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berryjam

Snag!! I need to change my prep sink location

berryjam
9 years ago

Dear GWers,

I have posted my kitchen here in the past and have had such wonderful help. Now there's a new snag...I can't put my "prep" sink where I intended, towards the side of the island, but with a 18" trash on the outside. My air ducts run under that section of cabinets and can't change it.

I will have to check to see if I can place it where the trash is and have it at the corner. But I'm worried about splashing and would probably prefer to have counters on both sides of the sink.

I can place it in the middle of the island and have 36" counters on both sides. But I lose a nice big work space by chopping it in half.

Or I can place it where the DW is and shift everything over. However that puts the DW across from the cooktop (mind you I put the dishes away in the morning and load as I go). So putting in a dish into the DW while cooking shouldn't be too troublesome. But would there be splashing by the overhang (where I envision the children are sitting doing homework or drawing? Also I'm used to the sink on my left so this feels awkward...but maybe I'll just get used to it.

Which position is better? Thanks for your help.
Jams

Sent from my iPad

Comments (9)

  • kirkhall
    9 years ago

    Where is your dish storage planned to be? and, what do you think you'll use the 2 sinks for? (is there a reason not to prep on the back run of cabinets?)

  • berryjam
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I plan to have my dishes in the 30" cabinet to the right of the hood and the cereals and snack to the right of that. Spices and dried noodles will go in the cab to the left of the hood.

    The way I plan to use the sinks:
    The one on the perimeter is for washing pots and pans and probably draining pasta. The one on the island is my main sink, where I will prep and wash veggies, maybe a quick rinse of the dish before going into the dishwasher. I'd probably want to wash my cutting board there too so I don't need to traipse it across the aisle and where I'd put the water filter system.

  • kirkhall
    9 years ago

    Mmmm. If dishes will go above in the uppers, then I think you can get away with swapping your sink and DW. If you had lower drawers (those 24s) that you had planned to put the dishes in, then, it might not work. Sometimes, I know when I am unloading the DW, a cup gets overturned (plastic, kids) and is full of water. And, I usually drain it back into the sink. If you are standing between the swapped DW and the dish storage cabinet, you will be on the wrong side of the open DW to toss anything back into the sink. Will that be okay? Do you have that problem ever?

    I think if it were me, I'd try to move the DW to where your Sink is drawn, then slide the trash/sink block to the (image's) left as a block. So, from right to left as you are standing at the prep sink it would be: Overhang, 18" prep tools, 24" sink, 24" DW, and final cabinet. Can your trash and your prep tools be combined? (do you have many prep tools?)

    Alternatively:
    From left to right this time instead:
    18 prep tools over the air supply, 24 sink, 24DW, 18 trash, 12 over hang? The disadvantage of this one is it is difficult to have your DW open to deposit dirty dishes while prepping.

    Another option:
    Can you move the DW to beside the pot sink? I think you could do 24DW, 12 something, cooktop, 12 something to match, 24 base, 30 base... might line things up a bit?

  • berryjam
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks for all the suggestions kirkhall. I should make a poster of: when I was a kid, I learned everything I know from GW....
    I know it's not conventional here but I wanted to keep my DW on the island and not by the pot sink. Currently my kitchen is in another location and I prep right over my DW on a peninsula. That allows me to face the children and when they bring me their dishes from the table, I just load it up and it's out of site. I don't want to have to turn around and then walk to the perimeter and then load the dishes. Then after dinner, someone (eh hem, DH) can clean the pots and pans while I (and eventually the children) can load dishes and no one is in anyone's way.

    I do have a lot of plastics that don't dry that I toss into a dish rack, which is why I like the DW closer to the pot sink as I plan for the little spot left of that area to be the drying area (I may try the tea towels vs dish rack after the renos)

    But maybe someone else can share their experience with how they prep and load the DW (that is away from their "main" work area) and see if I'd like the DW on the perimeter. However, this still leaves me the option of sink in the middles with 36" cabs on both sides, or the sink beside the overhang. Which would you rather?

  • laughablemoments
    9 years ago

    Your island setup is somewhat similar to what we ended up doing in our farmhouse kitchen. I strongly advise you not to put the prep sink in the middle of the island. You'll find that it interferes too much with the workspace. It will be an obstacle every time you try to work at the island counter.

    What about putting the trash in the 15" x 24" cabinet that's in the island across from the fridge? Then you could scoot the sink closer to the fridge, but still leave some landing space for items going from fridge to sink. This would give you a bigger cabinet for your prep tools and other items used at the island in the space that's left by sink-scootching. It would give you a wider swath of prep space that I think you'll appreciate, and it will keep the splashes away from the island sitters on the far edge of the island.

    Here is a link that might be useful: I explain how I came to the sink location in our island in my reveal

  • _sophiewheeler
    9 years ago

    You've got your zones backwards and crossed.

    Put the wall oven next to the fridge and put the main cleanup sink to the right of the range with the DW there. A cleanup zone HAS to have a DW to work as intended.

    Then move the prep sink down all the way as far to the left on the island as you can with the trash between the sink and fridge, across from the cleanup. That makes it accessible to both the cleanup zone for scraping, and the prep zone for all of that trash.

    Right now the perimeter sink isn't useful, and the island sink is actually the cleanup sink because that's where the DW is located, so that is where the dirty dishes will get dumped. People will be walking all over you and through your zones while you are trying to work.

  • kirkhall
    9 years ago

    I think it is fine to prep at the prep. But, I'd want my DW nearer my "cleanup" sink (as hollysprings has pointed out). Even if DH will be doing the pots/pans, he can do that with the DW open as the kids put their dishes in.

    I think your current kitchen thoughts are planning for a very short period of time (as in, right now--when your children still require your help to take care of their dishes). Soon, they will be big enough to easily rinse and deposit their dishes into the clean up sink, or straight into the DW.

    I get understand where you are coming from, but we are just now coming out of that stage of family (where I have to help with everything. And, I totally get your need to fill the DW--my DH isn't very good at it at all!) But, it belongs, properly, where Holly suggests.

  • berryjam
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Laughable, I love your home. I think what you and your husband have created is wonderful. Makes me green with envy that your DH is so handy, after all Handy Smurf was my favourite. I really like your suggestion to have the trash on the side and the sink at the end. However I just measured that I only have about 12" before the 24" duct run. I don't know if the 12" is enough to run pipes and drains and maybe place a left draining sink there?

    Now that you've had your DW in the island, would you do it again? Or would you move it to the clean up sink?

    Holly and Kirkhall, thanks for your input. Kirkhall, you probably have it right that I'm only seeing the now and that I load the DW and do most everything for my children. However, I like the placement of the ovens and like the counter by the fridge for the beverage centre. If I keep my sink in the current spot, would you have the DW to the right of the clean up sink, then 12" cabinet then cooktop?
    I can't currently put it on the left because there's a small duct running in that corner (waiting to hear back if it can be rerouted) but also I only have 22" clearance on that wall before the bow window starts.

    Or another option I was thinking was to nix the overhang on that small section of the island (ie only one seat on that side), put the DW at the end of the run, then the prep sink, prep tools/in-counter compost and then trash. Thanks again for your help

    Jams

  • laughablemoments
    9 years ago

    Thank you for your kind words! : ) If you have the freedom to follow Hollyspring's suggestions, I'd do that in a heartbeat. Your kitchen will function more smoothly this way. She's right, all of the cleanup stuff gets dumped in our island sink, which is supposed to be my prep sink. Argh. Our kitchen was too far along when I learned what I know now, to make the proper changes. We second-bested a lot of things for the sake of expediency in finishing the kitchen. Yes it works, but not as flawlessly as it could have if we had had it designed for proper flow in the first place.

    Try to think through a variety of scenarios, including ones with say, a 10 and 14 year old on site. You want them to be able to come into the kitchen, get out a plate for a snack, put something in the microwave, get a fork or spoon, grab a drink, etc, all while you are preparing a meal, cleaning up, making a dessert, you name it.

    I will say that I do like facing out when I'm cleaning up if there are other people sitting at the counter or in our front room. I like facing my family when chopping veggies. I like facing them when I have my griddle or electric frying pan plugged in at the island. I don't like having my back turned when talking to people. That drives me crazy, actually. I'd probably have Everything on the center island, if I could. LOL