Why We Chose Not To Do A Banquette In The Kitchen

For all those wondering when the heck we will tackle that kitchen banquette idea that we mentioned a few weeks ago (here and here), well… likely never. Cue the frowny face emoticons.

Here is the deal. After getting plenty of positive feedback on the idea a few weeks ago (over 1,400 comments total!), Sherry and I were certain your collective enthusiasm would push us from “we think this is a good idea” to “this is certainly a good idea.” And it nearly did. But parts of us still questioned the whole commitment-factor when it came to in fact doing it (we certainly described it as a half baked idea when we shared it). We worried if it’d truly be the most practical solution (would it be a pain to scoot in and out of?) and if it’d truly make the most of the space (we could not figure out the right balance of big-sufficient seats while still maintaining flow around it to keep it from feeling cramped).

So one evening we chose there was a reason that we were stuck in Hesitation City: it simply was not The One. So we did what we consistently do when we get stuck. We went back to the drawing board to see if we could come up with something else that we ended up liking better. We made a few swift sketches of the floorplan, asked ourselves “what are we not thinking of???” and simply began sketching ideas – no matter how good or bad our guts told us they were. Kinda like those DO NOT THINK, Simply DRAW exercises that they teach you to access your subconscious or something. Of course some of them fully blocked the doorway to the dining room (fail!) and nearly all of them were fully out of scale (so things were too big or too far over) but it certainly got the ol’ wheels turning again…

We tried returning to some version of table in the middle (top left) and even modification to the banquette (top right, bottom left). But somewhere in that mess we had one of those “Ah-ha moments” that ol’ what is-her-name used to talk about on the TV (this is a joke for my Oprah-loving wife). So allow us to introduce the banquette’s successor: the peninsula! Cue the confused emoticons.

Let us explain. First, here is our CURRENT floating-table-in-the-kitchen-and-larger-table-in-the-dining-room arrangement (courtesy of my rough Google Sketch-Up drawing):

Now for the doorway opened, cabinets painted, counters replaced, floor slightly discolored (not intentionally) and (of course) peninsula’d version:

Woo hoo. Before we go any further, we should warn you: we are 100% sold. The above depiction of it is likely not going to make a believer out of everyone, but from taping it out in the space and moving around it “in person” for a while we giddily came to the following conclusion: it is The One! So no worries if it is not your jam or you enjoy Mr. Banquette (he was a lovable guy – and there are consistently gonna be people who would do things differently if this were their house) but we are certainly going for it. And we cannot wait to get began.

As for why we did not come up with the peninsula idea sooner, we were so stuck on the fact that a peninsula coming off of the cabinetry that we already have would in fact hit (or come quite quite close to hitting) the fridge on the other side of the room. So it was not until we came up with the idea of adding a base cabinet to the right of the cabinetry that we already have to space the peninsula further away (a smidge towards the fireplace) for better flow and even more counter space.

Speaking of counter space, when it comes to executing this whole thing, we are in short planning to add some base cabinetry (and counters) near the opening itself to create a counter-height peninsula. Which accomplishes a lot, in fact:

• It adds additional work surface & cabinet storage to the kitchen side of the room (so it is straightforward-access)
• It helps extend and better define the kitchen space without blocking flow or feeling too heavy
• It creates a casual eating space, keeping it distinct from the dining room table, which is simply steps away for larger groups and more formal gatherings
• We can most likely seat four people at the peninsula (it is flexible, so ignore the three chunky chairs shown)
• It can be used as a buffet to set out food (or to seat additional guests) when we have parties
• It can be used for homework, laptop browsing, and general hanging out by the child(s) as they grow
• It even makes sense of our quite off-center fireplace by creating a small casual living space that we will use as a little “chill corner” of sorts (the peninsula does not block the fireplace, which our banquette friend did from most angles)

That last perk (centering the fireplace) was a pleasant surprise, since it is something we have struggled with a lot (it is simply in such an odd place, practically shoved in the corner of the room). But you can see from this virtual view through the future doorway how it nearly makes the fireplace placement seem intentional (picture it with a pleasant round mirror above it to balance that doorway next to it). Oh glad day.

We simply enjoy that we will get to see the fireplace from the dining room (it will not be blocked by a heavy banquette) and if overflow guests sit at the peninsula, they will not have their backs to the people seated in the dining room (which would have happened with the banquette).

For those who do not do well with renderings (or are still scratching your heads), here are some pics we snapped to give you a better idea of how it’ll work in the real world. We moved some existing furniture around to mimic the placement (the table represents the peninsula) and have lived with it for the last week-ish to make sure it in fact makes sense. Placements are not totally exact, but fairly darn close to what we are thinking. Here is the view from the laundry room. Ignore the broken pendant light in the far back (it at last crapped out on us). Instead look, there is that fireplace nicely framed!

We also traced out the future opening (again, not exact) to show how that’ll work too. We are thinking there will be a little half-wall (i.e. knee wall) where the peninsula meets the open doorway…

… like we showed in this rendering:

We considered a narrower doorway (where the peninsula does not hang over into the opening) but we think this wider version makes it feel much more open and lets in more light, so it is the current winner. And of course as previously mentioned, we enjoy how balanced the fireplace and doorway look through the cutout.

Admittedly it took us a little while to figure out what to do with the space in front of the fireplace. It was our biggest hurdle in getting on board with this idea, in fact. But after we brought in a placeholder chair, ottoman, rug, and light we realized it was in fact fully excellent. There have been approximately 14 hours of reading-with-Clara from that chair in the last week or so. We are even toying with the addition of some sort of tall built-in bookshelf behind the chair to balance the tall cabinets on the other side of the doorway. Not sure yet, but we will keep you posted.

We have already discovered it is a strong spot for Clara to play while we are getting stuff done in the kitchen (since we cannot see her if she’s in the living room, but it is straightforward sufficient to peek over the peninsula to check on her if she’s in the kitchen on the rug).

Sherry’s already making plans for how she’ll relax in front of a fire (we are contemplating one of those convincing modern-looking electric inserts that Candice Olsen uses – possibly even a double sided one if we can eventually open the back of the fireplace into the living room as planned).

Meanwhile I am dreaming of a little TV mounted above the mantle so I can watch the news during our morning breakfast routine (Sherry is rolling her eyes as I type this- so we will have to see where we land on that). Either way, can you tell we are getting more than a little excited about this set up? Yup, it is The One.

The peninsula will also give us 3-ish base cabinets worth of deep functional storage, unlike the largely decorative storage (open 12″ bookshelves) that the banquette would’ve provided. Plus a pleasant wide 3′ x 5.5′ work surface for prep, serving, eating, and homework is FAR more functional than what we would’ve gained from a distant island or a narrow banquette located a lot further away. And we are likely gonna use the new counterspace as an excuse to change the countertops in the whole kitchen. We have never enjoyed our existing granite color (it has a few pitted/stained parts too), so it seems silly to in fact buy more for the new peninsula (we have debated a mismatched look, which we like for an island, but for a peninsula it seems like it would look most like it has “consistently been there” with the same counter to keep things seamless). Of course we plan to craigslist the existing granite and put that money towards whatever we will use for the new material (not gonna lie, we are already talking about DIYing concrete counters).

Oh and for anyone debating a peninsula, we have learned that the pros recommend 42″ of walking space between the peninsula and whatever’s on the other side (in our case it is the fridge, which we hope will sink back a foot or so when we replace it with something that is counter-depth). So that is how we arrived at our peninsula length.

In fact, flow through the room is nearly better because there is one straight pathway through the room, whereas the old table (and the once planned banquette) made us walk in a slight circle. Hoorah for ten less steps a day. Haha.

So now that we are unequivocally sold and geeky-excited about our new plan, it is simply going to come down to working out the logistics. Namely how to find/build perfectly-sized cabinets that match our old ones without breaking the bank. And at last hire a licensed contractor and get the permits needed to bust out that load bearing wall of ours. But that is a story for another post. Another ten posts, likely…

Update: You can check out the new “cozy corner” behind the future peninsula in action (on video!) over on the house Life.

Another update: Plenty of people are sweetly suggesting some sort of bookcase or built-in feature on the side of the cabinets that face the dining room (instead of a knee-wall) but we are unsure if that’ll be too much since there are already built-ins in the dining room that are simply a few feet away. We will keep you posted as we go though! Who knows where we will end up…

Psst: Tomorrow I am going to post my thoughts on trying Google Sketch-Up for the first time (and how it compares to two other 3D rendering tools I have used). So stay tuned for that if you’ve got any questions about how I made the 3D graphics for this post.