Cute kitchen. What's the trouble?
I got an e-mail from Moira. She writes:
My husband and I just bought our first place in good ole' North Carolina. It was built in 1900 and has beautiful hard wood floors in some rooms. The only drawback is that it only has 1000 square feet, and the washer, dryer, and hot water heater must stay in the kitchen. I was wondering if you had any ideas on how to incorporate those things into the space. Right now the washer, dryer, refrigerator, and hot water heater are all just lined up on a wall. (it really looks bad)! I am currently in school to become a physician assistant, so we are living only on my husband's salary. We would love to renovate the entire kitchen, but that is just not possible at the moment.
Ok, so one side's good and the other one not so. Koli's cute though!
So, my first thought was to shuffle the units around and put the fridge in the left corner and switch the orientation of the doors. That would leave all the lower units on one side. Unfortunately it's not possible because of the positions of dryer vents, water hook ups and electrical cords so here's what I suggest.
I'd remove the shoe cabinets on the left. I'd add counter-tops on either side of the fridge/freezer. The appliances are at different height and above normal kitchen counter-top height but I think it will ground this whole side by adding them.
Because the dryer is the tallest appliance I'd make a cut out at the back of the counter-top to allow for the back lip to appear behind so the whole counter-top doesn't have to be another 4 inches up. I'm sure there are some really deep heavy duty brackets available in the DIY store to which the counter-tops can be attached to so they are suspended above the appliances.
Above the counter-top which is slightly deeper than the deepest appliance, I'd add narrower shelves. I'd go for the same wood as on the chopping block next to the stove. I'd use white brackets so it will match what goes on on the other side of the kitchen. Another option would be to switch it around and have white shelves with wood brackets.
To hide it all away Moira can add a curtain in front of the lower appliances by adding a thin curtain rod or wire underneath the counter-top.
There. That's what I'd do. Any other suggestions for Moira?
