Interior Design Q&A: minimalist midcentury maximalism

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bennyfactor: Nov 21, 2008

I have a question for this thread about kitchen cabinets � we are renovating our kitchen ourselves (although we had the floor done by someone else) and would like someone to look at our room shape and come up with a better layout than a single waterlogged bank of 1960s cabinets shoehorned under the window of a large square 1920s kitchen. Are there services that would do this that wouldn't expect us to then buy their cabinets? If we have a layout, we would like to piece together older cabinets from the restore or something to keep it looking classic but you know, functional. Not just function in the "useful layout sense", but also functional in the sense that that all the drawers and doors open. And with a counter top height higher than 31".

KOTEX GOD OF BLOOD posted:

A little update on my plan for this.

Since I'm mounting a 77" TV, I figure a single panel is probably not feasible in the space. I started thinking about a diptych - two panels sliding apart - which would be perfect, but there's not much in the way of diptyches I can find online that I feel like are worth printing and hanging up in this way.

My new thought is to hang a triptych, but to split it unevenly into two panels. Like this (although not this specific work):

Is this very dumb?

Putting the painting with the Butt Song From Hell in front of your television is extremely rad, and not dumb at all. My parents' previous house had a place for a plasma tv kinda recessed into the fireplace, and a set of quad-fold(?) doors that would cover it up. You could do something like this if you made it symmetrical with some kind of polyptych on the doors.

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# ¿ Nov 23, 2023 02:49

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 15:10

bennyfactor: Nov 21, 2008

Hutla posted:

Make a sketch on graph paper with measurements and everything that can�t change. We love fooling around with that kind of thing.

Okay, please do not make me a Doom / Grover kitchen, but here are the measurements. The plumbing is more or less centered under the windows on the west (bottom) wall. We would like a double bowl sink, and have a normal width conventional range already (free from some friends that are remodeling their already much nicer kitchen into something high-end).

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# ¿ Nov 23, 2023 19:52

bennyfactor: Nov 21, 2008

Hutla posted:

Do you have a gas line or anything else that can't be moved? A plug for the fridge? Do you want just a kitchen or a table in there or a breakfast bar? An island or peninsula? What kind of cooking do you do- heat and eat or more involved? What would you ideally be doing in the kitchen? A better kitchen is really subjective and my ideal kitchen is probably much different from yours.

So, tell us what you want to do in there that you couldn't before.

There is a surface-mount 240v receptacle for the oven on the floor on the north (left) wall near where the 103" measurement is. I figured that if the oven needs to be moved this would not be a terribly difficult thing to change especially as the kitchen is over an unfinished basement and it's not an in-wall outlet. The fridge is on the East (top) wall, which seems like a decent place for it, but it could certainly be moved. My wife does a lot of from-scratch cooking (or did before she moved in) and I used to bake in a previous apartment when I was single. What I would like is a lot of usable countertop space to prep food / make bread.

We had been working with one lower-than-normal countertop across a single wall, a sink with no disposal, and no functional drawers or cupboards. The room also has one large window (over sink), three doorways, and a weird corner with a bump-out concealing a chimney for a franklin/coal stove.

Now that we’ve removed the bad countertop/bank of unusable drawers, we’d like to maximize the storage and functionality of the room. We have a generous collection of dishes, cooking implements and spices/pantry goods, all of which we would like to keep in the kitchen. No pot filler or anything like that. We would be amenable to a small amount of open shelving for display items, but not for real storage. We currently have a metro rack with a hanging bar and S hooks for many of our daily-use utensils, and we’d be interesting in some amount of that kind of reachable storage. We’d like to have a decent amount of prep space. We’ve already chosen the sink that we would like. We currently have a dishwasher in our laundry room, but we’d prefer to install one in the kitchen (even if it’s an 18-inch). If we could get a kitchen island that didn’t impede walking (we have to walk through the kitchen to get to the back porch/laundry and back bedroom), we’d like it to provide an additional workspace/shallow storage (a la Husky toolbox, but for cooking).

Overall, we’re interested in a highly functional kitchen that maintains elements of the era when our home was built (1920).

# ¿ Nov 24, 2023 21:39

bennyfactor: Nov 21, 2008

hypnophant posted:

Here's what I came up with using ikea's tool (https://kitchen.planner.ikea.com/us/en/planner/?startFromScratch=true):

everything is standard size, 24" depth cabinets, with a 30" range on the left, double bowl sink and dishwasher, and a counter depth ikea fridge at the top right, but you would have enough room to put a french door fridge if you want one. Two large base cabinets here give you a lot of storage space and counter space - i used ikea's 36" double drawer cabinets since door cabinets aren't great ergonomically or for organization, but this is personal preference. Then I used pullout corner cabinets on both sides of the sink/dishwasher and another drawer/shelf unit next to the range. I think you'd be extremely lucky to find pullout corner cabinets at restore; imo it would be worth paying for ikea units here, but if you're going with secondhand for everything else you might end up DIYing or paying for custom work to fit them in. I didn't add any top storage but you could put a few upper cabinets above the range; personally i'd just have a wall-mounted range hood. Instead, put a pegboard here and opposite for your batterie de cuisine.

Another layout, same appliances. I don't like this one as much since i think the fridge will block too much light from the big window, but if you can't find/don't want to pay for pullout cabinets, this one will give you nearly as much storage space without them. It also makes it a bit more useful to fit in upper cabinets along the right wall on either side of the window.

Neither of these layouts do anything with the top right corner space. I think it's a terrible place for the fridge; you want to keep the major appliances fairly close to one another, and 15 feet is too far away. If you want to make it useful, you could fit a washer/dryer in there, either by stacking them or using 24" units side by side. You could also look for a free-standing antique hutch, china cabinet, or pantry, which would be a nice traditional-home touch. or just add a small desk, cafe table, chest freezer, or some plants.

I very much appreciate this. I also used the ikea kitchen thing to make the floorplan, there are just so many options it's overwhelming to start with a blank slate. Only one issue with your suggestions, though: it looks like somehow either my drawing or your drawing turned the doorway to the dining room (right side, south wall) into a window. So, probably can't put a sink there. That is also part of the problem I have for imagining the space: every wall except the wall with the big window and the sink plumbing has a door/doorway in it, and the door is part of the main trafficway of the house.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2023 22:01

bennyfactor: Nov 21, 2008

hypnophant posted:

I did misread that, makes it a bit trickier. Maybe something like this would work for you:

It's harder to fit in storage space in this layout so the fridge and pantry go back in the upper corner. A free-standing island or cart nearby gives you someplace to pull food to and give some extra counter space for when you need it, and it shouldn't get in the way of traffic. The work triangle isn't ideal but you avoid having too much back and forth, which should keep it somewhat efficient. This is basically the only layout I'd be happy with in this kitchen - you can tweak the dimensions on some things, but I wouldn't put the range anywhere else in the room, and there's no space for the fridge on the west wall because of the window.

Some other notes:
I've drawn this with an OTR microwave but you could use an undercabinet hood instead, which would give you a little extra space. Keep the microwave underneath the island instead of out on the counter. There should be enough room for a 30" or 36" range, the most common sizes, but a 30" would fit better so hopefully that's what you're getting. I also included a 36" sink and 24" dishwasher, but you might be ok with a 30" sink and 18" dishwasher, which would get you some storage space back. A 24" sink is too cramped IMO.

Thanks! This is a useful starting point. And very much agreed on the 24 inch sink being too cramped, that what the kitchen has/had in it and it might as well be a bathroom lav honestly.

# ¿ Nov 26, 2023 04:58

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