Comments and help please with my first kitchen plan
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I was hoping that some of you could take a look and offer any comments input on my first attempt at a design for our new Stat white kitchen.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I am thrilled to have stumbled across this great community! I hope that I can pay back once I've gotten some experience from this adventure.....
I am posting a couple of pictures of the existing kitchen so you can get an idea for the room. We are not changing the layout too much, just bringing the kitchen into the new millennium, changing the position of the worktop and adding some wall cabinets on one wall.
I think that the design is technically okay. It took some persistence with the software to try to get cabinets that I knew should be able to join to do so, but I think it is okay now.
I put the sink, oven and cooktop in there just for reference as we still need to decide on the exact appliances and put the free standing table and chairs in the picture to show how the other part of the room will look.
The areas that I am not so sure about right now are:
Is it okay to have glass cabinets at the side of the hood, and should they be moved out?
What to do about the microwave: Current plan I think is to use shorter doors on the 24" cabinet next to the oven and just have a small microwave that will fit. I am using OurMoneyPit's microwave in a cabinet as my inspiration.
I have read that you can buy 96" cover panels which I will use to box in the fridge and on the sides of the oven, as the 88 I believe are leaving to much space at the bottom.
Have I got the right number and placement of cover panels
We are not sure what we are going to do for counters at this stage, so I will wait to ask about that. For the moment we have gone with the Numerar dark grey.
I hope I have not asked to many questions too early here, and scared people off!
I put the sink, oven and cooktop in there just for reference as we still need to decide on the exact appliances and put the free standing table and chairs in the picture to show how the other part of the room will look.
Are you committed to a double wall oven/cooktop or would you be open to a range?
The areas that I am not so sure about right now are:
Is it okay to have glass cabinets at the side of the hood, and should they be moved out?
Yes and yes...and venting on that wall might be a bit of an issue. I assume you are removing the soffits? Do you know where the vent pipe will run?
What to do about the microwave: Current plan I think is to use shorter doors on the 24" cabinet next to the oven and just have a small microwave that will fit. I am using OurMoneyPit's microwave in a cabinet as my inspiration.
Keep in mind that most all microwaves open to the left, so you will need clearance there for it. I don't know that this is the best location, but a lot depends on the oven choice. You could add the micro to the oven stack if you wanted to.
I have read that you can buy 96" cover panels which I will use to box in the fridge and on the sides of the oven, as the 88 I believe are leaving to much space at the bottom.
Yes you can...they are called oven panels. The fridge placement is a little awkward, I think, being that it opens into the main entry to the kitchen. Have you considered placing it elsewhere?
Have I got the right number and placement of cover panels
I think so...the cabinets are white, so you could go with no cover panels if you wanted, unless you absolutely want all the surfaces to match completely in finish.
We have discussed at length to date double ovens, where to put the micro, should we go for a range....
At this stage I would say we are open to any suggestions, but here is some of the reasoning to date:
Double oven - I like to cook traditional English roasts as an example, and having 2 ovens is a real help here. If this was one in a range, and one on the wall, then that may be okay, however I do like the idea of having a draw for all the pots directly below the cooktop. If we went for a range this would not be possible of course
We had thought about a micro/convection oven, but I think that will be to small.
When you say that a micro could go in the oven stack, do you mean above a double oven? or if there was only a single?
If we kept the microwave on the right of the oven unit, would something like this not work? I am guessing that that is a 24" unit this one sits in?
As for the fridge, This is where we have it today, and it does not seem to bother us to much, although now you have mentioned it maybe I am re-thinking that.
This is the time for us to rethink any ideas and maybe think of moving things around a bit more. If you have an idea for the fridge I'd be happy to hear it. I will also see if Jess (
DS
) and I can come up with any thoughts.
One consideration is that we currently have hard wood flooring and so we don't want to have to change that too much if possible in order to keep the budget somewhat back on track.
I'll take a look at the cover panels and make a decision on those after my next trip to the store to see how things look....
Thanks
DS definition
DS can mean Dear Son, Dear Spouse or Dear Sister. You may need to ask for clarification, or read between the lines.
If you decided you want to go with the High Oven Cabinet with two ovens, you could use the Sharp 24" Microwave that is installed flush with the wall cabinets:
Otherwise there's a High Oven Cabinet for 1 oven and a built-in microwave with the two deep drawers at the bottom and doors at the top.
Your peninsula area is similar to what I am planning. Are you using a 30" or 36" cooktop? If, for instance, you have a 36" cooktop with a 36" hood, you will want to make your base cabinet to the right an 18". Then you can use a 15" wall cabinet above it with 2 cover panels and you won't be butting-up against the hood and won't be extending past the base cabinet.
OK, I did a plan for you and named it eva. I moved everything around
LOL
I gave you a range with a single oven, and a double oven cabinet which would have the micro and another wall oven in it. I also turned the table 90 degrees for better flow. See what you think!
Eva. Thanks for the 'move around'. I've attached it here to reference against.
[img]http://render2.snapfish.com/render2/is=Yup6eGP%7C%3Dup6%3DzqH%3AxxqUD7qRUrKxzX7BHpUUKxgXPPn%3F87KR6xqpxQQeGxQnaxe0nxv8uOc5xQQQoeJoQJnenGqpfVtB%3F*KUp7BHSHqqy7XH6gXPPn%7CRup6aQQ%7C/of=50,415,442[/img]
This has fuelled a very useful conversation between Jess and I about what we are trying to do and what is important etc....
Basically we spent our whole meal out last night using sugar sachets and the salt and pepper pots for kitchen planning!
Here are some key points from our discussion which are influencing our decisions
We want to have what I would call a 'social kitchen'. What I mean is thatguests can sit at the main large counter and watch me (us) as we prepare and cook the food. This is why we want the counter space to be quite large (as it is today) and also for moving the cook top to this area instead of where it is now and where today, we have to work with our back to our guests.
We have no rooms above us, so the hood can run straight up. I am guessing that this is okay and that we just run the chimney up and out of the roof? We have nothing in the Attic or plans either.
I can see why there were questions about the fridge placement. Currently there is a 36" gap between the fridge and the edge of the counter. This has not really been a problem for the 2years we have lived with this, and I quite like the way that it is right next to where we prep. However we are experimenting with moving it.
The reason why we didn't like the idea of moving the oven to where Eva had put it (on the end of the L shape) is that it blocks off going into the dining room. I am going to try to play around with switching the oven and fridge on my first plan, to see if that makes more space, although I am not sure if something may have to give due to the fridge being 36" wide compared to 30" on the oven.
The big discussion point though was the oven / microwave configurations. As I mentioned before I am pretty set on having to ovens so we wanted something with this.
The options that we see today are:
1) Swap the hood for a over the range microwave and cupboard. Jess really likes the hood, and it has been growing on me a lot since. However, this would be the simplest way if we wanted to keep the double wall oven
[img]http://render2.snapfish.com/render2/is=Yup6laJ%7C%3Dup6%3DzqH%3AxxqUD7qRUrKxzX7BHpUUKxgXPol%3F87KR6xqpxQQeGxQnaxe0nxv8uOc5xQQQoeJoQJnenlqpfVtB%3F*KUp7BHSHqqy7XH6gXPol%7CRup6aQQ%7C/of=50,378,442[/img]
2) Change from just a cook top to a range (not sure which type right now) and then change the double wall oven for a single oven and microwave above it.
3) as 2 but have a cook top with wall oven beneath
The plan for today is to try to cost out the different options and see what combinations of ovens work.
I am thinking at the moment of a 30" Range with a self cleaning oven and then a 36" convection wall oven / micro combination.
I'll try to post an updated plan later
Again, and I'm sure it's not the last, sorry for the long post!
Sounds like you and your wife had a lot of fun last night with your condiments...this is the part of the design process that I really like, the possibilities.
I see you said you had a dining room...which gives me an idea. What if you put a large island in place with seating around the front instead of your table? I'm going to play around with the planner and see if I can work it out.
Oh and this planning software is enough to drive me crazy.
Between the crashing, values not calculating, but then working randomly at times, not being able to get certain things to line up which I know should....
Oh and having to bypass all the firewalls etc at work is a pain to! Guess I should be working though?
I need to know where Eva got her magic from.....can you bottle it?
I have also updated my original base plan to switch to a range and wall oven/micro combo. I am having problems with the filler on the right of the range though.
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