My friend, Joan Eisenberg, a kitchen designer with over 25 years experience had these observations in one of her recent blog posts:
“I recently spent several days cooking at my son & daughter-in-law’s home while I was visiting after the birth of my newest grandchild. They are in a new townhome with an upscale kitchen. The builder allowed 2 critical mistakes in the design of the kitchen.
The first is the position of the dishwasher in relation to the sink. The double bowl sink is on a peninsula with the dishwasher at right angles to it within 3” of the corner. With the dishwasher door open you can barely reach into the sink to retrieve the scrapped dishes.
The second is a pet peeve of mine. The only oven was an undercabinet oven. I have no problem having this as a second oven but as the only oven is literally a pain in the neck and back to be using all of the time. These ovens are very low first because they start under the counter and second because the the control panel pushes the door and racks down anywhere from 4”-6” and faces straight forward forcing the user to stoop to see and program the panel. An alternative option in a small kitchen would be a range instead of a cooktop and undercounter oven which puts the control panel to the top face of the unit or behind the back of the burners. Both places are usually easy to read.”
The information about the cooktop and oven combination is particularly interesting to me because I have always thought of this combo as more ‘high end’ (it is certainly more expensive) and more attractive in a kitchen – especially one with modern design.
The lesson to be learned from this is to consult a professional when you are doing major work to your home. Whether is is a kitchen and designer like Joan, a contractor who can identify load bearing walls before you wield a sledgehammer or someone like me to help with color selection before you paint an entire room bright pink – professionals save you time, money and angst.
