Lay out opinion. MW over cooktop

11 years ago

First, I am sorry that the images are so poor. I will try to explain the design. My kitchen is 12 1/2 x 25 feet. The PO not only put 96 inches of window (which I love) over the sink. She put a three door slider on the same wall, it measures 104 inches, but it is one the side that our table is on. So even though I should be able to say it is a decent size kitchen it isn't a very usable space.

The first pic shows the over all layout of the kitchen part of the room. The top shows the three windows with the sink (apron front) in a 36 inch sink base. To the left is roll out garbage with a lazy susan to the left of it to make the most of the corner space. On the right is the dishwasher with a lazy susan in that corner. Coming around the corner beside the LS is a 36 base cab with roll out shelves. I use my existing counter that is over that area as a serving station when we entertain, so it is important to me to keep that area.On the opposite side of that counter is the 3 door slider (I can't wait to replace it with a swing out French Door) and the table. We also have an additional dining area that adjoins our living room.The cook top (30 inch induction) is beside the left hand lazy susan. There is a 36 inch drawer base under the cook top. there is a small base cabinet beside that and then a shallow pantry finishes that wall.

Moving to the bottom of the drawing is the wall that contains a double oven and the refrigerator. He had the fridge against the side wall portion originally, I had him change it because I felt the wall would impede the free opening of the fridge door (it is cabinet depth). KD said it would be fine but I would have to pull the fridge out from the wall to remove the drawers. Geesh! I nixed that idea so he is switching the location of the fridge to the free side of the run and placing the oven against the small portion of wall that juts out. You can see that wall indicated at the bottom right of the drawing. There is a small island that has a mixer base with lift and another run of drawers in it. I did insist on having a small island as I have had a 42 inch square work table in the center of my kitchen for years and I use it often so I didn't want to give it up.

There is nothing much to note about the upper cabs but he did put one upper cab perpendicular to the run of cabinets on the right. Not sure that I will like this but it does give a bit more space.

Honestly as much as I disliked my old lay out, if I had known this was going to be so stressful I wouldn't have done this. It definitely was time to renovate but I am stressed to the max!

Comments (5)

KevinMP
11 years ago
I posted this on your other thread, but I'll repost it here, too.

I do not feel like over-the-counter microwaves are used for many things other than simple reheating and defrosting, and they have so many negatives. But if that's all you have to work with, it's all you have to work with, and it'll end up fine. I'll give you an example from my space. My house has a small kitchen (approximately 8.5' x 14'). When I bought it 2.5 years ago, the prior owners replaced the kitchen. Unfortunately, they had ordered the materials already so I didn't have much say. I lived with it for about 2 years and then switched out some of the appliances, added a wall unit/ marble counter, new backsplash, and, relevant here, ditched the OTC microwave.

The main problem with the OTC microwave is that it takes up so much visual and actual space. There is not enough cooking headroom and really even space for them, in my opinion, and they almost always have inadequate or overly loud fans (sometimes even unducted). Put a stock pot on your stove and envision where the microwave's bottom will be. Also, imagine a 14" high or so block sticking out from the wall nearly as deep a your counter and further than your upper cabinets.

So I replaced it with a modestly priced professional-looking stainless hood and bought a small Whirlpool microwave others on these boards have used too (WMC20005YD) and put it into one of the 18" pantry cabinets in my new wall unit (after having an electrician wire an outlet to it). I don't regret it at all. My kitchen looks far better than it did, and for not a lot of money.

Anyhow, here's an example of the difference.

Before:

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After:

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Holly- Kay
Original Author
11 years ago
Kevin, Thank you so much for taking time to post pictures! You are right. Your kitchen looks wonderful with your new hood. I don't mind another 500 to 1,000 for a hood but I do really hate to have to call my kd with yet another issue. I brought this up earlier in the process and he pretty much talked me into keeping the OTR MW. There is an appliance garage that I could keep a small mw in. I actually don't use one often but DH uses it nightly to soften ice cream. How do I know how powerful of a hood I need?
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debrak_2008
11 years ago
Remember the KD works for YOU. Tell him to stop until you give him further instructions.

Your kitchen does not look that small to me.

Can you take another photo looking straight down? Another easy option is to use graph paper. If you don't have any you can print some for free on line. Use a dark pen or a sharpie and draw out your kitchen layout. Label all measurements and note all windows, doors and other rooms.

I found using simple graph paper was the easiest.

I have a cheapo but "real" chimney style hood that was only $350 and works just fine.
Mgoblue85
11 years ago
Holly - don't worry about the KD - he will move on to another kitchen, but you will have to enjoy it, well...forever. Based on what you've said, I would opt for a "real" hood and put the MW elsewhere.
Holly- Kay
Original Author
11 years ago
The kitchen is 12 1/2 by 25 but only 12 of the 25 is the kitchen side. I have graph paper I am just really lousy at graphing. I will work on it tomorrow. The plan that you see is in a 12 1/2 by 12 foot space. I think maybe my kd was thinking to much inside the box!