Back into the Kitchens

Chief Architect:
Home Designer Architectural 2016

No, the plural used in the title wasn't a mistake.  I've been immersed in kitchen design again lately, which I love.  It's been a pleasure to work in my Chief Architect drafting software again, producing 3D renderings to bring dreams and ideas -almost- to life for a few projects.

 - The kitchen part of a whole-house remodel an empty-nesting couple are doing in their 1980's home is coming together.  Their family-friendly banquette is gone; that seating area exchanged for a baking center for the pie-baking husband.  The new seating, now for grandchildren, will transfer to their new island, which sits where the wall, between kitchen and living room, used to be.  


The gifted cabinets.  They'll be painted
white. She was without a lazy susan in
her corner cabinet before, so this older
version (the door spins in) is an upgrade.

 - Old church and homeschooling friends are working together to redo a water-damaged kitchen for a deserving family in their 70's home.  We are re-purposing donated cabinets for all of the bases, with new, taller uppers to maximize storage.  This situation creates opportunity to remove walls and redesign the layout.  Their big family will benefit from the open design with an island, offering better traffic flow and much more countertop workspace than they had previously.

 - My nephew is remodeling the kitchen in his turn-of-the (19th to 20th)-century home, upgrading appliances and adding an island, while maintaining location of plumbing and venting for economy's sake.  He had the design figured out, and I just put his vision into renderings, so he could double check before diving in.  He's chosen classic Shaker style cabinets in white, respecting the age/style of the home and ensuring the modest space is not overwhelmed... though a wall oven, gas rangetop, stainless apron front sink, and, hopefully, quartz countertops will help modernize it and create a chef's-level work environment.                                            

 - An e-friend I met on the Gardenweb kitchen forum will be, I hope, finally getting the kitchen we've been discussing for years.  Their home has been under construction, but in an area of extreme weather, so the building window is small. It requires patience, but is giving her the time she needs to be certain about making the kitchen the best it can be.  It will be an immense upgrade to the tiny space she baked in as her family grew. She's trying to balance a homey look with simple, clean lines, and surfaces that are easy to maintain.  We just adjusted the plan to replace counterspace she won't miss with a small kitchen table that she'll enjoy daily.

Within our many email messages discussing the goals for her design, she shared a link to an inspiration kitchen, a Houzz Kitchen of the Week. All of the Douglas fir and the beautiful windows definitely make it swoon-worthy. If I could have an awesome kitchen like the one in this 'microhouse,' maybe I could warm to Hubby's dream of building a tiny house. Well, since this kitchen is probably larger than an actual 'tiny house,' maybe I'll just say I could be OK with 'tinier...'

Kitchen of the Week: A Warm and Eco-Friendly Update

I'm betting you might be hoping for more details and some images of those projects I mentioned... Of course!  Stay tuned...

 

Speaking of Kitchen Changes

My husband surprised me one day this summer when he came in and said, "As soon as we get the garage addition finished (ha?), maybe we should just redo the whole kitchen."  And then he went off to do something else.

Uh, what?!  He'd mentioned remaking the never-finished island, but a complete redo?

Several days later, I got the chance to ask more about what he meant.  He had just finished painting the cabinets for the kitchen area in the bonus living area above the garage.  He explained that he was really liking the finish, and followed up with, "I thought maybe we could do some painting in our kitchen, because we have too much wood."

If I was surprised by his first statement, this one had me thinking someone else had inhabited his body.  I couldn't believe my never-can-have-too-much-or-too-many-kinds-of-wood-anywhere-anytime wood craftsman would EVER utter such woodophilic blasphemy.  


I still didn't believe he'd ever seriously consider painting over vertical grain fir, so didn't give it much thought.  

Even though some of my favorite kitchens have white and/or all painted cabinets, I couldn't imagine living in one.  ---Until I saw this kitchen posted on Facebook, from a slideshow of Cottage-Style Rooms by Better Homes and Garden.

All of the sudden I could imagine walking into my kitchen, looking sunny and warm, with creamy white cabinets.  The backsplash and counters would still work beautifully.  It might just get me closer to the sunny-outdoors, bleached-warm-rocks-along-a-lazy-river feel I was after in the room.

Maybe the dark burgundy baking cabinets would be too much contrast and a bit stark, so they would probably have to be repainted.  The backsplash there, though, includes a few softer colors that would work, and allow that backsplash I worked so hard on, and love, to remain.

So, I changed the fir cabs to creamy white, the island to the gray-brown driftwood color as in the inspiration photo, and tried different colors and combos on the baking wall and the dish hutch.  (My new software, Home Designer Architectural 2014,  isn't as fully featured or flexible as the pro version of Chief Architect, so my flooring and stove backsplash run a different direction, and my trim options are a little different than what we have in the house.)

I am still torn.  I love the kitchen the way it is, and am intrigued by how bright and cheery it might look changed.  But am I just antsy, and want to change things for no good reason?  That could be a mistake.  It's not like changing clothes.

Now, these few months later, after thinking, drawing, commiserating... I show the renderings I've worked on, and shared my excitement as well as hesitations with Hubby, hoping to have a good discussion and make a thoughtful and agreed upon decision for our home.  

His response?  "I don't remember saying that..."  

Write31days.com

Spring Break

Hubby and the junior high and high school kids in our house are on Spring Break, so our homeschooled kiddos are, too.  We also have 3 birthdays in our house ... for Princes Inventive and CuddleBunny, and Princess Artiste.  It's a busy week.

Here are a couple of our activities so far.

ROAD  TRIP!

There seems to be a theme here, but we really weren't just touring metal animal sculptures....

Or even just big metal sculptures of any and all kinds.  It was just a happy coincidence.  I will tell you more about that trip later.


SHOPPING TRIP!

We're finally to the fun stuff.  With Baby's due date in sight, and pressure heavy on Hubby to get the new hearth and home ready in time, Princess Sassy and I have the green light to start shopping for living space fixtures, decor, etc.  Hubby has gladly relinquished the cabinet-making duties for the kitchenette area above the garage, and we've elected IKEA to take over that task.  So yesterday, the princess and a half ;-) and I visited IKEA and the nearby United Tile to begin accumulating inspiration and plans.

More on that later, too, as things progress!

Move-In Ready Kitchen

You may remember that in TKO Tuesday: Jazzing Up a Stock Plan, I first introduced this kitchen plan, and explained how Hubby has taught homebuilding and cabinetmaking for the last 18 years or so.  The construction class builds a home in the community for which the cabinetmaking class builds and installs the cabinets.  I told you, also, that Hubby had passed on the construction class to another teacher, but he is still in charge of cabinets.

Well, his fall off the ladder in early June and the resulting broken shoulder, severely changed his cabinet installation schedule, and instead of by the end of June, he just got finished this past weekend... In time for the new homeowners to close on the sale Monday night!

I thought you might want to see the result.  It's not my choice of colors and styling, which is what happens when men in a hurry (who are most excellent craftsmen/husbands/fathers/community service guys, but aren't exactly Totally Kitchen Obsessed and up on all the latest trends) consult only the layout 

and not the rendering.  ;-)

But since this is likely a starter home for a young couple who are happy to be moving out of an apartment, I think they will be thrilled with their new house and kitchen.  And maybe they'll appreciate the clean lines of this more transitional style, anyway.

Taken at night, with flash, the colors aren't quite accurate.  The island is quite gray, leaning a little
toward taupe, rather than bluish

Torn Between Two Covers

Floor Covers...  OK, Floor Coverings.  Schmaltzy, but close enough.  ;-)

This was the sheet vinyl pattern that was the best.
Great colors for our room, but too busy and 'demanding.'

A couple of helpful people recommended I look at the floor tiles that look similar to ceramic, but are vinyl, and can be installed with or without grout... Which I did.

I wasn't sure about dealing with groutlines for the next few decades, but the bigger reason I had to X-out this option was the patterns.  These seem, like the sheet vinyl I considered, to come only in faux stone designs.  The style on one that had the best colors for us was referred to as "Tuscan," which my kitchen is really not.  The stone-looks tend to have more contrast, with splotches of white, which looks busy in our room.

During one visit to the flooring store, while I was collecting samples to bring home to look at in the kitchen, a particular piece of luxury vinyl planks kept catching my eye.  I, in turn, kept eliminating it, because I just knew Hubby would immediately reject it.  But it was a nice gray, what I thought would be the perfect shade in our kitchen... And it had a nice, authentic look to it. In the end I grabbed it, and figured there was no harm in taking it home for a day...

To my extreme surprise, my woodworker, wood-obsessed Hubby had no objections to the 'faux' oak flooring, even though it would meet our real, hardwood floors in 2 places.  The family much preferred its look to the ceramic tile and other vinyl patterns I'd brought home.  That sent me back to look at other brands of similar flooring in the wood look.  Plus, this sample came from a line the salesman hadn't thought to recommend to me, and I wondered if there was a reason why.

That reason was that the DevineLock flooring I'd been drawn to was a new product, and he didn't know of an installation they'd done with it.  But, he explained, it was essentially the same type of flooring as the brand he'd recommended, so he has no reason to believe it won't be good.  Still, I decided to look more at Invincible, the brand they'd had plentiful experience with, and brought home their grayest offering.

It's actually a golden brownish with a grayish tint and some grayish streaks.  Mostly, it's brown... Almost the look of bare, slightly aged wood.  In the store it looked pretty yellow, but thankfully, not so much in our house.  

My family is torn.  Not that everyone likes both, but that half the family seems to decidedly like the gray, and the other half like the brown.  I love both, and would have been happy with either, had I seen only one or the other.  But now that I've seen both, I'm stuck.

The gray is the safest.  It's nearly the same color as the Marmoleum Click we have, but barely lighter, which is a good thing.  It's the lesser known brand, and Hubby feels like it looks a little too much like old, white-washed oak, of which he was never a fan.  I think it looks stained light gray, so that's not as much of a worry to me.  

The brown is new and interesting.  The color intrigues me. But is that a reason to switch?  I have made the mistake of choosing 'new' over a 'known success' before, with disappointing results.  Should I stick to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" strategy?  

I had originally wanted a wood-toned flooring, but the Marmoleum Click didn't offer any browns, so I settled for gray.  But now I can't remember if I just decided gray would fit in my other choices 'OK,' or if I made other selections after having the gray flooring in mind.  So I'm not altogether sure that brown floors will 'fit' now.  

Some of its detractors here say that with the Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba), and all our Douglas fir in cabinets and millwork, that we don't need another wood color.  

This is the gray.  I don't know why it
looks yellowish here, when not in real life

The brown selection really connects with the stone behind the stove.  The gray connects with the stove cabinets... maybe a little too closely, and is a different gray than the laminate countertops. (It's also presently different than the stove-cabinets' gray, but I think I've found creamy gray paint the color I'd originally intended for those, and will repaint.)  











I like the interplay of the goldish tones of the wood color with the burgundy cabinets.  (Please ignore the still unpainted drawer!)


I think, though, that the almost bare wood look is a little rustic, and I'm not sure that fits the rest of the house.  The gray is a little more sophisticated, while still casual and comfy.





I'll let you know whenever I decide something!

TKO Tuesday: Jazzing Up a Stock Plan

A bit of a back story... Years ago, Hubby was able to realize a long-time dream and developed a home construction program for his school.  With him at the helm, they (he and his construction classes of students as carpenters, plus volunteer subs to do specialty things like electrical and plumbing, with the kids learning by working alongside) built 13 houses in 14 years.  

Prince Inventive helping Dad,
& Sassy ready to help out, too.
She's standing on the tile entry
Stoic installed as a member of
that year's building class

It was a great program for the kids, well-regarded in the community, and he loved it.  He learned a lot... We all did, as the family seemed to take some part in every year's house, whether we wanted to or not.  ;-)  
But it was very time consuming, greatly infringed on family time, and he had new program ideas to pursue, so he turned over the reins.  

2006/07's kitchen.  Princess Eager is in the background,
cleaning window trim/

With the market as it's been, the program has moved along slowly since, and is just now finishing the first house since his last one in 2007.  As the instructor of the cabinet-building class, he still takes part with his cabinetry class building the kitchen and any other cabinetry for the house.  So when it comes to planning the kitchen layout and details, I get to help.


There is a local organization of area businessmen that funds each house-building project, and one of their members, a professional builder (and quality person extraordinaire), voluntarily GCs the project.  The group members help in locating and buying property, and in the latter years, the architectural drafting class at school would work on the house plan.  But this time, the lot the club bought was the last lot in a builder's development, for which there was already a county approved houseplan. 


I was a bit surprised, even aghast, at some of the features of the stock plan for this modest, 2-story house.  The first thing that jumped out at me was the fact that the powder room opens into the living room.  The kitchen was, in my opinion, not going to be comfortable or attractive, and in some aspects, even functional.  

I forgot to note on the plan, also, that the base corner to the left of the dishwasher was completely
inaccessible... A dead corner.  OK in a kitchen the size of mine, but not here.

Just because someone is buying a lower end, smallish home, they don't have to be stuck with an awful kitchen, so feeling for the future buyers, I gladly set to work.


First, I tried to reorient the powder room door toward the entry, and work with the peninsula plan.

The powers-that-be overruled the configuration change for the powder room, as it narrowed the living room (would have been worth it if it were my home), and didn't want to deal with filing a plan change with the county, as it would've required some changes in the understructure of the house.


Even though expanded as much as I dare, the peninsula plan was still tight inside.  Any bar overhang, especially with seating, infringed too far on the dining space.  In this plan the open dishwasher blocked access to the peninsula cabinets.  I could have moved the dishwasher around the corner into the peninsula, but when it was open, it would have obstructed a lot of the floorspace in the room.  So onto the next idea...

The aisles are tighter than optimum, but decent, as long as the fridge is counter-depth.  The aisles are 36"+ and about 42", respectively... and clear, not box to box, but counter edge to counter edge.  

Standard kitchen wisdom would say there isn't room for an island in this space.  Not optimally, no, but with the negatives of the peninsula plan, I thought the compromises might be reasonable.


I think an island, especially with the hefty butcher block top, adds some pizazz as a selling feature.  It helps the kitchen feel more stylish and upscale, which could appeal to a buyer looking at other economical housing.  --But it's not to the detriment of function, as it adds a bit of workspace, separation of zones with room and traffic flow for multiple workers, and storage.  Of course, Hubby always makes sure the cabinetry has full-extension drawer glides and high-quality construction.  This year, because of the better pricing than in previous years, the drawers and doors will even have soft-close hinges and glides.


I didn't have any say in the materials or colors so far, and I've heard the flooring, tile, and countertops are all ordered.  I know the cabinets will be fir, and since I have an "in" with the cabinet-maker, I can probably choose the island color.  I'll show finished pics when they're available.

Glass for Glasses

It's looked like this for the last couple of years

We finally have glass in our hutch!  A friend generously gave us some textured art glass awhile back, but it's been waiting to be installed.  We didn't DIY this project, but chose to let the professionals handle it.  

They were able to cut it to size and seal it in with silicone, so we didn't risk breakage cutting the 6 pieces, and it will stay safely in place.












The family will have a bit of adjustment, since we got used to accessing glassware through the openings in the frames, instead of actually opening them.  But it's definitely one more step in the right direction  toward a finished kitchen!