Kitchen Design

Situating the Kitchen

Designing a kitchen from scratch is not as easy as you'd think. In a loft, there is the matter of where to situate it. In our loft, we want the kitchen on the ground floor so as to maximize our 2nd level mezzanine living space and to allow for employee use and business entertaining. While the ground level is spacious, we don't want the kitchen to impede foot traffic to the stairs or through the work space. We also don't want to take away from the open work space where we plan to place desks and conference areas. We could place the kitchen at the very back of the loft, but a kitchen has such potential to be a visually exciting showcase for design skills that we decided to place it halfway towards the entrance to the loft where clients can see it. The only space that met all these requirements happened to be practically under the staircase. To make things more difficult, 10 feet or so away from the underside of staircase is a giant concrete column. So we must figure out how to shoehorn a nice kitchen between the staircase and the column. There are several configurations that will work, but the elements that are fixed are the slim, horizontal upper cabinets, a large island for employees and guests to sit at, and an absence of walls other than a wall for the fridge to rest against.

The Design Inspiration

In our view, an architecture studio should be an open space plan and showcase design elements that illustrate the architect's familiarity with cutting-edge style and technology. This means staying away from traditional-looking cabinet styles, hardware and appliances. In our opinion, "modern" styles tend towards the shiny, sleek, and techno-looking - often incorporating alternative materials and unexpected, bold colors and textures. There are sources of inspiration to be found in magazines such as Metropolis, Dwell, Architect, etc. These sources provide ideas and guidance, but the ultimate look is up to us. After days of racking our brains to choose a look, we finally decided to take a cue from some of our favorite utilitarian items - things that we use all the time that we love the look of. After we gathered these items together we discovered that they all had major design elements in common.

Our first favorite item is our shiny red pepper grinder with chrome tightening nut.

The second item is our shiny, red tea kettle with chrome and black handle.

The third is the trusty red, black and silver Milwaukee impact driver that has helped us put up steel framing and drywall.

The last item is our awesome, red, black and stainless steel Craftsman tool chest.

Shiny, Red & Black

So, it is decided that our kitchen design will incorporate shininess, red, black and stainless steel. It just so happens that modern European kitchen designs often feature glossy, red cabinets. And there are some cool, black sinks, faucets, and phenolic resin countertops available. The countertops are the same as those found in high school chemistry labs, which is unexpected and fun. There will literally be a price to pay for not choosing traditional cabinetry and appliances. But we love to cook and entertain and believe an architecture studio should be held to a higher standard in order to showcase the architect's design sense. So we choose this approach knowing it is quite likely to bust our budget but also knowing that it will have been a worthy attempt.

New Cast Iron Plumbing

Industrial lofts are commercial buildings and have different plumbing and electrical standards than residential buildings. In a house, the drain pipes are often black plastic (ABS) that can be cut with a hacksaw and connected with pipe cement. In a commercial building, however, the California building code requires cast iron drain pipes.

Since we are plumbing a new bathroom and kitchen on the ground floor of our loft, we need to use cast iron, but we lack the appropriate tools and experience. So we sought the help of an experienced commercial plumber.

How is cast iron cut to length? Amazingly, it is snapped with a chain! The simple and clever tool used for this purpose is called a "snap cutter." The pipe is marked where it needs to be cut, the chain is wrapped around the pipe with its special raised links sitting on the mark and the chain is then tightened with a ratcheting action. After a few cranks, the pipe suddenly snaps in a clean break, shooting a foot or two across the floor.

Pipe Snap Cutter

To connect two lengths of cast iron together, no pipe cement is used. Rather, a rubber coupler sleeve with a metal strap jacket is use to connect the two ends together and seal them shut against leaks.

Pipe Coupler

Since we are retrofitting the cast iron plumbing, we are surface mounting the pipes and need a system to hold the pipes in place against the wall to maintain the proper drainage slope and eliminate movement. We are using Uni-struts - load-bearing channels that attach to the metal studs in the wall with screws. Our Uni-struts were cut in one foot lengths to carry several pipes at once. In our case, they carry the copper water lines that bring water in, and the cast iron that drains graywater out. The copper pipes are wrapped in a felt sleeve before they are attached to the Uni-strut because two dissimilar metals will corrode when left in contact. The felt protects the copper from the galvanized steel. The cast iron and Uni-strut are both iron-based, so they don't need a felt buffer.

Uni-Strut

We now have over 50 feet of new pipe running along one side of the loft to service the bathroom and kitchen. We could paint it to match the walls, but we are planning to cover it with a long run of cabinets that will serve as a place to store office supplies as well as display artwork.

The Space Plan (Part 1)

After spending a bit of time in our industrial loft, it became relatively easy to determine which existing uses of space worked and which ones did not. Our loft has a downstairs and an upstairs. Because we intend to use the loft as an architecture studio that clients can visit and employees can work in we will use the downstairs as a work space and the upstairs as a live space. In order to do that, we need to correct the existing conditions. 

Kitchen

When we moved into the loft, it had a "kitchenette" upstairs in the mezzanine. The mezzanine is the logical living quarters of the loft because the difference in elevation creates a naturally separate zone that can be made private, and the stairs form a control point/barrier against inadvertent intrusion by clients. The kitchenette,  however, poses a problem because we don't want to share our sleeping quarters with a kitchen and we like to entertain people but prefer to not to have guests in a zone as personal as our bedroom. In addition, I need a kitchen for my employees. So the kitchen needs to be relocated away from the mezzanine and placed downstairs. Since I don't want it to overwhelm the workspace by being the main focal point, I am placing the kitchen under the natural alcove formed by the stairs where it can still be seen and be close to a dining zone away from the work stations. Below you can see the new walls I'm building in grey.

Visitor/Employee Restroom

One major problem posed by our loft layout is that the restroom is upstairs. We don't want clients and employees walking through our bedroom to use the toilet. One reason we chose this loft was that we happened to notice an existing toilet drain on the ground floor near the entrance and nearby water pipes. After confirming that the water supply is connected and the drains still work, I hired a plumber experienced in working with cast iron (the commercial norm) to run new plumbing to the new downstairs toilet/sink and the relocated kitchen. Below you can see the framing for the restroom and the broom closet. To the right is the new cast iron and copper plumbing; the copper and valves are for the bathroom sink and the copper then runs to the right to the new kitchen. The cast iron drains the kitchen and bathroom sinks - the higher level pipe is the vent pipe that goes to the roof.

Laundry

The mezzanine kitchenette we're removing has existing water lines and 220 volt power. Since we'd like our own laundry room, the area is the logical place to locate a washer and dryer. In addition, by locating a laundry nook upstairs, it will not only be close to our closet and clothes hamper, it will not be distracting or out of place in the work space if we wash clothes during work hours. To make the laundry nook, I am using the light gauge steel framing I salvaged from demolishing the wall downstairs. Below you can see the existing "kitchen sink" with the future laundry nook wall framing going up.

Bedroom Wall

The mezzanine has a big column on one side, so the bed has to go somewhere on the other side. The problem is, there are three big pipes running across the entire length of the other side. We like to call them "headbangers" because when you get in and out of bed, especially in the dark, you can crack your skull against them. So we're going to build a wall in front of the pipes to set the head of the bed against. We're leaving one big cast iron pipe exposed to express the industrial nature of the loft. We're going to put an access door in the wall for storage and access to the pipes in the event maintenance is required. As a major added bonus, the wall will form a sound attenuation barrier which will block noise from our neighbor who sometimes has to build movie sets at night. Below are the bedroom pipes before and after the wall framing.

Closet

The last thing that we needed to address was the area in the mezzanine between the closet and the bathroom. Sometimes when a person showers or dresses, they move from one zone to another. In a private home it's not a big deal, but in a work/live loft where a couple lives and where employees and clients may be present, it's not only potentially embarrassing to be seen in a state of undress, it's unprofessional. I am building a wall connecting the bathroom and closet areas so we can move freely between them and not worry about being seen. 

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Heavy Metal (Dismantling 1 Ton of Steel)

Ever wonder how to lower steel beams without killing yourself? I did, because there was a big steel structure in the entryway of our loft and I wanted to dismantle it. It created a diagonal break in the space that interfered with my space plan. It was built by a prior tenant and was not load-bearing, so removal won't affect the loft's structural integrity. However, lowering wide-flange steel beams that are 13 feet up in the air is not an easy proposition for a one-man team. The beams are W8x13 and are each 22 feet long. There are also 6 tube steel columns and 9 struts. In total, the steel I had to move weighed almost one ton.

A job like this calls for a hoist, or some sort of Medieval pulley system. I decided to use a Contractor's Superlift - a telescoping hoist that allows one person to lift and lower big, heavy things.

First I unbolted and removed the struts - some had welded connections at the beams and required cutting with a carborundum-blade grinder. To dismantle the beams, I cranked the Superlift up to support the beam from below, then I unbolted them from the columns. Once they were unbolted, I cranked the lift arm up, moved the beam off the column, and lowered it to the ground.

The columns were more difficult because they were bolted to the floor. The bolts required me to lift the columns up and off the bolts, like a Scottish log thrower, which was not easy because the columns were up to 14 feet tall.  The job took 6 hours and required a 20' extension ladder, angle grinder, sawzall, hammer, and socket wrenches. When I was done, I had 1 ton of steel scrap and a newly open floorspace to work with.

Final Stats

Cost: Ratchet, 24mm&27mm Sockets, 8" Socket Extension = $45

          10" & 12" Crescent Wrenches = $26

          4" Carborundum Blade = $2.50

          20' Extension Ladder = $160

Difficulty: Hard (requires strength, poses danger)