[leaf29]

Hi All,

DH and I have been banging our heads on this design for months and months, and we could really use a reality check! (and a couple of ice packs…) I’d love to hear your ideas on what glaring errors we have, and what, in our boundless inexperience, we didn’t think of that would make it better.

I few clarifications to make looking at this easier:
* We know Ikea doesn’t do peninsula cabinets (bummer!), so we plan to get Kraftmade (or other?) and add Ikea doors.
* The peninsula (regular 24” cabinets with 12” cabinets behind them) faces the dining room.
- We could expand a twee bit more there (like 6-8 inches), but not much, if we want to use the dining table
- to avoid a blind corner, we put a 24” deep cabinet facing the dining room, and we’ll just leave a void next to the sink.
- we could put in a pot rack instead of the 39” horizontal cabinet
* the 15” cabinet with a grey top by the window will be a small prep sink.
* We put a wheeled cart between the stove and the door to the back yard because we left a pretty narrow passage there (wider than the previous owners did, though)

Questions:
1) Yeah, the dishwasher is on the peninsula 3’ from the sink. Do you think this will a) give us great exercise for our abs or b) make us crazy? We didn’t want to put the sink on the peninsula because we tend to splash a lot. We could contain splashing by raising the counter height (by putting in 39” tall x 12” deep base cabinets facing the dining room) but DH is really fond of the idea of the long 36”deep counter space.
2) Is trying to put Ikea doors on another brand’s peninsula wall cabinets workable? If so, any recommendations on what brand would have the best match for hinges?
3) It feels like an awful lot of cabinet surface. Would it work better aesthetically if we did the wall cabinets on the peninsula wall (or all of them?) in white? (DH loves to cook and we have all kinds of kitchen things - including all canned goods – in the basement now. We’d love to get them closer, but there isn’t anyplace to put a pantry, so we’re maxing out on kitchen storage.

4) What have we done wrong?

5) What would make this better?


Thank you!!!!!!

We’ve learned so much from Ikeafans! This site and the people who post on it rock!

	DH definition DH usually means Dear Husband (or, pick your own adjective starting with D).

[Zenoforum]

I'm a metric system person, so please check carefully my proposal.
I tried a different layout, putting the DW and the sink near the window, getting room for a 15" wide pantry, but then the fridge went away from the dining area.

Right to the stove I put a 30" 3 drawers base cabinet, maybe 4 in Akurum cabinets?

The peninsula facing the kitchen might have 2 x 3 drawers base cabinets and facing the dining room shallow 12" deep 2 doors ones, behind the fridge you can set a shallow 12" deep tall group of cabinets for more storage related to dining.

For you to hang the cabinets above the fridge and from the dining room you'll probably need to built a small structure to hold them, then use a big 3' cover panel for the peninsula side.

Good luck.

Zé

	DW definitions DW can mean Dear or Darling Wife (or substitute your expletive), or alternatively DishWasher. Take your clues from the context.

	Akurum definition Akurum is the North American equivalent of FAKTUM; that is the fitted, frameless, component kitchen cabinet line, which when paired with door and drawer fronts as well as interior accessories makes up the full kitchen cabinet system.

[leaf29]

Wow! Thanks Zé'!

I had been trying to get the sink and dishwasher by the window, but it never occurred to me to just skip the cabinets on the opposite wall. This is a great idea! It also gives us more wide cabinets and provides more space by the stove - a real plus for the DH who loves to spread out his ingredients.

I really appreciate your showing me this in a whole new light! (Amazing how easy it is to get stuck in a mind-rut…)

Again – thank you!

	DH definition DH usually means Dear Husband (or, pick your own adjective starting with D).

[NBeth]

You can't hang Ikea cabinets over a peninsula, but do you really want to have cabs there? Nowadays everyone is ripping those things out, not adding them in! Seriously, we have an open peninsula and we love working there and talking to people on the other side.

Not sure what the bookcases(?) in several spots are all about...?

If I can look in the planner I will but I can't right now. Meanwhile, zenoforum is getting your mind moving in creative ways

[Zenoforum]

I mentioned a structure for the cabinets above the fridge but I should have said a Wall as wider then the fridge, for door opening clearance, behind the fridge so the cabinets to be hanged have support.

[leaf29]

Thanks so much, NBeth and Zenoforum,

Zenoforum, you did a nice drawing of how the cabinet over the fridge could be hung – no worries – you communicated very clearly.


Nbeth, Yes, those are bookcases. They are all about extra storage. The one facing the dining room would be used for cookbooks and serving dishes. The one in the kitchen would be used for food (we are actually looking at tucking shelving between the wall studs). DH loves food and keeps on hand quite a collection of things like spices and condiments from all over the world, quantities of beans and grains (we have 5 different kinds of rice in the kitchen now – and 3 more varieties in the basement) and the like. That sort of storage is what drives the interest in cabinets over the peninsula - I get tired of going to the basement looking for ingredients and I wanted to have dishes stored near the dishwasher. That, and DH is more of an intensely focused I’m-in-my-own whirlwind-world sort of cook than a talking-to-people type. Actually, the second sink and peninsula are pretty much my bid for being able to be in the kitchen too.

I so appreciate your ideas. I’ve been feeling pretty much fresh out of creativity on this recently and Zenoforum’s ideas helped break me out of my current box.

Best wishes to all!

[NBeth]

Keep in mind you can use Ikea's frames without doors: all parts are actually sold separately. Building "bookcases" with standard frames offers the advantage that later you can decide you really don't want to see all that stuff--so you stick a set on doors on them and poof! instant cabinet. If the standard cabs are too deep, it's pretty easy to cut them down to size and the doors will still fit. Just something to think about....

[leaf29]

Excellent point, NBeth!

I did know you could go with no cabinet doors, but I didn't manage to make the leap. I was definitely stuck in thinking I was limited to Billy bookcase sizes. That's certainly going to be one of the beauties of going with the Adel birch (having the interiors and exteriors go together, I mean).

I can't tell you how much it helps to have my mind jostled.

Thank you!!!!!!!