kitchen design

Pearl Sutton wrote:A random kitchen design flaw I just tripped over in this rental. The height of the stove hood off the top of the stove is 22 inches. I'm doing canning, and the height of my canner + a quart jar + the jar lifter + my knuckles is 24 inches at absolute minimum, 26 inches would be a MUCH better height for a hood if you are canning. Worth considering.
Trying to not drop a hot canning jar when you bark your knuckles is difficult... I haven't dropped any yet, knock on tile!

We just bought our new house this past year, and I actually had to rip the microwave/ventahood combo out completely because none of my large pots fit. I found out that my pressure canner wouldn't fit at all the day the "new" fridge went out; I dug the canner out and started frantically prepping to preserve all I could, but discovered that the lid with the pressure rocker was at least three inches too tall. Aargh!

We actually ripped that monster microwave down that day. There was already a downdraft exhaust on the stove, so that didn't matter, and the microwave was one of those overengineered jobs that was supposed to microwave, brown, toast, and who knows what but actually didn't do anything at all very well.

After all the excitement died down I put in a mosaic on the back wall instead.

The disability issue is an interesting one. Right now, no one in the house is in a wheel chair.  We have an island, that can be easily removed or have its height lowered by 4 inches, that between it and the counter tops offers support for someone moving around the kitchen.  Large pans can easily be slid off the stove onto the countertop.  We have the sink near enough to the stove that the faucet, that is attached to a hose, can be used to fill a pot that is on the stove.

My wife does the bread making.  She is much shorter than I am.  The baking work station sits lower than the rest of the counter tops.

Our big design mistakes are that we dont have the stove vented to the outside and we wish we had either a larger sink or a second sink.

One cannot have too many cabinets or too large of a pantry.

L Allen wrote:

After all the excitement died down I put in a mosaic on the back wall instead.

That's a gorgeous mosaic!
Question though - what is on the bottom of the cabinet? Installing a metal sheet, preferably with heat resistant insulation in the small gap caused by the edges of the cabinet sticking a little lower than the bottom shelf, would be something I'd seriously consider. There are codes for how close "wood" can be to a hot surface for good reasons. Under normal operations, the gap seems plenty, but if a pot caught on fire, metal could make a difference.

Jay Angler wrote:L Allen wrote:

After all the excitement died down I put in a mosaic on the back wall instead.

That's a gorgeous mosaic!
Question though - what is on the bottom of the cabinet? Installing a metal sheet, preferably with heat resistant insulation in the small gap caused by the edges of the cabinet sticking a little lower than the bottom shelf, would be something I'd seriously consider. There are codes for how close "wood" can be to a hot surface for good reasons. Under normal operations, the gap seems plenty, but if a pot caught on fire, metal could make a difference.

Thanks for the suggestion; I hadn't thought of that.

I wonder if adding a layer of regular subway tile would help with fireproofing? I got a ton of it at a garage sale a couple of years ago, and part of the mosaic is made of it. I'd probably cut a sheet of decent ply to fit that space, and then tile it first and install it after it's grouted and sealed. The undercabinet is actually in really good shape, so minimizing damage to it would be a prioroty.

L Allen wrote:

I wonder if adding a layer of regular subway tile would help with fireproofing? I got a ton of it at a garage sale a couple of years ago, and part of the mosaic is made of it. I'd probably cut a sheet of decent ply to fit that space, and then tile it first and install it after it's grouted and sealed. The undercabinet is actually in really good shape, so minimizing damage to it would be a priority.

A tiled board would be heavier than you'd expect. Unless that cabinet is VERY structural, and it's fastened VERY well, it has high odds of coming down. My father was a master mason tilesetter, and he did the ceiling in our kitchen with light, thin tiles, and he did all kinds of serious structural stuff to it before he did. Over the stove would get a lot of day to day steam, and that loosens tile to start with.  

Personally, I'd go for metal. You could paint it with enamel paints, it'll look cute and be cleanable and fire resistant. And not inclined to come down.

:D

I have a rolling metal work table.  Well, it rolls now.  It didn't when I picked it up.  I have modified it a lot.  First up was stripping off all the old lead paint and who knows what else.  Then because the steel top still had a lot of stains that would not come off, I covered it with zinc (natural antimicrobial and neither of us are allergic) but could have done copper for the same reason.  I don't know what can leave a black greasy stain on steel that bleach, ammonia, or orange oil won't take off and I don't care to have any of that in my food,  We put locking casters on it so I can roll it around to work or clean under it.  Its just the right height for working with appliances like my stand mixer and food processor when I am really in full swing on processing stuff, be it food, hair gel or soap.  It adds a ton of storage for commonly used items and I recently put a lid rack on one side to hold all the lids for the pans.  It wipes clean and if all else fails I can roll it out to the back porch and hose it off.  Its definitely taller than the kitchen counters.  My last house had a kitchen built for someone very short.  The counters were a good height for me to make pastry but otherwise required a lot of stooping over which I hate.  

Another thing to consider in your kitchen is your flooring.  Yes, it is probably not very sustainable but the antifatigue mats are real boon if you have any feet, knee, hip, or lower back issues.  Even on a pier and beam foundation, having that extra cushion means that working in that area takes a lot less out of me at the end of the day,  If you check the local restaurants or going out of business sales you can get the industrial ones for a song and I have not had to replace them yet.  The dogs seem to like lounging on them and get rather put out when I give them the boot so I can start my project.  

 A step saving kitchen, 1949. My grandmother's kitchen had many of these improvements. I am super excited about the hole in the countertop next to the sink to drop compost items into the bucket below which can be retrieved from the outside wall of the kitchen. Many good ideas.