Yesterday I showed you the first stages of my home renovation and kitchen plans. Today I am going to take a step back and show you some of the inspiration I had filed away for my someday-future-kitchen, the pictures and thoughts that led us to the kitchen we built. Why have an open kitchen? What were the non-negotiables in the design? Read on for the scoop!
A kitchen that has long been a favorite. The details are more traditional than I prefer, but I love the drawers, the countertops, and above all, the light.
The Requirements
Besides the basics (functioning dishwasher! a stove with good burners!), here are four things that I knew I wanted in my kitchen.
- No upper cabinets. I am super short (5-foot-nothing) and upper cabinets have always been a strain for me. I wanted a more open feeling to the kitchen, and I was willing to sacrifice upper cabinet storage completely for the ease of lower drawers.
- Lots of windows. This is partly for aesthetic reasons, and also for practicality: I take a lot of photos of food, and good light was a priority.
- As much countertop space as possible! After living with rental kitchens and little corners of countertop, this was the huge luxury I was after: room to spread out! I wanted plenty of open, easy-cleaning surfaces.
- A pantry. Sacrificing upper cabinets meant finding somewhere else to stash food. I really like the idea of a pantry — one consolidated place to store food and small appliances. We were lucky enough to have space for a pantry, one that also did double-duty as a laundry room.
This kitchen is open to the dining space, but is still really beautiful. It doesn't feel too casual. I also really like the colors.
The Open Kitchen - A Hard Decision!
Now to the toughest decision about the kitchen — open to the dining room, or closed off and private? While the open kitchen has become very popular, it is still a controversial choice, and it's not actually one that I made lightly. We do a fair amount of "dressy" dinners (not out of social requirements, just for fun) and I do like to be able to shut a door between the dining room and the messy kitchen.
But after weighing the pros and cons, and looking at my daily habits of cooking, eating, shooting photos, and interacting with my husband and guests, we decided on an open space where I could cook while people stand around and talk, or where my husband could do dishes with plenty of space for people to stay and help. Everyone wants to hang out in the kitchen — why fight that? For everyday living, an open kitchen seemed to be the right decision, and we've already been so glad of this decision.
My biggest concern with the open kitchen was the loss of formality or "dressiness." I really didn't want our big dinners to feel less special, like they were being held in an eat-in kitchen. I want the dining experience to feel cozy and intimate — would that be lost in an open kitchen/dining space?
Inspiration in this came from two sources:
- The "Dressy" Kitchen - Michelle at Remodelista had not yet written her piece on The Formal Kitchen when I was designing mine, but if she had, I would have nodded all the way through. I decided to dress my kitchen up a bit, to make it as pretty as possible, to make it feel like part of the house's style instead of a purely functional kitchen. I hoped that this would help the dining area feel more intimate and tied-in.
- The Sitka & Spruce Kitchen. One of my favorite Seattle restaurants, Sitka & Spruce, has a wonderful open kitchen with the communal dining room table actually running straight into the cooks' prep area. (See photo above.) I remember just being so inspired by this layout, by the coziness of the dining experience. Dining in a kitchen doesn't need to feel cold or informal; it can be a source of great warmth and comfort.
The Pictures!
Last but not least, I share some pictures above that I came back to again and again, with themes like minimalist, sleek cabinets popping up, as well as a certain shade of gray-blue, and white bright countertops. (See more of my inspiration here at Pinterest.)
I could talk on and on about kitchen inspiration, as it was so fun to dream and research just how this space could be. We feel very, very lucky to have been able to make it come to life.
Have you ever renovated a kitchen or built one from scratch? It can be hard and intimidating to even start — there are so many options! Where did you start? What were your non-negotiables, or your design inspirations?
(Images: Open kitchen: Rob Karosis/Kitchens and Baths; Elegant kitchen: CWB Architects; Sitka & Spruce image: Remodeling South Sound; Gallery: 1. Jamie Salomon/Willow Decor 2. Eric Saczuk for Mango Design 3. Beth Bates for Apartment Therapy 4. David Wilkes Builders 5. Courtney & Michael Adamo's kitchen at Design*Sponge, 6. Moraga Residence by J. Weiss Architecture, 7. Laux Interiors, Berlin, 8. Henrybuilt, 9. Leela Cyd Ross for The Kitchn, 10. ChrDAUER Architects)
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I don't have a dining room or an eat-in kitchen or even an open kitchen but when I remodeled my shoebox of a kitchen I also chose to make it as pretty as possible since 1) its the first thing you see when you walk into my apartment;
2) the pass-through window makes it visible from the living/eating room;
3) with so few cabinets and so little counter space why not cram as much luxury in as possible? (e.g. if you need only 10 knobs than getting nice ones from Restoration Hardware isn't going to break the bank, same with a couple square feet of soapstone); and 4) I spend most of my conscious home time in that little bitty room so its nice to make it beautiful.
My non-negotiable was cabinets up to the ceiling. There used to be a gap and it just collected greasy dust and was very hard to clean.
Looking forward to seeing your finished kitchen! We built a new kitchen from the ground up. Bought a repo'd home where the kitchen was just a shell... someone had ripped everything out, no cabinets, no sink, nothing... and the original house did not have a dining room in the floor plan. We converted the attached garage into a kitchen and mudroom and then turned the old kitchen into the dining room.
One of my musts was a large island. I wanted a lot of space to work as well as plenty of room to sit at the counter too. My father in law built all the cabinets and flooring, he jokingly calls my island a continent.
One of my big inspirations was the Kitchen tour you did with Lilian. http://www.thekitchn.com/lilians-sunlit-159185
I loved her kitchen and have been amused to look back on that tour and see the similarities in the two rooms that I didn't do intentionally.
I built a similar kitchen addition (288 sq ft) but included an office wall and peninsula for dining space. Our dining room is right beside the kitchen. My list:
- Clerestory windows on the side. I live in an urban-type environment and my neighbors house is close enough that I want light but not to see what he is doing.
- Lots of room for an office. I ended up w/ a 12' desk that I share with my husband and son.
- Maximum cabinet and counter space. I love appliances and dishes, I just don't want to look at them all the time.
- Real wood cabinets.
The most recent pics of the finished product are here
I'm looking forward to the rest in this series!
Faith,
You and I have the same taste. In fact, I used some of the same inspirational images that you did. We bought a 1970's era house with good bones, but the kitchen was dismal. One of my conditions of buying it was that the kitchen was getting redone asap! The original kitchen had just one window, horrible original appliances, pink tile floors, and wood grained cabinets. And worse, no exhaust meant that the cabinets were sticky from 30+ years of cooking. Here were my must haves:
-No upper cabinets
-Windows, especially overlooking our beautiful 6 acres
-Drawers, no doors
-Lots of work surface
-Big, single bowl sink
-Pantry/mudroom
Because we didn't have that many cabinets, we were able to splurge on inset fronts, and because the square footage is relatively small, we were also able to afford large slate tiles for our floor.
I will say that our very best decision was to get a great contractor. We already knew him from a project on our previous house. He was in demand so we had to wait a year before he could start, but that worked in our favor because we had that long to really plan out what we wanted. He is so good, it only took 6 weeks from beginning to finish!
I don't see how to attach photos to responses, so I will email them to you.
Leigh
I'm following along - this is fascinating.
We designed our kitchen in the era before Pinterest, so I checked out every library book I could and wrote copious notes and made lists of what I wanted to store. Light is very important to me, as we live in a city and at the time, there were trees blocking a lot of light. So we opted for light cabinets and backsplash - our black stove is wonderful and we already owned it, so we bought a black fridge to match (ran out of budget for a stainless steel one we wanted! someday!). I am a serious cook, and the kitchen functions wonderfully for me. I love my kitchen.
Love your pins; a couple are my favorites too.
Looking forward to your kitchen!
Love all the inspiration. I love the islands that double as workspace and a place to eat when it's just the two of you. Right now our kitchen is sort of a galley kitchen, and I make a lot of how-to cooking videos. Makes filming incredibly hard, and having an island would be awesome. Can't wait to see how this all unfolds - how fun!
I designed our kitchen myself 25 years ago, when we built our home and just completed a renovation last year. I choose an open kitchen plan (so glad I did) with a large (6'x4') island. We used the triangle plan for the work space (refrigerator, main sink and stove). I also make a baking area, 2 lazy susans and dish storage area, between the table and dishwasher. My only regret is my pantry is a large reach-in with 3 lower pullout trays, I wish it was a walk-in pantry, where I could store larger appliances. For the renovation, I used Pinterest to collect my ideas.
Michelle makes some valid points regarding the formal kitchen - it's certainly how we use ours.
Our renovation was very much my partner's project, so his requirements were: 2 dishwashers, eye-level oven and microwave, uninterrupted view through the large French doors. At his insistence, a steel joist was added at great expense to avoid a supporting column when we knocked down the dividing wall to the dining room. I was not fussed about it at the time, but he was absolutely right - the uninterrupted view is the best thing about cooking at the island.
I didn't have any non-negotiables, but I was very inspired by Hansen kitchens, in particular, these deep, floor-to-ceiling doorless cupboards:
http://www.hansenkitchen.com/inspiration/kitchen_teak.html
This combination of matte grey stone and honey coloured wood is similar to what we chose:
http://jamiebush.com/residential/venice_contemporary.htm
Pinterest would have been useful.
It was interesting to compare this article, which seems like a real person reflecting on real experience, and the one by Michelle at Remodelista, which seems contrived around product plugs.
I enjoy Apartment Therapy because the posts feel authentic. Too often lifestyle blogs feature an over the top fetishism (Michelle and her marble backsplash) that make women sound obsessed with trivia and contain photos that look like stage sets. Marble countertops and hardwood floors photograph beautifully, but are totally impractical in a working kitchen.
I assume that anyone who puts in marble kitchen countertops uses their kitchen for anything but cooking.
I think marble countertops have a lot of advantages, but I wouldn't get them because I cook a lot and I clean my own house. I think so many of the kitchens and homes that are featured in lifestyle photos are owned by people with housekeepers. Daily housekeepers.
I disagree about hardwood floors in a kitchen. Mine don't require any more maintenance than tile or laminate (less than tile since grout always needs special scrubbing), and it's worth it to get the seamless look for the entire area.
I love your inspiration pics. I would love to build a new kitchen from scratch! We just bought our first house last year so renovating what we have will do for now :)