I really like our kitchen, but it isn't my dream kitchen (mostly because it doesn't have a Wolf stove ... although the stove space is big enough for one).

I like the bright cheery black and white, but damn, I will never be responsible for putting white linoleum in a kitchen. This is our second white linoleum kitchen in a row. Filthy, filthy, filthy. Is tile harder to keep clean?

-- Anonymous, September 14, 1999

Answers

I'm not going to complain too much about my current kitchen, as the last one I had was the worst ever. That last one had only 1 outlet in the whole room and it was no where near the counter. And it only had about 4 cabinets and the ones on top were so high that I had trouble reaching the bottom shelf.

My current kitchen is almost square and set up for an eat in table. It has lots of cabinets, a decent dishwasher, an icemaker in the freezer, and a new stove that we bought when we moved in.

If I could change it -- I would get Corian countertops because I drool over them at Home Depot. I would get more attractive cabinets -- these are dark brown and drab. And I would create a breakfast bar and more cabinets instead of the table and microwave cart we have now. I might even knock down part of the wall dividing the dining room and the kitchen and have the rooms flow together better. The lower cabinets could pass through to the other side and I'd get storage for the dining room at the same time.

We may actually do the breakfast bar/dining room thing next year or the year after. Since Dave is pretty handy and I can take orders we can do a lot of the work ourselves.

-- Anonymous, September 14, 1999

I loathe our kitchen.

The single biggest problem is the placement of the stove- next to a wall...which makes two of the burners virtually unusable (unreachable) and the other two awkward.

The second problem is the lack of counter space. It's an enormous bloody kitchen with only one stretch of countertop because then the apartment management is able to sell the idea of a "breakfast nook", (why you'd want a breakfast nook in a room with no windows, I can't imagine). To add to the nook idea, there's a hanging lamp in the corner of the kitchen- the placement is off though and it's nowhere near where a table would go so it's just hanging there, looking stupid.

The countertops are that horrid, horrid (glitter included at no extra charge) faux marble formica. The cabinets are cheap and old and probably plywood under that lovely green tinted white veneer. Drawers are large but old and wooden (and painted white, with said paint chipping and peeling in spots). When we first moved in, the cabinets and drawers had to be scrubbed and lined (apparently no one had thought of that before) because they smelled so musty.

The refrigerator door doesn't really close, we've had it "fixed" (ie, moved up and tightened even though that resulted in not being able to open the fridge door without opening the freezer door) but it still doesn't seal.

The new dishwasher is a plus (the old one used to flood) but not much of one.

The floor is vinyl- stained and scuffed (no matter how many times it's washed).

And the sink is a single (my husband prefers the double sink and since he's the main cook, it matters) without any spray attachment (we bought one for the faucet itself which helps somewhat).

Finally, there are no windows.

It's dark and old and dingy looking (no matter how clean it is). I don't want to cook in there, I don't want to socialize in there, I don't even like being in there.

I think your kitchen looks pretty good Beth.. looking over my answer, apparently I was more upset about mine then I had realized.

-- Anonymous, September 14, 1999

Double sinks are definitely superior to singles. Those new triples are even better.

I do like our kitchen, but it's high maintenance. The open shelves mean that everything gets dusty and icky. The counters require oiling and you have to be careful about spills. The white cabinets and floors show both stains and dust.

The best thing about it, actually, is the window over the sink. That looks out on wisteria and trumpet vine climbing over a very high fence. You get to see hummingbirds while you're washing up.

-- Anonymous, September 14, 1999

Well, our kitchen sounds KINDA like Moira's but not a whole lot. Ours too is HUGE. It's the biggest room in this lil' teeny tiny house. We have the standard fridge and stove in there, and there's also a dining room table, a desk and a small round table, and STILL plenty of room.

The layout is what is really shitty. There are NO counters by the stove, so when Jake is cooking he is CONSTANTLY walking the entire length of the kitchen from the stove to the sink/counter area.

The one cabinet isn't sealed properly, and we can't store anything OPEN in there (Bread, open peanut butter) cuz it will go moldy in record time. And speaking of cabinets. There is one cabinet on either side of the sink, then one below each of those, and that's it. That's right, FOUR cabinets. There's these four HUGE drawers, which hold our pots and pans and such, but there really needs to be more storage space in there.

The sink is a single, and had the crappiest water pressure for the longest time, I FINALLY got sick of asking the landlord to fix it and finally threatened to stop paying rent if he didn't.

It's big and poorly laid out. I'm not going ot miss it when we're gone.

-- Anonymous, September 14, 1999

Everything. First of all, our kitchen is a CAVE. Whoever designed these apartments, obviously wasn't thinking about light and air circulation. The hallway is a zig-zag, and the kitchen is kind of plopped down in between the living room and the hallway and juts out into the dinette area. Bad bad bad design.

It also hasn't been remodeled since sometime in the late 60s/early 70s. The floor is a yellow linoleum with brown circular designs, the wall paper is orange brown and white and has the words KITCHEN in bold brown lettering printed vertically all over it. The cabinets are dark brown and the hutch on the stove is that puke-chartreuse yellow color that was too hip to be square back then. The counter tops are off-white with goldy-orange marbling and the cabinets are the epitome of poor space-maximization.

If we buy the place, I want Ikea to come in and yank the whole thing out and replace it with one of their dreamy space-saver kitchens in blue and ivory and pale oak or blue and white and pale oak.

The only GOOD part about the kitchen, is the relatively new appliances. The stove is new within the last 5 years, ditto the fridge and the diswasher can't be more than 10 years old. The placement of these items is good too -- fridge across from stove, sink in between. That famous "triangle" thingie they'r always talking about. But there is a marked lack of counter space and the cabinets were so poorly designed that there's very little space to KEEP anything in the kitchen.

I'd love your stacks of open shelving Beth -- then at least I'd be able to find things as opposed to the treasure hunt that goes on in our over-stuffed cabinetry.

The sink is serviceable, but could do with a raised faucet -- it's impossible to get anything large than a mid-sized vase under the faucet to fill it. Im also strongly in favor of enamel sinks instead of the metal ones.

For the floors, I want those specially treated wooden slats, that resist water damage, so that I can sweep and mop and actually be able to keep the floor clean. The linoleum is too porous and sort of "holds" dirt even after you've mopped.

And that's just the kitchen. Don't get me started on the bathrooms;)

-- Anonymous, September 14, 1999

I have had some truely horrible Kitchens since moving to NY the "NYC kitchen" the size of a closet only one person could fit in there at a time but if you were in there you could not hold anything or there would not be enough room for you, I am really not kidding the refridgerator was in the HALLWAY. Then our first apartment in Brooklyn was huge with a window seat and a good deal of space (enough for a table, a sitting area with a couch etc..) the big drawback was the slant. The entire room was at a significant angle so if you dropped something it would slide and hit the wall and you would have to walk down hill to get it. It was almost like being in those old V8 commercials. But the kitchen we have now has no slant and is about 15 feet long but only 6 ft wide and we have a whole wall of cabinets but they are only 7 inches deep, but atleast we have a nice big window with shelves for plants (the windows in the building are all original size seven feet tall, it's an old tenement) and all the original moldings are there so we have cherubs above the stove the only other problem is the ceilings which we love in the rest of the apartment are 15 feet so if we want to hang anything (the rack for pots and pans or one of those basket things) we have to use put up chains and hang it from the chains. But with our past apartment horrors we have learned to appreciate what we have, I personally could have lived with the closet but my partner is a chef and I don't think she'll be happy until we have a place where she can design the kitchen herself with all the room and counters and cabinets and stuff that she could possibly dream of.

-- Anonymous, September 14, 1999

Our kitchen was re-done about ten years ago. It has new appliances, tons of storage, and attractive wood grained cabinets. There's a window that looks out onto the street and one that gets afternoon sun and has a nice wide windowsill that cats can sleep on. I've witnessed them nodding off there personally. At night moths bang against the window, eliciting quite a different feline reaction.

Everyone comes in and raves about our great kitchen. I don't cook, though, so it's all wasted on me.

I'd put in Corian or granite counters - we have tiles which look so dated to me. And I'd like to have a skylight. The west side of the house is the garage so in the afternoon, the kitchen and living room are dark.

We have white lino (fake tiles with little green tiles in teh corners) but I never notice when it gets dirty...

-- Anonymous, September 14, 1999

Definitely the size.

I have a kitchen the size of a postage stamp.

When cooking, there's no need to take more than a couple of steps this way or that. It really is -that- small. If I had more than two arms I'd be the world's quickest and most efficient cook!

-- Anonymous, September 14, 1999

I have a nice kitchen, but I agree, white linoleum should be a felony. I like that linoleum stuff that's all bricky and brown. It seems like it would hide most stains and scuffs. It's uglier than most things and so 70's it makes you wanna wear polyester, but it seems like serviceable stuff.

I used the open shelves in combination with cabinets and really liked it. I bought glass bottles and filled them with staples, like flour, sugar, rice, beans and it looked really nice. I also put my glasses on the shelf because the glass made things look light and pretty. Having a shelf like that almost becomes a work of art.

The only thing I currently yearn for is wooden kitchen chairs with fabric seats or those big soft butt cushions you can buy and put on your chairs. I'd just hate to have to use a big plastic tarp on the 6 year old's chair, if I did that. And having to wash the stupid things constantly would suck.

The other thing I've used that I think is cool are those pot hangers...basically a wheel or square hanging from a chain from the ceiling, where you can put hooks on it and hang your most often used pots, without having to get on your hands and knees and curse the cabinetry to get the wok out.

I think your kitchen looks pretty nice, too, but the white linoleum...felony, I tell ya...felony.

-- Anonymous, September 14, 1999

Can you believe that the woman who installed that white linoleum was a single mother with two toddlers? No wonder she gave up and moved back to England.

-- Anonymous, September 14, 1999

Our kitchen is straight out of 1931. Ok, not really anymore, but kitchens in the 30s were very small, I guess. We have a nice fridge and decent cabinet space (for two people) but the thing I hate is that there is no decent shelf on which to place cereal boxes. What am I going to do when I have kids and I need to keep the cereal out of reach? Problems, problems.

I really really really want black and white tile. I never thought of the white thing. Black and white tile is my dream. Maybe I'll just get black and grey, that way nobody will notice that it's supposed to be white. hehe

Oh, and I have a stainless steel sink, which my mom drools over every time she comes by..but I don't know why, really. It's a nice sink, but I don't froth at the mouth over it.

-- Anonymous, September 15, 1999

I am in the process of fantasizing about my dream kitchen in the very small house we are going to be moving into in several years. The kitchen will be postage stamp size and so much of the mismatched kitchenware will have to go. A kitchen this small will force me to rid myself of logo coffee mugs - I will get one GOOD set of pots and pans and the stuff with the teflon flaking off and the pliers for handles will have to go. I am thinking of a 40's motif, one with celedon green, black and white tiles, etc. And lots of stainless stuff. I(actually hubby) am going to make the upper cabinets using windows salvaged out of a house remodel as door...now if we can ever do all of it.

-- Anonymous, September 15, 1999

I'm daydreaming about a new kitchen too. When we move in a few months, we'll have a gas stove and walk-in pantry, with more counter and cabinet space than we know what to do with. Heaven.

My worst kitchen ever was in this (almost) perfect little one-bedroom apartment. It was just a tiny little nook right inside the doorway. There was one drawer that hit the oven door when you tried to open it. To get inside, you had to open the oven. The oven door, however, hit the refrigerator before it cleared the drawer. Thus the process, open refrigerator, open oven, open

-- Anonymous, September 15, 1999

My kitchen is too small. Only one person can work in it at a time, really. With two people, you're bumping butts with the other person all the time. (Which, granted, can be fun...) Since I am vertically challenged, all the top shelves of the cabinets are unused. What I need are those rolling shelves for the bottom cabinets so I can use that space more efficiently.

I would change the floor, too. We have tile. You never get a good bounce on tile, so anything glass that you drop explodes into a million pieces. It's easy to keep clean, but it's really cold in the winter time.

-- Anonymous, September 15, 1999

I hate tile. Thank God the only place we do have tile is the bathrooms but still. Cold and functional looking.

I don't totally love my kitchen but I don't hate it either. I wish it were bigger, I have a thing about big kitchens. That is it though. We could always use more counter space but it isn't that bad. My favorite part of the kitchen is the honey colored oak cabinets. Very light, very warm.

-- Anonymous, September 15, 1999

I,too, daydream about a big, modern kitchen. I have a big dining room next to the kitchen only separated from it by a built-in stove with cupboard above. I would love to make the whole room one fantastic kitchen (with a special cozy eating nook in front of the fireplace which is in the dining room) Then, since I feel I have to have a dining room, I would convert the rarely used living room into the dining room. If I did this then I would have a kitchen with windows. I really think a kitchen needs windows. I have a window now above the sink, but it looks out over the living room. The cats like that window ledge.....they have trained me to keep fresh water in a little cat tin up there. Then, again, I haven't seen Europe yet, or the pyramids, or Japan, Australia .........

-- Anonymous, September 15, 1999

I have the modern kitchen,our house is a little over a year old. Its birthday was october12. It's got oak hardwood floors like the rest of the house. Black appliances. A big black fridgerator that looks like king kong.How I wouuld change it? Next time I build a house, I would not even put a kitchen in the house. It stays messy(I have 2 kids). Everyone wants me too cook all the damn time which makes me not want too. The hardwood floors are hard too keep clean in a kitchen. I hate it.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 1999

Our kitchen was remodeled a while back; the south wall used to have a narrow pantry, the floor of which was built out over the back yard (along with a deck), so there's open air under what used to be the pantry and is now the southernmost 3' of our kitchen. The idea was that the unheated portion of the pantry would help keep things cool in winter, which probably worked pretty well.

Unfortunately, it makes for a pretty dang kitchen floor in St. Paul in January. We didn't realize what we were dealing with our first winter here; we were using that space to store cans of soda, because was colder. Duh. One morning I got up; it was about -20 outside, and as I walked into the kitchen the cans started to explode.

Thank god we weren't drinking IBC root beer in those days. It only comes in bottles.

So, if we could change something, we'd wall off that space and stuff it with riprap or styrofoam so the squirrels would have someplace warm to nest.

-- Anonymous, December 07, 1999