Oakland, CA · Member since 2015 · 246 posts · 127 votes
Hey guys,
I'm in the process of renovating my rental unit. It's a 4bd/2 bath split level in North Oakland. The kitchen is pretty small, but I'm trying to avoid any structural changes since it's a rental (I won't be living there). I won't blowing out walls to make it larger.
Here's a preliminary layout of the proposed kitchen. The sink cabinet will need to stay, since it's under the window. My main issue is that the dishwasher isn't close to the sink. I can move it to the 24" box left of the sink, but it will feel pretty congested w/ appliances. I'm afraid I won't be able to access the oven if the dishwasher door is open, and vice versa. Leaving the DW where it is feels like there's more room to operate.
What do you think? Any helpful advice? The model is to scale.
@Zach Romashko FYI, door swings can be changed on refrigerators. I see a lot of people are agreeing with the line of site, one thing to remember in a kitchen is functionality, have your tenants use the beginning layout and see how fast your doors and draws get messed up, they wont look new after a year. plus you are gaining another foot of counter space with my layout and it is easier to work around in the kitchen. besides, this is a rental.
and NO i am not offended by the opinions, just pointing out things to consider when laying out a kitchen, what ever you decide to do, i'm sure it will look nice.
Did you have one of those big box stores do this? i hope your filler between the blind corner cabinet and your dishwasher is at least 6"? i think you are going to have problems opening the dishwasher all the way with the stove sticking out. the door swings about 30" and by calculation you have about 21" and most stoves stick out 4 - 5" from the face of the cabinets.
Just realized that I never uploaded the final design and build out this kitchen. I shopped all around the bay area for the best price/value. The counter top is quartz and all the cabinets are real wood/ soft close functionality.
I got the Quartz at East Star in SF. Price was about $219. I decided to pay more for this as it looks like concrete - it doesn't have those sparkly bits.
If you want grey quartz with the sparkly bits, you can go to KW in Oakland for $149 per slab.