My kitchen needs help. I would love more working space. We were thinking of an island, but believe I dont have enough room with my dining table which I love. So we were thinking of ideas on how to rearrange it. We thought about moving the fridge, but cant decide where, we will or thought about also moving the pantry cabinets as well to the laundry room, the second door to the left. The 3rd picture shows the laundry room, so I thought about buying at some point stackable laundry washer and dryer unit and putting the pantry cabinet there where the dryer is now. That way I could expand with more cabinets above and below and have counter space all the way through that corner, where the fridge is and down that wall until hitting the window. But my problem is the fridge, I was thinking of moving it, to the living room, that corner where the staircase is to go upstairs, raising the wall behind the staircase and making that part of the kitchen, to put the fridge and removing that strip of carpet from wall to wall to keep the open space, basically making the kitchen a bit bigger and the living room smaller. The first door to the left thats closed is the entry downstairs to the basement , so cant move that. Not sure if the fridge would look to awkward behind the door of the entry for the basement. This is all I could come up with, so as you see I need help figuring out what would work. Please help me with ideas to make my kitchen more functional, I have very few cabinets and very little working space as well. thanks for your help. Ruth ( photo / image / picture from ruth's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from ruth's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from ruth's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from ruth's Garden )
You have more cabinets and counter space than I have in my kitchen. Moving the fridge that far away from your work area will not make the kitchen more functional, that will be a major inconvenience when preparing meals. Does that pantry store items other than food? Items like cleaning supplies, paper products and other non-food items? How about moving the fridge down to where the pantry is then add upper and lower cabinets from that corner to the side of the fridge. It looks like the new upper cabinets would be sufficient to take the place of the pantry as far as food storage goes. The pantry could be moved to the laundry to hold the non-food items or to the garage. Or instead of using the pantry at all, how about loading the wall above the washer and dryer with shelves to hold the non-food items. There is a whole lot of wall there and to the side of the dryer not being used to the the best advantage.
Toni, you're very good at visualizing things like this. I am not... All I can add is that in my last house I had a full size stackable washer/dryer and I loved it. Saved my back, better use of space. In case you were wondering about them.
Hi, the pantry holds basically sacks of flour, sugar, and canned goods, cereal and stuff like that. a few paper items like towels and stuff, but my concern in moving the fridge where the pantry is, is that you'll see the back of the fridge from the living room. what do you think? Also the side of the dryer, on the other wall is the door to the furnace room. I was thinking how to utilize the space on the other wall opposite to the washer/dryer, behind the stove, but seems that the room would be to small with the pantry or the fridge in the same room as the washer and dryer, (which from your idea, I believe, would make it very inconvenient as well when cooking),
I would relocate the pantry before I moved the fridge. It makes more sense spatially and functionally.
Moving some stuff into the pantry does make sense, but I'm not sure moving the fridge there would be a great idea as you will find yourself constantly going in and out, the other idea would be to buy separate fridge and freeze and then keep the freezer in the pantry with the fridge going into one of your cabinets. I like your idea of an island but I think you kitchen may be to small but there are smaller islands that you can get which are on wheels, they are maybe 4 foot square, which will give you more working space and you can push them out of the way when you want to make more room. Well hope you can figure something out
You could always get a china cabinet (maybe find one that goes well with your kitchen table and put it on the wall behind the table). That way you could display the dishes that are currently in your cabinets and free up some space there. I have found china cabinets to be decorative and functional!
I can think of 2 ways to increase your counter space. Option ONE is more economic with keeping your appliances where they are and you can add a kitchen peninsula to where you have the full height pantry. Option TWO involves moving the fridge and stove around in order to have an U-shaped kitchen. Hope it helps. ( photo / image / picture from dytecture's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from dytecture's Garden )
Wow dy- that looks awesome, actually. I like the second concept. I was going to recommend an island on wheels as well.
