Canadianguy and I are designing / trying to design a new kitchen for our currently being renovated home. We only want to do this once. Anyone undergone this with any regrets or wishes? Gee, we should have put the dishwasher there. Boy, ordering this part here was a mistake! Keeping in mind our ktichen is in the middle of our house, with the entire house being one room essentially. From the front door, you can see right out the back window (about 950 sq ft.). So the way the kitchen looks is relatively important in the whole scheme of things.
I cook a LOT so these are the things I would do;
Stainless steel sink
My last 2 kitchens had porcelain sinks which either chipped or scratched from the very heavy copper bottomed cookware I use.
Gas stove
Again my last 2 kitchens had electric stoves and the burners took forever to heat up, never got hot enough, and stayed hot far too long after they were turned off.
Separate double oven
If you ever plan on having a large dinner party this is a real advantage
HUGE refrigerator and freezer
It could just be me, but no matter how big mine were I always wanted more space
Magnetic knife rack
Putting knives in drawers is the quickest way to bang up the blades and ruin them. A good knife is not cheap, take care of it.
TV with cable/satellite in the kitchen suspended from ceiling (out of the way but still visible)
Just because I’m sick and tired of missing every big play on Sunday because I’m in the damn kitchen
The best advice however is probably to think long and hard about how you’re going to use your kitchen before you make any decisions. If you don’t cook a lot or mainly nuke stuff that’s going to have a big impact on what will meet your needs and your budget.
I don’t know how many levels your house is, but we had a dumbwaiter put it, and it’s wonderful. Also, if you’re forking out for a new kitchen, get a dishwasher! We got a 2 drawer one, which is great.
Try to make sure the cupboards are accessible, and that there is enough storage. We have a combined stove/oven, and the stove is gas while the oven is electric. I think this is the way to go. I love a gas stove!
It’s great having a double sink, too. And lots of bench space! It’s handy to have a vertical slot for chopping boards too under the bench, too.
Actually, now that I think about it, we have pretty cool cupboard in our kitchen. It is an appliances cupboard. There is a bank of plugs at the back, into which the most used appliances are plugged. The door of the cupboard pulls down to make a bench. A drawer under the cupboard pulls out and an insert folds up to support the cupboard door/bench. To use an appliance, we just slide it out onto the bench made from the door. We use our mixer, can opener, electric knife, food processor, blender etc. this way.
It’s great! We invented this concept (as far as we know), and the cabinet maker told us he is going to use it from now on.
What I thought: Hey, while everything’s empty it’ll be so much easier to lay the floor, no cutting and trimming around everything and no messed up edges will be visible. Wow, this was the easiest flooring job ever and it looks great!
What I thought later: I bet the Hulk is strong enough to move cupboards and appliances into place without scratching and gouging a new floor up, but I’m not. :smack:
I don’t know if your area has the same aversion to gas stoves that mine does, but get a as stove. They are much easier to cook on.
If you get a stainless steel sink (and I recommend it) get at least 18 gauge steel. They are quieter than the less expensive 20 gauge sinks. We were much happier after this seemingly trivial upgrade.
Include a dishwasher. My wife and I remodeled our kitchen about a year before leaving our last house. I wished we had done so sooner, just for the dishwasher.
Sliding pantries. These are hard to explain if you haven’t seen them, but an (approx) 5-inch wide, as-tall-as-the-counter section of the cabinets slides out. Typically, these are used to hold cans that would otherwise be stored in front of each other. It is a nice and efficient use of space.
We just finished our huge remodel, which included the kitchen. I think we did most of it right - if I were to do one thing over I’d have the tile floor, which we didn’t change, regrouted. It looks kinda nasty. But we can do that in the future.
The one thing we’re soooo happy with - all these family friends had cabinets custom-built and such, very expensive. We ended up getting Kraft-Maid from Lowe’s and they’re amazingly great. Granted, we got their high-end models. But they’re fantastic - they’re sort of modular and sort of custom, they come from a factory in Ohio where little Amish ladies make your cabinets, and they cost a fraction of what custom cabinets do. Those fold-out pantry cabinets are great - we also like the slide-out drawers in the cabinets, the lazy susans in the corners, the drawers that close themselves and open all the way out, etc. They’re phenomenally wonderful. We seriously couldn’t be happier with them. My mom and I even took our cabinet guy a drawing we’d made of the wine storage we really wanted, and they came up wi th exactly what we asked for out of stock pieces. The cabinets were probably our single largest investment in a huge remodeling deal (we added more square footage than some people have houses), but they were totally worth it, and a real deal for what we got.
Additionally, we were considering Corian or some other manufactured solid surface, and then we realized that real granite wasn’t really more expensive. It’s gorgeous. But! Make sure you talk to the coutner top people and find out exactly what’s included in the price you’re quoted - our kitchen has a high bar on the other side of the sink, and we found out only as the granite was going in that anything needed to brace the bar was not included in the installation - we had to manage that ourselves! Man, were we ever shocked. It came out awesome, though. Also, they didn’t think it was their job to screw the dishwasher in. So for two months it would fall out when we loaded it, until my cousin said “That’s stupid” and fixed it beautifully.
We did a tile backsplash and tiled the high bar under the countertop - we got all the tile from Lowe’s. In-stock. It looks great. They’ve got a ton of cool stuff now that they never used to have, and when we found out we were a box short, we just went and got more - no ordering, no real worrying about breaking an expensive tile.
If you’d like to see pictures of any of this, e-mail me and let me know - we’re super-happy with most of what we did (er, now that the dishwasher is fixed.) Or if enough people really want to see it, I guess I could find a place online to post some pictures.
Research options. If you have cable, watch some of the remodeling shows. Pick up remodeling magazines so you will see all of the stuff that’s out there.
Play with floor design. Get some graph paper, mark the room dimensions, and then move blocks that symbolize cabinets and applicances around in the space, paying heed to a good work triangle (stove, fridge, sink). One note is to avoid moving water supply/drain, gas supply, and vent lines any more than needed, as it can get pricey.
No matter what counter you choose (other than concrete or granite), consider a Surface Saver. A tempered glass rectangle next to the stove is a flush built-in cutting board and spot for a hot pot that protects the counter from burns.
Do flooring first while the room is empty. You can flop a floor in half the time it takes to cut around everything. Protect it with 1/4" lauan or rosin paper while doing the rest of the work.
Add electric. If the house is older, it is underserved. Current code requires two (2) 20 ampere small appliance branch circuits, both with GFCI protection. I ask people to think about what they will put where once the room layout is agreed upon, and would prefer to add two or three additional receptacles while everything is in rough than have the customer say, “I wish I had” after it’s all done.
Lighting. Typical kitchen lighting sux. One fixture on the ceiling, and the light from the range hood all but guarantees you’re working in your own shadow. Rough in high hats, track, or undercabinet task lighting so kitchen time is pleasant, not like working in a cave.
Watch the dollars but don’t kill the project. Labor for me to install x is the same if it’s a cheap x or a top of the line x. (Sometimes better stuff is easier to install, but let’s keep it simple) My point is that if you’re paying a professional to perform a task, the labor amount is quasi-fixed, and the upgrades you make in cabinet quality, tile, wallpaper, counter, etc. are what you’ll enjoy when it’s all done.
I’m planning a kitchen renovation at the moment and these are all very interesting suggestions. I’d like to convert my stove and oven to gas, which I prefer to electricity. I’m also removing the dishwasher. I never use it. I think they’re inefficient and very wasteful of water.
Love our kitchen, but wish we had a better range hood. We can’t cook chinese without setting off the fire alarm
A walk in pantry. I cannot reccomend it highly enough.
Being very old, our house came with one.
And all the men on site wanted to remove it to relocate the fridge! It doubles as a cold room, as it’s not heated (great for storing pop, beer, party trays, oversized turkeys etc.), it also has a vegetable bin.
It holds, large bins of pet food, large bottled water bottles, a massive collection of small appliances (the mr’s), two recycling bins, wraps and foils, pastas and cereals, the step stool, vases, all our dry goods, baking supplies, tinned goods. All the plastic wear, pops pans. Giant bag of rice, I could go on forever.All of it easily accessable and easy to see. It even has a small counter area with an outlet for setting up appliances.
Efficiency aside, the ambience of a walk in pantry is really exquisite. You spend so much of your life preparing food it just seems so worth it.
It totally saves the small, oddly configured kitchen, and keeps the meagre countertop space clear.
The other thing I had installed was wooden counter tops. Everyone seemed to think this was the oddest thing anyone had ever proposed. But I persisted and finally found a fellow who made them out of reclaimed wormy maple, about an inch and a half thick. They have been finished with food grade oil and are water resistant.
He was not taken aback at all by the suggestion, did one a few months ago apparently. I can cut and chop anywhere, it has no back splash (which I insisted on) and it looks fabulous, truly. It was a small countertop but wasn’t too expensive. Personally I can’t wait for it to look a little more beat up, it’s quite pristine at the moment. I think it will begin to look it’s best with 10 yrs wear on it.
Drawers not cupboards.
The best advice I received was to use lots of big, deep pan drawers rather than cupboards. You can store the same amount of stuff in the same amount of space but you can pull out the drawer and get at everything. I ended up with drawers full of pots and pans, electrical appliances, bakeware, tupperware and other kitchen equipment. It is just so much easier to get at. All that went in cupboards was crockery and glassware.
Look at what is sitting in the back of your cupboards and you will realise that there is stuff you haven’t used for years because it is so hard to dig out.
Also don’t try to save money on tiles. I chose cheaper tiles for my renovation and the tiler pointed out that the kitchen only had a few square metres of tile and it would not cost much more to buy really flash Italian tiles.
Since you live with them forever he was dead right. A few hundred bucks extra made a terrific difference.
So be careful where you economise. Have a think about what you lose for the money you are saving.
I’ll second the “good range hood” suggestion. We put one in during our kitchen remodel and it’s great. Not only does keep smoke and odors down during cooking, it collects an amazing amount of grease and oil that would otherwise fall about your kitchen (no more gunky cabinet tops). Try and get one that actually vents to the outside rather than relying on a recirculating filter.
I second the suggestions for good lighting and big drawers. Lighting makes SUCH a huge difference. Here’s an experiment you can try at home: watch one of those “room makeover” shows on HGTV or Bravo. Look at the lighting in the “before” and “after” pictures. In almost every one I’ve seen, the “before” has light coming from just one centrally-located fixture, or one ultra-bright lamp. The “after” pictures always have light coming from multiple sources, and it looks SO much better.
The basic plan for our kitchen featured one large, hideously ugly fluorescent “bubble” fixture. I flatly refused to have that in my house. We went with four recessed lights, a pendant-type fixture directly over the island, over- and under-cabinet lights, and a separate fixture over the sink. It sounds like a lot for one small kitchen, but man, it’s sweet.
And in that island, rather than regular shelves, we had them install roll-out shelves, which are basically just big drawers with low sides. I can’t tell you how great it is to be able to use every inch of the shelf, because you don’t have to crawl all the way to the back to get at your pots.
Another thing I would suggest, which I wish we had done and I may have to look into doing: a light in the pantry that comes on automatically when you open the door. In our house, they placed the switch outside the pantry door on the “awkward” (hinge) side, and it’s a nuisance to turn the light on when the door is already open.
I knew I could on the SDMB for helpful suggestions: for those interested (other than we are not converting to gas it’s very expensive here)…here are the ideas so far and what we have tried to incorporate in our drawings: burnt sugar - could you post a or some pictures - especially of that custom idea you had - it sounds great!:
dishwasher
thanks for the tip on the 18 gauge - will definitely get that in a double
pots and pans drawers, as well as spice drawer and large silverware drawer
lighting is still being figured out
have a 10 foot island in the middle which, aside from sink, will be all counter lamintate ( granite/corian is close to $200 per linear foot x 23" wide!).
we have a cold cellar downstairs whihc is definitely very useful
what about plate racks? anyone have them? You know, the plates actually stand on their sides in them? Or is it better to have them just flat? Not the decorative ones ((I like stuff closed in with doors), just the inserts in the cabinet?
Interestingly enough, we have no upper cabinets, just lowers and an island - prices vary from $13,000 cdn to $5,500 cdn! I can’t believe the diferences and we are using the same drawing for everyone!
Since your kitchen is open, I suggest a very very quiet dishwasher. Ours came with the house and is pretty noisy. It’s also canted too high in the front - the basket on the bottom won’t stay out for loading and unloading.
If your washer and dryer are in there, go with quiet for those as well. We have a quieter washer and dryer and it makes a large difference.
I have to second the drawers thing. We did not do that, but I am considering retrofitting a few of my cabinets that way. At my old house, we fixed the black hole of undercounterstorage by using it for long term storage - I bought a large high rack for pots. No room for that in the current house.
We were only “given” a small pantry in the laundry room/airconditionder blower space, so we took the door off of the pantry (the room had a pocket door that would do) and bought a stackable washer and dryer (the room was designed for side-by-side. We put the stackable washer and dryer across from the airconditioner unit (separated by the walkthrough to the garage) and put a shelving unit next to the washer/dryer unit to serve as additional pantry space.
I have to second some of the in-counter holes. My old home had a huge deadspace in the kitchen in one corner - I longed to put a door back there, as well as a hole, to have it serve as a recyclable sorting center and place for the garbage can. Even now, I don’t really have a place for a garbage can - it floats around the kitchen. But I no longer have countertop dead corners anymore, either, so I’m trying to rig unused cabinets or pantry space for convienent recycle bins.
I like that my dishwasher is right next to my sink - rinse and go. I do wish my stove was closer to the sink, but it is only because I grew up in a house like that. More recently I’ve wished I had “safe spots” to the left and right of my stove to place hot pans (I’m stuck with electric). But I don’t have the money or desire to rip out the formica, so I’ll likely get some inexpensive marble or granite slabs to place “permanently” to the left and right of my stove for such needs.
Some family members have gotten granite countertops and back splashes, including matching outlet covers. Ick to me. Look at it before you decide. Others have gotten instant hot water or filtered cold water - useful if you think you need it. I wanted it when I was in the baby-bottle stage, but as we grow away from toddlerhood I don’t need it so much. And my fridge provides in-door water and ice dispensing (something I’ve wanted for a while).
Thanks to those who have suggested magnets for my knives - I’ve got some nice butcher blocks now, but they take up space. And I really need to reduce the number of knives I have. But I don’t want them (well, okay, the nice set, and the sushi knive) on display … Hrm. Maybe in the doors (fling open door, knives come at you … maybe not) or something. 
If you have room for a good wood butcher block (if you don’t do reclaimed wood counter tops as suggested above) do it. There is one in my family that I can probably never hope to claim, but I can dream …
Depends, what is your bug problem like? We always called those “fly catchers”. If you’re going for decorative, though … why not?
bug problem? We don’t have a bug problem here.
I second the thing with the drawers - we have pot-drawers, and our tall cabinets have drawers instead of shelves. It’s great - you do lose some space, but nothing lurks at the back. They obviously only really work at or below eye level, though. The big deep pot-and-pan drawers are great - no pulling out all your pots to get that one in the back! I think there’s a little less space in them tham we used to have with the cupboard style, but we solved that by having more space overall, so we just keep the ones we really use a lot in the pot drawers by the stove. We also love the little dubpoard we got that’s civided into tall vertical spaces for our cookie sheets - now we can use the warming drawer in our oven for something other than storage!
Everybody I know who’s gotten the open plate rack has regretted it, honestly. Especially since many seem to have them right over teh stove - they get all greasy. Plus they’re dust magnets. Our friend who got them says she likes to see her pretty plates, but before she uses them she always has to wash them again.
Oh! I forgot! If you drink much wine at all, get a wine fridge. I know it sounds amazingly pretentious and all, but you’ll be amazed at how much bigger your regular fridge is when it dosen’t have any bottles of wine in it. Plus, often we wouldn’t drink white because we didn’t have any chilled - now we drink a lot of it. Between that and our semi-custom wine storage, it’s our favorite part of the new kitchen.
Seriously, the remodel was hell - hell. It involved pulling down a chimney. But we love it sooo much now, especially when more than one person is in the kitchen - the island with the little sink is so amazingly helpful! Plus with the wine fridge eventually you don’t notice when everybody else is in your way in the kitchen. “A little in the dish, a little in the chef!”