Stillwater continues to wrestle with the various regulations and requirements to ensure my site plan is compliant, so I figured I can start moving other things forward that I eventually will be responsible for.
I’ve stated in past posts that I wanted to do a lot of the finish work in the house, especially in the kitchen. I’ve built many, many cabinets across most of my past homes (including full and partial kitchens) and definitely have a vision for this one that will bring all my experiences together. During this down time, I decided to get started on the design portion of my kitchen. Andrew at Stillwater was nice enough to send me the AutoCAD (.dwg) file of the floor plan, which allowed me to extract exact measurements so I can start getting a better sense of how my vision fits into the space.
Not too much to share yet, except a few really rough sketches below. The layout doesn’t vary too much from what Andrew had in the floor plan, so I consider this more of an evolution from a good starting point. I’ll continue to sketch more options (version 2 of wall sections, with version 3 of the island is below, along with a quick color rough of the wall appliance area), refine further, and eventually move into digital form, so I can really start to model the entire room and prepare materials lists, etc.
As for inspiration, I really like the simplicity and mix of the modern/throwback aesthetic of Kerf Design cabinetry, and am using them for my initial thoughts. Although, I’m undecided on the exposed plywood end grain, I love the frameless look of the cabinets and the pops of color laminate used on select faces and open cubby interiors. Although they cut a kerf into the frame to facilitate opening a drawer or door on most their cabinets, I would most likely cut an opening in the drawer or door front instead.
Lastly, to really get detailed on my design, I had to have an idea around fixtures and appliances. I haven’t gone deep into fixtures, but definitely have a preference on appliances. I’ve owned a Sub-Zero refrigerator in the past and have to say it was the best of the 20-odd I’ve used in my lifetime. I’ve also always admired Wolf’s commercial cooking appliances, and Sub-Zero purchased the residential side of Wolf back in 2000. They also added a line of dishwashers last year under the Cove brand. The nice thing about staying in ‘the family’ is how the appliances compliment each other, with respect to design, across each brand. So I’m definitely leaning in this direction and have started to layout my kitchen with the following as a starting point.
More to come as I get into detailed design and modeling out the space, but just wanted to document my initial direction and inspirations.