Thursday, September 11, 2014

Kitchen Design - Tenant's Unit

With demo behind us, we're off and running to put the house back together again!  And the kitchen will be a real centrepiece of the design.  So I thought it would be fun to review the plans - starting with the Tenant's Unit.

We started with a tired old kitchen that was badly in need of updating.













A key to the new design is to open up the space between the kitchen and the dining room, by removing some walls and moving the china cabinet a few feet to the right.













But as luck would have it, they were structural walls, so the guys had to put in some new engineered beams (LVLs) to distribute the weight from above.  They started with a temporary wall, to handle the load while they installed the beams.






Then they lifted the new beams into place.  They're big and heavy, so it was quite a production.  After that, the temp wall came down.
































And now that they're in place, look how open the space is!!!
From the kitchen, you can see all the way out the front window!  And that really sets the stage for the new design.

And as a reference, here's what it looked like 'before', looking towards the front of the house..








We knew from the start that this would be a galley style kitchen, but we still wanted to create a space for a couple of stools, so the chef can chat with the family!  We also wanted lots of storage and some open shelving.  After a couple of passes, we came up with this design.

It leaves the sink near the windows, so there is a lot of natural light.  And we have a cooking centre on the opposite wall.  Best of all, there is lots and lots of storage space!


Quartz - Solar Canyon
We're using Martha Stewart cabinets in 'Heavy Cream', which is a warm off-white.  The countertops are a beautiful quartz called Solar Canyon.
For the backsplash, we're using white subway and a smaller subway in gold toned marble - which is the perfect shade to connect with the beautiful gold tones in the stained glass window in the front of the house.
Backsplash Tile Design

I'm excited about the pendant over the sink - it is a very cool chicken wire and glass fixture from Nicola's Home.   And we're trying something new this time.   Next to the windows, we will install open shelving.

Last, but not least, we'll refinish the original birch floors.

I can't wait to see this kitchen turn into reality - but of course we're a long way from that day!!!



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7 comments:

  1. Your idea of seating in the kitchen is a good one, but the way the range butts up to what I'm guessing is a blind corner cabinet is a potential problem, there should be at minimum a 3" filler or base end panel to move the range away from that corner. This will help with any collisions with the range handle and the hardware on that blind corner cabinet. The other problem that I see is the accessibility of the wall cabinet on the right is diminished due to the corner design

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    1. Ah, great catch!!! I know there's a filler there, but can't remember how big it is. And that could be a big issue. Thanks so much!

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  2. Looking so open and awesome! I've just been thinking that bedroom door right in the kitchen seems 'off' though- Would it not be better to use the one in the "hall" instead? That way you could also shift the stove over giving you that needed clearance Anonymous above mentioned, and maybe have some room at the backdoor for coat hooks / shoes... Sorry to seem pushy, haha!

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    1. A couple of folks have commented about adding the bedroom door off of the 'hall'. But I can't figure out what you mean. If it's the space between the kitchen entrance and the dining room, that's full of plumbing and a support beam. When we removed the wall, we had to carry all the load from the 2nd floor through that wall - so there isn't space for a door!

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    2. Oh, I was talking about the other original (yellow) bedroom door- guess it's still technically in the kitchen... Didn't realize it was needed for those other purposes :) Can't wait to see it all come together, you always seem to pull of miracles! PS: forgot to mention last time that I think the pendant light is so fantastic!

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  3. Love the original woodwork and trim. Are you going to keep the original door and window trim?

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    Replies
    1. Yes to the window trim. But the back doors in both kitchens are a disaster. They don't fit well, have single pane glass and poor thermal performance. So we've replaced them with similarly styled, energy efficient ones!

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