homework etc and they'll want plugs. My parents have an enormous island bench (it might be 4m I'll have to check), and the powerpoints at either end really don't cut it. Their laptops tend to live on the kitchen bench and pretty much take up the end of island plugs fulltime. I'm not sure how expensive the pop up thing would be though or where it should best be positioned or how far from the sink it would be allowed or if it would be ugly in the lovely white stone countertop. Any thoughts about it all anyone? You're also right about the utensil drawer under the cooktop... we're still now 100% sure about the configuration of drawers on the rear bench. Perhaps we should have the outer two banks as 3 equal drawers, and the middle bank as top shallow (for utensils) and then two equal below. Hmmmm... I'm just worried about having too many shallow drawers.... Grumblebum - good point about the microwave height, I'll have to check it! We've got a 1 and a half oven there so it will sit higher than usual I think. I'll check it out, thanks. Thanks also for the advice about the benchspace and drawers. I'm surprised crockery will fit in the bank of 4 drawers, are they not too shallow for that kind of stuff?? ChrisE - yes we were worried about the practicality of the oven and microwave squeezed in next to the pantry entry, I hope it won't be too impractical with regards to blocking the pantry every time we open/close the microwave or oven. The other side of the kitchen just seems a bit far away from everything though. (and it'd be right next to a hallway entrance so that might be odd, mightn't it?). Hmm you've given me something to think about thanks! CEK - it might make more sense if I show you the kind of kitchen we're going for. Shaker style and all that. Stone waterfalls are lovely for modern-style kitchens but that's not what we're going for. The kitchen below is obviously a lot fancier than ours but this is the inspiration: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Copyright Eliot Cohen - Zeitgeist Photographyemail: eliot@zeitgeist.com.au by Em_Brisbane, on Flickr And this one was from a lovely home-one lady who really helped me. She's got a thread around here somewhere. She also has the different end panel thicknesses to see: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Rename kitchen island by Em_Brisbane, on Flickr Does it make a bit more sense in a kitchen like that? Thanks so much everyone! Any further thoughts? Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 15Oct 06, 2013 10:02 pm Gonecountry I've just noticed our "inspiration kitchen" has their sink and stove lined up!! Haha, damn it!! Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 16Oct 06, 2013 10:25 pm I don't think the sink and cooktop not being lined up is an issue. As well as being able to have someone standing at each, we prefer having a large area of open benchspace with the sink to one side rather than the sink splitting the workspace in half. I would also worry that if they weren't lined up EXACTLY and were slightly out of alignment, it would irritate me forever and ever. Much better to be deliberately offset, I think. We also worried about having the oven & micro next to the pantry entrance - but for us it was either that or the fridge and the fridge is opened MUCH more often than the other two and going to be more of a nuisance in terms of blocking the pantry door. ~ Anne I used to be indecisive but now I'm not quite sure. Eeek - We're embarking on a knockdown rebuild! Click here for our build thread Our blog: kdrhome.wordpress.com Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 17Oct 06, 2013 10:40 pm Hhhrrrmmm now I'm worried about the pantry entry being blocked by oven/microwave use.....SlightlyRandom you're right about it being less of a pest than the fridge but still... I wonder if we should change the cavity sliding door so it's right up next to the fridge, then we'd have a stretch of blank wall next to the oven rather than a door. The problem then is we wouldn't be able to do the "U-shaped" shelving and countertop in the pantry.... I don't know how we would layout the pantry if the door was right up on one side of it..... Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 18Oct 07, 2013 8:12 am I looked at it this way - how many times on an average day do I have the oven or microwave door open? How long for? Usually only a handful of times for only a couple of minutes in total. If anyone is trying to get in or out of the pantry at that exact time, then they'll just have to wait a second for me to close the door again (or they could do it themselves or bend down and crawl underneath it if it's really that urgent). When I really thought about it properly, it wasn't really a big deal. Just an adjustment to how we move around the kitchen. It's more of a hassle having our bin right under the sink at the moment because someone is using one when another person needs access to the other multiple times per day (especially as our dishwasher is a human model) - and we've managed okay for the last seven years. But it will depend on how YOU use YOUR kitchen whether it's an issue or not. ~ Anne I used to be indecisive but now I'm not quite sure. Eeek - We're embarking on a knockdown rebuild! Click here for our build thread Our blog: kdrhome.wordpress.com Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 19Oct 07, 2013 8:31 am EmyN Hhhrrrmmm now I'm worried about the pantry entry being blocked by oven/microwave use.....SlightlyRandom you're right about it being less of a pest than the fridge but still... I wonder if we should change the cavity sliding door so it's right up next to the fridge, then we'd have a stretch of blank wall next to the oven rather than a door. The problem then is we wouldn't be able to do the "U-shaped" shelving and countertop in the pantry.... I don't know how we would layout the pantry if the door was right up on one side of it..... Don't worry about it. Your layout is almost identical to ours with the ovens right beside the entry to the WIP - has never been problem. Leave the slider the way it is. If you do change it (so that it slides left to close) when it is 3/4 open you will clip the door every time you walk in there (coming from past the fridge) and when it is fully closed you have to walk past the door to open it before walking into the WIP. Photos below show our ovens on the left of the sliding door. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Pop up power.... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Does the job at the far end of our island bench. ----------------------------------------------- http://pab34newdigs.blogspot.com.au/ ----------------------------------------------- Re: Critique my kitchen elevations please! 20Oct 07, 2013 8:39 am GASP!!! PAB I covet your pop up powerpoint!!! Can you tell me where you sourced it from and roughly how much it cost with installation? Do you like it?? How do you think it would work halfway down the island? And thanks for the photo of the pantry door and oven etc, it does put it in perspective. Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 I was being kind to the builder. With the amount charged for the upgrade the builder is probably charging closer to 100% margin. There are a few variables as I… 5 14415 No. It's not original. Circa early to mid 90s would be my guess and maybe even as late as early 2000s 1 6819 2 4754 |