Design Rule No. 1: Determine how you plan to use your space.
That’s so annoying. If Dan and I knew how we would use the basement kitchen and bar area, we wouldn’t be standing here frozen as a twin Popsicle.
Before us is a large square chalked on the cement floor of our unfinished basement. Inside the words “kitchen/bar” are scrawled. We’re trying to figure out cabinet and appliance needs, but short a crystal ball and some tarot cards, we’re stumped.
Will we have lots of parties?
Will one of our kids have failure to launch and need to live in the basement?
Will an infirm in-law move in?
Will we need a fallout shelter? Furthermore, if we knew the future, we’d know which way the stock market was going and could afford a fancy kitchen designer.
Determine how you plan to use your space. Give me a break.
But we did know this: Our main kitchen is upstairs, so this would be an entertainment station for friends to share a drink, shoot the breeze and celebrate milestones. A place we’d line up pizza boxes for our daughters’ school parties. A place for community bonding, like when some guy tries to make a pass at either daughter, and Dan ties him into a pretzel.
We list the must-haves: a long bar top (for those pizzas), a sink, a small refrigerator, an ice maker, ample cabinetry, and a small dishwasher for bar glasses. But no oven or stovetop; cooking stays upstairs.
Our daughters chime in.
“Put another mini-fridge in the movie area,” one says.
“And a popcorn maker,” the other adds.
“This is our basement, not a carnival,” I say. “Next you’ll want a cotton candy machine.”
“Yeah, a cotton candy machine!”
“And a chocolate fountain!”
“And a beer keg,” Dan says.
“It’s not a frat house!” Dan gets elbowed — hard.
“Well, what do you want to add?” he asks.
“I was thinking of a microwave or an espresso machine.”
Groans all around.
“Fine, if I left this to you all, we’d build bedlam.”
“Yeah, bedlam!”
“What’s bedlam?”
Using chalk, we sketch where cabinets and appliances could go. We use large cardboard boxes marked “cabinet,” “ice maker,” et cetera to mock up the space. We waltz them around to test-drive different layouts.
“Stand by that fake sink and pretend you’re washing dishes,” I say to my oldest, and open the pretend dishwasher to check for clearance.
“I’m not doing dishes. Make her do it.” She shoves her younger sister in her place.
Dan opens the hypothetical mini-fridge and pretends to smack his shin. This continues until we agree, as much as my family can, on what will go where. We seal the plan with masking tape and a Sharpie, then start calling for estimates.
Now, we brace ourselves for Design Rule No. 2: Don’t spend more than you’re likely to get back.
That’s worse than Design Rule No. 1. .
Join me next week when “This Old House” carpenter Norm Abram offers cabinet selection tips
Cooking up a kitchen plan
Months after the kitchen/bar area is done, I call Tom Silva, general contractor on “This Old House,” and the person I would most like to have attached to my property, and ask how he’d map out a kitchen from scratch. His advice was too late to help us, but it might help you.
Mock it up. Once you have a plan on paper, outline it in the space with chalk or masking tape. Rough in cabinets and counters with cardboard, cheap plywood, or drop cloths. Outline prospective windows with tape. “Going from two-dimensions (on paper) to three lets you see your plan from a new perspective,” Silva says.
Move walls with caution. The cheapest way to expand your kitchen is to take space from the room next door. The easiest walls to knock out are interior non- bearing walls. It’s trickier, but possible, to move a bearing wall (structurally essential to shoring up your house), but first consult a structural engineer. Pushing out an exterior wall gets expensive. Saving alert: Keeping your remodel inside your footprint (the current foundation line) will spare a lot of expense.
Locate appliances carefully. It’s cost-effective to place wet stuff (sinks, dishwashers, refrigerators) on one wall, and hot stuff (ovens and cooktops) on another. If you live in a freezing climate, put the wet wall on an interior wall, or be sure water lines are inside the wall and cabinets, where they won’t freeze, advises Silva. Because stoves and ovens need to vent outside, consider putting them on an exterior wall. Before installing any venting appliance on an interior wall, see how floor joists run. Vent ducts can run inside the joist spaces to the outdoors.
Plan for ample counters. You want at least three: one for preparing food, near the refrigerator and cooktop; one for clean up, by the sink and dishwasher; and one for receiving food from the oven.
Be flexible. The unforeseen happens. When you open a wall and discover that a main plumbing pipe is in your way, you may need a Plan B.
“But don’t let one pipe design your kitchen,” Silva says. “Get a price to move the obstacle. It can range from surprisingly affordable to outrageously expensive.”
Anything can be changed — for a price.
