Kitchen Specs

Current kitchen:

Our current is too small for me.  It's hard to get through a meal without feeling crowded for space.  The countertops are 2 feet deep.  There are 13 feet of them (so, 26 square feet.)  There is a 50" by 26" island.  Beneath all these countertops are cabinets.  In addition, there is a pantry that is 20" deep, 33" wide, and about 7 feet tall.

Components Desired in New Kitchen/great room:
1)  "Sweet Prep" area:  The Sweet Prep area is a space set aside for making pastry.  It needs to have room for my stand mixer and room to roll out pie and cookie dough.  I think 4 feet wide should be enough.  It might be helpful if the counter was a bit deeper than normal (32" rather than 24"), so that it could accommodate canisters of flour and sugar.  In the space above the counter I'd like two or three shelves that are 8" deep.  Above the shelves can be a smaller cabinet.  Beneath the counter will need to be drawers for baking sheets, cake pans, muffin pans, utensils.  Once we get further along, I can measure my baking equipment to get an idea of the ideal size of drawers.  Note, the sweet prep area should be near the oven.  It doesn't need to be particularly close to the refrigerator.  Also, I'm interested in having a sheet pan rack that would allow me to cool and temporarily store food that is on sheet pans. They are about 6 feet high and two feet square.  It would need to be adjacent to the sweet prep area.  Here is an example:  http://www.webstaurantstore.com/heavy-duty-end-load-bun-pan-rack-unassembled/109APR1820L.html

2)  "Savory Prep" area:  Needs to accommodate:  knife blocks, cutting boards, food processor, prep sink (a small sink for rinsing food and washing hands), utensils, spices, bottled oils/vinegars.  Like with the savory prep area, I'd like some open shelving for the spices and oils and vinegars.  The width of the area would need to be wider than the sweet prep (6 feet?)

3)  Cooktop:  six burners.  Gas or electric?  Undecided.  I like to cook on gas.  But, I'd like to have the house on electric, so that as they grid gets greener, the energy usage is more environmentally sound.  Needs to have good ventilation (hood vented to the outdoors.)  2 feet of counter top on each side, for work surface.

4)  Oven:  Electric.  As long as we are maintaining an oven in the "butler's pantry" one oven is enough in the kitchen.  If we decide to eliminate the stove in the butler's pantry, then I'd like two ovens in the kitchen.  It would be nice to have the oven in the wall with a microwave built in.

5)  Dish sink:  in front of a window area.  Deep and wide, with a high arched faucet so that large stock pots could be filled in the sink.  Stainless steel or other metal.  Not interested in porcelain sink (stains).      18" on either side of sink for work room (drying dishes, overflow of dirty dishes.)

6)  Pantry:

7)  Plating/buffet area (free from other uses than putting out food, so that there is a place for this when other surfaces are full of meal prep stuff.)

8)  Dishwasher:  one is fine, as long as we maintain the dishwasher in the butler's pantry.

9)  Room for a table:  at least a round table, but perhaps a long, rectangular one, if it somehow suits the room.  We like to have big meals, so there are times when we need lots of extra dining seating.

10)  Casual seating:  seating that is sofa height with a coffee table and a small TV.

11)  Cookbook shelving

Kitchen Plan

Click on photo to enlarge.

Here is a possible kitchen/great room configuration that would meet our needs.  It adds a door to the east, to access a new patio area (this would require moving the current A/C unit for the 1960 addition.)  It reduces the size of the current window and adds one on the other side of the north wall.  It also reduces the number of glass "door sized" windows by one (and eliminates the higher windows, giving a more traditional look to the room.)  In front of the fireplace is a space for a dining table.  To the north of the dining table area the cabinets and countertops continue.  Delineating the table area on the west side is a half wall with book shelves, accessible from the east (for cookbooks.)  In the remaining area, a small seating area is drawn.  Our preference for the stairs is that (coming up from the mudroom) you go half way up facing west, then turn and complete your ascent facing south.

**UPDATE**  We've decided to that we'd like to add a third window on the north, centered between the other two.

Kitchen

Throughout most of the house, I'd like to have dark cherry wood floors, white trim and built-ins, with dark (slate or black) quartz countertop on surfaces that might be home to plants or drinks (e.g. low, hip-height bookcases that I would like to have along the south (window) side of our living room.) But, I've been thinking of inverting this in the kitchen: doing dark wood cabinets with white quartz countertops and black and white tile floors. The pictures below (taken from the February 2009 issue of House Beautiful) show the dark cabinets light countertop look. So, it would be something like this but with black and white floors: I like the wall color. I'm not a fan of the recessed ceiling or the marble backsplash behind the stove. I like how the upper cabinets go all the way to ceiling, eliminating that odd space above most upper cabinets that just

Nice French doors in the eat-in area of the kitchen.