Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday and ready for a fabulous new year!
It's tough to think of a kitchen in the new kitchen when we STILL don't have a permit.
But...like in Fantine in Les Miserables...I'm going to dream a little dream about the perfect kitchen anyway.
maybe Anne Hathaway/Fantine is hoping for a permit?
Our contractor recommended we use a one stop shop for appliances, cabinets, lighting and fixtures. So off we go to Ferguson Kitchen and Bath . There is one in Rockville, MD but they seem to have plenty of locations up and down the east coast.
This place is AWESOME.
- They have tons of things on display
- The salespeople really know what they are talking about
- The prices cannot be beat. I even tried to price match all of the plumbing fixtures on Black Friday...and only 2 of 50 fixtures were more expensive.
- They stand behind all of the items you purchase through them. Example: if for some reason the manufacturer of the faucet you ordered is missing...you do not have to go and hunt that piece down. Ferguson will do it!!
My interior design tip of the day:
HIRE A KITCHEN EXPERT.
I thought I knew exactly what I wanted - where I wanted all the appliances, the cabinet finishes, where to put a spice rack vs where to put a microwave, etc. And...as with MANY aspects of this project...I am clueless.
A couple weeks ago I met with a kitchen designer to design the new kitchen. This woman who helped me design the kitchen was like a kitchen cabinet genius. She requested before the meeting that I bring any floor plans and elevations. I walked in and she took the permit set from my hands. A moment later she had copies of my plans and then...the magic happened.
old kitchen layout
Being an architect...I am still in awe of people that can hand sketch with a mechanical pencil and a Staedtler eraser. This woman at Ferguson, named Jan, redrew the floor plan and then started sketching in front of me and erasing when I directed her to revise something. She revised the original design so it was more efficient and usable. SO worth the money. It was LIT as the young kids say.
See her sketches below. She included:
- names of cabinet styles that I loved (will post more on that in a later blog post)
- dimensions and cabinet sizes
- the center line of the stove to align with the entire space
- the soffits above the cabinets
- the barn door to the ENORMOUS/AMAZEBALLS pantry
- the special features: pull out trash drawer, the appliance "garage", AND my genius dish dryer cabinet (more on that below).
Jan's plan and island sketch
Jan drew this in 5-6 minutes in front of me. anyone else think this is cool??
How has no one thought of this before?
I cannot tell you how much I despise a dish drying rack sitting on a counter EVERY DAY..ALL DAY LONG. And like most people...I am constantly drying things that cannot be put in a dishwasher - like fancy dancy knives, large pots and pans, delicate wine glasses and chopsticks that for some crazy reason cannot be placed in a dishwasher.
I told Jan, the kitchen designer, that I would like to have one cabinet be a little be different. I thought I could devise something that installed a dish drying rack (the kind you buy at Bed Bath and Beyond) in a cabinet so you could dry stuff but it doesn't have to sit out on the counter.
.
this detail is soo good i should patent it
Once you leave Jan the kitchen guru...
Jan tells me that pricing and the actual kitchen renderings will take about 2-3 weeks. So I wait...and the drawings that she emailed me ...well - it was a bit disappointing. I am assuming that Jan did not create the renderings below because...they are HIDEOUS. But..that's ok. I would fix that...
I mean...really.
Here is what it should look like:
section thru kitchen. LOTS of height...11' at some areas and close to 12' above the island
This is a quick rendering I created in SketchUp. Obviously we haven't decided on any light fixtures or tiles but we think we'd like to do a mix of white glossy upper cabinets, open shelving, and warm wood lower cabinets with a fun graphic cement tile for a backsplash.
Thoughts? Comments? See anything you think would be better? Tell me below!
I know we dont have a permit. But - I'm trying to look to the bright side and dream of fun things that can be possible in this house.
I envision a big open sunny kitchen where our friends gather and drink and discuss their favorite musical (Les Miserables) and wonder where all the dishes are that normally drying on the counter.
It's a dream...it might be a stupid one...but it's mine and and hopefully one day it will come true.
