You should definitely check out that amazing (& generous) starpooh's blog: the FKB.

These are U-shaped kitchens.

Good luck!

I have a "U" shaped kitchen. Love it because it is so efficient. Has to be. It is only 9 feet by 11 feet. So it is small but very workable. Here are some before pictures.

Here is the drawing of the proposed kitchen. I did decide to leave the dishwasher on the opposite side of the sink from what is shown here. I was afraid the door might interfere with the door of the oven.

Here is the after. I love it!

What are you thinking about for yours? Sorry the sunlight is so bright on some of the pictures. Other ones were taken about 4 am when I get up for work, so it was rather dark outside!

This looks great!! My kitchen is small also. Thanks for the photos.

U works great for a smaller area. An Island just isn't practical. My friend did her kitchen in a U, previously had a crowded island.

I love the little punch of black in the u-shaped kitchen! Great look. Thanks for sharing your u-shaped kitchen. I have one as well; more like 9 x 10 and I was envious of those with big kitchens and islands. What I find it that it is more difficult to have more than one person at a time in the kitchen and I have three cooks in my household.

It is very efficient, though, and I love being able to access the refrigerator, oven, and sink easily.

karena 2009
could you please post a pic of your kitchen...thanks I will try to get the size of mine tonight.

I could, but it's my existing "before" kitchen, which is very ugly, builder-style oak cabinets. I have already pulled out the pantry and uppers that were obstructing the pass through view to the dining room.

I am planning a new layout and want to move the refrigerator down to where the old pantry used to be. Do you still want me to post my kitchen picture? If so, I need to set up a Picassa web album, which I can do.

My kitchen is a bit larger but it is u-shaped and I love the layout! Here are some pics

kitchen pics of new house click to see all pics
Here is a floorplan sketch
From kitchen layout pics

Happy planning
Christine

Christine: Gorgeous kitchen; I had actually seen it in the finished kitchen u-shaped area. Congratulations!

Angel: I just created a Picassa web album, but I'm not sure how to upload the pictures here to the forum. Try the link below and let me know if it works for you. They are very unflattering pictures of my current kitchen configuration, with a 3-D view of sort of where I'm going although it hasn't been finalized yet.

Here is a link that might be useful: Karen's Kitchen Project

Here's ours. We have many doors so getting an eating area was challenging, but we did it by moving a door and building in a banquette. I love our layout. I prep on the peninsula and visit with people sitting at the table. Everything's close and handy.

Super Susan's are wonderful!

We're not quite done, but here's our floor plan and a few pics.

I'm not sure if ours qualifies as a "U" or a modified "galley"...

View from DR:

View from FR:

Whatever it is I absolutely love it! It works so well and I really like not having an island in the middle of the room to have to go around. [I had originally wanted an island, but my kitchen is just too small for one...and now I'm glad!]

Mine is an odd size. One side wall of the U shape is longer than the other side wall 8' x 16' with bar at the end, other wall is 8'.
Shaped alot like Mustbnuts kitchen layout, except the wall that her Refrig is on - mine is not that long. The wall that the stove is on - that's my long wall. Then I have a bar the L at the end of the long wall. Thanks 4 all the great ideas....

Should I post a pic of my kitchen? Maybe help get mor ideas....thanks

To Mustbnuts:
Your kitchen is awesome and I wanted to ask you some questions about how you are using the space. I am planning a U-shaped kitchen with the same layout as yours. I wanted to know if you find the over-the-counter microwave convenient when you are unloading the dishwasher. Right now I have planned a microwave under the counter in the same place that you have a single door base cabinet (adjacent to the dishwasher). I am worried that an otc microwave will take up the space that I plan to use for dish and glass storage, or at least make it less accessible. Your thoughts?

karena_2009: What you do with Picasa is look over on the right when you are logged in. You'll see "Link to this photo". Click on that, choose your size from the drop-down, copy the "embed image" text and paste it here.

Here's my u-shaped kitchen. It's a good example of what NOT to do with a U:

From Kitchen

Big space to the left is for the refrigerator, space beside it is for the range.

(This is the "medium" size in Picasa.)

It's not a very good layout at all but we can't afford a total gut and rebuild so we're doing the best with what we have.

Thanks Goffgirl. I am LOVING my new kitchen! As you might be able to see from the before pictures, I had an over the range microwave. I really love to cook and was always worried something would flame up and cause a fire. So in the remodel, I moved it.

I am liking it next to the fridge. It doesn't interfere with the dishwasher at all. My contactor and KD told me that with full extension and frameless (or whatever they are--I am brain dead at the moment) cabs, I would be surprised at the extra space I would have. I didn't believe them, but they were right! So that really helped. I have 2.5 sets of dishes in those cabs along with tons of baking equipment and cookware. Lets say, I am not lacking in the kitchen equipment department!

Good luck with your choices. Would love to see how they turn out.

Cool, thank you for the tips with Picassa pbrisjar! I appreciate it :-).

The kitchen we remodeled in our last place was u-shaped. I loved it. It was small, but so easy to work in, even with more than one person.

{{!gwi}}

Our new kitchen in our current house will be similar in layout to Buehl's and will be something like this:

{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Small u-shape kitchen pics

Jraz, that kitchen is beautiful! It's a little gem... I love it!

Jraz - do you know the size of your previous kitchen?? My kitchen is small also, love the way this one looks. If have have any pics of this kitchen that is not close up. please post. Does the cabinets stop at the refrig or more on the other side?

Thanks for the feedback mustbnuts. I feel much more confident about my design decisions when I see examples "in the flesh".

Our U-shaped kitchen

More at Small kitchen - Big success

Angelcute - My kitchen was about 10 x 10.5. Here's the layout. The frig was the end of that side. More pics at the link below.

{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: More pics of our small u-shaped kitchen

Here's a link to what I call my 'G' shaped kitchen!

Here is a link that might be useful: Finished Kitchen and Layout

bbtondo
What's the size of your kitchen? It's very nice.
Thanks to all 4 the pics.

Angelcute: Here's the kitchen area measurements: The sink wall is 139 3/4", the refrig wall to the doorway is 111" and the oven wall is 144" to the end of the granite. My peninsula is 75" long by 36" wide.

I originally wanted an island, but decided my area wasn't really large enough, and that I would have to sacrifice too much cabinet space to put one in.

I'm really happy with my layout. Although it's just DH and I, it really worked great with 14 for T-Day dinner. We're really enjoying it.

Good luck with your kitchen. Hope I was of some help.

Barb

Here is my tiny u-shape. I busted out a wall to my living room. I must say, I LOVE my small kitchen. It's so much easier to work in. Best purchase: a counter depth fridge that gave me more floor space. Soon, hopefully, I'll have a backsplash. Another purchase I love are my wall cabs to the right of the stove that open from bottom to top on a mini-hydraulic. On the bottom, I store all cooking oils, salts, spices, etc. Basically, the items I use the most in cooking. Above that is what I would call "the baking center" (I bake more infrequently)....the cabs are very handy in a small space. Beyond the stove is a bank of glass front cabs that house my everyday dishes. Above that is a wine rack, that for folks who consume regularly (ahem, ahem) is somewhat impractical as it's never full. However, if you're working with a small space, it (along with the glass cabs) really adds depth and that's no small feat in this case. p.s. I keep the rack full by putting my screw-top empties up there!! I also went all the way to the ceiling with my cabs and have lots of space for storage.

jraz,
i loved your old house kitchen design and hope you don't mind me using it as an inspiration for our new re-model kitchen.
I searched more hours than possible in google to find something i like for my kitchen design; but yours came closet to what i had in mind.