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wamot

Ordering Cabinets Tomorrow, Advise Please!

wamot
9 years ago

Situation:
I am doing a new kitchen at Lowe's, and going to purchase Diamond Reflection cabinets tomorrow because they have this extra 10% back promotion tomorrow. Last minute advise please!

Layout:
The house is a 2600sqft cape cod with rustic cedar shaker sidings. So I tried not to use anything too contemporary. The kitchen was a 10X10 small kitchen, but we are opening the wall to the adjacent family room, so we will have a open kitchen/sitting room.
There is a mudroom off the kitchen, which connects garage, backyard, kitchen and a half bath(at the far end). We will be putting pantries with roll out trays and a bench.

Door Style:
We are lazy, so we try to recreate the cover look of Diamond catalog....it is a transitional shaker style full-overlay door.

Finish:
Because we will put Brazilian Cherry Hardwood Floor, we will use off white paint finish(Coconut, one shade lighter than in the catalog cover) on the 'L' shape perimeter, and for contrast we will use dark stained finish(Thatch) on island and pantries in mudroom.

Countertop:
We want to have a lighter tone granite counter, so two options are Blanco Gabrielle and Creama Pearl. Blance Gabrielle seems to be brighter(not sure if it is true for every slab) and a little bit more expensive.

Appliance:
We are cheap, so we won't put fancy high-end appliance because when we resell the return on appliances are low. Kitchenaid is what we choose, two dishwashers on both sides of the sink(single bow under-mount SS), one french door fridge and one mini beverage fridge on the ends of 'L' shape counter. Standard range and hood.

Comments (20)

  • wamot
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Design layout

  • wamot
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    3D view of kitchen from family room. Doorway/Opening on left leads to living/dining room, window and door on right opens to backyard patio. Doorway/opening by the fridge leads to mudroom/garage/powder room.

    This post was edited by wamot on Thu, Apr 24, 14 at 21:34

  • wamot
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    3D view of kitchen by island

  • wamot
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    3D view of kitchen by fridge

  • wamot
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    3D view of mudroom (I am thinking either make the wall cabinet above the bench larger or get rid of it).

  • wamot
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Granite countertop option one: Blanco Gabrielle

  • wamot
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Granite countertop option two: Creama Pearl

  • live_wire_oak
    9 years ago

    Are you open to changes? There's a lot of room for improvement. Sales ALWAYS happen. Don't be in a rush to order. Besides, Lowes isn't always the cheapest even with the discounts. I regularly beat them with Kemper, which is the same exact cabinet line with a different label.

  • wamot
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    live_wire_oak,

    Thank you for the input! Yes, we are open to changes. The promotion goes till next week. I had very good experience with Lowe's for our last kitchen/house, and we are lazy......so I go right back to them.......

  • itsthedetails
    9 years ago

    We ordered Schuler Cabinets from Lowe's on Feb 14th, we received a call from them at the end of Feb that our order had not been placed, went back in on Mar 2nd, they had to refund us, and reorder, at this point our cabinets were about $2500 cheaper due to there mix up. Cabinets came in at the end of March. We have all of the uppers installed, and all of the lowers in place, my pantry did not have the roll out drawers like I wanted. It must of got deleted on the Mar 2nd order (one of the reasons for the lower price).
    The face on one of the drawer fronts is not straight, and the pantry drawer is warped, we talked to the kd and she wanted us to send pictures to her, I am going to take them off the cabinets and bring them in for her to look at.

    Lowe's is always having a sale. I do like the cabinets that you have chosen. Cant wait to see photos, I also live in a 1939 cape cod house with wood shakes. We removed the dining room wall and went with a white shaker style full overlay.

  • wamot
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    ItsTheDetails,

    Sorry to hear about the problem you encounter with Schuler. I had the impression Schuler is the best line Lowe's carry, I think they will take care of it. What type of wood you chose for your kitchen?

    I think one good thing about Lowe's is you can always find them, and generally they honor the warranty for parts and labors.

  • wamot
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Clock is ticking......I am excited.......

  • Gooster
    9 years ago

    Besides the advice to wait to get more feedback on changes, you should provide a little more detail on where the adjoining doors lead to, and what are the distances between your major elements.

    It seems to me your overhands are shallow and the distance behind the island may be the constraint. What is your countertop to countertop distance in your main work aisle and the one in front of the fridge?

    The reason I ask is that I have the exact general shape of my kitchen but my width is about 10 inches wider. Even so, I'm just about at the minimum recommended widths for each element. I'm thinking you are narrower.

  • wamot
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    gooster,

    Thank you for your input. The counter-to-island distance is 36'', fridge-to-island distance is 42'', island(stool side)-to-window distance is 50''. It will be a one cook kitchen, so we planned to leave smaller space between counter and island.

    The door by fridge leads to mudroom/garage/power room. The door by the mini fridge leads to living/dining room. The door by the large window leads to backyard patio.

  • Gooster
    9 years ago

    I'm surprised some of the experts have not chimed in. I will related the following, from having a similar general layout.

    I see 137.5"-25.5"-36-50"= 26". I'm guessing this means that you have 50" from the wall to the base of the cabinet. In reality, you will have at least a 12 inch overhang (preferably 15" or more). This cuts your pathway down to 35-38". This will mean that when people are seated, it will be tight to get around, even with backless stools.

    If you are fine with all that, I would still move that beverage fridge to the very end. This will allow you to avoid thirsty intruders getting in your work triangle, and will put storage opposite the sink and the DW. I have enough room so that when the DW door is down, I can open drawers opposite and put stuff away (mind is on the perimeter).

  • lynn_r_ct
    9 years ago

    The minute you tell your KD you are not sold on the layout and you will have to pass on the 10% discount I guarantee he will come up with some other line to lock you in and get a deposit. The ladies (or men) are correct, there are many changes that could be made to your design to make it more functional and attractive. There are a million KD's out there vying for your business so don't be afraid to walk away from any of them. There are more around the corner with better ideas and better prices.

  • herbflavor
    9 years ago

    you don't need a designer for the plan......it's a straightforward enough design you can certainly shop pricing and purchase online-conestoga/etc and probably beat the price you've been given. firstly-the long wall run is too lacking in visual. either alter the bottom heights by shortening a cabinet or two/or omit a cabinet and place open shelves or insert a glass doored cabinet or two. Two dishwashers? what for?One newer dishwasher will be ample-they hold a ton...besides you said it was a one person kitchen. I'd pick a granite with a lot of movement and then bear in mind backsplash at the same time of counter choice..... that is where you will want your individuality to show...[ because of the straight forward layout]..... do you have under cab lighting chosen..very important.I'd do two different woodspecies[light and dark] and skip all the footage of painted cabinets as your budget eating monster. Spend on more expensive counters and backsplash.You said you were cheap and lazy-tough traits when doing a kitchen remodel. For this plan, shopping online for cabinets would be my first expenditure of serious effort and some time.

  • greenhaven
    9 years ago

    I am totally with herbflavor on that long run of uppers. It has no character! My first thought was also doing some in glass, or even eliminating some of them.

    I also second moving that beverage fridge to the end.

  • live_wire_oak
    9 years ago

    The absolute FIRST thing I'd suggest is getting that sink off of the island. Most people want to use the island for prep space, but your prep space is facing the wall there, with the cleanup behind you. Reverse that.. Put the sink on the wall, and then put the beverage fridge at the end of the island facing out towards the room. If you can get a window there on that wall to put the sink on, all the better. There are several other tweaks for the kitchen area that I could suggest, depending on your ability to do plumbing and electrical changes.

    For the mud room, put the bench between two pantries so it's enclosed. It's what I did here in my Kemper Echo display, and it makes a cozy getaway spot as well as a great spot to take off shoes.

    [Transitional Laundry Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/transitional-laundry-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_753~s_2112) by Other Metro Kitchen & Bath Designers ProSource Memphis

    [Transitional Entry[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/transitional-entryway-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_741~s_2112) by Other Metro Kitchen & Bath Designers ProSource Memphis

    [Transitional Entry[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/transitional-entryway-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_741~s_2112) by Other Metro Kitchen & Bath Designers ProSource Memphis

    [Transitional Entry[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/transitional-entryway-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_741~s_2112) by Other Metro Kitchen & Bath Designers ProSource Memphis

  • wamot
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    live_wire_oak,

    Thank you for sharing your idea. The main reason we put sink on island is that we can have the view of backyard and family room instead of wall....

    For mudroom, I think we are going to take the bench out and put larger pantry.