[sleepaholic]

Just wanted to say hi to everyone. After stumbling on this website, I think I'm ready to at least humour the thought of renovating my kitchen. My wife and 1yr-old son will be visiting in-laws for 2 weeks before christmas before I can join them, so I thought that that might be a good time to renovate the kitchen. Is that enough time to at least get it functional if not pretty? Hmmmm...I dunno.

The existing small kichen lies within 40 year old house. Cabinets are original plywood, and tiles are cracking, so its got to go soon.

Biggest issue with the kitchen layout is the bulkhead in the corner. The stairs to the basement is behind the bulkhead so it can't be removed. Need to think of something creative to work around this, that also address certain 'wants' in the kitchen.

1)More cabinet and counterspace.
2)Move the fridge, its very cramped where it is, and can't upgrade to a larger fridge in that location.
3)Would like to have a bit of counterspace on both sides of the stove, but that makes the space between the stove and sink kinda narrow. (how weird would it be if the sink wasn't center with the window?)

Right now we are only adding cabinets to the window-wall. We will upgrade to a bigger fridge as the family grows, so will add on later.

Both doors are just entryways, no actual doors, and the window opposite to the sink is a breakfast bar, with seating outside the kitchen.

Very sorry for the long post, I thought a little background would be better than just posting, "help me design this kitchen!".

Thanks in advance on any help/opinions you guys/girls can provide, its much appreciated.

[zeuss]

Hi and welcome to Ikeafans!

I took a look at your kitchen, but first I had to upload the 2008 planner as I'm still in 2007. Man-o-man is it slow. It just about drove me nuts, but oh well, it's all we've got.

To start off, I broke your first rule and put cabinets on both sides of the kitchen. I just couldn't resist. What I did was put a 36" cabinet above the 30" fridge so you have room for your future big one. You can just put a filler panel to cover the hole for now, (or store the broom and ironing board there.)

The key thing I did to your design was to actually make the room smaller. Yes, I know it sounds wierd, but it is true. I put a wall above that bulkhead in the corner 24" back from the edge. I felt your wall cabinets were going to be too far away to be much use. Maybe you can sneak into the other side from the stair landing and make a built-in cabinet in the extra space.

By closing off that bit of the room, the wall cabinets are the right distance from the front of the countertop. You might even want to buy doors and attach them to the bulkhead to simulate cabinets.

In such a small kitchen, sacrifices have to be made and I made one for you. I traded your big Domsjo sink for a smaller one. It is still a gorgeous sink, but it really opens up the storage and counterspace on that wall. You can still have your sink centred on the window, but now you have tons of prep space between the sink and range.

Also, you could only fit a 21" base cabinet in between the sink and range and that cabinet is next to useless. You need every advantage you can get in such a small space so you need lower base drawers. By sacrificing a bit of sink size, you gain a wonderful 30" 4 drawer base unit plus a bigger 18" drawer unit on the other side of the sink.

I also added a pantry unit next to the bulkhead because they hold so much when fully outfitted with all the drawers etc.

And because there was room, I added a hutch type arrangement on the other side of the kitchen with glass doors above and drawers below. I you wanted, you could put a wall oven on the fridge side of the kitchen, then drawer unit could go under the cooktop, leaving room for a dishwasher next to the sink.

Let me know what you think.....

[NBeth]

Yikes! You certainly pose a challenge . I'm afraid my idea may preclude the 2 wk kitchen plan, but it may be worth it in terms of functionality. Very simply, I think you need to make your bulkhead bigger. Sounds counterintuitive, I know, but unless you increase the depth & height of the back bump, your wall cabinets are going to sit so far back that you will find it very difficult to actually use them! So this plan suggests increasing the depth of the back chunk to about 24 inches, raised to the finished height of the pantry (~85" I think). You will have to build a real wall in order to hang the wall cabs from it, and I don't think you can bring the wall cabs all the way out w/o some extra engineering (you'll see I punted halfway in the middle), but you still gain so much in terms of actual utility.

Otherwise, I've swapped the pretty useless 21"cab for an 18" drawer unit plus some clearance room so handles don't bump on the cabs which will sit at right angles to one another. And I strongly suggest you spring for some drawer units for the wall you're not building now--so I removed the table in favor of those. Ikea products are made to be moved so if you use them differently after the second stage remodel, don't worry: you can move them!

[NBeth]

Great minds (or is that sleepy minds?) think alike, Zeuss! In practical terms you're about the sink of course but ...I know *we* would have had a big sink no matter what (esp with no dishwasher) and that one is so beautiful, I didn't challenge it.

P.S. Welcome to to Ikeafans, sleepaholic!

[zeuss]

Well Beth, we must be onto something because we both came to exactly the same conclusion at the same time! Spooky......

I was going to extend that cabinets next to the bulkhead to go around the corner but then it was too tight to the table substitute cabinets. You just made the table substitute cabinets shorter. I like you solution there better.

And we both hated that 21"base. Next to useless really. But what do you think about the smaller sink? And is there a way to fit a dishwasher in?

[NBeth]

I really don't think there's room for a dishwasher in this design but...if you reduced the sink to 24 (gain 12") and then reduce the cabs by the stove each by 3", you theoretically gain room for an 18" model. Personally I wouldn't do it--and I didn't do it in my kitchen--but then we have a LOT of cooking stuff and decided cabs were more valuable than dishwashers

[NBeth]

Just one more thing..... Goodnight!

[zeuss]

Originally Posted by NBeth

I really don't think there's room for a dishwasher in this design

them thar is fightin' words! Now I've got to squeeze a dishwasher into this kitchen!

Nite,nite Beth!

[zeuss]

My post last night got killed by the backup starting at midnight. So I'll repost.

I got carried away last night and did a version with a full 24" dishwasher. In order to make room and not lose storage space, I moved the oven to the fridge wall. Now that is a "wall of tall", but there is a nice sink/dishwasher combo on the main wall.

[zeuss]

and here is the dishwasher-less version that is a combo of Beth's and mine.