Post date: Oct 19, 2014 8:19:11 PM
OK. The architect has laid out a kitchen for me, based on the area I specified (plus a bit of discussion about the shape). But is it enough to hold all my kitchen gear and still give me some work space?
My solution is to take an inventory of my present kitchen. I categorize this inventory in two ways:
I measure the width and height (and number of similar drawers or shelves, if appropriate) for each item in each storage type in each sequence area.
For instance, I need 16 feet of counter width for things like workspace, sink, cutting board, dish drainer, microwave, toaster, and wooden spoons (vertically in a jar). I look on my early plan and find that, yes, I have sufficient counter space.
For base shelf space, my inventory wants 6 - 18” wide shelves with about 12” vertically between shelves. These, however, are physically scattered between the areas for Supply, Wet Prep, Service, and Cleanup. Some of this will be on the lazy susan in the three corner cabinets.
A similar analysis is required for drawers, which are all in the base cabinets. I have a lot of 6” deep drawers, in several areas of the kitchen. I plan to use drawers rather than shelves, for pots and pans. Why? Shelves tend to be 22” deep (front to back) in the base cabinets. Stooping down and reaching to the back is not fun. One solution is to use pull-out shelves. But using one of these means opening the doors (usually two) fully, then pulling out the shelf. Why not just pull out a drawer that has low sides (so the pots are easy to remove)?
My current kitchen has no corner cabinets. But the new one will have three corners - the kind with rotating shelves. It will take some work to figure which items go on rotating shelves. That might actually relieve me of any deep drawers for pots and pans, and also from reaching to the back, because the rotation will bring the back to the front. But I will lose some shelf area, as the rotating platforms are not square - but, then, neither are my pots.
Plywood boxes. Face frame fronts with MDF or wood doors.
Solid wood drawer boxes with dovetail corners and plywood bottom and full-extension, soft-closing drawer guides,
Shelves of plywood
This will have to wait until I have more exact measurements for the kitchen space. Thus, more later…