St Louis Hills Kitchen Remodel

Hello All!

I'm researching resources and products for a kitchen remodel next spring/summer. I'm going for a contemporary look- slab cabinet fronts, lots of drawer bases, no uppers, stainless appliances. Will go with wood rather than the sleek, shiny, painted style.

I'm designing it myself... I have a terrific general contractor that did a gut remodel of my bath 2 years ago, that involved moving walls and plumbing.

I stumbled across livemodern during my research and was pleased to see the ST Louis forum. My interest REALLY peaked to see many of you have a background in design and architecture. I'd appreciate any feedback you are willing to share about the layout I've come up with.

Do you have a pic of this space from the bottom left corner of the drawing you provided? It's kinda hard to tell exactly what is going on without a 3D perspective. I assume that there is going to be a floor to ceiling wall behind the fridge? Is this already in place? Can it be knocked out?

Oh yeah...

Welcome to LiveModern!

Dan

Thanks for welcome Dan!

My drawing is actually the after floorplan. The current floorplan is below.

The yellow colored wall I plan on removing completely. There's 2ft of pretty much dead space there (I have a bench there that collects stuff).

The gray wall will be moved 12 to 18 inches into the dining room to also add floor space to kitchen. It may be load bearing... My GC said I'll most likely need a beam of some sort. The plumbing stack is in that wall about 75 inches from the outside wall. All plumbing including the stack will be replaced. I figured that half wall area would be good for the fridge, dishwasher, and hopefully a 24 inch pantry.

This is my first house, and I love the neighborhood. It's a small, brick, ranch style. I have an O floorplan, which I love.

A few more details...

The changes in the current floorplan will allow for a recommended 4ft corridor in the galley, an 8ft run of cabinets with gas and electric for cooking, and a 12ft run for refrigeration, plumbing, and whatever else I can cram in there! LOL BTW, I'm Rebekah

I think what you have proposed in the first pic will work. Knowing that the wall behind the fridge is a load bearing wall kinda screws things up huh. I was going to say leave that wall completely out and swap the frige and the range leaving you a complete open island.

Keep us updated on the process.

Dan

Good to know Dan. Thanks for giving it some consideration.

If anyone can provide information on good (but reasonable) custom cabinet makers in the area, I would appreciate it.

I've contacted Henrybuilt cabinets out of Seattle. Their bamboo modular cabinets are spectacular. If I find reasonable appliances, I could make it work. Wish me luck, I've got a good lead on a gently used FiveStar range. Will check that out today. Not sure how that will compliment my cabinet choices though...

~Rebekah[url href=http://www.henrybuilt.com]http://www.henrybuilt.com[/url]

What kind of floor are you doing in your kitchen? I'm rehabbing a house in South St. Louis City now and have decided on a Congoleum tile floor. It should feel pretty mid-century and since I'm doing black it should feel a little industrial as well. Originally I wanted to do sheet Congoleum but the price more than doubled. I'm working with Lawson Bros. They are on Kingshighway near Henry Plumbing Supply. I shopped around a lot (Webster Tile, Stephens Flooring, etc.) and they were the least expensive.

As far as appliances go you might want to try Slyman Brothers on Hampton near Pueblo Solis. The showroom is not impressive, but they have plenty of items in their warehouse. Shop around at other places and go in there with the prices. I have yet to see them not beat a price by at least $50. They don't charge for delivery and they are local which is a nice benefit. I'm buying all new Frigidaire stainless appliances there this week.
Good luck.

Rebekah,
I may have someone who can build custom modern cabinets for you. He's my carpenter and he has a shop in Shaw's Gallery where he builds cabinets, does sculpture, metal work, etc. There are 4 apartments in Shaw's Gallery that he built cabinets for so you could probably take a look at them before you decide. Let me know if you are interested. I mentioned it to him and he is interested. I'm sure his prices are at least competitive and since he's local he would be easy to work with on the design. Here's a link to some of his work. You can see the cabinets in some of the apartment photos.
http://www.shawsgallery.com/steven_davis.htm
I hope it works out! PM me if you want his phone #.
:mike:

Thanks for the leads on appliances and cabinets Mike.

I'm right around the corner from Slyman's. I'll certainly check that out.

I was at the Trackmarks function at Shaw's Gallery a few months ago. The artwork was quite good. I didn't get to see the apartments, although I have looked at them online. I'm gonna take another look! The gallery and garden area renovation looked great. I got the impression those involved took a lot of care and quality in their work.

I've looked into cork flooring. That appeals to me. I learned, it can damage during the reinstall of appliances though...

I'll be in touch for his information. Thanks again and good luck with your renovation project!

~Rebekah

I was at the Trackmarks function at Shaw's Gallery a few months ago. The artwork was quite good.

I helped set up that show. I'm a gigposter collector and convinced my friends there to do a rock poster show with some of my favorite artists. What a weird coincidence. This is why I love St. Louis. It is such a small city that paths cross all the time.

No doubt- a pleasant coincidence. That was a great show. I checked out the website again and didn't see any pictures of the apartments. They must be rented. I admire the work the owner's doing in the community. During the show, young neighbors were browsing the exhibit with their basketballs in tow. It made me smile.

Try the link I sent. http://www.shawsgallery.com/steven_davis.htm The pictures in the link are of the apartments upstairs from the gallery and Steve created them and now lives in one of the apartments. He's just one of the artists in residence there.

Hello,

If you're still working on your kitchen remodel... My wife I moved from St. Louis Hills (loved St. Louis Hills...) to a loft downtown. We actually bought a completely empty loft and are building it from scratch as we see fit (and as money allows). As long time modernism enthusiasts, we are attempting to bring in unique features and modern elements wherever possible. The kitchen was the first room that we completed.

After much shopping around, we actually ended up getting cabinets from Ikea. They were rated in the top 5 by Consumer Reports for quality at the time of my research. They were some of the only ones that we could find that were clean, simple, and modern looking (I was shocked by how difficult it actually was to find simple cabinets). And of course the price... Based on our kitchen layout (it's pretty big) the next best bid for cabinets that we obtained was for $9800.00. At Ikea, the whole thing (with shipping) was just under $2500.00. We were amazed and continue to love our cabinets. Easy to order, easy to assemble, easy to install. All around great.

While I've seen no posts on this forum from snobby modernists that are opposed to Ikea, I believe that their kitchen cabinets truly do defy any notion of Ikea products being cheap or chintzy. I do think that some of their stuff is lacking in the durability department, but not the cabinets. I swear by them. If I had to do it 10 more times, I'd buy Ikea cabinets 10 more times. I've since done some freelance kitchen design work and have helped with/overseen the installation of 4 more Ikea kitchen cabinet jobs. They're great. Just a suggestion. The $7000.00 that we saved came in very handy.

For appliances, we actually bought them on Ebay. There's a seller that I believe has an affiliation with Slyman (a computer savvy son or cousin maybe?). The seller's name is AdmarkProducts. This was by far cheaper than anything else we could find at the time. And now they're carrying Jenn-Air, Delonghi, and more high end brands. Another place worth checking is the Sears Appliance outlet (tucked in the back corner of Gravois Bluffs in Fenton near Garden Ridge). A lot of dent scratch stuff, but you may find that perfect fit for a fraction of the price depending on your needs.

Also found excellent stainless steel T rod style cabinet pulls at about 30% of retail prices.

We have great old hardwood floors, but if I had to build a kitchen from scratch tomorrow, I would look at Bamboo, Cork, or Stone for flooring. Leather tiles are very cool too, but not recommended for kitchen/bath purposes.

Good luck! Happy to advise on Ikea kitchen if anyone needs help. It's become my 2nd job by default.

Ciao,
Scott

Scott,

Post some pics of your kitchen when you get a chance!

Dan

Hello! I finished the kitchen redo. It's funny... what I wanted in the beginning and what I actually ended up with... are different. I guess thats true with a lot of things! I'm thrilled with it.

I went with IKEA Kalsebo cabinets in the kitchen and office. Here's the low down on products- stove, fridge and micro are Kitchen Aid, Fisher Paykel dishwasher drawers, Zephyr hood, cork flooring, and Royal Brown granite. Plus a hundred other details... I'm done. I still need window treatments, a few door handles, and I yucked up one cabinet door- I'm waiting on a replacement. I had a sensational general contractor who I would highly recommend. He moved and removed walls and was a complete professional. Here's a link to a few pictures-

[url href=http://community.webshots.com/slideshow?ID=553516177key=VQjlIi]Slide Show[/url]

Thanks so much for listening to me, the reassurances, and especially the advice. St. Louis Modernist rocks! Rebekah

Rebekah,

Your kitchen turned out fantastic! I love the color on the walls it reminds me of my bathroom. Thanks for posting pics!

Dan

Unfortunately, I was unable to view the pictures from this link. Is there another one you could post? Also, I would greatly appreciate the referral info. for the contractor you used.

Thank you,

Aisha

Previously Aisha wrote:

Unfortunately, I was unable to view the pictures from this link. Is there another one you could post? Also, I would greatly appreciate the referral info. for the contractor you used.

Thank you,

Aisha

Here are a few pictures for you Aisha- better late than never!  Please email me if you'd like my general contractor's name and number.  I've worked with him on a few projects- highly recommended.  Rebekah