Saturday, December 15, 2007

Kitchen Design and Flow

I'm putting together the cabinet and floor plan for the kitchen remodel. The only real constraint I have is the window on the north wall. The sink will remain in that location.

Obviously the dishwasher should be near the sink, and I want counter tops available on either side of the stove.

Currently, the cabinets on the sink-side of the kitchen are in this arrangement, although there is no dishwasher. On the stove-side of the kitchen everything is currently reversed (the fridge is closest to the living room, which blocks some of the flow visually into the kitchen).



The table is not drawn to scale, so I'm not worried about the flow around it.

The green outline represents the counter top - solid surface or granite. Red outlines are lower cabinets, and blue outlines are upper cabinets.

I have considered having the dishwasher to the left of the sink, but I think it'll work better here, even though it means longer supply & discharge line runs.

Depending on how tired I am as this project progresses, I'll probably open up the wall leading into the family room by about 12". This will mean moving the electrical switches too, which I really don't want to do, but it'll really open up the room a lot.

There are currently soffets above the upper cabinets. I'd love to remove them and installer taller upper cabinets, but this could create a whole mess of extra work that I really don't want/need right now.

To all you professional designers and those who have been there before, am I missing anything which would improve the flow of the kitchen?

A Fireplace Built for a Man

I was going through a bunch of pictures I have and ran across some pictures of a fireplace that any red-blooded guy would like in his living room. Hate chopping wood for the fire? No problem, you can burn logs the size of a Toyota in here! For a size reference I've included daddy's little tax-deductions. If I stuck my head up into the flue I could stand upright in there at 6'3.

Can anybody* identify this fireplace or name where it is? I'll give you a hint - there is public parking right outside this building, although your car or truck is not welcome within a mile of the place.

* My brother should know where this is, so he's not allowed to chime in.



Walk up a flight of stairs and you get a good view of the building. A lot of stones went into building this place!