Designing kitchen around stove

[elizabethj]

I have posted previously that I am a new Chambers owner (yellow A). I bought the stove to go with my "new" old house which I have lived in all of 2 weeks. In fact, the Chambers was my first aquisition for the house. And here's the thing: I now get to design a whole kitchen around it! I will be starting from scratch. In fact, the present kitchen (teeny-tiny) will remain where it is as a mudroom, utility room, etc. and the present dining room will become the kitchen. I will work with salvaged cabinetry (yet to be chosen) a hoosier and baker's cupboard that I already own, and then go looking for all the other bits and pieces (lighting, countertop, etc) at various salvage shops. I don't think I am going to go overboard on the retro 1940's kitchen look, but definitely some major touches. Probably end up ecclectic like the rest of my 1850's house! I am looking into a Big Chill retro fridge though. Anybody got one to go with their stove? I thought of a re-conditioned real 1940's fridge, but really do want energy efficiency and all that. What would you all do by way of design ideas and refrigerators?

Elizabeth J

[ha_asfan]

The first thing you need to do is to make an inventory of all your cooking appliances and tools, a complete inventory. You have to know and understand your storage needs, bags, boxes, cans and or jars ? You need to decipher your work routine and habits. In an earlier post, I suggested using a tripod mounted viedo cam to record your kitchen activities then to watch yourself in action to see how often you repeat tasks, how you lift and store items.....it can be very helpful to see yourself in action. this will help you with the kitchen layout and storage requirememtns. On base cabinets, eliminate as many doors as possible and replace them with drawers. Counter top materials, in a perfect world, you would have three seperate zones, one wood counter, one stone counter and one metal counter. Wood for chopping, stone for baking and metal for general and wet work. If you can avoid an island, do so and instead use a work table that can double as an eating table. Wall mounted cabinets and base cabinets should be height adjusted to suit your height. Under cabinet Xenon lighitng is the ultimate over all task surfaces. Be very careful of fixture placement if using recessed lighting and avoid standard flood lamps, go for higher output Halogen lamping. Flooring materials should be either Cork, Linoleum or wood. Linoleum is NOT VINYL, do not confuse the two. Cabinet pulls should be large enough to easily grab and hold with slippery hands and should be void of ornamentation that will grab and hold dirt. Provide a minimum of 18" clounter space on both sides of range, the same amount on both sides of the fridge, if possible. New fridges use more energy, do not maintain the freshness of food, are noisier, not as well built and do not work as well as the vintage fifties fridges. Vintage fifties fridges that have been "redone" with all new innards, forget it, go for the original where you can keep mushrooms for thirty days without drying out and apples for half a year with no problems. Remember, every thing has a place and if it isn't in it's place, it's not happy. Other than that, designing a kitchen is a snap and breeze !

[annnt]

Hi Elizabeth;
Look back to some not too long ago posts about vintage fridges. There is some good discussion there about energy efficiency, etc. Those Big Chill fridges are pretty pricey and you could get a totally overhauled authentic vintage fridge for less than that.
I'm starting my search for a vintage fridge. I hate the new Kenmore that I got for our kitchen.
Welcome to the board and congrats on the yellow A. I have a yellow BZ and love it!
Ann

[ha_asfan]

the words "tripod" and "action" were deleted...in case they are again, the words are tri_pod and Akshon....love the censorship here...too funny. For a vintage fridge, run ads in your local papers and shop craigslist.org

[BlueBeetle]

I don't know that they're actually deleted, Ha_asfan -- they show up as hypertext links on my browser. The words are there, but you can click on them and they'll take you to another page. Perhaps check your browser settings?

[Ms V]

I think we need a new sub-folder in our Chambers Virtual Convention, re: Living Chambers Kitchen or something. We need to save all these excellent posts on kitchen design and appliance hints...V

[nortonsmom]

I bought the Big Chill Fridge....and I love it. I had a 1943 Montgomery Ward - still do....it needs new door gaskets but runs like a champ - it even kept stuff cold altho the gasket REALLY needs to be replaced.....It was quite small compared to the new fridge. Old fridge in Husbands workshop - new fridge in Wifes! Our house is a 1910 bungelow(sp) I'm keeping the old sink - 2 drain boards-single basin and am looking or 1" hex tile and subway tile to do the countertop and backsplash - it currently is boards wrapped in metal - not clean or attractive. We are keeping the cabinets and repainting and had the wood floors refinished. I also have a hoosier which is great for storage and additional work space. Our kitchen is alittle eclectic but I like it. I'm also looking for an old fan to vent exhaust if anyone knows of where I might find one, let me know. This is our 4th house and hopefully the last! Its also my favorite kitchen so far! Love my stove!! Great to cook on and in!

[nortonsmom]

I forgot to say that it took about 3 months for it to arrive so try to plan accordingly! their customer service was pretty good too.

[RobbiQuest]

Nortonsmom, your kitchen sounds lovely. Think you can you e-mail me some pictures of it particularly of the stove? I would love to include them on our "Kitchens" section of the Virtual Convention:

[url="http://chambersvirtualconvention.com/showroom_kitchens1.htm"]http://chambersvirtualconvention.com/showroom_kitchens1.htm[/url]

Everyone else too: if your kitchen isn't profiled on the Convention site, I would love to have some pictures (and dialog). I think we all enjoy seeing how one another got our stoves to blend in - being the size and shape they are, that's not always so simple!

t.

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ March 04, 2006 11:14 AM: Message edited by: RobbiQuest ]</font>

[nortonsmom]

Robbiequest - thanks for asking! As it gets alittle further along, I'll email some pics - our house has an alcove off the kitchen that was specifically built to house a large stove - its supposed to keep the heat out of the house -there's windows with pull chains on either side and a old opening for a chimney....not sure how this will all work out, but, it will! The stove is currently near where its going and in use, but when it gets there I'll take some pics....should be done by then (I hope) !
Mel