Design of the New Kitchen

This was a long and harrowing process, mostly due to the way that I can't just jump into things. I need to "let it marinade" (name that movie???). So things started with a lot of review of old Dwell issues for inspiration. I wrote up a list of criteria and ideas related to the kitchen.




Through our neighborhood email list we got in touch with a recent Architecture graduate, and had her do a quick mock-up. Our instructions were pretty much that we didn't really want to shuffle the kitchen around, but we did want to add a dishwasher and somehow get more storage and counter space. She responded appropriately with a layout that converted our short hallway into a laundry area.







We then met with a designer, who we liked, and seemed like she would have some good ideas. Then we met with someone from a design/build firm who we also liked (but they were all booked up for the build portion), and we saw a kitchen they had recently completed in a nearby neighborhood. We got some costing info from them and had a bit of discussion.

Then some friends of ours said they were considering a kitchen remodel and had an architect they were using and liked. So we met with him and had some of the same discussions as with the others, but he started in on that architect-speak about flow and history (the kitchen used to be a service area, so it was separated from the rest of the house, etc.). He didn't say how exactly, but he indicated that the kitchen could be opened up to the rest of the house.

So we decided to go with the architect (Nick). His plan was to completely ignore the existing layout and see what could be done with the space. He came up with 3 options, all of which changed the basic kitchen layout (which meant moving electrical and plumbing, etc).



Option #1 was the simplest change, not moving any walls - just rearranging the kitchen functionality and converting the short hallway to a laundry area. It also moved the back door and added a bunch of windows to an exterior wall to provide more natural light.



Option #2 used Option #1 as the basis, then opened it up to the living room by removing parts of a few walls, moving the fridge, and adding a pantry.



Option #3 turned the short hallway into a galley kitchen, then turned the kitchen area into this wacky conglomeration of storage, laundry, and office space.

Nick told us to "live" with each of the layouts, imagining ourselves in there and doing normal daily tasks. We kinda cut to the chase; we've got a toddler and that's our (legitimate) excuse for not having time to do a lot of things. We liked Option #2 the best, so I took measurements off the drawing, grabbed some blue painter's tape, and taped off where everything would be in the new arrangement (and where the walls would no longer be). It was pretty helpful, at least for me. I'm the engineer and I've got no spatial skills or ability to imagine how things looks. Lisa on the other hand, can visualize pretty well (of course, she does have that artistic streak in her). We decided to move forward with option #2.

Nick added a little detail to the floor plan and drew up some elevations. We had a few discussions about some of the things that we wanted included and had some questions about the design, but very little changed. Since there was no longer a clear division between kitchen and living room, we decided to get wood flooring throughout both spaces. It was finally time to rip out that nasty carpet in the living room that had survived me as a renter and through 2 different roommates before Lisa moved in.

The next step was to meet with a builder and try to get some ballpark pricing, as we had completely ignored cost to this point. Nick brought in a builder that he had worked with before and had good results with. After several weeks of discussion, review, and more discussion, we decided that they were just too expensive. There were a few items in their estimate that seemed out of touch (their electrical cost was equivalent to what we paid to have the entire house rewired, and they could have drywalled the entire kitchen, hallway, and living room for the amount that they included). So we decided to try a couple of what Nick referred to as "tool-belt" builders; contractors who self-performed a large portion of the work. We had a contact from a friend, and Nick had another builder that he was working with on another project, though it wasn't completed yet. We met with them both, and decided which one we wanted to put together another ballpark estimate for us. Their estimate ended up pretty close to our budget (and a whole lot less than the first builder).

Next, Nick turned his "conceptual" drawings into "working" drawings (making a few minor tweaks, adding an Electrical Plan and a bunch of notes). We had the idea to add some lighting in the living room, since we were using several lamps and didn't have good lighting in there at all. Once we got the final drawings we noticed that Nick had included a note about painting the living room as well as the kitchen - between having walls removed, new floors, new lighting, and new paint, it was going to be like a new living room as well as a kitchen.







Next post should be about some of the materials selection and beginning of construction.

Before Pictures

Demolition is supposed to start in a couple weeks, so we thought we'd take some "before" pics in the current state (which is pretty clean by our standards). Just for reference the front door of the house opens to the middle of the living/dining area; if you were to keep walking straight in you'd go down a hallway leading to the bedrooms. The kitchen is off to your right as you walk in the front door. Once you're in the kitchen if you turn to the left (facing west), the back door leading to the deck is visible.

Most of the kitchen is original. The cabinets have worn paint, are dented in spots, have terrible closures, and are friction (no rollers). The countertops are white tile that is chipped with complimentary ugly, dirty grout. The electric range is from 1962 (the original owner gave us the manual) with 3 out of 4 burners functional, and a oven door that stays mostly closed. For some reason they capped off the original gas and got rid of the range that must have been there the first 5 years. We just bought the dishwasher about 3 years ago; if you can't tell, it's a roll-around that connects to the sink. The sink is pock-marked and starting to rust through on the bottom. The sheet vinyl floor is on top of two other layers, the height of which makes the pocket door to the living room almost impossible to open. We could go on, but you probably get the point.

The 1950's kitchen has a bit of charm that isn't lost on us. The style is really neat, and there's some cool features. I kinda like the subtle backsplash. But it's not very functional, and is a poor use of space.

We had originally intended to just replace everything with new stuff in the same place; like the floors, cabinets, countertops, etc., just to update it. But then one of those darn architects has this bright idea about opening up the kitchen to the living room, and designing the kitchen from scratch so it would flow properly and be the best use of space.

I'll probably post some of the design stuff next.



Original plans for the house showing kitchen and living room.


From kitchen looking towards living room.


From far corner of living room looking towards kitchen.


Northwest corner of kitchen.


East wall of kitchen.