In my last post I showed you some beautiful kitchens designed by Vancouver designer Alana Johnston. In this post I decided to show you my modest kitchen design of my Vancouver condo.
I designed this kitchen 8 years ago when we undertook the major renovation immediately after purchasing our condo.
Unfortunately I do not have the “before” pictures of the kitchen but I will try to explain the previous kitchen layout so you could better understand the transformation of the present kitchen area.
The previous layout can be described as an “U” shape kitchen with a wall dividing the kitchen and dining area. The kitchen had sort of dropped ceiling in which several neon lights were inserted to create the illusion of the skylight. The sink was placed right in the corner, and this made it very difficult to do any dish rinsing and let alone any dishwashing.
To make it more efficient, I decided to get rid of the “U” shape layout and opted for an open kitchen concept. I got rid of the dropped ceiling and replaced the neon lights with several pot lights, and most importantly I made sure that I get rid of the pop corn ceiling which was imposing that seventies statement around the whole space.
While planning the layout I realized that in order to have an efficient layout I still needed some more square footage in the kitchen area, especially for that big ice maker fridge which I always liked to have in my kitchen.
In order to get some more cabinet space I decided to use the closet space in the hallway to place the big fridge. This worked very well as the placement of the fridge in that spot, beside creating an illusion of a big kitchen area, added that square footage that I needed for kitchen cabinets.
In the middle of the kitchen, right between the kitchen cabinets and the fridge I placed a tall bistro table and two leather chairs which we use as a breakfast area as well as a place to converse and have a glass of vine ( umm…maybe two) while preparing the diner.
Placing the fridge in the mentioned spot has left me with the possibility to supply the kitchen with a pantry cabinet, which is a must for any passionate cook like me. I make sure that this pantry is always well stuffed with all food staples so I do not miss anything when I try new recipes.
Adjacent to the pantry cabinet I placed the wall mounted oven and the microwave, and this kind of placement of kitchen cabinets added the space a very modern look.
I placed another tall wall cabinet adjacent to the oven and microwave cabinet, and I use it as a jar pantry where I keep various food staples and my favorite spices.
Since I was limited with the counter space I had to alter the two bottom cabinets to place the ceramic cooking range on top.
Instead of placing upper cabinets all around the walls, I decided to place a stainless steel hood over the cooking range so to ad a more appealing and modern look to the space. I left some spacing in between the wall cabinets and the range hood, and I think that, visually, it worked quite well.
The lazy Suzan cabinet is one of the spaces where I can place most of my odd pots and pans, and I love these two huge drawers where I keep my basic cooking set and storage containers which I use daily.
The lower kitchen door cabinets are solid wood, and the upper ones are combination of glass and aluminum. I intentionally opted for mixing the brown wooden kitchen doors with the glass and aluminum ones aspiring to achieve that “the traditional- meeting new” feel, and I was quite happy with the outcome.
I used the high legs for the lower cabinets and this makes it so much easy for cleaning. Some may argue that legged cabinets add up to some more cleaning, but I assure you that it does not take you more than 30-40 seconds to vacuum under the cabinets and you will feel exceptionally good knowing that everything is dust free in your house.
I used IKEA kitchen planer for creating this design, and I found it to be very useful and easy to use. I will definitely consider using this planner in my next kitchen design and I would recommend it to everyone.
I hope that you liked my design. Does your kitchen need remodeling or an update? What would you like to change in your kitchen? Share your thoughts and I can maybe help with my humble advice.
Thank you for reading.
Besa
BESA GM 