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Hi. I'm planning a kitchen renovation, to replace the 70s kitchen, and open it up to the backyard and small combined living/dining area. Creating space is critical.
To make extra room for the kitchen, I'm enclosing the back porch in a weatherboard type product and insulating the walls. This will allow me to build a galley style kitchen, with all cabinetry down one side with a kitchen island.
The best configuration is to put the fridge and pantry against the external walls. My concerns are about temperature fluctuations and particularly heat. This area faces east so it won't cop the afternoon heat, but the roof line is low at this point (being the enclosed porch). Even if we insulate the walls well, I'm worried about the pantry and fridge being here. Builder doesn't seem too concerned, but at the end of the day he won't have to live with the solution. Anyone have any advice or experience in this matter?
Hoping to avoid putting the pantry and fridge at the dining room end of the kitchen, as I feel this will block the kitchen off too much due to the deeper cabinets.
Thanks for your question @javajive. We're looking forward to seeing how you can transform your kitchen.
Let me tag a few experienced renovators for their thoughts: @Nailbag, @Renowayoflife, @redbournreno.
Jason
Hello @javajive
Thanks for sharing your question about your kitchen renovation. Keeping the heat away from your appliances and pantry will be the key to the operation of your kitchen. Poor ventilation will cause the heat to rise inside your pantry which is not good for your stored food items. Your fridge will be able to operate in higher heat conditions but will work with greater effort to combat the heat. If you can provide maximum insulation in this section along with ventilation it should balance out.
Can you please provide us with the measurements of your proposed kitchen and where you'll be locating the fridge, pantry and cook top. Can you also please tell us how big an island you were hoping to build. Once you provide these measurements, I'll be more than happy to provide a quick render of your kitchen so that you'll have a better idea of its layout.
If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.
Eric
As with your builder, I can't see a problem with that layout @javajive. As with any fridge cavity, it needs to have the minimum spacings as per the instructions. In particular above the fridge to allow rising heat to escape.
You could consider a vent to the outside at the top of the rear wall of the fridge.
If the internal walls are coming off, take the opportunity to install high-rating insulation batts.
And you could also consider fixing and off-set timber screen to the external wall to provide additional shade and airflow.
Nailbag
