I've made many delicious dishes for many hungry faces in many different places and settings; my parents' kitchen, college dormitory room instant hot-pot, friends' kitchens, tiny city apartment rental kitchens, sprawling old house kitchen, hotel room kitchenette, grilling outdoors, and (my personal favorite) a picnic table by an open campfire. I've had many nagging "If this were my kitchen..." thoughts, and have taken many mental notes for the day I could plan, design, and cook in my very own customized kitchen.
That day is here! This post is a mixed bag of all those mental notes.
Happiness is a clean, well appointed, fully stocked kitchen. Along with the most precious of all ingredients -- family and time. I love to spend quality time in the kitchen creating decadent plates of mouth watering goodness for my most favorite people in the whole wide world. Only thing better is cooking together. Now to design the perfect kitchen space specially customized for 5-foot-tall me, that can also accommodate other normal sized humans for a cooking party.
Let's start with the layout. This is an open floor plan that includes the kitchen island area, dining area, and wet bar.
Here are the latest kitchen concept renderings. All drawings are done by Steve using Chief Architect. (He's so cool ❤️!) A lot of the items present (colors, textures, appliance height and location) are still in 'place holder' mode until we finalize all our decisions.
The kitchen space will be L-shaped without a corner. Hear me out. Typically the L-shaped kitchen aims to maximize the use of the dreaded corner space. I have yet to see a good kitchen corner design. Because the corner counter space is deep, it is difficult to reach so there's always access issues. The corner cabinet door clearance and swing direction usually interferes with anything opposing it - a drawer, the other cabinet, an appliance door, even the wall. You must choose which cabinet to open, one or the other, because it can't be both at the same time. That drives me crazy! There will be no corner cabinets in my kitchen. It was donated to the storage room behind it.
The kitchen sink is centered against the west wall and has a large picture window backsplash behind it. That west leg of the L-shape will be the focal point of the room. The north leg of the L-shape will be dedicated to floor-to-ceiling modern cabinetry. One of the doors within the cabinetry will be reveal the access for the hidden walk-in cooler. Cool, right?
I have this idea for a rolling spice rack that blends into the cabinetry. It will be a tall display rack for my herbs and spices on wheels that pulls out of the cabinet and rolls over to the island when I need it. The lower portion will have bottles of different oils and magic potions for cooking. When I'm done cooking, I can tuck it right back into the cabinets.
Here are other ideas for the kitchen:
The placement options for the refrigerator, the double oven, and the microwave is still to be determined.
The coffee maker will be placed in the wet bar area, centralizing the wet bar as the bartender's beverage station.
Appliances should be placed at the proper location, height, and enough landing area around it.
No corner cabinets! (said like mommy dearest) I want to avoid any possible interference of appliances issues.
I want to create a smooth flow of traffic for the people utilizing the kitchen. It's a massive kitchen (see the dimensions chart below). Nobody should have to move over a second so someone else can reach something.
ROOM DIMENSIONS CHART
| Length | Width | total |
|---|---|---|---|
kitchen + dining area | 23.5' | 19' | 446.5 sq. ft. |
walk-in cooler | 7' | 6' | 42 sq. ft. |
wet bar | 11.5' | 6.5' | 74.5 sq. ft. |
TOTAL | | | 536 sq. ft. |
| | | |
island | 4' | 8' | 32 sq. ft. |
We've been trying to consume as much modern kitchen design inspiration from as many different resources as possible. There are plenty of home improvement and renovation shows to choose from. I love Fixer-Upper, Grand Designs, and Building Off the Grid. I also indulge in other resources like Houzz, Dwell, Architectural Digest, Apartment Therapy. I just stumbled onto the website Scavolini kitchen designs, very cool stuff there.
The look we're going for is luxury + modern (we think). Long sleek lines, clutter free minimalism, natural and organic materials.
Pinterest is the easiest way to show and share ideas, hone in on style and design directions. Wanna see my kitchen board? Click the image below.
Coordinating all the design ideas and desires is no easy task. I think a bullet-point list (vs. a numbered list) might be easier. Here we go...
List of WANTS, NEEDS, AND MUST HAVE'S for our MODERN KITCHEN
Fully automated and high tech
Island based induction cooktop
Adjustable height kitchen island counter top
Seating for 2-4 at the island
Contemporary contrasting cabinetry
Walk-in cooler thats hidden behind a cabinet door.
Hide-away rolling spice rack.
Large window backsplash behind sink
Oversized sink system with touchless faucet
Super quiet dishwasher
Matching double oven (convection) and microwave
Doggie self-watering & food station
Small 'homing garages' for the Roomba and Braava
Paper towel hide-away
Instant pot filler
Message desk area
Hidden electrical outlets
Organic materials, textures, and colors (stone, wood, steel)
List of WANTS, NEEDS, AND MUST HAVE'S for the WET BAR AREA
Coffee maker
Wine & beer refrigerator
Cold filtered water tap
Bucket of ice (from the ice machine downstairs)
Small bar sink with touchless faucet
Induction Cooktop
I want an induction cook top centered in the kitchen island that's invisible. Yup, that's right. It will look like we forgot to buy one. It's called InvisaCook.
The Kitchen Sink
I have a thing about kitchen sinks. I can't don't won't prep or cook unless the kitchen sink is empty. Call it clear-kitchen-sink-claustrophobia. (I just found this word chufxishophobia, it's close but no cigar.) I require unobstructed sink space to wash my hands, vegetables, anything really. And I'm a very territorial cook. Try to wash your hands at the kitchen sink while I'm cooking and you'll be diverted elsewhere. Good thing there will be a small sink at the wet bar.
Kitchen sinks are typically too small. Sometimes there's a divider in the middle, further obstructing the open sink space. I'm convinced the divider is put there just to shatter drinking glasses and chip large serving dishes.
This is the home-chef work station I want. It's a Kraus Kore 33" workstation under-mounted to avoid the crumb catching corners.
Touchless Kitchen Faucet
All delicious recipes begin with clean hands in a clean kitchen. While I'm prepping food, I tend to rinse my sticky or oily or otherwise icky hands very often. We all know what happens when you touch the faucet with icky hands... ya get an icky handle.
Since the pandemic hit, it's become a world wide priority to wash your hands after being outside in public spaces and avoid directly touching things like doorknobs and faucets. The touchless feature is particularly welcome in public bathrooms. If the stores can have it, then I want it too. If it's possible, I'd like all the sinks in bahay namin : : our house to be touchless.
The faucet spout needs to be tall enough to accommodate washing oversized things like big soup pots, massive mixing bowls, sheet pans, glass vases.
I'd like the faucet to have a smooth and quiet stream of water when its in use. I like this kitchen sink organizing strip here. It's well appointed and discreet.
Adjustable Height Kitchen Island
Now for a lesson in kitchen ergonomics. Kitchen counters come in a standard 36" height. I am not a standard size. I'm 5 feet tall. Go on with your short jokes, they all go over my head. LOL!
The kitchen needs to accommodate a petite Pilipinita and a big Steve. The kitchen area will not have any upper cabinets (for the height deficient). The entire kitchen island countertop should be adjustable at the push of a button. Or better yet, Alexa enabled.
"Alexa, lower the kitchen island for me."
Oddly enough, I found the above video of the adjustable height kitchen island from a website called Tall.Life. It appears that both our camps suffer in equal but opposite directions.
The wet bar area will have some upper cabinetry, maybe open floating shelving too. The bar will be fully stocked with top shelf stuff of course, and a back lit display for fancy glassware. Perfect for the tall and handsome bartender (and his thirsty wife).
That was a very long and thorough post! If you're still reading, I so appreciate you! This kitchen is going to be amazing. However there's still a ton of questions, tweaks, and detailed decisions yet to address. For the next post (Oh Kitchen. My Kitchen! Part 2) I'd like to address the following:
Do we need to have a range hood over the induction cook top?
Should I have a single induction cook burner by the window on the same side as the sink?
Where should the doggie self watering & food station go?
The Roomba and Braava "garage" homing/charging station, where should they go?
What are the final finishes for the cabinetry? Countertops? Flooring?
What is the final kitchen soffit design? Dining area soffit?
Now go cook something yummy for someone you love ❤️
Wanna read more? Click here: Architecture = Function + Design
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