A Craftsman Kitchen?
I've been thinking a lot about kitchens recently. I've never liked our kitchen. It's small, cramped, and ugly. This week, I started getting bids to have our kitchen remodeled. The thought was that I would work on the millwork upstairs while some pros took care of the kitchen downstairs. I thought the first bid was a bit high at $20K, but the second one came in at a whopping $50K. It's looking more and more like I'll be doing most of the kitchen work myself.
Our Current Ugly Kitchen
Woof!
The plan is to move the kitchen from it's existing location in the southwest corner of the main floor to an adjacent room in the southeast corner. This new room was originally a bedroom and is a mere 12'x10'. But, that's the best we can do without building yet another addition.
I don't think I'm asking for a lot. I'm not hoping for a lot of whizbang, geewhiz, heart racing gizmodo. Just a place for cooking and storage. No island. No breakfast nook. There's no room. Just sink, fridge, range, cabinets, counter tops, and lighting. That's shouldn't cost a lot, should it?
I do want the kitchen to have a period feel. It may not look like a hundred year old kitchen (they were pretty sparse back then). But, I do want to borrow from the styles of the early 20th Century Bungalows. The new kitchen will have a simple, galley style layout with cabinets and counter tops on both sides. I would like mission-oak cabinets. I would like mini-pendant lighting (even though the low ceiling will provide a challenge). I would like a natural stone countertops (those DuPont creations clash with the all-natural Arts and Craft creed).
I know there are a bunch of books out there on the subject. I haven't bought any of them. I am just now beginning to go through our local library's collection. The library has plenty of books on the subject and some of them look promising, helpful.
I have time. I don't even want to start working on this until after the New Year. By then, I hope to be completely done with the millwork upstairs and will be able to focus entirely on our new kitchen.
Labels: craftsman bungalow kitchen
posted by Greg at Thursday, October 04, 2007
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2 Comments:
Greg,
I found your blog a couple weeks ago. It has taken me this long to get almost current. First, the topical comment.
You can do your own kitchen. Clearly, you have the cabinet-making skills, and all the NKBA info is online to teach you how much space to leave where; what heights are good, etc., in other words, what you need to make the kitchen work well ergonomically. It took me months of playing around, but I finally got a floorplan for ours that really works for two cooks in an 11 x 11 space. If I can do it, anyone can. Granted, we used IKEA cabinets, but this isn't our 'forever home', which leads me to my more general comment.
Reading your blog has been great. A year ago, we bought our future retirement property and shortly thereafter, I became acquainted with, and fell in love with, the Arts & Crafts/Craftsman style. It helped that the new place's bones fit. I began to work on research and ideas for carrying out work to give the new place an identity. That's how I found your blog. It has been a great help, and very inspiring. Thanks so much for posting in such detail, and with such good photos. Work in progress photos are plentiful, and these are the ones that really help others figure out how to tackle their own projects.
BTW, I have copied one of your photos of the kneebraces and pergola over the garage door for future reference.
Oh! Thanks you very much! I'm leaning towards making my own kitchen cabinets, but I'm putting it off until I can complete my son's room. So, the kitchen will have to wait until fall/winter.
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