DESIGNING AND CONSTRUCTING A KITCHEN Script
Kitchens are one of the most re-designed and renovated spaces in the home. Building designers, architects and kitchen specialists are often given the job of creating a practical and aesthetic design. However, some homeowners feel they can best interpret their own needs.
A building designer will describe the principles and techniques he uses when creating a kitchen. Then we will follow the progress of homeowners who have designed and implemented the construction of their own kitchen.
Glenn Woodward is a building designer who creates kitchen designs for new homes as part of his overall plan for the house, or as part of a renovation.
Supers over image where appropriate. “basic elements”, “functional”, “practical”, “durable”,
“efficient”, “aesthetically pleasing”, “budget”.
Glen interview: “I think the most important criterion when designing a kitchen is that it must be functional. No point in designing a kitchen, no matter how good it looks or how much it costs, it still has be functional it has to be used easily, and the surfaces have to be practical, the bench tops durable. The kitchen has to efficient; you don’t want to be walking miles around a kitchen to perform simplest tasks. The kitchen has to look good, if the client has any specific requirements for aesthetics and appearance, then, have to take these into consideration.
Most clients have a budget they have to stick to. The
budget doesn’t affect the design process given a certain size for the kitchen.
The kitchen layout will probably remain the same regardless of the budget, it’s
usually the finishes then that come into consideration to determine the final
cost of the kitchen.
So, it’s usually a mental process you go through to work
out the shape of the kitchen, and where the major appliances are going to go,
and it’s just a matter of getting that down either on paper or on CAD.
Most of the design work is done on the computer these days, for the simple reason that it gives you a 3D image, which is very easy for the client to visualise the finished product. So you layout your floor plan, which gives you your floor area for the kitchen, and then you start placing cupboards and bench tops to give you your general arrangement, and obviously in association with your cupboards and bench tops you are putting in your appliances, and location for your appliances and fittings.
Although you are only viewing it in plan, the computers actually building a 3D model, so it’s very easy to generate your elevations, and your 3D views. Edit the kitchen layout and design in 3D by dragging cupboards around, increasing or decreasing their size”.
This type of programme can be an invaluable communication tool for the
designer and the client, and provides all the dimensions for the subcontractors
involved during the construction of a kitchen.
DESIGNING the KITCHEN.
Rosanne and Chris Browne own a home that needed a kitchen renovation, and decided to design it on their own.
Rosanne interview: “With the design idea I fancied myself
with having some reasonable taste. My husband has a very good input, so we came
with some things we knew we wanted from our previous kitchen and how it worked.
When we built the house we put in a fairly basic kitchen, so always promising
ourselves that we would upgrade it. So, now sixteen years on we have decided to
do that.
Super “Research”
Rosanne interview: “But then we did go and ask other
people’s input, ‘cause that always helps to either firm up an idea or throw
that idea out of the window and give us another direction ‘cause you can get so
stuck. Geoff Docker is our builder, we’ve known him for years. He liked our
ideas but he was able to put a little more into our ideas and firm them up.
Chris had initially wanted to close off our kitchen a bit more by extending the
wall, and Geoff said no to that. When you’ve got so much choice to make, you
need someone who’s going to give you a little more confidence, a little bit
more direction, or say go with that idea it looks really good”.
Super “Concept”
“Well, with the design we wanted to achieve a better
layout in the kitchen, and we had a return bench and I had always wanted to
break that and have an island.
Rosanne 100% in kitchen: ”So we are going to cut the
bench here and create about a metre space here, so our island sort of squares
off and comes into my kitchen space here a little bit. Not a giant island but
not a too tiny island”. “So we had to measure for our island, how much space we
have regarding opening doors and then when the dishwasher comes up here a
little bit, whether it opens the door a little bit, and we can fit in the
island just there just perfect. It’s going to be a feature it’s going to have a
different surface”.
Rosanne interview: ”Also I wanted where we had a lovely
long window I wanted a servery to the deck…
Rosanne 100% in kitchen: …Where the counter surface goes
out beyond the window. So that means we have to take out this whole window
system and put in a new frame with frameless glass panels that slide back. With
our counter space going beyond the window ledge obviously I don’t want a sink
here, it’s going to be in the way, we looked at moving the sink up but it was
still going to be in the way, so we got rid of the sink up to the laundry, and
instead I want a big round preparation sink.
Rosanne 100% in kitchen: “We’re moving our fridge and
backing it around into here, and you’ll see the side of the fridge here. And taking out this wall, and that wall. And
taking our kitchen, back into the laundry space”.
Rosanne interview : “Opening it up as a bigger working
space”.
Rosanne 100% in kitchen: “And a small pantry is going to
slot in between the fridge and the water heater”.
Rosanne interview: “And then put measurements into things, what depth of drawers, where was the best idea for the cupboard, how we would contrive the pantry, the scale of things, the size of things”.
With
the plans finalised, this crowded, cluttered kitchen, transforms into a more
open efficient workspace. And with a budget of approximately $30,000
construction can begin.
The role of the builder Geoff Docker was to oversee the whole project. His communication with both Rosanne and Tim Batten, the kitchen maker, ensured that the design ideas and the construction went exactly to plan, and that there was an efficient timetable for the job. His initial contact with Tim ensured that, when the kitchen was demolished, he knew exactly where the new benches and cupboards would go.
This assisted him in his other role as he co-ordinated the various tradesmen involved.
Geoff Interview: “I’m working with the cabinet maker and then I’ve also got to co-ordinate times with the electricians and the plumbers”.
First thing to be done was to remove the stud walls. However, parts of the original cupboards and bench tops were to be recycled, and used in the garage for storage space. So more care was taken than usual to minimize damage. After the initial clean out, an unexpected beam and support were uncovered. This beam, which was load bearing for half the house, had been integrated into the stud walls to be removed.
Rosanne interview: “Finding that support beam in a different direction, that then meant that the pantry couldn’t be recessed back quite as much as we had hoped”.
So there had to be a re-think on the design for that part of the kitchen.
Geoff Interview: “This will stay, walls going to extend out another 300, pantry beside it, so we can’t move the beam that’s holding the house up - that’s the only solution there is”.
Jeff and Tim decided to extend the wall behind which the fridge was re-located a further 300 mm, and then incorporated the steel pole in the new pantry space. The stud walls were completely demolished and the kitchen was ready for the next stage.
Super: Sub-contractors
Geoff’s next task was to co-ordinate the sub-contractors. The electricians repositioned the power and lighting outlets. The plumber added new gas and PVC piping where required. Carpenters laid timber floorboards and nailed battens into the ceiling, ready for covering.
And the plasterer completed the initial construction by attaching plasterboards to the walls and ceilings. After fixing and sanding them, the kitchen was ready for the bases and carcasses to be installed.
Experience is invaluable, and drawing on that experience and doing simple things like using two drills, one for pilot holes and another for screws, makes the job extremely efficient. The drill bit for the pilot holes also includes a countersunk attachment, making work easy in the assembly stage.
The kitchen floor had a twenty-millimetre fall to the window. Tim had to ensure that when he assembled the box-frame bases he compensated for the fall, and when installed, the carcasses were square to both the walls and floor.
Another system to elevate the carcasses uses screw-in risers that have to be painstakingly levelled individually to square everything. It would not have been a practical choice for the Browne’s kitchen.
Combined with the box frame, wedges of varying sizes allowed for precise raising and levelling. The wedges come in sizes of 1, 3, 5 and 10. Although a simple and popular design, these solid bases provided a far more accurate means of ensuring everything was level.
The wedges and bases will later be concealed with timber kickboards.
Once the bases were assembled and
square to the floor, the walls and each other, they were fixed into place. The
carcasses were placed into position and aligned.
Minor alterations to the carcasses occurred during installation. In some places, holes had to be drilled at this final stage to allow for electrical cables and plumbing to be fed through into the carcasses.
After the carcasses were finally squared off, they were joined and affixed to the walls.
The bench tops were next.
BENCHTOPS
There are a myriad of bench tops to choose from, stainless steel, plastic laminates on timber base, solid timber. Solid stone such as slate, marble or granite, or, composite stones like caesarstone and stone italiana.
The Browne’s chose a caesarstone bench top.
Caesarstone is a composite material, comprising ninety four percent quartz aggregate, (which is one of nature’s strongest elements), and bonded with polyester resins and colour pigments. Caesarstone is practical, durable and aesthetically pleasing. It is stronger than surfaces like granite, does not chip and is resistant to heat, cold, dangerous mould, mildew, bacteria and stains.
The design of a bench top with a servery extending out through the window needed some original ideas for it to work. First, the servery required an accurate plywood template as a guide for cutting the caesarstone.
So that no costly mistakes were made, plans and a sketch on the plywood were included in the instructions for the cutting. Also, the hole for the sink had to be cut out of this one piece, so measurements had to be precise.
To have access from outside, the
window had to be removed. By removing the lintel bar, the window could be taken
in and out quickly while other work was in progress. To prepare for the
placement of the caesarstone on top of the cupboards, the timber window had to
be chiselled down to accommodate the bench top. Caesarstone is extremely heavy
and required most of the tradesmen on site to carry it in.
The work of the cabinetmaker was rewarded when the caesarstone sat perfectly on the cabinets. It was square on all axes. Where the trenches for the windows had been cut into the stone surface, a line of weakness had been created and needed a strong bracing system.
A temporary brace was used to prevent accidental cracking.
Coloured epoxy glue is used to join surfaces together, which set completely in five minutes.
Rosanne interview: “Chris had
always wanted granite, we couldn’t afford it in the initial building of the
house, and then looking at granite again now sixteen years on, were there properties
better than granite, so caesarstone seemed to be the answer for that. I was
always keen on a light surface not a dark surface. Agonised over the colour
somewhat, but yes we wanted a stone surface”.
Epoxy glue attached the bench top to the cupboards and also set within five minutes.
Rosanne interview: “Here we have our preparation sink, flanked by the tap column. It’s not the most practical space, as you see I have to reach for it, but I wanted it flanked by the column of timber behind, therefore it doesn’t interrupt any of my window space, which is very important to me.
DRAWERS and CUPBOARDS
The drawer sliders used by Tim are beautifully designed. They run on ball bearings, and have a spring loaded, self-closing mechanism, which is designed to close and stay closed. They are extremely strong and can take up to 41 kilogram in weight – fully extended.
Rosanne interview: “I was
actually going to not have self closing drawers, I thought again with kitchens
you can go over the top, there are so many little options and extras you can
choose and it can blow out to an enormous amount of dollars. But then when Tim
Batten came back to me and said to me – oh no I’ve factored that into the cost
and we were quite happy with the cost and we went oh ok fine”.
And they assemble easily.
The positioning of the drawer sliders was calculated from the height of the drawer fronts, so that when the three drawers were finally in position, everything fit perfectly. The supporting brackets were attached to the carcass and the first drawer was inserted. The wedges were again used to determine the spacing for the bottom drawer so that it had good clearance from the bottom of the carcass.
There are many different surfaces that can be used for the doors and drawer fronts – solid timber, timber veneer, or polyurethane laminate on a composite timber base. The Browne’s chose MDF boards coated with melamine, and then laminated with a coloured polyurethane paint.
Tim interview: “ The kitchen has
been sprayed with a polyurethane paint. Boards are all sanded and an undercoat
put on them, which is done in the spray booth and once the undercoat is dry,
sanded again, dusted of, and then it goes into the spray booth where the
polyurethane paint is put on it. Polyurethane paint is basically a two-part
paint, with a hardener and paint, the two are mixed together and when they dry,
they dry through a chemical reaction as opposed to a water based paint which
would just dry through evaporation of the water based part of the paint.
After attaching lugs to the drawer fronts, the boards were clicked into the sliders. With the drawers installed the island bench was finally completed. Bracing the drawers finalised their assembly. Using this system, it’s easy to change the colour scheme.
Rosanne interview: “I like the
fact that they close with a hush. You just develop the right amount of push and
it just closes itself”.
For the pantry and refrigerator section, where changes were made to conceal the steel support and beam, the cupboards had to be cut to size on site. Use of a saw with a vacuum attachment greatly reduced the amount of fine dust particles. The steel support was concealed. The cabinets in the pantry, refrigerator area were installed and, with the doors on, the kitchen surfaces were completed.
RE-DESIGN – continuous
evaluation.
Sometimes there are design problems. The pantry required changes to be made, which added to the cost.
Rosanne interview: “Here we have
our pantry which I had thought to do a very straight forward shelving solution,
but, it is a very deep recess but will work much better with a basket system
where you can pull the baskets out. I had hoped by not doing that it would save
us money but actually we’ve decided to go the whole hog and get the basket
system.
“And to make better use of the
deep narrow space we have the deep drawers, which carries an awful lot. Where I
can reach everything I would want. This can take about 40 kilos of weight, this
is my best used drawer where I can access the most frequently used things.
A problem arose with a bi-fold door near the sink.
Rosanne interview: “This door or
the hinge doesn’t work well enough, it becomes such an ungainly big item, so
it’s not so flexible so I have to open it right out to get at my bin. At this
stage my bin is not separated from the sectioning shelves, which I would rather
have, so I’ve asked Tim to come back and we’re going to re-think this - it’s
just not working. We might even – because the opening is big enough do two
doors or change the hinge. And when you close it, it often hits the dishwasher
and it’s not an easy connection to get back in, and I know with frequent use
this is going to become a hazard.
The solution was to have two doors
installed.
THE SERVERY and WINDOW
There were a number of different designs for the window.
Rosanne 100%: With this window
here I always fancied because of the deck, a window that opened right out like
a servery, but in designing it we came up with a number of different solutions,
but I have to say Geoff our builder favoured something he could build on site.
Geoff’s solution was simple and involved three sheets of glass moving on tracks, and stacking against each other when the window is fully open.
But, before any work could be done to prepare the window, the cantilevered servery had to be braced.
Geoff designed simple stainless steel braces for the overhanging servery, which was fabricated by an engineering company.
A number of structural additions had to be made to the stud walls to support the braces. Cladding was stripped off and plates added to the studs for extra strength. The three braces had to be secured to the plates at the wall, and then glued to the caesarstone. The cladding was nailed back into place, and a cedar board was attached to reinforce the line of weakness, created where the trenches for the windows had been cut into the caesarstone.
Great care and time was spent drilling into the caesarstone. A hammer drill might have cracked the bench top along the line of the trenches for the window, so a normal drill with an extremely sharp drill bit was used. The screws couldn’t be screwed directly into the stone, so an alternative was selected. Epoxy resin was thickened with a high-density microfibre filler, creating a solid mass. This enabled a bond to form between the screws and the stone. After the screws had been pushed into the holes, a permanent bond formed in three days. When the three braces were in place they provided an extremely strong, simple and aesthetically pleasing means of support.
The
design of the sliding windows was finalised well in advance so the Caesar stone
could be cut appropriately.
Framework for the window had to be custom designed and built, to integrate with the trenches in the caesarstone. For precision work the carpenter used a handsaw to cut the framework. Cedar was the logical choice for the trim around the window. Not only does it have an attractive finish when varnish is applied, but it is the best timber for use outside as it weathers extremely well.
Brown powder coated aluminium was chosen for the tracks in the groove, as the dark colour will not be as noticeable as a light aluminium finish. The windows will have a runner on the underside, with a small adjustable wheel attachment to run along the tracks.
Geoff used a polyurethane adhesive sealant to glue the tracks to the caesarstone. Being a sealant, it will prevent moisture from seeping in through the bottom of the windows. The sealant bonds in a short time so they had to ensure that all the tracks were seated correctly.
Locks were attached to the runners and the windows finally put in place.
Rosanne 100% “That gives me so much more vision than the
other thing. There’s no big division, as long as I keep it clean you’re hardly
aware of the other one.
Geoff 100% “And what do you think of the dark brown how
does that look?
Rosanne 100% “I think it looks very good, not an
interruption at all. I wasn’t sure but that looks so good and the window
casement is fabulous – really neat. It looks so good, thank you so much – can I
have a practice.
Glazier 100% “You just want to start them going, and then
push them from the bottom”.
The window and kitchen have been totally transformed with the new glass sliding windows.
Only the finishing touches remained to complete the transformation of the kitchen.
The island bench was finished with a timber top, which matched the timber kick boards and shelves. A painted glass splashback was placed behind the cook top, and a new exhaust fan was installed. Down lights have been integrated into the shelves. The laundry also has a glass splashback and shelves either side of the window. The budget estimate, even after alterations and unforseen problems, had been reasonably achieved.
Rosanne interview: “We’re thrilled with the outcome, have to say I love it every day I look at it. I probably took longer than I thought it would as these last finishing touches and dribbly bits seemed to be a week apart. But, very happy.