Tell me what you love and hate most about your kitchen

[The empressof all]

I'm gearing up to do a kitchen remodel and would love to hear from those who have gone through this and from those of you who have great work spaces and what you love love love about them.

My space is very small which is actually ok and I'm trying not to change the foot print. I would love to hear about your storage. What do you love having and what do you rarely use?

[TxDemChem]

1. I love our pantry

Our kitchen is a bit small when two people try to cook, but we have found that having a real pantry has made a lot of difference. And mason jars. We store many items in glass and use cloth baskets to hold the smaller ones in their categories. Although there are lots of jars, the baskets give a clean look when you open the door.

I hate just about everything else though.

Have fun with your remodel!

[eissa]

2. Love the size, hate that it's dated

My previous home had an incredibly tiny kitchen. Hardly any counter space, no pantry, little storage. But it was updated (granite, nice cherry cabinets.) The main reason we bought this home was because I was determined to have a bigger workspace, and I definitely got it! It's HUGE. Giant island where I can prepare comfortably and is excellent when hosting events. A large pantry that holds everything, plenty of cabinets. But it's so dated! UGH, I hate the white tile counters, the black appliances that are a pain to keep clean, and the ugly golden oak cabinets. My husband promised we'd remodel "someday." Yeah, five years later and nada!

[Warpy]

3. Same here

While I love the 1946 cabinets that are mostly in place and pristine, I despise the lack of counter space, 30 inches on one side of the sink and 18 inches on the other.

[The empressof all]

6. I am not going to be able to gain any extra cabinet space in this remodel

I will be putting in pot drawers and making some things more accessible by losing a peninsula that has a great deal of dead space. I'm planning on getting a rolling island of some sort to give additional prep space. I also have a large bakers rack that I'm putting on the other side of an eating area where I can store my "Pretty" Stuff.

[Warpy]

8. I'm waiting for my old cat to go to her eternal reward

before I can remodel anything. She's 20 and seems determined to hang on long enough to see me tucked up in a nursing home before she goes.

I plan to decamp for part of it and she's just not precise enough in her toileting to come with me anywhere.

[The empressof all]

4. Oh God....The white tile....

I have them and am so excited about getting rid of them. We just moved back into this house after 15 years. We kept it as a rental. I will never forget all the work I use to put in to keeping them clean. There were some days I felt my fingers would just fall off from all the bleach water I had to use to keep them clean. I've been back here a little over a week now and I'm already cursing them. Who thought that was a good idea any way?

[obxhead]

5. I hate stainless steel.

It's impossible to keep clean, takes special cleaners to actually get it clean, and magnets don't stick to it.

Love a tile back splash. Seal the grout properly. When that spaghetti sauce splashes out of the pot it doesn't stain the wall.

Having shelves that slide out in the lower cabinets are awesome. Much easier to get to that buried item and makes small spaces hold more.

Finally, one of the biggest things for me is a real exhaust vent that sucks smoke, steam, and odors OUT of the house instead of just blowing them back into my face from the top of the mounted microwave.

[The empressof all]

7. Yes about the fan!

I am getting a chimney one and even though I really have no space to install a built in microwave I will give that up for a great vent.
I don't use the microwave that much anyway. It won't be in a convenient spot but I will cope

[obxhead]

9. Forgot the sink

one of the things I really want badly is a faucet in the sink that is more like a commercial wash pit that hangs down from a long hose.

I tend to use large pots and pans when I cook though.

Something like this:

http://www.thekitchn.com/all-about-pro-pre-rinse-faucets-faucet-spotlight-174893

About the sink itself we have a black porcelain sink that was great for the first 5 or 6 years, then started to show scratches. I recently took my car buffer to it with some carnauba wax and that really cleaned it up.

[PADemD]

10. Great site with decorating ideas.

http://www.lonny.com/photos/Kitchen

There are hundreds of photos.. Just choose the style or color you like.

My dream kitchen is this one:

http://www.lonny.com/photos/Kitchen/Zpm6e5RaVrJ

Good luck with your remodel!

[spinbaby]

11. Wish we'd put in more counter space

Our counter space is rather limited and some of it is in the form of a counter between the kitchen and the dining room. We choose to put in this counter at bar height and our contractor--who was very tall--installed it just a little higher than bar height, making it an awkward height to use.

[bif]

13. Not enough counter space.

You simply can't have enough counter space

[noamnety]

12. What I hate:

The dishes unload into a cabinet right above the dishwasher - which is a pain to reach when the dishwasher door is open. I have to jam my foot into the little 5 inch gap between the open door and the other counter area, or stand a few feet to the side and try to stand at a 45 degree angle to reach over.

I used to hate my linoleum countertops, but I wouldn't want tile with grout, they are easy to clean, and they don't ooze radon so I've made my peace with them.

[Lucinda]

14. I designed our house. And thought about every inch of space as I planned the kitchen.

So I am crazy organized.

The only thing that sucks is the pullout narrow spice cabinet beside my lower pots and pans cabinet. Poor design, as the little bottles are prone to fall out. I solve that by using narrow trays with higher sides. It is something that I'll never do again if we build another house. NOT worth the money or the aggravation.

~ LOVE all my pull out full extension drawers. Very worth the price. I can access everything easily.

~ We have one wall of built ins with a row of upper cabinets above the fridge, oven cabinet, slide out drawer pantry, and pull out bakers pantry - which get used for larger storage items I don't use a lot. The only other upper cabinet is over my cooktop, so I don't have things stored high that I can't reach. Plus I have places for artwork with no upper cabinets.

~ I put a lot of thought into where I was going to store my dishes, flatware and glasses. It all is within pivot space of my dishwasher, so unloading involves no walking.

~ Bill wanted, what I thought was an unusually expensive, pull-out garbage can rack that is under my kitchen sink. BEST 50 bucks we spent in the kitchen. The trash can is easily accessible, but out of the way. I still can't figure out how two people generate so much trash.

~ We have a very deep sink, which I love. Easy to soak things and since I have an open living, dining, kitchen area and I can slip things into the sink and out of view if we have friends over for dinner.

~ We also have a good sized island with no cooking surfaces or sinks, so I have great working space.

~ And even though I love my induction cooktop, I still hate cleaning the glass top.

Happy reno!

[cbayer]

15. My kitchen is very, very small, as you know.

What I love is that no one else can fit in there when I am working and that it is completely open to the rest of the living space. So I can cook, clean up, freshen drinks, etc. and still be a part of the action. This has always been a critical factor to me. I hate to be sequestered in a space where I'm not part of the group.

What I hate is the lack of work space. My work space is on top of the refrigerator which has two large doors on top. If I forgot to take something out of the fridge in the middle of food prep, it's a real PITA.

I keep rarely used items (mandolin, fondue pot, etc) in a storage space in another room. But everything else is organized in a few cabinets and drawers. I use everything I have. If I don't use it, I get rid of it. And if it can serve more than one purpose, I am particularly fond of it.

Have fun! When I did a major redesign on my land based house, I used a CAD program and had lots of fun playing with the design.

[rdharma]

16. A little experience with a small living space teaches one a lot! n/t

[cbayer]

18. It sure does, as does living off the grid.

I have become so much more aware of pretty much everything. The water, waste, electricity. Weather. What you need and what you don't.

And how to carve out your own private space, even when there isn't all that much.

I don't think anything else has taught me more.

[pinto]

20. Your place has some nice "niches" that work well. Plus a great view.

[cbayer]

21. An always changing view! And I love that, as you know.

Another esteemed DUer is arriving on Tuesday!

[rdharma]

17. A quality gas range........ if you don't already have one. nt

[pinto]

19. My only beef w/ my kitchen is that the double sink was covered over to leave only one.

Really well-designed little 100 year old bungalow. I have plenty of cabinet space. A waste high slide out work space above a set of small drawers and a deep metal drawer, which I guess was a bread drawer in its day. Room for plates, gadgets, basic supplies. Even an old drop down ironing board (I've yet to find a use for that feature). I love the amount of storage fit in to a medium sized kitchen (about 6 paces X 4). The only storage I rarely use are the ones up by the ceiling. Too awkward. Their full of stuff I don't use.

But it bugs me that someone chose to put a counter over one of the twin sinks. Both are deep, good sinks. Multi-purpose, imo. And as it turns out, all I use the counter for is to dry dishes in a dish rack. Could do that in the sink.

Have fun with your remodel. My only input would be to arrange your storage so it fits your prep / cook / eat style.