The Latest Kitchen Design...

The kitchen design for the Upstairs Apartment is relatively finished. "Relatively", because there are a couple of "issues" to sort-out still. Please remember, the Kitchen is to be built into the niche of the old fireplace. It was the Oven & Cook-top in the olden days. To its left is a stone sink tucked into another niche... the sink goes to the Bathroom... thus completing the two key elements of Water & Fire.

#1... I do not know the actual height of the new finished wood floor. This is important. If you compare the height of the little figurine... at my exact height of 189 cm or, 6 feet 2 inches... to the two brackets holding up the boxy valence above them, then, you can see there is the risk of bashing a head against one of them. I have a hunch the floor will be even higher than I have drawn. The valence will have to be re-thought, the sink & cook-top might be pulled closer together by a few centimeters and the entire counter could also be pulled-out some from the old fireplace's niche for additional "Bracket Clearance". I did play chef on site to check to see if there was enough space to properly place a kitchen in the 177 cm between brackets. It seemed possible. However, I do feel the need of a second opinion. That will come from Giorgio, our brilliant cabinet/door/window maker. He is also an experienced builder of kitchens. Living dangerously, what IS SET is... the sink goes on the left and the cook-top on the right of the 240 cm long counter in between those 177 cm of the two brackets. That's vital info for the Plumber.

#2...  depending on how #1 turns out, and as the kitchen design stands, I doubt I will have built a hood on top of the valence. Its motive is to cover the traces of the old & asymmetric flue... the fine dotted lines climbing up from the two brackets in the left-hand drawing. The Kitchen with the hood strikes me as being too monumental a construction to tolerate. Instead, I might have a re-cycled beam... we have lots of used beams to choose from... installed against the wall to run across & hidden by the top of the valence, so the flue above it can be smoothly filled-in. I am not concerned for covering-up the traces of the old fireplace. The wall above will look cleaner, simpler. Mr. You & I agree that Kitchens ought not over-whelm open spaces, decidedly against the American tradition of contemporary in-your-face kitchen design.

#3... and, depending upon #1 & #2, the Kitchen might actually be constructed as an armoire!!! Doors will open out to show an evidentially functioning Kitchen... the Perfect AND Ideal Solution for any Kitchen, especially mine!!! Gads.