What do you love about your kitchen?

[Airehead]

I spent two hours with the kitchen designer yesterday .  I think my head will explode.  Why do you love about your kitchen?  So far I am thinking I need a cupboard for cookie sheets and a doo-hickey that holds the Kitchen Aid mixer so it pops up to a work surface and you never have to lift it.  I plan to stay in this house for years.

[Wilbur]

Drawers!!  Drawers for everything!!  Never underestimate the value of drawers.  Did I mention drawers?  

Gas cooktop, electric ovens.

Counter depth refrigerators.

Quartz counter tops.

As many electrical outlets as code allows.

Built it water filters.  Cut down on single use bottles.

Over do lighting.  You can't have enough light in a kitchen.

If you have to have a farm sink, you have to have a second sink.  Maybe in an island.  

If you cook together, make food prep and cooking  two different work triangles. 

[Ralphie]

That is an incredibly easy question - it is paid for!

But siriusly, it is nice and big for the size of the house so it can accommodate a few people for kitchen klatches.   It is also by default, retro, 1986 to be exact.   Classic formica countertops that are not too horribly worn yet and vinyl flooring that unfortunately is.   I like vinyl because it is relatively soft and quiet and easy to clean and of course cheap. :D. Classic simple oak cabinets that are reasonably plentiful.  Nice layout of the stove-refrigerator-sink triangle, although it is isosceles and skewed a tad.  Oh yeah - mini-fridge for beer.  A nice addition would be some kind of mini-keg keeper.   Also it is open, with a low wall separating it from the fambly room which is a layout I really like.

Also, it has a brandy new faucet that is really slick, even if it is a Price-Pfister.  Nice tall shiny neck that easily swivels and doesn't drip yet.

Window above the sink looking out over the backyard is nice too.  We have a nice if dated backsplash of ceramic tile.  Also, an ancient baker's rack from Spiegel ( :D ) that is showing its age and price but the Mrs. has been unable to replace its function anywhere - it holds a plethora of pots and pans very nicely. Always at the ready.

 

 

 

[BR46]

The dishwasher 

[Ralphie]

4 minutes ago, BR46 said:

The dishwasher 

Yes, she is very impressive.   Not many dishwashers can ride a sidecar like yours! 

 

[maddmaxx]

Nothing.  It's too small. It has not got enough space.  There is little room.  It's crowded. It makes poor use of what little space it has.

Did I mention it's too small?

[Randomguy]

I agree with Wilbur, except you need plush shag carpeting in your kitchen.

i also don’t like modern counters, I think the can be cold, and the sometimes look dirty when they are clean. 

I like a farmhouse look and feel, you see.  With shag. 

[BR46]

35 minutes ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said:

Yes, she is very impressive.   Not many dishwashers can ride a sidecar like yours! 

 

The dishwasher can fix me a samitch while handing me a torque wrench. She a good little monkey.

[Road Runner]

My kitchen is where all the food is kept.    

[Zephyr]

I have redone two kitchens totally.  Two things I have learned

put your cupboards to the ceiling.  The 'country cupboard' that stops short of the ceiling costs storage space in lieu of a place you will have to dust and clean.

What Wilbur said about lighting.  I installed after the fact under-cupboard led lighting for lighting the counters/workspace.  I wish I had of done it at the time.  It'll change your life.  

[Ralphie]

56 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

Nothing.  It's too small. It has not got enough space.  There is little room.  It's crowded. It makes poor use of what little space it has.

Did I mention it's too small?

My BIL moved into a smallish 50s ranch and sort of overcompensated for a microscopic kitchen.  He turned it into a microscopic bedroom for one of his sons, and built a huge addition that was 2/3 kitchen and 1/3 dining room.  Now his kitchen and dining room can hold an extended Irish Catholic fambly.

 

[Ralphie]

2 minutes ago, Zephyr said:

I have redone two kitchens totally.  Two things I have learned

put your cupboards to the ceiling.  The 'country cupboard' that stops short of the ceiling costs storage space in lieu of a place you will have to dust and clean.

What Wilbur said about lighting.  I installed after the fact under-cupboard led lighting for lighting the counters/workspace.  I wish I had of done it at the time.  It'll change your life.  

Don't you need a handy stepstool to reach the top?  Longjohn and Trenton wouldn't need it, but mostoftherestofus would.

[AirwickWithCheese]

The kitchen quarters is behind the main house which keeps things cooler and such. Fire brick oven with large windows for temperature control. Prissy makes homemade scratch biscuits from lard cured from our own fields. The delicious smells that loft toward the house are as precious as the honeysuckle beside the main porch or the jasmine that drapes the derilect front porches of the servants. 

[Road Runner]

1 minute ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said:

Don't you need a handy stepstool to reach the top?  Longjohn and Trenton wouldn't need it, but mostoftherestofus would.

The top shelf could be at 6.5 - 7 feet, giving you a foot or more of space for tall objects.  Most people can reach 7 feet, right?  

[Kirby]

It has a microwave.

[Ralphie]

1 minute ago, Road Runner said:

The top shelf could be at 6.5 - 7 feet, giving you a foot or more of space for tall objects.  Most people can reach 7 feet, right?  

Close.  I always thought the tall cabinets were overkill because of that limited usability, but I guess it is better than the alternative massively wasted space.  Costs a good bit of money though.

[Ralphie]

6 minutes ago, AirwickWithCheese said:

The kitchen quarters is behind the main house which keeps things cooler and such. Fire brick oven with large windows for temperature control. Prissy makes homemade scratch biscuits from lard cured from our own fields. The delicious smells that loft toward the house are as precious as the honeysuckle beside the main porch or the jasmine that drapes the derilect front porches of the servants. 

Like whore.

 

[Road Runner]

3 minutes ago, Road Runner said:

The top shelf could be at 6.5 - 7 feet, giving you a foot or more of space for tall objects.  Most people can reach 7 feet, right?  

In my younger days, touching an eight-foot ceiling was easy.  Nowadays, I am about an inch short.  

[Further]

I attended a factory training seminar one time where they put us up in a huge old farmhouse, that they had converted into a training center with a couple dozen bedrooms.

It had a huge pretty much commercial kitchen, the high point for me was a beer tap built right into the sink. Tap handle just to the right of the faucet.

Surprise ! Surprise !  It was in Wisconsin   ?   

[BR46]

12 minutes ago, Further said:

Surprise ! Surprise !  It was in Wisconsin 

I have seen that before 

[dinneR]

Design matters. My kitchen is 8'x7', but it is laid out well so I have more space than I need and it doesn't feel too small. 

[Page Turner]

...the view into the garden from the kitchen table.

[Page Turner]

6 hours ago, AirwickWithCheese said:

Prissy makes homemade scratch biscuits from lard cured from our own fields. 

I'd be fantasizing too if I had to go to the Minimart and stand in line for breakfast.

 

[AirwickWithCheese]

@Zephyr, don't encourage that rose growing hippie.  

[Page Turner]

15 minutes ago, AirwickWithCheese said:

@Zephyr, don't encourage that rose growing hippie.  

...currently in flower outside the aforementioned kitchen window is the Gardenia, and a Crinodendron panagua (Chilean lily of the valley tree in English.)

I already posted a photo of the Gardenia, if you're nicer to me I'll post one of the Crinodendron.  Nicer is not a high bar, see if you can clear it.

[Page Turner]

...the thing I love about my kitchen today is the early white sweet corn that just came out of it dripping with butter.

[Page Turner]

13 minutes ago, Page Turner said:

...the thing I love about my kitchen today is the early white sweet corn that just came out of it dripping with butter.

...which I ate while looking out at this.

 

[2Far]

I floated the idea about the mixer storage folding platform a few years back. It was decided that we didn't have enough cabinet space to to that.

Well, she likes the new floor.

She likes the new granite.

She can't decide on a bar top (was thinking butcher block, then not, then solid wood, then not, then butcher block.....

She can't decide on a back splash (was thinking subway tile, then not, then tumbled stone, then not, then wood (MDF)  ship lap, then some kind of hardy plank ship lap. Vertical or horizontal yet to be decided.

She wants "us" to take down the upper cabinets and mount them in the breakfast nook. 'Course they're 36' tall, but the base cabinets are 30" (plus the thickness of the granite) so she's thinking about what to do.)

She wants to put granite on the soon-to-be floor (floating) mounted cabinet tops. Then she was thinking about butcher block like the soon-or-not-to-be bar top.

 

[2Far]

Oh, and one thing she doesn't like about the new counters, is PtWC's thinking it's a nice place to stroll around.

She didn't do this with the old counters, not sure what she's thinking.

[ChrisL]

We redid our kitchen a few years ago. My wife did a good job tying in wall color with backsplash with countertops.  We also installed recessed LED  lights which made a huge difference.  Lighting is probably my favorite part of the kitchen.

My kitchen is deep but narrow, like 20' deep by 10' across.  it is functional with lots of usable counter space & storage.  My wife complains that it's too small (narrow) but it works for me.  Putting in a fridge with double doors helped too.

[Page Turner]

2 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

We redid our kitchen a few years ago. My wife did a good job tying in wall color with backsplash with countertops.  We also installed recessed LED  lights which made a huge difference.  Lighting is probably my favorite part of the kitchen.

My kitchen is deep but narrow, like 20' deep by 10' across.  it is functional with lots of usable counter space & storage.  My wife complains that it's too small (narrow) but it works for me.  Putting in a fridge with double doors helped too.

...I'm with you on the lighting in kitchens.  I also like the long, narrower kitchen we have here in our 50's built house. I redid the kitchen when we moved in 25 years ago, but kept the original cabinets and tile counters, because I like them. Just had some company reface the cabinets in place.  The windows are placed well, too, so there's good light in there during the day.

I massively upgraded the stove/range to a home  version of commercial stainless, and took out the cabinet above it to put in a large hood that I vented through the roof. The old one had one of those stupid vent to the attic thingies, that don't work worth crap. That whole refrigerator/stove/prep counter triangle with only one or two steps required between them works well for us.

[Dottleshead]

Truth is I never go into my kitchen unless I'm hunting coffee or carbonated water.  I'm the most pathetic male on the planet.  So I'd have to say my Keurig.

[2Far]

PtWC seeing if the coast is clear to get on the counter:

 

[2Far]

..

[2Far]

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[2Far]

54 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

We redid our kitchen a few years ago. My wife did a good job tying in wall color with backsplash with countertops.  We also installed recessed LED  lights which made a huge difference.  Lighting is probably my favorite part of the kitchen.

My kitchen is deep but narrow, like 20' deep by 10' across.  it is functional with lots of usable counter space & storage.  My wife complains that it's too small (narrow) but it works for me.  Putting in a fridge with double doors helped too.

We converted our can lights to LEDs. Huge difference. With flood incandescents, the lighting was irregular. The LEDs mount at the surface of the can and give a much more uniform pattern.

[ChrisL]

49 minutes ago, Page Turner said:

...I'm with you on the lighting in kitchens.  I also like the long, narrower kitchen we have here in our 50's built house. I redid the kitchen when we moved in 25 years ago, but kept the original cabinets and tile counters, because I like them. Just had some company reface the cabinets in place.  The windows are placed well, too, so there's good light in there during the day.

I massively upgraded the stove/range to a home  version of commercial stainless, and took out the cabinet above it to put in a large hood that I vented through the roof. The old one had one of those stupid vent to the attic thingies, that don't work worth crap. That whole refrigerator/stove/prep counter triangle with only one or two steps required between them works well for us.

 

2 minutes ago, 2Far said:

We converted our can lights to LEDs. Huge difference. With flood incandescents, the lighting was irregular. The LEDs mount at the surface of the can and give a much more uniform pattern.

Yeah we had recessed fluorescent lights with a clear plastic cover.  We pulled that crap out, the recessed area was cleaned up with new drywall and trim and 4 LED cans installed.  I also wanted one can centered over the sink but there was a post in the way so I have two cans equally spaced over the sink.  Overkill for sure but you can see really well.

When we walk the dog in the evening sometimes our son will turn on the kitchen light and forget to turn it off or will still be in there. The kitchen lights will cast light into the green belt that light s up about 1/2 of the green belt!  

[2Far]

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