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Servant2theKing
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| Posted: July 31 2013 at 10:14pm | IP Logged
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I'm back after a power outage, right in the midst of dh bringing home a month's worth of groceries ~ quite an experience juggling dry goods and staples into the long dark narrow closet in our Spare 'Oom ~ Thanks be to God for Sam's Club Click n Pull on a day like today!
Becky, go peak at Jen Mack's BLOG ~ search for kitchen and be inspired by her lovely use of kitchen space!
Just thought I'd share a couple items we've recently discovered which help expand/make up for very limited counter space:
~This lovely board fits quite nicely over a kitchen sink ~ perfect for kneading dough or adding extra serving space.
~This handy dandy rack makes it possible to place three different serving dishes or pans in the space of one when counter space is limited.
Just thought I'd share, in the interest of enhancing hospitality in kitchens with limitations!
I'm so grateful for all the wonderful thoughts, ideas and words of inspiration shared on this subject. Becky, I deeply appreciate that your reflection on having your kitchen serve the Lord has brought forth so many lovely thoughts and ideas from all who have shared on the subject ~ truly rich food for contemplation while striving to feed the hungry!
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All for Christ, our Saviour and King, servant
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Kathryn
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| Posted: Aug 01 2013 at 9:09am | IP Logged
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On a practical level, (Jen I couldn't imagine 4' of linear counter space with my family of 6!  ) so ladies, would you consider pantry space or counter space more important and why? We're considering a remodel also and to get one, we're giving up another and I can see the pros/cons of each.
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Kathryn in TX
(dd 16, ds 15, dd 8, dd 5)
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Aug 01 2013 at 9:50am | IP Logged
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Food storage does not necessarily have to be in the kitchen. I store most of ours in the garage in pest proof containers (6gal food storage buckets, popcorn tins, and of course anything that it's container is that way) So it's only foods that are in cardboard boxes and bags that don't get put into another container that store in the house.
Counter space is lovely but frugality demands that for me, I have to have food storage one way or another, it's the way I know how to shop that really makes a difference to our budget. Some people manage other systems. So I would go with less counter space if that was the only way to have sufficient food storage (expand counter space with pull out cutting boards and/or strong drawers that can pull out and have a cutting boards laid across the open drawer). Remember to count table space as work space and the lack of counter isn't as bad.
Oh and I have 2.5 ft of counter on either side of my sink and another 2.5 ft next to the stove.
So I've had to go with limited counter space for a long time and that makes it easier to consider not having huge amounts.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Servant2theKing
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| Posted: Aug 01 2013 at 11:55am | IP Logged
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A tip I found online (seriously considering for one side of our kitchen); moving existent upper cabinets up to ceiling level, thus creating space for shelves beneath the cabinets AND freeing up counter space! Frugal and totally ingenious!
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: Aug 01 2013 at 12:35pm | IP Logged
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We completely gutted and remodeled the kitchen in our former home, and went from only a couple of linear feet to 23 when we included the piece we made to put in over our window seat! It was a terribly efficient kitchen, a galley. The simple act of moving the doorway enabled us to create a very functional layout in what used to be a very old fashioned, teensy eat-in.
We used Ikea cabinets and a mixture of open shelving and upper cabinets.
I longed for a pantry, but kept bulk pantry things on narrow wire shelving along the basement stairs, which worked pretty well.
When we bought our new home, we disliked the kitchen but felt confident that since its dimensions were so similar to our former kitchen we would again have a kitchen we loved. It was very hard when, first, the appraisal process ended us short our kitchen remodel money in the sale, and second, when I spent hours and hours planning only to find that no amount of money could make that space into one that had all the elements of our old kitchen. It was a galley, but with no room for full depth cabinets on one side, and the two doorways were perpendicular to each other at one end making for a bottleneck if more than 1-2 people tried to work. 
Our hopes for our kitchen echoed many of the responses here: a place for the family to work together, a place to entertain and offer hospitality, a cheery place for me since I was to spend so much time and energy there, etc...
So, the first step was to buckle up and figure out what I could love about this kitchen. It had 1950s metal cabinets that had been repainted many times until the 80s when they were made a cold hospital white with peachy walls and counters, and a lousy wallpaper border and really ugly replacement .  But I looked at lots of pictures of retro kitchens, not just the flashy atomic sort, but homey kitchens that had traditional elements I could embrace in spite of flat front metal that had never been my style before.
So while my dreamy farmhouse sink wasn't going to be an option, I decided that my big stainless drainboard was actually very practical. 
We considered how we might add a simple pass through to the dining room to allow for better entertaining and interaction, but it ended up that completely removing the wall was easier than adding the window, and we were able to add enough inches on that side of the kitchen to allow for full depth lower cabinets. By starting the cabinet run at the former doorway and moving the doorway to the other side, we eliminated the bottleneck.
So, our new cabinets (from Ikea, with big drawers for storage!) are technically a peninsula but function like an island (rather than creating a U shape, which I think is what most people with prejudices against peninsulas imagine). Ikea had a flat front cabinet/drawer front on clearance that, once we paint it , should blend with the flat front metal on the opposite side. We also removed one of the original outlying 12 inch cabinets to put in a tall Ikea pantry unit, which while I still LONG for a proper pantry off the kitchen, it does help with storage. We have a closet one level down from the kitchen that functions as our bulk pantry.
I do love how the new layout has made our workspace brighter and airier, has made it much easier for many to use the kitchen at once or for little boy observers to stay out from under foot, and how so very much more efficient it is to entertain. 
So, given my own experience and not having a clear picture of the condition of your current kitchen, I wonder if you couldn't keep some elements of your current kitchen while changing others to keep the cost down?
Perhaps you could have the Amish builder make that custom island but instead of replacing all your cupboards, you could have the refaced and have new doors made for them?
In light of the open shelving discussion, one compromise I've also seen is if your cabinets don't currently go to the ceiling, you can raise them to the ceiling and add a single shelf below for some of the prettier things that are used often enough to avoid dust.
Or, if you went with Ikea, there are companies that will sell alternative door fronts for them. Maybe your Amish builder would make these door fronts for you? The Ikea boxes and hardware are a very good values, and while I much prefer the bespoke English kitchen look and had dreamed of my carpenter husband building it for me, the European style door and hinges with full width openings is very, very functional in my experience, and if we replace the metal cabinets down the road with a more extensive remodel, we will likely use Ikea and have dh custom make the doors.
If there were any way to squeeze a pantry, specifically a corner pantry, into my kitchen, I probably would have. I likely have about 12 feet of counter space now, and I think it would not feel restrictive at all if I didn't have appliances on the counter, things I would probably tuck into the corner pantry
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Kathryn
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| Posted: Aug 01 2013 at 1:01pm | IP Logged
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Ok...so I went and measured  . I have just at 2" to the left of the sink (where dishes are usu. drying unless I remind someone to put them away ) then I have about 2 1/2" between the sink and the stove but that's at a corner and that is really the prep space (unless someone attempts to get dishes down for dinner while someone else is prepping) and one person has to stop and move. Then there is about 2' to the right of the stove which is next to the fridge that sits so far out from the cabinet so it's a really dark corner. That is useable space too but not used as much b/c it really needs an under counter light or something. That's it! So, while Jen's 4' sounded so small, I have just 6' and that's assuming all dishes are dried and put away. The only other thing on counter is fruit rack and small Keurig. Compared to the home we just moved from last year where I probably had at least 20'+ of counter space plus about a 10' raised bar area!
So our plan is to remove that corner space between sink and stove and make it a walk-thru (ours is u-shape too) to allow a better flow instead of traffic jam in there. And we're doing away with the separate built-in oven/range and doing a slide in to give me counter space. We also have one wall where cabinets won't fit but our plan is to put a pantry but take the space from DS's bedroom. It should be decent size but not the larger corner walk-in I had at the old house and since it's only going to be about 15" deep it won't take much space from his room and might make a neat way to add a little custom desk or bookshelf for him to make it look like that little protrusion was there all the time. That's the plan anyway.
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Pilgrim
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| Posted: Aug 03 2013 at 8:21am | IP Logged
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Kathryn wrote:
| For those that have done away with (or want to) a peninsula, why? We're considering adding a peninsula mainly b/c we really have no other way to add additional workspace. We can't change the footprint of our kitchen so instead of having this big open space there (no room for island) we were going to add a small peninsula. Getting rid of it would lose about 3' of counter space which is enough area for one other workspace. |
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Kathryn, have you seen island cartssuch as this one,as an alternative to a peninsula? I've been hoping for one of these in our new kitchen. I love the idea of extra work and counter space, and being also able to move it wherever/whenever you want.
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Pilgrim
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| Posted: Aug 03 2013 at 8:31am | IP Logged
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I would agree totally with those who said they wouldn't do open shelving in their kitchen, especially if they don't want to have to constantly nag kids who are on dish duty about how neatly they put things away. Our old kitchen had open cabinets, and even our silverware tray etc. had to be on an open shelf, and I can tell you, that is one thing I am SOOOO looking forward to in our new kitchen, a place to PUT AWAY everything. I know that kids will still put things away more sloppily than I would, BUT at least it will be behind closed doors, and one can then have them do a once weekly clean-up or something like that. The open concept, if not kept very neat, can really bring a person's mood down and make the house feel gloomy, discouraging, etc. We made sure in the new house we're building to put in a number of storage spaces! 
Oh, and open cabinets with curtains in front is another thing we had, and the curtains tend to get dirty so easily with kitchen stains, dish washing stains, etc. On cabinet front, you can just wipe it up, but on cloth they have to go through the washer. Just my $ .02 from experience.
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CrunchyMom
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Fwiw, I love having big drawers instead of cabinets on the bottom. We keep our every day dishes there so that little ones can easily set the table or help unload the dishwasher, and the drawers make it much easier to utilize the full depth of space, even moreso, to me, than a pull out shelf.
In my old kitchen, I liked having open shelving for things you might keep out anyway like canisters for coffee or tea, and then a few pretty, frequently used things like the tea pot or a set of nesting bowls that see daily use. It is nice to keep out some pretty cookbooks, etc... I think the hooks for mugs look simple but pretty and are easy to keep tidy. Some dishes lend themselves better to open storage than others. Honestly, I think my dream kitchen would have an area of wall to ceiling cabinets but would be open over the counters with drawers underneath. I do like the open feel so much.
Another option for creating some open spaces without shelving, per se, might be to use pegboard a la Julia Child for pots and pans. she had hers outlined so that guests knew exactly where to put things back, which would surely work for children as well. I also like having a bar with hooks behind the cook top for keeping stovetop utensils like tongs that have the hook at the top.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: A kitchen that serves the Lord
