Discuss If you could have anything you wanted on IKEAFANS.com. We're Personalizing the IKEA Experience. If you could have anything you wanted - Need help with planning your remodel? Want a kitchen planner to review your ideas? This is the happenin' spot!.
I had an architect out today to look at my plans and he pointed out some big elephants I had sitting in my plan (and ignoring). We are talking about adding on anyway, it is just a matter of what, where, what shape, how much, and so on. So I want to dream a bit and expand my brain. If you could take your trusty planner and make a new kitchen and dining - no limits on space, size, or configuration, what would you do?Â*
I would add both a mudroom (with a floor drain and showerhead), and a full butler's pantry. I would open up some walls between the original porch and the dining room (if I didn't have an original Sears catalog house), and add some columns where need be. I'd put a big bay or garden window over the sink. I'd put a compact WC in the butler's pantry and be rid of our narrow, uncomfortable 1/2 bath in the back hall.
I'd make the basement entry accessible from the butler's pantry. Skylights? Yes. Recycling bins that sit outside, with chutes and flippy doors on the inside. Vac-pans. A REAL hood over a big *** range.
Oh...can I afford marble? Of course I can!!! White marble backsplash and counters...in some areas. I wouldn't give up my soapstone for the world, nor would I sacrifice my thick butcherblock for the prep area. I'd love to have a traditional checkerboard floor somewhere in there, but I know Tigger would not love it. New lighting without having to break into the plaster ceilings. This is a dream, right?
Enormous, gigundo pantry. With outlets for appliances that don't need to be used in the main kitchen space. Dishwasher drawer next to my prep area. Refrigerator drawer in my baking space. A Miele Steam Oven. Sigh. Oh, and a completely impractical, highly expensive, get it cuz I want it Espresso machine. Built-in.
Me's happy.
Susan
(I'll be back)
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I'd tear out 2-3 walls (actually, half the front of the house) to move the kitchen to a south-facing exposure, put in BIG windows (this is in upstate new york) so that I could have a potting table/sink/wall of herbs and plants offset but still part of the kitchen. Oh, I miss green things so much since moving to the northeast....
But if you won the lottery and were building a new house from scratch so were no longer constrained by what you currently have, what shape would you do? U? Galley? What would you put where, how big would it be? Pull out those Ikea Kitchen Planners and let's see some dreaming!
Oh my goodness! LOL This is going to take a while!
I definitely agree with the butler's pantry. I actually would want two pantries, one for food only with very efficient shelving and one for appliances and "stuff". There would be a sink in the one with the stuff, and an icemaker. That's where all my party gear would go, and special sets of dishware, glasses etc. I'd also have a storeroom INSIDE the house, instead of the shed outside, for Christmas and other stuff. There would be a place to lay out trays and such for parties, and sheet pans for cooling, without worrying about them being in the way.
The mudroom would have a place for everyone's coat, hat, gloves, boots, shoes, backpack etc. There would be a place to wash off mud.
The kitchen would have flexible areas, like a long countertop with shelves underneath the whole length, and electric underneath spaced all along the side. It would also have seating. I'd probably need six burners and two large ovens or three regular size ones. I would have an entire wall of refrigeration/freezer space. I'd like a large sink to scrub big pots, and an industrial dishwasher so I didn't have to LOL That can go in the butlers pantry too. I'd probably need a salamander, pizza oven and warming area.
The floor would be easily cleaned, but would look great even if it wasn't. The countertop would be granite to be practical. I'd probably have a giant Boos butcherblock countertop next to the cooktop. Stainless or granite by the ovens.
I found that as I tried to sketch my dream kitchen, with its 48" cooktop and 48" fridge, that I kept violating the kitchen triangle rules:
In a kitchen with three work centers* the sum of the three traveled distances should total no more than 26' with no single leg of the triangle measuring less than 4' nor more than 9'.
When the kitchen plan includes more than three primary appliance/work centers, each additional travel distance to another appliance/work center should measure no less than 4' nor more than 9'.
Each leg is measured from the center-front of the appliance/sink.
No work triangle leg intersects an island/peninsula or other obstacle by more than 12".
Big appliances mean longer distances between their centers.
I want my sink and cooktop to be connected by counter, either straight or L, and I don't like a cooktop on an island where there is seating. Way too much spattering and not safe enough.
I'm so happy with my kitchen that it's hard to answer this question. It's still all new and perfect! The best specific things I did in the kitchen reno were: Aga 4-oven range, island for the range with seating pretty distant from the burners, a great faucet and sink, lots of places to put things out of sight, but not in a separate pantry.
The biggest overall change was just to open up the room by breaking up the U-shaped kitchen and doing the island. The room isabout 20x21' and it now feels huge. I highly recommend the island arrangement.
What I'd add with an unlimited budget: soapstone counters; french doors to the front and back decks; more space for a huge table and 10 chairs, or a bench seat with storage underneath; a better organized command center where all the mail and phone and files are dealt with in the same place. There's more, but I must go cook dinner!
What a great idea for a topic! Right off the bat, and w/o any caffeine yet, I am going to second Susan's request for one of those fancy built in coffee/espresso machines.
I've got a small apartment kitchen, so I'm not even sure where I'd start with more space, lol! I'd love an island with bar-height seating. I'd love huge loft-like ceilings and exposed brick walls. I'd add a lot more stainless steel and glass, since if this is my dream house, my dream maid will be doing the cleaning.
"The mudroom would have a place for everyone's coat, hat, gloves, boots, shoes, backpack etc. There would be a place to wash off mud."
This made me laugh. In addition to doing our kitchen (to which I've harassed all of you), we've taken our entire house down to the studs. The one thing my wife has been adamant about was a mud closet. But since we're in Austin, not for coat, hat, or gloves, but for abandoned flip flops right inside the front door.
Kate1234, maybe in the ideal kitchen you can have one of those moving walkways that they have in large airports? Doesn't that allow for longer arms to the kitchen triangle?
Ah, shucks, it'd probably pose at least some sort of a tripping hazard.
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