Our Kitchen Floor Plan – A Few More Ideas

I recently posted a potential floor plan for our new kitchen — one that Dave and I had dreamed up after quite a bit of time — and you all smashed it to smithereens!!

Don’t worry, I wasn’t offended, but I was surprised at how much advice you had!

Yes, I received a few rude emails, but for the most part, all of the advice was really helpful… and it definitely gave us a ton of new ideas to think about — so thanks!

At first, I was completely overwhelmed with all the different tips, suggestions, and ideas in the comments, on Facebook, and in my Inbox; but over the past week, I’ve had a chance to process everything and think about a few different ways to rearrange things. I also met with an engineer friend of mine (with great decorating tastes), and the cabinet people come out to properly measure our space and give me even more ideas!

After all of that, I came up with a new plan.

It’s still not 100% official (as in, we haven’t ordered the cabinets or appliances yet) but I think this one is a bit closer to what our new kitchen will look like.

So here is our “current kitchen” floor plan once more…

Here is the first “new” floor plan I proposed last week…

And here is another “new” floor plan. Again, this is NOT 100% set in stone, we’re still hashing out ideas {you can click the image to enlarge it}

 

This floor plan definitely has some aspects that are better (like appliances being closer together,  a large pantry area, two sinks, and even more counter tops). But I’m still not sure about having the cooktop on the island. I really like using my island for large baking projects, so I like having it nice and open… but since the island will be almost twice the size of our current island, I think it will be fine. Plus, the kitchen does seem to “flow” better this way.

In my first “new kitchen” design, I realized that everything wasn’t completely to scale {like the table was drawn much larger than our actual table and one of the walls got pushed back about 2 feet} so hopefully my second attempt is a little more accurate — although still not “professional quality”.

Also, keep in mind that looking at a drawing is not the same as being in our actual kitchen… so if something seems a little off, just trust me 🙂

Oh, and here are two computerized drawings from the company who came to measure our cabinets. There are still lots of tweaks and changes to make… but at least they are more professional. {These drawings are “flipped” 180* from the drawings I have above}

I think she forgot to draw the main sink… but in case you’re wondering, we are still planning to have a sink under the window

What do you think?

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And, as you can probably imagine, I got a TON of questions /comments after I posted my first floor plan idea. I answered some of them in the comment section, and a few more in emails, but I figure I should just address a bunch of them in this post as well.

1. What program did you use to create the floor plan?

I used FloorPlanner.com. It worked well, but defintiely wasn’t “fool-proof”. I had a difficult time saving my drawings, and you can only create 2  floor plans before you have to upgrade to the paid version.

2. Where are you purchasing your ______ from? {floors, cabinets, appliances, counters, etc.}

Honestly, we don’t know yet. We did already order our flooring from Creation Woodworks (where we got our other reclaimed barnwood from). I also met with a cabinet person earlier this week… but haven’t ordered anything yet.

We will be looking for appliances from scratch and dent stores first to see if we can find a deal… otherwise, we’ll just wait for a sale and purchase them new.

We have local plumbers/electricians that we work with and my dad can pretty much do anything we want him to (thanks dad!) but that’s as far as we’ve gotten.

I will continue to share more information about where we purchase our supplies… but for now, I don’t even know the answer to those questions!

3. Why are you putting in a ________  appliance {double oven, farm sink, etc.}

Everyone seems to be very concerned about what appliances we are and are not putting in our kitchen. And while I do appreciate all your advice, we have been thinking about this for some time and are pretty sure we know what we want 🙂

We want a double ELECTRIC oven (I hate my current gas oven) because electric ovens are more accurate and much better for baking. However, I would prefer a gas cooktop — which is why we’re getting a separate cooktop verses a complete all-in-one range.

Also, we will not be getting a side-by-side fridge (even though that’s what the picture looks like). We’re actually planning to purchase a counter-depth French Door refrigerator with a pull out freezer on the bottom. We don’t keep much in our freezer upstairs since we find food stays fresher in our deep freezer downstairs, so the smaller size freezer won’t bother us.

We are also pretty positive that we want a single apron-front farm sink (not a divided sink). One reader did mention that it can be a pain if someone needs to empty a glass while the sink is full — and that’s a good point! We are thinking of putting another small sink in the kitchen to compensate for that.

Also, I’ve mentioned before how much I hate small appliances sitting out in the open, so we do not want our microwave over the oven or cooktop 🙂 We’re planning to put it in a lower cabinet (under the island) or in a pantry somewhere.

And yes, I realize many of you might think these choices are not the best — but I can assure you that we’ve put A LOT of time and thought into our kitchen renovation and we feel like these choices will work well for how we use our kitchen.

4. Is that a load-bearing wall you’re taking out between the kitchen and dinning room?

Yes. It’s holding up half the upstairs and the roof 🙂

My dad is working with an engineer to design a huge (HUGE) beam that will be put in place of the wall and we will also end up dropping our ceiling from 9′ to 8’to hide that beam… but I’d rather have a lower ceiling than a dividing wall.

And since that wall is holding SO much weight, we will actually need a post that comes down in the middle of our kitchen, but we’re planning to tie it in with the island so it won’t look completely random. Again, it’s better than having a wall… and when you’re renovating a 120+ year old home, you can’t always get everything you want!

5. Aren’t you going to hire professionals? 

As I mentioned before, my dad can pretty much do anything! He will be doing a lot of the work, but we will hire a professional plumber, possibly a professional electrician, and we’ll have all the drywall hung professionally too.

I’m working with a cabinet company to help us design the final layout of the kitchen and order the cabinets but my dad will install them… and Dave and I plan to do as much as we can too!

6. You should not do ______ because of resale value.

This is a valid statement and normally I would agree with it… but one thing Dave and I decided back when we first purchased this house was that we would NOT do something just for resale value.

We plan to live in this house for a long time so we want to renovate it for US… not potential buyers several years down the road. We also figure that if we were willing to buy this house with horrendous wallpaper, pastel carpets, rusty water pipes, and mirrored doors in every room, someone else will be willing to buy it from us and renovate it to their own taste.

OK, so I think that answers many of the main questions for now — feel free to weigh-in any advice you have for my “new” floor plan! 

Oh, and in case you’re wondering… demolition started this past weekend!