need all appliances stored at bench height - no reaching up or pulling

8 years ago

I am planning a complete kitchen reno. I have a disability to both arms and hands and one arm is much shorter due to a missing radius bone. As a result I need to have all my appliances easily accessible. I was planning to have them all on a long island bench with a raised back and small shelf on top to partially hide them from view. I have quite a lot - sandwich maker, pie maker, juicer, steamer, crockpot, mixmaster, breadmaker to name just a few. I am concerned this will make the kitchen look quite cluttered. All of the larger appliances also have to be at waist height, so that takes up more wall space. Any suggestions???

Featured Answer

J

8 years ago

I never got this option priced up, but was looking into a cupboard lift placed into the bench. It drops down into the cupboard with appliances when not in use. It has a benchtop on top of the lift so you have bench to work with when not in use and I don't see why you couldn't have a few shelves that go up and down to the height required. I saw these at the Lincoln Sentry showroom in Alexandria, NSW.

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Comments (10)

bigreader
8 years ago
Firstly a house is for living. Don't worry about clutter if the layout works for you.

But is there anyway you could work in a walk in pantry or even one with double sliding doors. Is the laundry adjacent and a possible source of space?
judoh thanked bigreader
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Do you see what I mean about my imagination my skills. My drawing look oh so like yours (not). I really love your idea of the island bench. Connie I've had Others warn me off a sink on the island, but to be honest I don't mind if there is a dish in the sink (not dumped everywhere - I'm a stickler) the house is to be lived in I guess. With the suggestion of the border that mldesign gave I think the problem is solved. Still leaves me with two metres give or take for plating up etc. I did consider the sink on the other wall but just didn't feel the flow. As my pantry door and the window wall are are right angles - ie not stepped behind I was still thinking I would have a tall cupboard as per my sophisticated drawing above for small appliances and keep coffee cups etc in there. In saying that I was thinking I might swap the fridge from left to the right so the tal cupboards, pantry door and second tall cupboard are all grouped. Love your idea re the mirrored kickers. A big thank you for taking the time to draw these up. I will most definitely be using most of your ideas!
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Wow...you’ve all given me so much to think about! Kate Partenio - I hadn’t even thought of garage fumes...definitely something we will consider going forward. Re: traffic through pantry/kitchen..this doesn’t bother us so much given we don’t have kids but worth thinking about for resale down the track. Oklouise - I love your sketch but upon redrawing it myself I realised that the kitchen bench will likely be the same size as it is now, as we would want it to be flush with bedroom 2. Also in your sketch (and in relation to marie4509’s suggestions) the pantry would have to be a straight line pantry rather than one that has a bench/shelving going across horizontally - unfortunately that space is just too narrow which is why we were thinking of it for the laundry. I don’t know about all of you but I feel like a straight line pantry still feels like just a pantry, rather than a full out butlers pantry! That all being said, we will consider moving the internal garage door to lead straight into the main hallway, rather than through the butlers. This would eliminate concerns of fumes to kitchen directly + problem of foot traffic through kitchen. It would also give us more counter space + storage in the butlers. I must say I’ve never been a fan of garage entry doors being visible to guests, but it seems this would be the only real solution. Looks like I’ll have to let go of my dream of a bigger bench :( Thanks all for your suggestions and sketches - what an amazing community I’ve walked into.
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Thank you all for your comments, suggestions, drawings and photos, I really appreciate the effort you all put in to help others on this great platform. I have come up with another idea (see photos below) that involves putting the fridge on the back wall of the kitchen behind cabinetry doors (yes, I know I was adamantly against this!) and bringing the door of the pantry forward to be in line with the front of the fridge. The pantry door would also be cabinetry and the section of wall. I don’t really know how to explain this, but the wall the kitchen backs on to would be bulk headed out so it continues in line with the pantry/fridge front all the way to the ceiling. This creates a sort of symmetry in the doors of the fridge and pantry being either side of the cooktop, but without the worry of having to line the rangehood up with the apex of the cathedral ceiling....I think. What do you think? P.S. Please excuse my shoddy hand drawn sketches.
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judoh
Original Author
8 years ago
Will look into the lift idea,sttop, but probably beyond my budget. I did ask about some funding but was told not possible, as I am doing a renovation - don't understand their reasoning, but that's how it is.

Bigreader, I was thinking about that option today. I think I will see if that is a possibility.
jmm1837
8 years ago
A "butler's pantry" with a pocket door (and no sink, so more counter space) at one end of the kitchen would be the ideal solution, but of course that depends on dimensions of your kitchen and whether you can squeeze in enough space for that pantry. We have one off the end of our kitchen, which is maybe 1.5 m square and offers a lot of extra counter space out of sight of the lounge.

We have friends who had a fairly big kitchen area, put a blade wall down the middle to create a U shaped kitchen, so the oven and bench face the lounge on one side of the U, the sink is at the end on the short side of the U, and the small appliances and pantry are on the other side of the U, with the blade wall hiding the mess.
Sian Sampey
8 years ago
post a rough floor plan & watch the Houzzers solve your dilemma!
longbeachgrannyflat
8 years ago
Could you get super strong shelving put into a pull out shelving arrangement, with a pocket door. You could open the door, slide the pocket door back into onto itself/90 degrees so that it is out of the way, then pull out the relevant shelf with the appliance in it. If each shelf had a power point behind it, the appliance could be permanently plugged in, but I would somehow get a master switch outside the cupboard to save on standby power.
judoh thanked longbeachgrannyflat
longbeachgrannyflat
8 years ago
This is what I meant by a pocket door sliding out of the way.

Photo 1 door closed
Photo 2 door open, showing the sliding partition behind
Photo3 door retracted out of the way.
judoh thanked longbeachgrannyflat
judoh
Original Author
8 years ago
Have drawn a rough sketch as suggested.

The present kitchen is part of a larger family room. The current benches and appliances are marked, but the whole lot is being gutted, including a wall - see plan.

Thanks. Any suggestions gratefully received.
Jhon Michal
2 years ago
Aww, sorry to hear that you are suffering from a disability. I will recommend you to make a wardrobe with minimum height on your floor instead of a wall. Put all those things in it which use on regular basis just like as Mixe, best celery juicer and steamer, etc in it. This will be easy for you to take things from this wardrobe.
robandlyn
2 years ago
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need all appliances stored at bench height - no reaching up or pulling

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need all appliances stored at bench height - no reaching up or pulling

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