We also need dining table chairs. The parsons chairs are staying but the ladder back chairs need to be replaced. DH thinks we should do parsons chairs all around to break up they wood but I'm not sure sure. I've linked the top contender below, but here are a few alternatives:

http://www.chdist.com/displayproductdetail.do?itemGroupOID=82817&baseItemOID=82817

http://www.restorationhardware.com/rh/catalog/product/product.jsp?productId=prod1608042&navAction=jump&navCount=0

http://www.potterybarn.com/products/aaron-barstool/?pkey=cbarstool

Here is a link that might be useful: CB basque

I guess it really depends on the space you have available. Full pull-outs only seem useful if they are quite narrow. The beauty of individual pull-outs is that you have access to the items from both sides, FRONT and TOP. I like pulling an item off the shelf without having a shelf above blocking access and light. In my mind, the full pull-out doesn't function much differently from fixed shelves except for giving access to 2 sides.

I used to love going into Ikea showrooms and opening the full pull-outs. They were fun and seemed so clever! But when it came time to choose a 15" wide Ikea pantry for our laundry room, I abandoned the full pull-out (which I really thought I wanted) for the practicality of the individual pull-outs. I couldn't think of a single functional reason for getting the full pull-out.

In our house, having drawers on the bottom of our kitchen pantry works well since only the bottom drawer is blocked if something is left on the floor in front of the pantry.

I keep my most used items in the front of our pantry shelves. I just have to open the cabinet doot to grab one of these items instead of pulling out anything.

BEFORE

So all I needed to do was rip the boards to width (I used a table saw, but you could probably use a circular saw and a straight edge.) And then carefully cut the boards to length (I used a sliding miter saw, but you could also use a miter box and a sharp hand saw, or a square and a circular saw.)

Most of the dividers are about 3 1/2" tall, but for the silverware dividers, I made them about 2" tall to make reaching the silverware easier.

I also considered making frames within the drawer like lowspark did, but I decided that I like the look without frames. Also even if I decide to remove the dividers, the holes made by the sharp prongs on the brass dividers are small enough that they'd probably never be noticed.

But why I'm going on here -- we have a trim carpenter friend who did our install, and he had brilliant ideas for tiny spaces. Instead of useless little end cabinets, he moved our fridge over 8" and gave us some extremely useful pullout pantry bins, for instance. Stuff I'd never have thought of:

So: I wonder if you might find more options with someone who thinks in terms of available space and wood, not so much a "designer" who wants to create a "look"?

You need to upload the image to a photo hosting site like Webshots or Photobucket. (Both of these allow you to set up an account for free.) Each has a fairly straightforward way to upload photos. Once the photos are uploaded, you click on the photo (and in Webshots you then click on Link to it); it shows the code for including an image in a post.

On this forum, use the code that starts with < a

Copy that code and paste it into your message here. Press Preview to make sure it worked (you should see your photo in the preview.) I'm saying 'photo' but the same process is for any graphic file, e.g. a scanned image of your layout, etc.

I don't think your 5 cans are going to cut it. Let me explain why.

The most basic measures of a light bulb's output is unit of measure is "lumens." This is a measurement of the total amount of light that makes it out of the bulb, regardless of which direction it's heading in. Lumens are useful for knowing how much ambient light the bulb is capable of putting into the room, to bounce around off the walls, floor, ceiling, cabinets, counters and everything else in the room.

The next most useful measurement of light output is "candlepower." This is a measurement of just how much light, or how many lumens, come out of the bulb heading in a particular direction. This is useful when you've want to calculate how much light, emanating directly from the bulb, will fall on a surface some known distance away from that bulb.

Because I know how high your ceiling is, I can look at the candlepower statistics for various 50PAR30 bulbs and know how much light one of them can put onto the countertop directly below. I can adjust the spacing of fixtures to achieve a particular level of light on the work surfaces the cans are pointed at.

Because I know the overall dimensions of the room, I can make a rough guess of the area of all the surfaces in it. Light, conveniently quantifiable in lumens, leaves each fixture and lands on some surface in it's path. Some of it is absorbed into that surface, becoming heat energy, but much of it ricochets off and hits something else. This indirect light, bouncing around the room, is what I'm calling "ambient." It lets you see all the stuff you didn't intentionally point a spotlight at. The amount of ambient light you need depends on the area of various surfaces in the room, which need to be illuminated and which also gradually absorb the light and turn it into heat. It also depends on how rapidly the specific surfaces in your room tend to absorb light - largely a function of color - and also on your particular preferences, which might, in turn, depend on your own aesthetic taste, age and visual health. Unless you say something like "I want it really bright" or "I have black cabinets," I base my suggestions on average situations and my own preferences: I'm 36 and have a bit of astigmatism, I know how much light my kitchen fixtures produce, and I know that I wish I had a bit more artificial lighting than I do. Using these figures, I extrapolate how many lumens I'd want in a kitchen the size of yours. Since I know how many lumens each bulb generates, I can make a good guess about how many I should put in your room.

So, on to your room.

For a room the size of yours, I think the lumen output of all the fixtures should add up to something like 5800 total lumens. I'm not including the sink or UC lights in that number because I don't want you to have to turn on every light in the room in order to get decent light. You've simplified my job by indicating the size and wattage of the bulbs you'll be using, so I don't have to choose. A 50WPAR30, according to my trusty Sylvania catalog, puts out 660 lumens. This tells me I want to find places to put at least nine of them in your room.

I also know the ceiling heights. The height at the edge of the sink-side cabinets should be around 105", and at the edge of the stove-side cabinets it's about 135".

On the lower-ceilinged sink side, using 50PAR30/NFL25 (narrow flood, 25 degree beam angle), we can space cans 36" apart and have 60 footcandles of light on the counters. To achieve the same light level on the higher-ceilinged stove side, using the same bulbs, they'll need to be 25" apart.

It's easy enough to put four cans on the sink side. Two to the left of the sink, one to the right and one over the sink works well. I run into a problem on the stove side, though. The 60 footcandle (quite bright) target depends the pools of light from adjacent fixtures overlapping quite a bit, because one lone light from 135" high is only going to be able to put, at most, 34 footcandles on the counters, and that's not so great. The problem is that there's really only room for one light on each side of the range, which means no overlap, which means 34 or fewer footcandles rather than the hoped-for 60. I wish those fixtures could use a 60PAR30, which would do nicely without the overlap. But they don't, and I don't know what to tell you other than you'll be depending on your hood lights and UC lights when you work on that side, so make sure they're good.

Anyhow, this is what I came up with...

That should give you lots-o-light on the sink side and so-so light on the stove side unless the UCs are on. The two cans out towards the middle will fill in light on the floor, which would otherwise be a bit dim, and also add ambient light to help hit my target.

Out of curiosity, what's on that blank wall to the left?

The formula I used is total sq ft * lumens per sq ft / lumen output per fixture.

(16 * 12) * 35 / 600 = 11.2
Assumptions
35 lumens per sq ft for kitchen space.
600 lumens output per recessed fixture.

HTH

Here is a link that might be useful: Custom Craft Counters

Meanwhile, here's her finished kitchen thread from November 2008...

Thread: I'll bite the bullet and share - 1 yr later - almost finished

Here is a link that might be useful: FKB: Loves2Cook4Six's Kitchen

An added advantage of Omega Dynasty is that most door styles are also in the Omega Custom line so if you need a Custom cabinet or two, you can "mix & match"...use the less expensive Dynasty semi-custom line for most cabinets and just use the Custom line for the cabinets when they're either only available in Custom or if it costs less to get a Custom cabinet than modify a Dynasty cabinet.

One thing...it's expensive to get soft-close for cabinet doors, so I recommend not getting the soft-close for the doors and adding the a soft-close damper after-market...that's what we did. However, get the soft-close drawers (they were standard on ours, so I suspect they'll be standard for you as well). Soft-close drawer hardware is built into the drawer glides so to replace non-soft-close drawer hardware later would require all new drawer glides.

Dampers installed after-market:

Entire kitchen

We used half the cabinet for the tv (a small 15" tv) and the other half for baking/roasting pan storage.

1. Appliances
   
   • Stainless Range- 6 burner, gas-like functionality of induction but do not like look as much so will probably go with gas). Put against short wall or corner
     
   • Stainless Fridge (French door?). Put where washer is now.
     
   • Double Oven/Warming Drawer- may leave out second oven if micro is large with convection
     
   • Microwave
     
   • Wine fridge
     
   • Stack washer/dryer
     
   • Farm sink- large single basin


2. Counters
   
   • Granite
     
   • Prep sink (silgranit? Ss?) in Island with foot pedal across from range


3. Cabinets
   
   • Glazed, raised panel detail, furniture look, off-white glazed for main – full overlay with hidden hinges or inset- details and finish important
     
   • Cabinets full extension and soft close.
     
   • Upper cabinets 13 – 14 inches
     
   • Cabinet- preference for deep drawers under counters vs. doors
     
   • Iron knobs- vintage look
     
   • Possible slight bump out on farm sink cabinet
     
   • Darker glazed wood island (maybe knotty alder)
     
   • Darker glazed wood office/cocktail area on wall that is currently blank- need hiding charging station for LOTS of cameras/ipods/cell phone, etc.
     
   • Appliance Garage- unless corner panty
     
   • Lots of embellishments/corbels/cab feet
     
   • Tall cabinet for cutting boards and cookie sheet
     
   • Drawer for knives
     
   • Drawer for bread
     
   • Cabinets to ceiling (39 inch with 4 inch crown)
     
   • Lights under cabinets, round pools of light on dimmers
     
   • Electrical outlets under mounted-plugmold- unless appliance is perm plug in, don’t like dangling cords. Should consider sillite or plugmold for island? How to plug in warmers?
     
   • Huge Spice rack/access important
     
   • Recycling and regular trash in pull out drawer- maybe foot pedal
     
   • Do not want rectangle island- need shape to it with subtle overhang
     
   • Probably will leave toaster and coffee maker out. Would like easy access to kitchen aid and food processor (both heavy) but want them off the counter.


4. Décor & Misc
   
   • Somewhere to put pictures- bulletin/magnetic board in frame?
     
   • New Round kitchen table
     
   • Stone backsplash- must be cleanable! Maybe subway pattern, maybe shimmery glass tile, maybe stone
     
   • New Chandelier or no chandelier?
     
   • New window treatments
     
   • New paint
     
   • Hardware- blackened iron or brushed nickel


5. Architecture
   
   • Remove banisters- maybe build slight edge on side of bay window (bookcase on other side?) so that you don’t fall off or some sort of new rail
     
   • Add arch to family room entrance, dining room entrance, possibly hall entrance
     
   • Make sink window bigger
     
   • Build stone arch for range hood or look at other options- maybe dark furniture based- want as focal point
     
   • Remove "wall of doors"
     
   • Remove soffit

Here are some other Q&A I read was helpful on GW:

• What are your goals? E.g., more counter space, more storage, seating in the kitchen (island? peninsula? table?), etc.
  
  • Better appliances, bigger range, more storage, more room for entertaining in kitchen- everyone huddles around our small island.
    
  • Remove hideous builder look.


• What is your family composition? Adults? Children? Age ranges of children? Current? Future?
  
  • Current 2 parents, 1 live in nanny, 2 kids ages 6 and 2. Possible of one more kid in future.


• How many kitchen workers are there? Cook(s)? Cleanup? Helpers? Now? Future? (E.g., if you have young children, plan for them as teens for both "sizing" of seating as well as helping in the kitchen in general)
  
  • I am primary cook. My kids LOVE to help cook and insist on helping with everything even when mommy REALLY doesn’t want their help. They drag chairs to the island.


• How do you see your kitchen used? Just for cooking/cleaning up? Children doing homework while you cook?
  
  • Homework at table, entertaining, cooking


• Do you entertain a lot? Formal? Informal?
  
  • Informal, yes. Formal occasional


• Do you want your kitchen to be a "hang out" place? Parties only? Everyday?
  
  • Yes, it’s the center of the house.


• Do you have a separate DR? Do you use it frequently? Infrequently? If infrequently, do you want to begin using it more frequently?
  
  • Have DR, used to use it a lot, less so with small kids.
    
  • We do more informal entertaining these days.
    
  • DR used about 10 times a year.


• Would you like to open up the kitchen to adjacent areas? Close it up?
  
  • Not possible. Exterior wall is a second story deck. No other room to annex


• Can windows or doorways change size?

  Yes
  

• Can they be moved?

  No
  

• Can windows be raised/lowered?

  Not Sure
  

• Can any walls come down?

  No
  

• Does the sink have to be centered under a window?

  Yes
  

• Do you bake? Do you want a coffee/tea/beverage center?
  
  • I do bake. Generally use island
    
  • We drink coffee- would consider built in


• Refrigerator (Top/bottom freezer, SxS, or all-fridge/freezer? Counter-depth (CD), standard-depth, or built-in?)

  Open – was thinking french door, not firm on anything
  

• Ventilation Hood?

  Want focal point- like elaborate hoods

I guess my major questions are:

1. Which layout should I go for- pantry in corner, stove in corner or corner in corner (haha).


2. Where should I put other things? Where can I put appliance hideouts?


3. Is it worth it to enlarge the window about 6 inches in each direction?


4. What would you do with the space?


5. What to do about replacing those country railing to the family room?


6. What are good cabinets for painted off white/cream with glaze that are not crazy expensive. This is a mid range house don't want to overdo it. I LOVE the look of premier but I am betting I will not like their prices. Right now I am talking to people who represent Decora, Bercht, Dutchmade, Crystal, Shiloh. I did talk to someone who does candlelight and premier and acorn but I haven't moved forward with her as she wants 5% of project cost on top of design fees of 2500. But I could probably JUST get the cabinets from her.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

(I was reading it and was separating out so I thought others might benefit...)

One of the secrets to any kind of storage is to plan your storage so you don't have to do too much stacking...e.g., a 36" drawer for pots & pans often means no more than one or two items stacked. Sometimes a 4-drawer stack w/shallower drawers for smaller items is better than a 3-drawer w/2 deep shelves & 1 shallow.

Also, instead of stacking lids separately, store them with their associated pot/pan.

If you have been reading, then you know...

Here is a link that might be useful: Inside Buehl's Cabinet Drawers

My bread drawer is the bottom drawer of a 24" wide 4-drawer drawer base.

Today, the drawer is full..with bagels, bread (1-1/2 loaves), kaiser rolls, hamburger rolls, hot dog rolls, English Muffins, and Cinnamon Raisin bread. It holds more than you think it would and nothing gets lost!

Does anyone have a refrigerator that only opens 90 degrees? How do you like it? Currently, the design calls for 3 inch scribe piece next to the door.

The wall is only 4 ft deep and it is there to run the main sewer stack and some wiring. Wiring will be easy enough to move, spatially, (but not monetarily!)

Right now, we live with the refrigerator door swinging away from the wall (opening toward counter) so it opens further than 90 deg. We had the door opening toward the wall, and we swapped it because it drove us nuts.

My husband made it seem as if moving the plumbing there to get rid of the wall would be nearly impossible. It turns out it may only cost couple thousand. (what is couple thousand when all cost is spiraling out of control!) We will have to open up the wall, get the plumber here for a definitive answer before designing the next section of the cabinets. It will be the best $200 ever spent to know what is possible and what is not.

I nixed the Nana wall at $5000. I said absolutely NO.
He wants the sky light enlarged at 10k or so. Again, I don't.

But, I want this plumbing moved so that I can open the refrigerator. It seems like it would be the best $2000 spent, much more sensible than Nana wall... He doesn't!

I am sure you all agree absolutely how to spend the $ with your lovely DH/DW.

Ugh! Just venting.