Kitchen Cabinet Design - Just when you thought a design could not be improved upon

"The kitchen really is the castle itself.  This is where we spend our happiest moments
 and where we find the joy of being a family."

- Mario Batali - 

Like many modern household designs, we really wanted an open-concept design to maximize usable living space.  We find ourselves hanging out in the kitchen a lot, like most families (don't be confused, I'm not a great cook, but we all love to eat).  For this reason, my Mom and I were very focused on the kitchen layout from the outset.

For starters, I did not realize that typical architectural plans do not do specific layouts (vertically) of cabinets.  While an architectural plan would lay out the dimensions of the cabinets from a top view, you would not typically expect to see drawers or other features called out in the plans.  

From the beginning

Just to remind you of the original layout of my parents' side of the house (Bar = kitchen, gaming = dining room) from our incredible architect, Tom McDonough:

And now from our side of the fence:

We were smitten with these designs.  Our nightly activities involved unrolling the plans, imagining what we would be doing in those areas and how we would use, and dreaming about decorating them...

In all honesty, I imagined our kitchen cabinet meeting going pretty quickly...basically something like "See these plans?  Please put all drawers on the bottom, cabinets on the top.  Thanks!"  Boy was I wrong...in a good way!

Enter Harris Wood Products

Our interior decorator guru, home construction sherpa, and all-in-all super star Betsy Judd guided us through the cabinet design process in a fun, collaborative, and non-stressful way.  She sets up the right meetings with the right subcontractors in the right order, then gives great guidance and takes meticulous notes to make sure any selections are accurate.  Love her!

Betsy set up our first cabinet meeting with Bart Harris, owner of Harris Wood Products.  While I expected Bart to install cabinets just like the plans suggested, I was blown away by the innovative ideas he had to make the kitchen function so much better.

Layout Changes

As for my Mom's side, Bart's suggestions and ideas did not drastically change the footprint of the cabinet plans/layout.  However, sometimes a little change can have a huge impact.  Bart's suggestion was simple:  let's eliminate this vertical accent soffit in the corner, extend the cabinets to the 18" and the island 18", and just move the dining room table more toward the windows.

This little change had a HUGE impact on my Mom's usable space in the kitchen.  She had been worried that she didn't have that much counter space on either side of the gas cooktop.  The island went from a little over 7 feet long to almost 9 feet long.  The cabinets against the wall where the cooktop sits went from about 7.5 feet long to over 9 feet long.  

I can't tell you how many times we looked at these plans and wished that my Mom could find a bit more countertop space.  Then BOOM!  Just like that!

Now hold on to your hats...things are about to get fun.  Bart took a look at my side and was not happy.  He said that we could do the layout proposed, or we could kick it up a notch.  In a short time, he had made a significant change in the layout.  

From this: 

To this:

Or, as is easier to see, like this:

The improvements of this design cannot be overstated.  First, I did worry that I was going to feel a bit claustrophobic at the stove...you know, during that once-a-year event of me cooking.  The original layout only had a very little room to the left of the stove and then the stacked oven/microwave.  Second, the original layout had a tiny section of counter tops between the pantry and refrigerator.  Third, the counter top depth in the 'coffee bar' area (leading to the pantry) was very small.  This new configuration allowed for a deeper counter.  Finally, the kitchen island and back counter got longer, to the tune of 14 inches!  Now the island is about 9 1/2 ft long and 5 feet wide.  

Kitchen Cabinet Design

Now that we have talked about the layout changes, let's focus on some of the cool cabinet design choices Bart suggested (and we took him up on)!  Because my Mom and I opted for some similar features, I'll talk about them together.

First, drawers.  Can you have too many?  After walking through model homes and seeing various options, we both decided that it would be awesome to have all drawers on the gas cooktop cabinets.  All of the cabinets come with hidden hinges and soft close drawers.  How many drawers is too many?  Let's take a look and see if we border on that number...  :)

...and my Mom's side:

Extra wide drawers mean that you have to be careful about hardware.  You either need a long bar or two pulls per drawer.

Second, my Mom and I both liked the look of lighting up above the kitchen cabinets but we also were drawn to cabinets that went to the ceiling.  Solution?  Glass door cabinets with lighting in them above.  You can see above that my Mom wanted "X" panels in the glass doors and I went for the basic "+" look.  Note that it is pretty expensive to add the glass doors, plus expensive to wire (because each cabinet needs a separate electrical drop), PLUS the cost of the puck light itself which goes into each cabinet.

Trash bins...sigh.  I hope that we get better at reducing our trash footprint, but it always seems like our trash is full.  I worried about having a pull-out cabinet trash which seemed like it would be small and always be full.  Well, Bart mentioned that we could upgrade to the double 50 quart option on our islands.  SCORE!

Speaking of islands, Bart also suggested upgrading the narrower drawers on the islands to full 30 inch guides.  This essentially means that you can pull the drawer all the way out.  DOUBLE SCORE!  Here is my island front (there is an apron sink):

We also both decided to get some cookie sheet dividers placed in a cabinet:

My side:

My Mom's side:

Now things start getting unique, which I love!  I think we were initially concerned that the kitchens would look too similar...or maybe too different.  Bart and Betsy were able to help us make these kitchens flow together but still stand apart.

My Side of the Fence - Kitchen

Okay, so the cabinet drawings look brown but that is not the look I am going for.  So imagine something like this:

Old Sea Grove Homes

All white cabinets, white marble countertops, hints of raw wood.
So let's run through the raw wood elements:

Like the gorgeous kitchen picture above, just the gas hood is going to be rift sawn white oak.  Also, I have a section of the kitchen (like a bar area) with open shelving.  Just the shelves are going to be rift sawn oak (with shiplap behind.

Finally, to round off the great room, Bart got creative.  I showed him this picture that I found on Pinterest and fell in love with...

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I know, right?  Stunning.  This is the look I thought was out of reach for the cabinets beneath my TV:

Nope, Bart jumped right on them!  Matching rift sawn oak door insets.

I will get the hardware separately, but he is providing the cabinets with the glass.  Baller!

In the kitchen cabinet area near the gas range, the length of the cabinets allowed for one more cool feature...spice pull outs on either side of the center bank of drawers.  For all my spice needs?  Hmmmm...

My Side of the Fence - Pantry

Bart altered the original layout of the kitchen, thus making it much more functional.  This change, however, required a redesign of the old pantry area.  We still wanted a coffee bar concept like we had originally:

Now, that coffee bar got moved to the area where we were originally contemplating a second oven.

Cool, huh?  The pantry will have all white cabinets with a solid white oak counter top.  Because my pantry is fairly long and narrow with a window at the end, I began searching Pinterest for ideas.  Then, I saw this one:

Drool.  Drool.  Drool.  So we are going to try to recreate features from it, like the wire baskets and the countertop.  However, our trim carpenters are actually building the upper shelves, and man did they have a cool idea.  So those shelves to the right of the coffee bar area are actually going to be mounted like this:

Fixer Upper

LOVE IT!  Thanks Joanna Gaines!

My Parents' Side of the Fence - Kitchen

Not to be outdone, my parents' side has some awesome unique features too!  First, they decided to go with an exposed stainless vent hood.  AWESOME!!!  They also have the rift sawn white oak shelves over their coffee area.  The rift sawn oak is going to be an awesome way to make the two spaces coordinate without matching.  Now things get interesting...

While my side is going to be all white with wood accents, my parents are going to have a more playful design...a blue island :)  Something like...

Decor Pad

They will have the "X" detail on the side but a floating counter off the end.  Stunning!!!

Also, their pantry is not walk-through, but to give it an airy look, they are going to have glass doors to enter.

When you open the doors, Bart is installing a magnet board on your left and a cork board on your right.  I'm jealous...

My Parents' Side of the Fence - Pantry

Their pantry is going to have more cabinets and drawers than mine (wait, I'm getting MORE jealous...).  When you walk in, you will see this set:

And when you look to your right, you will see:

When you look to your left, you will see standard white pantry shelves.

So there you have it.  We are totally smitten.  Can't wait to update you with the actual cabinets when they arrive...should be soon!!!

J.S. Robinson sure picked a winner with Bart Harris.  He was such a pleasure to work with, had so many great ideas, and his cabinets are built to last.  Check out Harris Wood Products at:

Harris Wood Products 

Get in touch with Bart at 816-665-8470 or at his email address:  bharris@harriswood.net.

Or just walk into any of JS Robinson's model homes on the Parade of Homes to see his workmanship in person!  Here is a link to JS Robinsons' model homes in the upcoming Parade:  

Check out J.S. Robinsons' website for more details!  Link

AND...because I just today got this update picture from Bart, here is a sneak peak at the actual kitchen island on my parents' side.  Wait, are you sitting down?  Okay, because you need to be:

"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen."

- Harry S. Truman - 

Getting Lit Without Getting Burned - New Construction Electrical Advice

"Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself."

- Desiderius Erasmus -

Phew!  Has it been this long since I have updated you on the farmhouse build?  Things seem to have been happening fast!  The electrical doesn't show a lot of progress (at least to my untrained eye) but man those guys were always working.  I guess it is a lot of work running all of those cables/wires...

Well, after some twists, turns, and moderate shocks (pricing-wise), we were able to settle in on a great electrical design.  Here are some details that we ran into and how we settled out.  Enjoy!

Contract advice

When we were reading our contract, it was difficult initially to know what was included in the electrical lump sum.  Almost all builders include something similar to 'electrical to code', but what the heck is code?  I was worried that I wouldn't know what was in, what was out, so I asked for a list of the electrical components to be included as an exhibit to the contract.  Without the specific pricing, the list looked something like:

     75 watt can lights - 86
     Single pole switches - 90
     Three-way switch - 54
     Entry fixture - 2
     and so on...

Looking back, I think that this was helpful but I needed to educate myself more about the terminology used by electricians that were not obvious to me (I was okay with figuring out "entry fixture", but this other stuff was Greek).  While not required, especially if you are building a spec home, I found it comforting to see exactly what was included in the base price and to see exactly what was an adder and (in rare cases) a deduct.  However, having a builder like J.S. Robinson made this task so much easier and (in hindsight) less necessary.  So, humor me by sharing some lessons learned :)  Full disclosure, the discussion below is made by a non-electrical homeowner.  Please forgive any inadvertent mistakes! 

Single pole switch - The pole is the light switch you use to turn on and off lights.  Something like:

     
Light switches with two poles would have two single pole switches combined.

Two-way, three-way, four-way Switches

Now, consider this:  you often want to have a single light that is operated off of two different light switches.  For example, we have a long hallway that we may want to have an on/off switch for the lights on either end.  This situation requires a special type of switch - a three way switch.

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Full disclosure - I read several websites trying to understand the anatomy of the three-way switch well enough to explain it on my blog.  Total.  Fail.  I leave you with the knowledge that if  you want to have a single light that is operated off of two separate switches, each switch will need a three-way switch.  Or if you have a single light operated off of three switches, then you would need three four-way switches, and so on.  

Receptacles

This is a trash can, right?  Not when you are talking electrical!  This is where you juice-up your phone!

If you want a four cord outlet, you need two receptacles:

GFCI Receptacle - A ground fault happens whenever electricity escapes the wiring it is supposed to be in and takes a shortcut to the ground.  People can be killed or seriously injured by electrical shocks from a ground fault.  Cue an engineer to save the day!  To prevent such accidents, Charles Dalziel, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, invented the ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI), in 1961.  A GFCI receptacle monitors the difference in the electrical current flowing into and out of an outlet. But when that difference exceeds 5 milliamps, an indication that a ground fault may be occurring, the GFCI shuts off the flow quickly.  GFCI receptacles are  GFCIs are required by the National Electric Code in all new kitchens, bathrooms, crawl spaces, unfinished basements, and most outdoor receptacles.   Source  


Cut-in Receptacle - These are outlets that are "cut-in" to cabinets.  My parents were interested in having all electrical outlets installed in the bottom of the upper cabinets (to get a no-electrical-outlets backsplash look).  For each of those outlets, they much be cut-in the cabinets.

W.P. receptacle - The W.P. stands for weather proof.  These are your outdoor plugs.

Fixtures - The electrician will wire for your fixtures, Different fixtures require different wiring and complexity, therefore each is typically described differently.  Here is a quick cheat sheet:
  
     Fixture Standard Interior/Exterior - These are your typical ceiling flushmount lights (not can lights).  Something as cool as:

Frankfort Semi Flushmount

Edgar Flushmount

     Fixture Other Interior/Exterior - Think sconces!  These are typically wall-mounted lights.

     Keyless - Just your standard light bulb in a socket.

Electrical Design - Advice and Selections

It is extremely easy to go hit your budget, drive by your budget, then shoot for the stars :)  While there were many items that we considered, we had to be realistic and decline many cool things.  But that being said, we still got some great upgrades.  

First things first, most electricians will draw out code before you arrive for your electrical walk-through.  What that means is that they will draw, on the framing, where each switch/light/etc. is located (as required by code).  Then you walk through each room and consider light switch locations, additional lighting, etc.

Here is a list of the above-code considerations, and why we either decided to get them or not.

     Extra Outlets - "You get an extra outlet, you get an extra outlet..." Yes, okay, we went overboard.  But seriously, you need extra outlets!  Here were some of the locations that got outlet-ed: 

• Inside the bathroom cabinets - for toothbrushes, hair dryers, potential instant hot water heaters, etc.
• In the bedrooms, we located outlets to be where nightstands would be located.  To do so, you measure the width of your queen/king bed, locate them in the room, and then move outlets accordingly.  I hate when an outlet is behind a bed or piece of furniture...
• We added outlets in our closets for potential additional lighting, charging, etc.
• We added a lot of outlets in our mudroom area for charging iPads, phones, and other equipment.
• In the kitchen, we added an outlet under the sink for instant-hot.
• We added weather proof outlets in the roof eaves for Christmas lights.
• We added some electrical outlets higher on the walls for a fold-down ironing board, TVs, heated towel bar, etc.
• We added extra outlets in the pantry along the countertop for small appliances.
• There is now an additional outlet in the kids' playroom under the stairs for charging devices.
• There will be outlets in the floors for lamps/etc.
• There are also two sets of outlets on both fireplace mantles.
• In the garage, we added a lot more outlets (both an upper for a TV potentially and also just everyday tools).

     Sconces - My Mom and I are both fans of eye-level lighting, not top-lighting.  Can lights are great, but man, I'm really sure I don't look that old...

That led to a large quantity of sconces.  Huge.  To give you some idea (as long as you promise not to laugh), here is goes:

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Either side of the master bedroom beds - saves night stand space by eliminating a lamp.  However, this does require that you find hardwired bedside sconces with a switch or you will need the electrician to add a light switch next to each bed.  I wanted a cleaner look, so no light switch.  

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Master bathroom lighting was a struggle.  I wanted to make sure that we had lighting that was face-level (so as not to accentuate any wrinkles/eye bags).  Thus, the flanked mirror sconce was added!

Home Bunch

Laundry rooms need some love too!  I just swooned over this laundry room.  We are hoping to do something similar but have the sconces over the actual floating shelves.   

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We also added some above the floating shelves in our kitchens.

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The long central hall connecting our main house to my parents' house?  Yes, you need sconces too!

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Given that our fireplace extends upward two stories, we were encouraged to add some sconces that highlight the height.  Thus, fireplace sconces.

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Outside sconces are great too!  We added two on our entry pillars.

Okay, I see it now.  We have a sconce obsession.  Admitting it is the first step, right?  :)

     Can light vs. Standard Fixture - Can lights are expensive upfront, so it can be tempting to just get wired for a standard fixture.  But then, you have to buy the fixture.  Also, if you have can lights in a room (like your great room or master bedroom), you eliminate the need for a light kit with a ceiling fan (which can save a lot of money).  My initial temptation was to eliminate can lights, but looking back, I'm so grateful that Mitch (our project manager) talked us into keeping a lot of them.

     

     Puck Lights - These are the little lights inside of kitchen cabinets with glass doors.  The electrician wires for them but you purchase the actual light from a lighting store.

     Art Lights - Unbeknownst to me, there are special can lights you can purchase that sit flush with the ceiling and shine an art-friendly light at an angle.  We installed these in several places throughout the house where artwork will hang.

     Motion Light - We installed one on my parents' side pantry.  When you open the doors, LIGHT!  Apparently a motion light is better than a toggle switch (that opens when the door opens) because people will often have someone close the door after they enter.  The motion switch will keep the light on while you are in the pantry, deciding which carb to eat :)

     Heated floors - Our master bathrooms have heated floors, so there is special wiring and thermostats associated with that choice.  Cha-ching!

     Stair Lights  - Sigh, we are getting to things we passed on. This was a tough one for me.  But it was so expensive that we passed.  I have found some other options online that I will share later that will hopefully give the same effect without the cost.

 While I do feel like I forgot something, I hope that this gives you information on what to expect for your electrical walk-through on your new construction home.  As usual, J.S. Robinson was exceedingly patient in managing this process.  While some items are easy to pick out, electrical is just pretty overwhelming and takes several appointments for custom homes.  

Check out the attention to detail and the, dare I say, beauty of the electrical subcontractor's work...J.S. Robinson seriously has the BEST subcontractors in the business!  All of those wires so perfectly pulled and run...