Hello and happy spring! It's a beautiful time of year and I hope you are enjoying some sunshine and warmer temps wherever you are. I've just wrapped up designing cabinetry for a beautiful home being built in the coastal community of Debordieu (pronounced Debbadew :) in Georgetown, SC. I thought I would share the plans along with some of the unique cabinet design challenges we overcame because all projects have their own set of design challenges. The house was designed by architects with the Sandlapper Design Group and will be used as a vacation home for a family residing in Charlotte, NC.
Below is the floorpan demonstrating the cabinet layout for the kitchen, pantry, and laundry room. The goal was to maximize space and organization to serve the homeowners plus their growing family of adult children and grand children... I believe there are 3 grandkids under the age of 4 with 1 on the way!
The kitchen is very much an open concept with a dining area to the north and a family room just beyond the island. With 10' ceilings, the cabinets will run full height to maximize storage along with a large center island. The first design challenge was the homeowner's request for a full depth refridgerator that was flush with the surrounding cabinets so it looked built in... not an uncommon request. This was actually a pretty easy fix. The wall directly behind the ref is a stairwell so it could not pushed back... instead we shifted all of the cabinetry forward by adding a 6" wall everywhere except behind the ref. We were fortunate to have the space! Note the additional wall framing in the drawings above and below.
The second design challenge took a little more time to figure out... ugh, the odd ceiling soffit! A ceiling soffit will protrude into a small section of the kitchen which is actually a stair landing for the second floor. See Elevation B below. In this case, most people would continue the soffit all the way across which would now lower the height of the cabinets on one wall but not the other. Would drive me crazy! Can you say sym-me-try? So then the other option is to add a matching soffit to the other wall and now we've lost a whole foot of gorgeous glass cabinetry... no way! The best solution is to conceal the soffit with false paneling that looks like cabinetry with crown molding.
Below is a 3D rendering showing how the odd soffit will be completely concealed. You would never know it's there! Just to the left is a coffee and wine bar with open shelving. The lower cabinet doors will open up and tuck into the cabinet for easy access. It's important to have the coffee maker slide out and away from cabinetry when brewing to prevent gradual warping.
The other main wall of cabinetry will be used for cooking and includes an induction cooktop, wall oven and convection microwave. One storage feature I'm excited about is the tall tray divider drawer just under the ovens. It's a great way to organize and store cooking trays, tins, cutting boards etc, all placed vertically.
Lastly is the large center island which will have shiplap plus base molding on three sides. One end of the island includes storage drawers and the other an X style wine rack. The cooking side of the island will have recessed toe kick, an apron front sink, dishwasher and trash/recycle drawer.
Here is another 3D rendering so you can see all of the cabinetry in this beautiful kitchen. A local semi-custom cabinet maker will take these drawings and turn them into another amazing dream kitchen! The client is selecting her own materials and finishes and has shared most of them with me. It really is going to be beautiful and I can't wait to see it when it's all done!
If you have a kitchen, bath or mudroom/laundry design project you need help with, I offer hourly, partial and full service design packages all priced right on my website. Book a Discovery Call with me right here to learn more.
If you're more of a DIY gal and want to design your own kitchen, DESIGN YOUR KITCHEN WITH ME! Join the waitlist for my new 12 week program where you'll walk away with an amazing new kitchen plan ready to bid out! So excited to be able to help more of you!