Kitchen Layout

I wanted a galley style kitchen with two parallel counters. My architect plans for G-shaped kitchen with three blind corners.

I had a bad experience with blind corner cabinets because when we moved into this house there was one - with 24” of dead space in the corner. Now there is a Lazy Susan rotating shelf that fits into a 36” wide corner cabinet. I used one during my first stay in Taos and actually like it. The door flips out of the way with one movement and the contents rotate into view.

There are also Lazy Susan corner cabinets 33” deep, but the opening is too narrow to be useful, per a couple of sales people I asked.

Now the architect realizes that there is not enough room for 36" ‘Kidney-shaped” or “pie-cut” Lazy Susan in each of the corners, because that cabinet takes 9” at the front of the counter (I measure 12”), leaving only 9” or 12” width for drawers. Since I want one 15” trash cabinet, this clearly won’t satisfy me. [Update 1 November: we made the kitchen wider, so now I do have room for 36" corner cabinet with Lazy Susan.]

For the wall corner cabinets, the problem seems to be smaller, maybe because the contents are at eye level, so reaching in seems possible. Still, the cabinet takes 24” along the wall in each direction.

If we are going to fix the layout of the cabinets, I better introduce my kitchen inventory. I measured everything in my present kitchen, noting the kind of storage I presently use and the functional area of the kitchen (storage, wet prep, hot prep, service, cleanup, etc).

When confronted with the corner problem, I modified some of my storage requirements to include corner cabinets.

Now I need to find a 24” gas range. One possibility is GE 3 cu. ft. 24" Gas Range Model: JGAS02SENSS. Summit, Avanti, and Premier make the most 24” models in my price range. However, Summit and Premier have very mixed customer ratings and are not available for demonstration - special order only.

I had been thinking of a fancier range, with at least self-cleaning oven. Not possible in this size in my budget.

Also need to find a narrower sink that will fit into a 24” base cabinet. Kingston Brass KU23189BN Brushed Nickel 23" Centurion Undermount Single Basin Stainless Steel Kitchen Sink, about $200. Or Yosemite Home Decor 18-Gauge Double-Basin Undermount Stainless Steel Kitchen Sink Model #: MAG3720, about $300. Have to ensure it will fit into a 24" base cabinet.

Meanwhile, I have mostly figured out how to fit all my stuff into the kitchen storage. Since I am not accustomed to a pantry, this really meant cramming leftovers into the pantry - which is not ideally located (in the wrong area) for much of the activity.

By the way, the activity areas (left column in the table) come from from a vendor called Proximity Kitchen - the only one I've found that actually has some method behind their marketing madness. They divide the kitchen into a sequence of activity areas, then locate utensils, appliances, workspace, and storage in this sequence. That is my column "Area" in the table at left.

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