Anyone thinking about a new kitchen?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

Building a house. The kitchen is all I care about . Absolutely must be a private haven and have a TV with MSNBC on. Stayed in a rental with an open plan and you couldn't hear yourself think. And as you bang around, the TV in the adjoining space gets turned up louder, and people talk louder.

Can you tell, I'm a "NO open-plan advocate" ?

Love this kitchen..Except for the spaces under counters. I know, supposed to make it look more like furniture - but all I can think about is having to clean under there.

[LakeArenal]

1. I feel the same about cupboards that don't meet the ceiling or don't have a soffit to the ceiling

Spiders, dust and. Built up grease.

[Ohiogal]

27. I just spent

the afternoon up on a step ladder cleaning the tops of my kitchen cabinets, my ceiling fans, and pendant light fixtures. Company coming on Thursday and I guess I have to clean, lol

[LakeArenal]

33. The thing about cleaning above the cupboards..

is, it’s just for you. No one else goes up there. But YOU know. Also someone is going to give you an antique bread bowl and climb up to put it up there to surprise you.. “Oh man you guys, you should see the eco-system up here.” 🕷🕸🐜🦟🐀🦠

[Ohiogal]

34. Very true about the cabinets...

But one time many years ago, I had a guest for dinner (a teacher friend of Mr. Ohiogal)....the room got warm so I turned on the ceiling fan, and whoosh, all this dust flew off all over the room! So I always try to make sure to remember clean the fans before hosting company! And I have a sister who insists she can smell dust ...

[blueinredohio]

32. Agree wholeheartedly. I'm getting older and can't get up and down as easy anymore.

The less to clean the better. I'm not a fan of open concept I like my privacy and if I don't want to clean the kitchen right after a meal no one will know.

[spinbaby]

55. Agreed

I couldn’t do cabinets to the ceiling in my kitchen because this old house has high vaulted ceilings. I was up there cleaning the tops of the cabinets yesterday and it wasn’t pretty.

Things I did right in my kitchen remodel:

Designed the kitchen around the range of my dreams.
Lots of lighting, including under-cabinet lighting.
The best range hood I could afford.
Dishwasher with third rack.
Window seat.

Things I did wrong:
The range of my dreams turned out to be impossible to clean under.
Drawer microwave—hate it. Would hate it even if it hadn’t caught fire the first time we used it.
Awkward corner cabinet I can’t reach the back of.

[LakeArenal]

57. Do your brownies still bake well?

Then I think you’re golden!!

Never heard of a drawer micro wave.

Good luck. Cuz I know you spent a bunch!!

[dawg day]

2. I have a little Cape Cod --cute but cramped.

And the kitchen has always been a problem, about 12X12 and closed off, almost no cabinet and counter space. And there's a separate little dining area. I want to move the range against the "dining room" wall, add 5-6 cabinets and a little pantry, and just now have kitchen with a dining table. (This all is one space with the living room, all about 20X20.)

It won't be as gorgeous as yours! But I think I can get it done pretty cheaply (real important to spouse, LOL). And I'll get what I want-- enough cabinet space that I don't have to have half my kitchen equipment and cans and jars out in the open on the counters.

I love the wide plank flooring you have in the pic above... I might go with that too. It looks both rustic and elegant, and would look good in the living area too.

For those who actually cook and bake every day, I think more counter/cabinet space will make life SO much better.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

4. hard to picture what you are saying. my parents have a small cape cod house

kitchen a square - with one wall dividing the dining room square. People in their neighborhood have knocked down that wall to create a large dining/kitchen.

[dawg day]

5. That's what we have now--

The range and a counter "peninsula" are where the wall between the dining room used to be.

It's really no better-- still no room to move around, no prep space.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

7. I hear you! And my mom's has no dishwasher so the dish rack takes up one counter

and a huge microwave (if it still works, you can't convince her to buy a small one) takes up 1/2 the other. Cabinets super inefficient - lower ones just one big "hole" without shelving.

Good luck ! It's like with a finite amount of space, like I have now too - it helped to sort through everything and only keep what you use every day and put everything else somewhere else, like basement, if you have one.

[dawg day]

43. Lol, I have one of those microwaves...

Husband doesn't want to get rid of it as long as it works. I'll have to get a new kitchen to get rid of it!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

45. Note to self..find a way to break a microwave :)

[Laura PourMeADrink]

46. Omg...was just laughing my ass off (quietly in bed). Googled

How to break a microwave.. hysterical stories and replies out there. It's actually a thing. Old clunkers that people won't get rid of. Flames shooting out and they still work!

[WhiteTara]

15. I have one of those

and hate it. It feels like you are a prisoner.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. I remodeled my kitchen a few years ago - quite a project.

I couldn't afford anything as large or fancy as the photo, but I agree 100% about the open-concept. I hate it. Architecturally it wouldn't have worked in my house but even if it did I wouldn't have done it. I don't want the activities and sounds of the living and kitchen areas interfering with each other. The existing kitchen, which was so small and awkward as to be almost useless, was gutted down to the studs, expanded a few feet, and completely rebuilt. It took a whole summer but it was absolutely worth it.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

6. That's what's hard to translate - seeing a pic like this and knowing how much

sq footage it would take. There are virtually close to zero house plans out there with separate kitchens. So will probably have to find a plan and change up another room to make it a kitchen. Have heard architects cost a fortune to design something from scratch.

I know what you mean about the architecture. Our house now is 100 years old. Kitchen super tiny and awkward layout. Think it was for a maid at one time. The dining room still has a hole in floor where a pedal once was to signal the maid.

Curious when you say "expanded a few feet". Do you mean toward outdoors? Always wondered about that since you have to redo outside of house - like if brick - rebrick.

another down factor to open plans is the grease and smells it leaves on furniture. I believe that one.

I think a lot of it too is good memories of growing up in a traditional kitchen - family sitting around table - back door - windows with screens open.

I love this kitchen too. But sure it's ENORMOUS. Hoping my house will have a great kitchen even tho the rest will probably have to be plywood floors and a few windows LOL

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. My house is even older - built in 1885.

And the kitchen, such as it was, was added in the '30s (we found newspapers from 1933 in the walls). We were able to expand it by moving an interior wall and cantilevering it outward by a couple of feet, making it unnecessary to dig a new foundation; then we just added a little exterior deck along the back wall. So we did have to build new exterior walls (which meant duplicating the old siding), plus new windows. The cabinets go all the way to the ceiling so there won't be any dust and crud collecting there, and also all the way to the floor - too many cat toys would accumulate there otherwise. Here are photos during construction and after it was completed but before I messed it up:

[Laura PourMeADrink]

11. wow, it's pretty ! I didn't realize until read article not too long ago that kitchens

are actually a newer invention than one thought. People used to have not much more than a table and kettle over a fire in the living room. What's messed up?

[Freddie]

14. Love your kitchen

Cozy and homey. I grew up in a small house with a small closed-off kitchen (eat-in, but barely) and I’m finding I don’t like the “wide open space” effect of the popular open kitchen-dining-family-living room thing. Guess it’s the opposite of claustrophobia.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

17. Thanks! It's not very big but the house is small, too,

so it's in scale. The important thing is that I finally have some counter space, which was almost nonexistent in the old kitchen. And I like that it's closed off from the rest of the house.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

19. Actually, think the open plan is good for people who never cook. My SIL has

take out most of time. An island is great for laying out take out meals.

[MLAA]

26. It's fresh, beautiful love the subway tile backsplash 🙂

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

42. I have been told that subway tile is passe, but I don't care.

I like it. It works just about everywhere.

[MLAA]

48. I think it has such a fresh, clean line.

We are building an addition to our house. Something like a mother in law suite and it will have the subway tile in the bathroom and kitchenette backsplash 😉

[NJCher]

40. beautiful kitchen

GREAT cat!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

41. Thank you!

He is a great cat.

[dameatball]

51. Ha! Took me a while to see the cat....:)

[justhanginon]

9. I did a few dinners (12 to 14 guests), for a friend that had

a butlers pantry off the kitchen. It is a great convenience if you have the room and money. Theirs was a big old brick home and I guess they were in vogue when it was built. The only other thing is counterspace, counterspace, counterspace.
So much depends on your cooking style so just make sure to personalize it for your cooking and to a certain extent not make style the focus. Some compromises will certainly be in order. )

[Laura PourMeADrink]

13. Yes - have a butler's pantry now - only problem is that it's filled with stuff I never

use. Would love to pare it all down and actually make it usable !

That's a great point - thinking about cooking style. Really only need a place to chop vegetables and some counter space next to stove to place things and near fridge to pour drinks. If you don't bake a lot you might not need lots of counters?

Sounds like you must love to cook, eh. 12-14 guests. It would make me super nervous to do that. Just because the hardest part to me of cooking is starting and finishing different things at the right time so something in the end is not overdone. Was watching a cooking show that said the "pasta should never wait" Thought this interesting since have let pasta sit in a colander for a long time. Poor planning I guess. Of you are just one person cooking, hard to have like three things to cook at the very end. How do you manage that?

[spinbaby]

49. I wish I had a butler's pantry

I’ll admit to having too much kitchen gear and have taken to storing the overflow in a walk-in closet by the bedrooms. I have way more kitchen stuff than clothing.

[Kurt V.]

10. we just remodeled my sisters top to bottom. Appliances, cabinets etc. the biggest floor

plan change was adding a mobile island (a must imo) and making a smaller table.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

16. So is the table in the center of the kitchen? And the island only wheeled out when

a big dinner happening?

[Kurt V.]

22. the table was moved to one wall with the leaf removed and extra chairs stoed away.

the island is in the center. for a big meal they swap places, with the leaf added and chairs brought out.

[Freddie]

12. I'm with you on the open kitchen

Hate it and I’m stuck with it. Feel like I’m cooking for an audience. Plus when you’re having a big holiday meal you can’t just shut the door and hide the mess. My dream for my house (it’s never going to happen) is to move the washer and dryer upstairs and make one of the spare bedrooms a laundry room, and turn the laundry closet into a walk-in pantry.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

18. Ha, when I am not on DU I am on house plan searches :) They actually now have

plans with what they call a "dirty kitchen" or "scullery". it's hidden behind the pretty open plan island. Ah, my other thing I want other than a nice kitchen - a proper laundry room. I don't really get why 90% of the plans I look at have the laundry room near the garage or kitchen when 90% of our laundry is clothes. Have seen a couple plans where the laundry adjoins the clothes closets - makes so much sense to me. Someone thought it had to do with plumbing cheaper if near kitchen plumbing? But there's plumbing in bathroom too. ??

[Freddie]

20. Agree, a laundry next to the bedrooms makes so much sense

We bought our house new in a development in the 90s. Ours has 4 bedrooms up and a laundry closet on the first floor. Another model has 3 bedrooms and an actual laundry room where the 4th bedroom would have gone. I loved that model but our model was the only one with a 2-car garage, and DH had to have that. The kids are gone so we could feasibly use one of the bedrooms for a laundry but there’s plumbing issues no doubt.

[dawg day]

44. I have a laundry shute from the bedroom to the laundry

Smartest decision I made.

[Freddie]

47. If only they made a reverse laundry shute

And took it back upstairs!

[List left]

53. sorted and folded on the way up. ;) nt

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

21. I ended up putting the stacked washer and dryer in the kitchen.

That may seem weird but it's common in Europe. My basement is basically just a cellar with nothing in it but the furnace, water heater and a utility sink. An old washer and dryer were there when I bought the place but it was really hard to do laundry down there because it was so cramped and icky. I hired an architect to design the remodel, and after exploring some other options (no room on the 2nd floor, using an existing closet wouldn't work either) we decided to just put them in the kitchen like most of the rest of the world. This might not be a good solution for a family where there's lots of laundry to do but it works just fine for me. It was also a good solution with respect to existing plumbing and electrical connections.

[Freddie]

23. My BIL's house has a stacking set in the kitchen

Small cape cod with no basement, works great for them. Saw an ad for Dash from the 50’s (“great for your new automatic!”) showing the housewife doing mounds of laundry in the kitchen.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

28. I think the problem with stupid locations for laundry rooms

is because the people designing the houses don't ever do the laundry themselves. Nor do they cook, from a lot of kitchens I've seen. I mean, only three drawers in an otherwise decent-sized kitchen? Yeah, I've seen that in actual model homes. Oh, and no utility/broom closet, the kind to stash the vacuum and various cleaning supplies in.

[Luciferous]

24. I remodeled most of my kitchen last year. My husband wanted an open concept but I like

having separation. I did a lot of deep drawers with soft close features, pull out shelves for my pots and pans, and got a huge deep sink with a 60/40 split which I love. I still need to add a small island and some recessed lighting. When we moved in last year there was actually carpet in the kitchen and everything else was pretty much original to the house (1968) so the kitchen remodel was a top priority!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

25. Ah, they still made houses with quality materials

back then ..then they invented more and more chemicals.

So did you win out or your husband on open plan.

Picking out draws and such is a whole project in itself huh. Did u get a drawer for trashcan? Funny I never see plans with a broom closet. Do like those drawers with plugs..charging station. You know if you look at old houses there are actually a lot of good features they have dropped.

[Luciferous]

35. I did keep the kitchen closed off- I did the remodel myself so he pretty much let me do what I

wanted. I did get a pullout for the recycle bin. The charging station would be a good idea- maybe for the island this kitchen was bad- cheap cabinets, ancient appliances, 3 layers of flooring under the carpet, ugly 80s farmhouse wallpaper. If the cabinets were nice wood ones I would've refinished them but honestly nothing was worth saving.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

29. I likewise hat the "open concept" thing.

If I've cooked a big meal, the kitchen is, quite frankly, going to be a bit of a mess. And I don't have some invisible servant to clean up after me.

Plus, I don't want to hear and see everyone else all the time. Of course, I do happen to live alone at this point in my life, which is quite nice.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

37. Even if you live alone - having a dedicated space for just you, the way you

like it is special.

[MontanaMama]

30. We remodeled our kitchen/family room a couple year ago.

I did choose an open concept to a point...we doubled the size of the kitchen from the 10x10 original size and it is above the family room by a few steps so I can look into it from the kitchen sink. It’s kinda separate and kinda not. I don’t like being holed up when everyone else is doing something fun. Area rugs and other soft surfaces like leather chairs at the table and the bar keep noise levels reasonable.

I added a large island with a unique pebbled granite top which is the BEST. I happily got rid of all the upper cabinets in favor of deep drawers with soft closures. I like the open space as a result and, since I’m only 5’2”, I can’t reach what’s in upper cabinets anyway. The one exception to upper cabinets that I chose was a built in dish rack over an appliance garage that holds the toaster and bread machine....there’s an outlet in the garage so those appliances can live there and stay plugged in and I don’t have look at them.

The two things that I did that I would absolutely not change in terms of cabinets is the pull out garbage/recycling. I love having that corralled in one neat space. The 2nd thing is the cabinet that holds the big Kitchen Aid mixer...the mixer sits on a platform that pulls up and out level with the island so I don’t have to haul it around. Below that mixer cabinet is a pull out tray that holds cooling racks and muffin tins. It’s a double win.

Enjoy the process! A good working kitchen is the gift that keeps on giving.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

38. "I don't like being holed up when everyone else is doing something fun"

So, just what kind of fun are other people having? lol.

I love the idea of no or few upper cabinets. Like pare it all down. Do you really need 12 plates when there are only 2-4 people?

[yellowdogintexas]

31. I would kill for a pantry.

My kitchen is a galley with a dead wall instead of an exit. I have a peninsula that divides it from the den and a built in hutch, cook top and double wall ovens. When we replaced the refrigerator, the original refrigerator space was too small so we put the fridge on the dead wall and put a set of floor to ceiling shelves where the fridge used to be.

What I would so love to do is gut the room, and just rearrange it so I have cabinets and counter top around the back of the room so I have continuous countertop all the way around except for the refrigerator, sink and stove. Then I could have a pantry and could store some of the small appliances I do not use every day.

Unless I have some sort of a windfall it isn't going to happen and my bathrooms need much more help than my kitchen.

I also hate the open space under the cabinets, by the way.

[Luciferous]

36. One of the things I really miss about the kitchen in our old house is the big pantry.

We have one now but it's so small and there wasn't really room to expand it.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

39. Have had a pantry for many years. Can't imagine going back to putting all that stuff

in a cabinet - but I could definitely live with it if I had to. If you cook a lot, like serious cooking - it strikes me that having ready access to spices/oils so much more important???

Bathrooms, schmathrooms - who cares about a bathroom? Like everyone but me

What someone said above is so true - you have to look at how you live and how you cook and decide what the most important thing to you is.

[trof]

50. 1. An under counter microwave is hard to see and use.

Counter or eye level is much BETTER.

2. NEVER put a fridge/freezer next to a wall.
The door next to the wall will only open 90 degrees.

MUCH against my advice my daughter did this in her $100,000 + kitchen remodel.
Now she very much regrets it.

3. If there's an island, and if there's more than one cook in the house, put the cook-top on the island. That way two or more can work from both sides.

Happy building.

[spooky3]

52. Also added a new kitchen during a reno--a few thoughts:

I agree with those who like the soft close drawers on lower cabinets. It is so much easier to see and reach your stuff.

Agree about planning for ease in cleaning, eg cabinets to the floor, cabinets to the ceiling (or trim to close the gap). No open shelves—dust collectors! Even if you can’t see it, it can trigger allergies.

Lazy Susans in any corner lower cabinets are great.

Agree about being careful about microwave and refrigerator placement.

Plan the kitchen and baths and everything else that is complicated WELL before construction begins. Once it begins the contractors may pressure you to make quick decisions to keep work on schedule, which means you may not get the best thought-out plans that you could, and you will not get the best price on things that are “allowances” in your contract. And you will find yourself dropping things you would rather do or need to do, to pick out materials, etc., within their tight deadlines.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

56. Wow lots of counters hey. My only thought is to

Sit down and just think about how you live how you cook. We are like you...just two of us. I am not gonna build just for an occasional party.

I just want a comfy place for my husband to sit and visit and a good tv. Heard big mistake is putting tv too high. So craning neck. Also would live a draw with plugs to charge phone iPad out of view. I prefer only lower cabinets lots of windows and maybe a hutch or something for glasses. Drawer for garage can a must. My two cents

[trof]

58. Put your cooktop in a center island.

That way more than one person can cook.
Microwave at eye level, not under counter.
Double built in oven.
Put the TV remote in a baggy.
Keeps the grease out.