Designing Your New Kitchen: Intro / Sample Plans

The guidelines in this section show you how to develop a new floor plan and how to tie your design together.

The Shopping Guide helps you select new products and materials, and down-to-earth information on costs, schedules, and contracts helps you complete your plans.

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Efficient work and storage areas have been de signed for a kitchen that must accommodate both a family and cooking students. Here, a central is land with an overhanging block top allows people to pull up to the focus of activity. Behind the cook, a sink, built-in ovens, and refrigerator/freezer are within a few steps. Thus, the basic floor plan puts a compact kitchen core within a larger layout.

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Alter looking at other kitchens and establishing what style you'd like in your own, you'll want to get down to the details of design. First you should take a close look at your Existing Plan. It may be a square, rectangle, corridor, or some other odd shape. It may abut other spaces, portions of which could be annexed, or it may be that these spaces are already too small for their purposes. You'll want to decide how much total space you are willing to consider co-opting to create your new kitchen.

You may find that during the initial stages of design, it is difficult to see your kitchen in new ways. However, you want to avoid approaching your design in a timid and hesitant way, making only slight modifications on what already exists. To counteract this tendency, spend some time creating layouts that include anything and everything you would like in your ideal kitchen, regard less of cost. If you're on a limited budget, this may sound like a waste of time, but it really isn't. Not only is this exercise fun, but it also fires your imagination, and imaginative ideas are particularly important when you're on a budget. Further, you should be aware of a few facts about your plumbing and wiring, which can sometimes be crucial factors in the design and construction of a new kitchen.

Plumbing. You can completely update and refurbish your kitchen without relocating a single wire or pipe, but if you want to rearrange the whole room, you may have to tear into walls and floors to get at these systems.

Nevertheless, you should know that you can move your sink a few inches to the right or left of its present position by stretching the flexible supply lines. Using your present supply lines, you can also add a second sink-for salad making or bar use-with its own shutoff valve. If you want to move the sink more than a few inches, you will need to extend the supply and drain lines, maintaining the code-required slope to the waste stack. If you have a bathroom above the kitchen or behind a wall, you may be able to tap into its supply and drain lines. In most situations you can move plumbing fixtures up to 6 feet from the existing vent lines without having to install all new plumbing lines, and the expense of relocating or installing new ones may be more dependent on whether or not you have easy access to these lines than on the distance you move the fixtures and appliances.

Gas and Wiring. You can also move a gas appliance a few feet to the left or right by lengthening the flexible tube from the gas valve. However, this valve must re main easy to reach in case of emergency, and local codes may specify the maximum distance you can move an appliance away from it. Electrical appliances can be moved anywhere as long as you have the necessary wiring in the new spot. The only limiting factor might be the placement of the hood and vent system over the proposed range or cooktop location. If you can run the ducts across a wall and out, directly out, or down and out, you have many options. If you have to run them upward through a second floor, you will need more extensive work.

Heating and Cooling. Moving your heating and cooling units may be simple, depending on the system. A radiator or baseboard heater can be relocated easily and the connections changed from beneath the kitchen floor. Forced air can be redirected by adding a new duct within a stud wall. Individual heaters can be added anywhere you have the electrical capacity.

If you are uncertain about some changes because of cost, try to create some options for yourself. You can usually make an educated guess about which of any possible alterations cost the most. Try to come up with at least two alternative plans: one that includes all the changes you want and another less expensive or less complicated choice. If you just don't know, go ahead with your plans, placing fixtures and appliances where you want them, and then check with a professional about costs.

Ordering Your Ideas

As you start tapping into your creative abilities, you may be flooded with so many ideas that it is difficult to settle them down into some sort of order. However, despite the fact that designing is not a straight, step-by-step process, it does have inherent logic. Kitchen design is best approached by focusing on the activities that occur in this room, deciding where you would like each of them to take place, and how you would like them to relate to each other. Then you can plan the specific appliances, counters, and storage spaces you'll need for each and tie them together into a functional layout.

When you're satisfied with a layout, you can draw elevation sketches of each wall and carefully plot out the types of cabinets, drawers, and shelves that you will need to create the efficiency you want. Only when you've established the location and function of your storage units should you focus on the finish treatments that will tie your design together. The balance of this section is organized around these procedures.

When you begin sketching your plans, try including new elements like a clerestory over cabinets, a greenhouse window, open shelves, or a skylight as shown in the kitchen below.

Sample Plans

Below, you will find floor plans of three different types of kitchens. For each kitchen there are three plans-the Existing Plan and two alternatives. One alternate entails relatively minor structural changes and the other more substantial ones. Note that no matter what shape or size your kitchen is, or how major or minor the remodeling, you can affect dramatic changes. Start your design process by using these sample plans to see what can be done in any kitchen space and to help you see the possibilities for your own kitchen. Then move on to develop your own layouts, following the guidelines in the remainder of the section.

SAMPLE PLAN 1

Existing Plan

The major problems in this rectangular kitchen include limited and inconvenient work areas and storage space, inadequate lighting, major traffic jams at the northeast corner, and an eating area that feels disconnected from the rest of the room. Plan A entails very few structural changes and yet the entire kitchen is altered by creating efficient storage and work spaces. Plan B requires relatively simple structural alterations to completely change the room's traffic pattern and to create a much larger work area. Both plans include new lighting and changes in the eating area. As new layouts are planned, ideas for new finish treatments emerge as well, and a new, cheery kitchen begins to take shape.

Plan A: Minor Structural Changes

1. Vent and fan added above range; roll-out shelves to left.

2. New upper and lower cabinets to right of range.

3. New side-by-side refrigerator/freezer; storage above.

4. Floor-to-ceiling. 12” open shelves.

5. Open shelves above wide, lower drawers for linens.

6. Table folds up to enclose open, upper shelves.

7. Track spot lights vastly improve the room's lighting.

8. Upholstered bench with lift-up top for storage.

9. Doorway to dining room is moved to make room for counter.

10. Outside door is replaced by a greenhouse window and desk.

11. New glass-fronted upper cabinet.

12. Turnaround shelf in base cabinet.

Plan B: Moderate Structural Changes

1. Cooktop centered in all-new cabinet wall.

2. Entry from hall closed off; new corner units installed.

3. Install wall oven and microwave.

4. Add freezer with enclosed cabinet above.

5. Built-in bar with shallow shelves for glass above.

6. Create new pocket doorway from living room.

7. Install buffet counter, close off doorway from dining room, and open wall for pass-through.

8. I old door with French doors to patio and garden.

9. Movable chopping cart with knife storage and shelves.

10. Open, upper shelving; tiled counter over dish washer.

11. New, extra-large sink.

12. New lighting recessed under diffuser panel.

SAMPLE PLAN 2

Existing Plan

The shape of a kitchen may be determined by its surrounding spaces. In this case the utility room creates some cumbersome problems. The refrigerator is isolated against the utility room's end wall and the side wall is virtually useless. Although the eating area has good, natural light, the table floats in the space and the whole kitchen lacks a sense of unity and integration. Plan A annexes part of the space from the utility room, softening the kitchen's sharp lines, and includes a window seat by the corner windows. Plan B entails stripping the kitchen and utility rooms bare and completely reversing the areas in which major activities occur.

Plan A: Minor Structural Changes

1. New stove with fan, vent, and light; drawers below.

2. New floor tiles laid on the diagonal.

3. Utility wall rebuilt to house new refrigerator; cabinet above, corner desk and broom closet added.

4. Built-in shelves above telephone/work desk.

5. Light soffit with recessed spots.

6. Washer and dryer in same location as before.

7. Corner window storage seat with cushioned seats and back.

8. Counter extended to provide more surface and storage.

9. New upper cabinets.

10. Dishwasher added.

11. Track lights to improve task lighting.

12. Turnaround shelf in corner of base cabinet.

Plan B: Major Structural Alterations

1. Built-in upholstered bench in new eating area.

2. Pass-through tiled storage counter; recessed spotlights above.

3. Relocate washer and dryer and enclose with bi-f old doors.

4. Tear out utility room and install support beam.

5. Relocate hot water heater; install side-by-side refrigerator and narrow cabinet.

6. New doorway by refrigerator landing.

7. Move all work surfaces to old eating area.

8. New track lighting for working/eating; spots over serving.

9. Two-sided cabinet hangs from beam behind range.

SAMPLE PLAN 3

Existing Plan

This corridor kitchen is the one shown Section One. Even with a space as limited as this, the possibilities are extensive. Plan A requires no structural changes. Instead, attention is focused on restructuring all work surfaces and storage spaces to create an efficient space for two active cooks without sacrificing the eating area. Plan B includes moving one wall to recess the refrigerator. By running the counter all the way around the end wall, a substantial amount of additional storage space is gained. To develop a floor plan such as the ones shown here, you can follow some simple procedures, which are outlined below. Plan A is used as an example to illustrate this design process.

Plan A: No Structural Changes

1. Increase counter space to 18” wide-enough to accommodate a drainboard with deeper sink.

2. Install track lighting.

3. Widen counter to 24” and tile for pot landing.

4. Move refrigerator to create long baking center.

5. Remove old hutch and replace round table.

6. Remove unused counter and install refrigerator.

7. Install new upper cabinets all around kitchen and position hinges for convenience, particularly above dishwasher.

Plan B: Minor Structural Changes

1. Replace half-walls near dining room with full walls and add doors to create privacy.

2. Increase counter space to 24” and tile.

3. Install new freestanding range with self-cleaning oven below, microwave above.

4. Counter angled to create easier access to new, recessed refrigerator.

5. Double-door refrigerator/freezer recessed into pan try; area to eliminate conflict with open dishwasher.

6. Table-height counter installed on end wall with track lights above.

7. Counter turns corner with ample storage cabinets below. Turnaround shelf in corner.

8. New, double sink replaces old one.

9. Counter width expanded for additional work space.

10. Recessed spots added to improve task lighting.