# Designing my Kitchen



## ashley8072 (Apr 26, 2011)

Hi! I'm new to this site and I love it! Never thought of looking for a site about this. 

Bit about me: Love Camping and Backpacking. Spent past 10 years as an Assistant BSA Leader to our local troop. Married 10years. Have 2 daughters. Hubby is a construction worker (builds homes). 

We built our home and are still in the process of looking for a great kitchen design. It's perfect space for what I need it to do, but after 2 years of really getting into this food storage stuff, I realize that the kitchen is all wrong. It is still under construction (falls of being married to a construction worker, lol). I could go in right now and pull down the whole lot and start over. There's just no space. Previously, I kept food storage in the office...which is now the baby's room. lol! 

What I'm looking for: Pics on building the perfect layout for bugging out at home. Is there such a thing for these ideas? 

We've recently looked at some houses to buy, and one of them had...instead of an actual kitchen sink, it had 2 stainless steel buckets. Like the ones that you would use to feed animals or keep outdoor stuff in. The drains were easily popped off underneath and the strainers were put in to keep them from leaking. Then water was collected. Now I thought this was a great idea. Would I convert my giant cast iron sink to buckets? Probly not. But what are some good ideas for building a prepardness kitchen? 

My kitchen is 8'10 x 12ft. There is about 3 more extra feet on it, but thats for the hot water heater, which also needs a cabinet built around it. Have an idea for that? Love any advice
thnx


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

I'm afraid I don't have much in the way of advice - just wanted to jump in and welcome you to the site!  Glad to see you've jumped in and started posting a few. 

I don't know of any specific kitchen plans for bugging in, but the one piece of advice I can offer would be to have a kitchen island. At least, that's on my wish list. The reason is because of all the canning and dehydrating and general food saving work. Not only is it good to spread out, but I need space to keep the relatively small, yet bulky, appliances and tools. I have a pressure canner and a water bath canner with blancher, neither of which fit in my cabinets, a dehydrator, a fryer, a food strainer, a food processor, a vacuum sealer, a bread machine, a large slow cooker - and I'm in the process of getting a grain mill. None of these items fit in cabinets well at all - it would be great to have an island where I could keep the these bulky items under the counter, and spread out with extra counter space whenever I work. 

That's just my thought. 
Good luck with your project!


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## DJgang (Apr 10, 2011)

I kind of wish that I had splurged and made my cabinets all the way to the ceiling, I would have used that space for rotating to my pantry. 

my pantry is a deep cabinet, if I had to do over agin, I would have made a walk in closet with just shelves, no cabinet .


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

In my mind, the best kitchen is one that you can work in, have lots of easily accessable shelves, drawers and cubby-holes. Lots of counter-top space with deep cupboards under and "high" upper cupboards. I would have two "double" sinks in the kitchen, one under the window for fresh-air and one in the island in the middle of the kitchen. I would also have a full stove with oven on one side and a stove-top set into the island. One of the stoves would be gas-only and the other would be whatever you are comfortable cooking with (electric, gas, wood, etc). 

I would have a giant walk-in pantry in the kitchen for day-to-day storage of food-stuffs and have one large fridge and an upright freezer in the kitchen (my basement would have another fridge and a chest freezer).

As far as counter-tops go, I personally would use 1/8" 304 grade stainless steel. Some people like stone counters, some people like tile, some like to go inexpensive with wood-base and arborite. Totally your choice.

Good luck!


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## lotsoflead (Jul 25, 2010)

have the stove,refrigerator and sink in a triangle about 4 steps or less from each other


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## Clarice (Aug 19, 2010)

I have 2 wall of cabinets in my kitchen and it's still not enough. We have preps under the beds, under the dressers, in the clothes closets, stacked in the corner of the spare bedroom, converted the linen closet to hold food stuffs. I think I need a large climate controlled storage building.


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## DJgang (Apr 10, 2011)

Clarice said:


> I have 2 wall of cabinets in my kitchen and it's still not enough. We have preps under the beds, under the dressers, in the clothes closets, stacked in the corner of the spare bedroom, converted the linen closet to hold food stuffs. I think I need a large climate controlled storage building.


Ok, something you may want to think about, I see in my mind major bug out or in moment and everyone is in town running around...we have our food, but you'll have to go to storage ...what if someone sees you with all this stuff? In one second, gun to head and it's theirs...

I think you should try your best to keep it in the house, no matter what! :2thumb:

on you tube I saw where a woman had a dresser behind her sofa, it was made into a can FIFO ....let me see if I can find the link...

It would be cool to have something like this IN the kitchen


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## CulexPipiens (Nov 17, 2010)

Djgang may have been hinting at this...

Hidden pantry for storage. Perhaps a normal looking relatively small pantry but a secret catch releases the back wall/shelf and it opens to a larger pantry where all your longer term stuff can be kept?

As to general cooking and layout, provide enough counter space to work, good lighting and a really good range hood for venting whatever doesn't come out right to the outside. 

I do much of the cooking at home and from where I work I am right next to the stove, 1 step to the fridge and 2 steps to the sink. All commonly used pans, utensils, cutting boards, etc are all within arms reach or no more than 2 steps away. Having to run back and forth a lot gets old really quick so when I redid our kitchen I designed it with functionality as the primary goal and then wrapped everything else around it.


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## DJgang (Apr 10, 2011)

I am on my iPad, and I can not get the URL for the YouTube video about the dresser...just get on YouTube and search out food storage, the picture shows a sofa with a table behind it and flowers...HTH!


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## ashley8072 (Apr 26, 2011)

Thank you all for all of ya'lls comments. Like DJgang said, I am really sold on keeping the food mostly out of sight. I don't want anyone coming over and seeing it. You never know what could happen. You could easily end up with a gun to the head or a friendly moocher over constantly. I'd love to see that link, if you think about it and got the time, please post it to me.  

Around the house I have stored over 30 gallons of water that people overlook all the time. A 5 gal culligan water jug purchased at walmart for like 2 bucks ( we have well water, so i dont need to purchase water with them) is hidden behind each toilet in our 2 bathrooms. A 7gal jug hidden by the towel holder in the corner in one of the bathrooms also. 2 cases Bottled water under the kitchen sink. A Home Depot water jug that stays about halfway full between the washer and dryer. The large water jugs are mostly for toilets and washing, and have come in handy many times already when the power goes out. Right now as far as my kitchen cabinets go, I have a freestanding tall pantry, but its so full of food that my shelf racks are cans of evaporated milk and 1/2in plywood. lol! My sink, stove and fridge are in a triangle.  I want to be able to have workable counterspace for using things like my electric griddle, coleman stove and other things that are only out when the power goes out. 

I should also mention that my kitchen includes the back door and the doorway between the kitchen and the diningroom is a storm door that would usually go on the outside of the house. We did this to keep the cold out when we didn't have the house hooked up on heat. We've left it there cuz it keeps the kitchen smells out of the rest of the house and secludes anyone in the kitchen from being bothered. Also good for keeping baby out of pesky materials. lol! 

I want to purchase another freestanding cabinet, or try and get hubby to build them both in. I've looked at some of the can wire racks, but that could get very expensive with what I have on hand now...and not too impressed with the whole open look that they give. I think I may end up pulling out that dishwasher that is ONLY keeping my countertop up and putting cabinets in there too. Hubby jokingly said that maybe I want a stow-away pocket under the stove (where the bottom drawer pulls out) so I can store stuff in there. I said, DEF! THATS A GREAT IDEA!


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## CulexPipiens (Nov 17, 2010)

If you're going to remove your dishwasher, could you detach the front from the rest and put it back in place somehow? This would provide an area to hide stuff that most people would ignore. Who thinks of looking in a dishwasher for food or water? 

And if anyone is over and asks why you don't use it just make some excuse about it being broken and you haven't gotten around to getting rid of it yet. Just make sure it can be "locked" so someone doesn't accidentally open it thinking to put dishes in there.


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## ashley8072 (Apr 26, 2011)

That's a good idea! I'll have to clean it out myself, but I could store food in it just as it sits now. I'll have to inform hubby so he doesn't decide to hook it up after I've done that. lol! I've actually used it for a drying rack when the power is out so I can use more counter space. Just fill my wash buckets to wash the dishes and then dry in there while my folding dish rack is tucked away under the counter. Of course I'm hoping that in any event of a long term emergency, I would have enough paper plates and bowls to keep from using the water.


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## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

If you have frame interior walls there is a lot of hidden storage space there, 15"x3 1/2'' x 90'' between each set of studs, hides/holds a lot of canned goods.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

How about putting hidden storage in the ceiling of your closets? Say you had 8ft ceilings in your house. You drop the ceiling in your closets to 6ft. Put an access to this space in the room that shares the closet wall. Cover the access hole with a picture, quilt. etc.


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## ashley8072 (Apr 26, 2011)

That probably wouldn't work. We got walk-in closets and would have to deal with light fixture wires. But a good idea if we were to ever move. Currently I'm still looking for some sort of bulker storage for repackaging food. If I could find that, then getting the cabinets for the kitchen set would just fall in place cuz I could build around it. So far, I've looked at the can rotating racks and then just the slider racks for them. But I think I can get many more cans onto a shelf than one of those. I wish I could find some plastic barrels.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

Attached is a picture of a way to get more storage just as TiredIron described - you knock-out a section of the dry-wall and put a cabinet in between the verticle studs. It can be used in the kitchen as a spice-rack, in the bathroom as a medicine cabinet, in a bedroom as a knick-knack shelf, in a living-room as a DVD / BlueRay disk sorter ... your imagination can go wild!


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

Dream kitchen that has all you need to be "prepared" for the worst. Well, first on my list is a wood cookstove. Yes you can still get these, they are not cheap, and take up some space, but if electricity is lost, grid is gone, you can still cook and bake, and even heat water.

Then, yes, a walk in pantry, basically a walk in closet with shelves (not too deep), a center island, plus enough storage for other items, floor to ceiling shelving, hooks for pots...I dream of this instead of a walk-in for clothes.

Concrete, terra cotta tile, or brick flooring, with a drain in it, a big farm sink, and lots of counterspace for working on.


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## Centraltn (Feb 21, 2011)

You willl need a big sink- alot of counter space and propane or gas stove (you can use this for cooking/heating water).. whatever, even if the power is out, until you run out of propane/gas. If propane, get the largest tank available and have them top it off monthly, or weekly - if they will.
You will need lots of counterspace for canning and processing vegetables and meat, if the time comes that you must hunt. Take the above cabinetry all the way to the ceiling. Make the cabinet over the refrigerator come all the way out to the front of the refer and begin 4 inches above it to allow the heat from it to escape. Use every inch of cabinetry. If there is a 2 inch space tween cabs or appliances, install a slide out set of shelves for keeping your spices and herbs or narrow pans like baking sheets. Cabinets cabinets cabinets and dont stop with the kitchen. Enclose the areas above closets and bathtub/showers, shelves that pull out and doors on the front for access.


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## ra5451 (Mar 11, 2011)

Also, You should think about a secure place for a firearm since you probably spend most of your time in that room.


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## ashley8072 (Apr 26, 2011)

Wow, this post was so old that I forgot that we completely remodeled the inside of the house. lol! We were still going back and forth on what we wanted to do with the kitchen, when my Grandpa passed away. My parents needed some help taking over a years of payments to the bank. So we moved in. It was only 2 houses down anyways. Then we completely gutted the interior of our house and started our remodel. We flip-floped the entire house. moving rooms to the back and family rooms to the front. I wasn't actually prepared for this thread still being open, so I don't have any pics, BUT I do have some pictures of when we were working on it. We did it all ourselves. We slowly started to move after a year. We love it! I must get some good pics this evening.


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## goshengirl (Dec 18, 2010)

Thanks for all the pics, Ashley! I love seeing all that wood.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

... and I love all the cast-iron too! :teehee:


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## ashley8072 (Apr 26, 2011)

Here are the updated pictures. I took these last night. We still lack above cabinets and shelving, the corner for large storage, rest of the pantry, and a few odds and ends from the ceiling. A bookcase added to the bar stretched to the ceiling will house my cookbooks. We did swap out the large fireplace for a smaller one. The pilot light had to be hand lit, and wouldn't go off when turned off. Decided to not deal with the hassle. Both fireplaces were given to us. And of course, still deciding on flooring.


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## tenntex (Oct 27, 2011)

lotsoflead said:


> have the stove,refrigerator and sink in a triangle about 4 steps or less from each other


Big thumbs up! Think like an industrial engineer (efficiency expert), to minimize movement. Keep things you frequent, close by; and things you don't use often, further away.


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## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

Your kitchen, home is beautiful. 

We do not have above cabinets either. I do have a few shelves with glasses, another with dried beans in mason jars and another with flour, etc on. Still has the open feel but the shelves serve a major purpose of holding items we use a lot without having cabinets.



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