New Kitchen Layout

After much wailing and gnashing of teeth I persuaded the man of the house to remodel the kitchen. Fortunately the wailing and gnashing will henceforth come mostly from the contractor as we decided the job is beyond our amateur home-handyman skills.

Here's the final layout we picked after multiple iterations. A couple of things to note: there is water behind the wall where the new sink and dishwasher are going to be. That definitely influenced the placement. Putting them elsewhere would have involved a significant expense of digging a trench out for the plumbing in our slab floor.

The sliding doors face North, which isn't ideal but will get better light into the room than does the window which is there now. We're getting sliders with built in blinds. I've never liked curtains on doors so the built in option seems the best solution. Also keeping fabric out of the kitchen is a good way to reduce lingering smells.

The other, single entry faces South; beside it is a counter-depth fridge. In the corner is a prep sink, replacing the un-ergonomic two-basin sink that is there now (see the before pics). On the East wall is a range and microwave. On the West wall is my existing pantry closet and a new build out of dishwasher, main sink, and more counter space.

The island in the middle took some time for me to get my mind around. Initially I thought a peninsula would be better but no matter how we tried it, we ended up with significant dead space in the kitchen. An island solves dual problems of 1) more counter space and 2) a small dining area for two people while permitting full use of the space.

Thanks to Alison at Kitchen Master for the lovely design.

The before photos of the kitchen

We're undertaking a new kitchen remodel so this weekend I tidied up and reorganized the kitchen to take the before photos. I was wondering if I would like the kitchen better once I had put in some elbow grease but I still hate it. So I'm glad that we're doing the remodeling.

The North facing view is to the window. This window seat is cold and drafty and is only used by the dog. I recall the prior owner saying it was her cat's special place. I'm hoping the new arrangement will be more human usable (sorry, Dog).

The East facing view faces the Stove. The cabinets here are poorly organized and difficult to get things in and out of. However, in the current kitchen this is the area that is least bad. The sink and dishwasher are crowded and barely usable.

The North facing view, to the refrigerator (two photos).  I strongly advise against this kind of sink arrangement. Loading dishes here hurts my back, as I have to twist and spin around to get dishes in the bottom.

The cabinets are crowded since I inherited dishes and there have been breaks as folks try to cram more in, instead of finding the right spot for something. I need an arrangement that doesn't require such careful handling by the kids and me.

The West facing view is to the pantry. The cabinets you see used to be a free floating island but the room doesn't flow well in that configuration. I can't wait to make this more usable! As you can see from the photo of the entry to the kitchen, this wall is basically unused.

I'm planning to post more pics as I go through the remodel process. Stay tuned!