Cabinet Color: Thunderous by Sherwin Williams
Runner, Lamp, Cutting Board, Bowl, Vase, Art, Soap
I debated whether or not to share our kitchen plans for our current Idaho home, because they aren’t happening and the new owners have already came in and measured for new cabinets and everyone has different needs and wants so I didn’t want them to feel influenced to do something different than they had planned. However, so many of you are curious and who knows if they even READ here, so I thought sharing these high level plans would be a nice way to wrap up this house and this large project that we so desperately wanted to do, but never got to.
We did a budget kitchen renovation not even two years ago. Our goal was simple–to spend only $1000 to bring our kitchen to a place that we could live with for a couple years or so until we had more time to live in the space and figure out how we want it to function. So we’ve been living with the pain points and have had many conversations about how we could optimize the space for a functional kitchen that works for us.
CURRENT COTTAGE KITCHEN:
If we were staying in this house, THIS was going to be the new kitchen layout.
COTTAGE KITCHEN RENOVATION PLANS:
You probably noticed right away, the pantry is GONE and we gained a lot more space. When we thought about it, most of the space in the pantry was just walking space. No need. No need! Moving the pantry over the nook where the range currently is, made more efficient use of the storage. Plenty of cabinetry and drawers to store all of the food. We were excited about giving up the walk-in pantry (that we had to walk around the corner to get into), in order to give us more space, both in the kitchen and the mudroom.
Which brings me to the flow reconfiguration of the mudroom in general. One of our biggest pain points was when we walk in or out of the side entrance to the house, you have to bypass the tight mudroom (more like mud hall) every time–which is often tighter when there’s lockers open or shoes didn’t make it into where they belonged. Normal mudroom stuff.
There are MANY times, we don’t need to access the lockers AT all when leaving or coming in the house so it made more sense to us to make goin pass the storage an optional activity. We were planning on moving the entrance into the mudroom to over by the side door. And arch it while you’re at it. ;)
The mudroom also gains some square footage thanks to lending some space from where the pantry is. Now if you want to go outside or hang something up, you won’t have to walk through all the mudroom junk to do that.
Taking the pantry out also would allow us to extend the kitchen and give us more workspace. Right now when you look down the hallway leading to the kitchen, you’re looking directly at the cutting board wall and to the right is the kitchen. With these plans you would actually walk directly into the kitchen and be looking across the kitchen at the sink, window, and cabinetry.
We planned to take the one window out and put in 2 windows–under the one on the left is the sink, and under the second is the range. (Yes! A window in front of the range!) A sconce in the center and on either side of the windows would be upper glass-front cabinets that extend all the way down and sit on the counter. A 48″ range would be balanced by a large sink under the other window.
Other big changes were the 2 cabinet-front refrigerators, both with freezers on the bottom, and a pebble ice machine with a drink cabinet above it.
Now let’s talk about the island. I’ve been really loving the look of an island being more of a furniture piece than a built-in, so our island was going to have legs, room for stools along the pantry side and drawers on the prep other side.
Even though we never got to see these plans come to fruition, they really solved all of our pain points and gave us a lot of clarity for what we want out of a kitchen. Even though we’re not renovating this kitchen, our NC kitchen is totally ripped up right now. We’re actually taking some of our design plans and inspiration (read colors and finishes!!) and seeing how they might translate there. So stay tuned!
Thank you for sharing these plans! Really great and well thought out changes. Can’t wait to see what you will do in your new home!
Love the layout you would have gone with had you stayed. One thing confuses me – the three doors in the mudroom. The top one opens to the outside and the one on the left wall opens to the garage, right? What is the third door on the bottom wall of the mudroom/where does it go? (Isn’t that kinda behind the powder room going towards the girls’s study?)
It just goes to a little closet full of cleaning supplies!
Beautiful inspiration images! The one thing though that I picture this in real life, is one person putting plates away in the dishwasher, and another one putting food away in the fridge, and kids trying to fight their way either to or from the mudroom. The opening would make more sense and help it flow better if it were at the bottom, in line with the door to the garage. But I suppose we’ll never know! It would be so fun to get an update from the buyers in a year or two on how they redid the kitchen!
I would have loved to seen that and I know it would have been beautiful. I have one question. By closing off the hallway is the only way into the house from the garage through the arched opening in the kitchen? I see how bypassing the lockers would be convenient, but it seems like if everyone coming in through the garage has to walk through the kitchen to get in the house would cause quite a traffic jam especially in front of the sink. But maybe I’m not reading the plans right.
You would probably just go down the hall, not past the sink
Oh, then I must have read the plans wrong. It looked to me like you closed off the hall with the bigger mud room. I can’t wait to see your new kitchen. I’m sure it will be amazing!
I can see your vision for this space and it would have been amazing. Still surprised about the results you got on your budget makeover, so great. I didn’t realize until you did your last video how small the cooktop is compared to the dual ranges at your last house-I bet Chris is really looking forward to your upgraded kitchen and appliances in your new home. Would love to hear how you, as a designer and Chris, as a chef work out a space like this together. His and hers must-haves and how that all gets worked into a beautiful and functional design. It would be fun to be a fly on the wall during that design brainstorm design sesh!