Name: Dave & Jenn
Location: Near Columbia U., NYC
Favorite Kitchen Stores
- AF Supply
22 West 21st Street (Flatiron Building)
(make an appointment - seems to be mostly for designers. Best display
of faucets, sinks and basins you can imagine. Be sure to check out the
$5,000 japanese toilet in their public bathroom.)
Bridge Kitchenware
(this place teems with character and quality. Feels like you are
walking through cookware history)
Pitch:
Our kitchen does a good job of combining living space with effective food space.
Our computer sits at the breakfast counter, so we check scores, email, blogs as we drink our coffee. It controls all the music in the apartment, so it, along with the chalkboard above the stove, is the information center of our home. But all the wood and old furniture keeps it from feeling geeky.
Before making any changes, we lived in the space for about two years and continually discussed where everything should ultimately go, and that resulted in good design decisions....
3 Compelling kitchen cooking/design tips:
- 1.) Buy a copy of "Great Kitchens: At Home With America's Top Chefs" by Taunton Press. It has pictures of the home kitchens of professional
chefs along with surprisingly interesting interviews about the design decisions that the chefs made when they chose the design for their home kitchens. Tom Douglas's kitchen is especially rocking.
Pitch Cont'd
...All our kitchen tools hang ready to be grabbed - like a mechanic's shop. Magnetic strips behind the counter keep knives at hand. Hanging pots and pans to the top, left of the counter are easy to reach and cook with.
We built a food pantry that slides out next to the fridge to gain storage space, and built a matching bookshelf above the fridge to keep cookbooks handy. The canvas "bag for bags" to the right of the cabinets holds Fairway grocery bags for our trash.
Little design decisions that keep these things at hand without cluttering our space has meant more in day to day living than any big decisions we've made about what appliances to buy and such.
Tips Cont'd
2.) Live in your space for as long as you can before making major changes and keep a running dialog going about what should be where.
3.) Download a copy of the cool, easy-to-use CAD program "SketchUp"
from www.sketchup.com You'll be able to sketch out ideas for cabinets, counters, bookshelves, furniture arrangements and the like very quickly. The process helps you to communicate your ideas with others (your partner, your coop board...) and justify them to yourself.
Just a quickie because I don't have much time to comment but I Luuuurve Sketchup! Not only does it do what it says it does on the box (well, if there was one it would) but it is one of the most intuitive pieces of software ever created!
Thanks for the top on Sketchup - I'll check it out.
I think your kitchen appears very functional for what limited space/appliances you have. But I bet non-NYers will think it is almost more of a kitchenette than a full kitchen. Is limited counter space a problem?
Hi... thanks for sharing your kitchen (I'm a big fan of the computer in the kitchen tip!). Can I ask you about the sketchup program -- did you just use their free trial? Or did you actually buy the thing ($475). I'd love to hear more about how you used it.
I want to put a rug in my kitchen. Do you find that it's hard to keep clean?
For such a tiny amount of space, I would have put up more kitchen/wall cabinets. The hanging pots, while handy, are too cluttered for me. I don't necessarily want to look at my stuff all the time. Ditto for the open shelf and the pantry.
I would have cut the stainless-steel fridge and spent more money on cabinets.
Also, when you have limited space -- go UP! Stack those shelves to the ceiling, baby! You're not using a lot of space there.
I appreciate that a fair amount of thought went into this kitchen and that resulted in some great details like the pantry next to the fridge. But somehow the end result still feels kind of haphazard to me. Nice ingredients that for some reason don't add up to a whole.
The layout seems really awkward to me, but I can't quite figure out where the pieces are in relation to each other from the two pictures... I agree that you have to live and settle into a place before you start buying things, especially in a small space.
I've experienced this space in transition and completed, and it's definitely underrepresented in these photos.
Awesome job in creating a cozy space in what others would just see as an apartment hallway...
The chalkboard looks awesome. I would be afraid of chaldust in the food and oil spatters on the slate. Do you find either of these to be problems?
Great use of space and materials.Awesome pull-out shelves next to refrigerator and nice bookshelf above.
Of all the entries you gave the best tips by far. I would love to see a more closeup picture of your hanging pots as I need to do this in my very very very small kitchen.
I cannot see what is to the left of your stove. Do you have enough counter space?
Is the pantry on rollers? I am so intrigued. Thanks for sharing your kitchen!
This kitchen is amazing. I saw it when Jenn and Dave bought the place. Should have had a before picture- It was gross! It is very convenient to work in. Pictures do not show how great it is. Food storage cabinet next to refrigerator is beautiful andconvenient.
nice kitchen. i'm looking for a bottom freezer fridge in stainless like yours. who makes it? i have a height problem...most models are too tall.
What a convenience to have the computer in your kitchen!
Fantastic fridge!
Love that storage space next to it!