Rustic Industrial Kitchen Plans

I need to start this post by saying that no, we do not have any plans to update any of our kitchens in the next little while.  BUT my email newsletter subscribers want more design posts – and I’m going to deliver!  And yes, technically we still have one kitchen that we haven’t touched yet, the upstairs at the rental renovation!  Let’s look at my rustic industrial kitchen plans and some before/current-ish photos of the space.

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Other than give the kitchen a good cleaning (and remove the country curtains on the window), we hadn’t really done much to the space.  We lived upstairs for a few months while the basement renovations were being done, so we definitely got to use the space to see how it worked (and didn’t).

Current Kitchen Tour

The kitchen is in the centre of the home, and measures about 12.5 x 12.5 feet.  However, there are FOUR separate entrances into the space, so it’s probably closer to 9×9 if you rejigged it a bit.

The two main doorways come from the dining room, and the entry.  While we gave the living room a makeover, we left the kitchen untouched because it was usuable.

When we bought the house, there wasn’t a fridge and the kitchen seemed pretty spacious.  We first brought up a freezer from the basement, then the Husband found a free one locally.  After having it turn off randomly a few times (he was told it needed to be repaired), we decided to get a new one.

Standing from the sink area and turning towards the entry/living, there is a small “eat-in” area in the kitchen.  I’m not much for eat-in areas in the first place, but this space was teeny!  It may be able to fit a small table and two chairs, but we used it for renovation stuff, ha!

We also kept the stand-up freezer there until we sold it, and the photo above shows the fourth entrance to the kitchen.  It’s a small staircase down to the back doorway, and that’s how you get to the shared basement hallway and laundry room.

Ready to hear my thoughts about the layout and design?

Rustic Industrial Kitchen Plans

For this kitchen, I was inspired by the (faux) wood cabinets, and I really wanted to bring in more of that same look.  We painted a lot of the wood upstairs, so other than the living room floors, there wouldn’t be a big contrast in tones.

From there, I came up with the idea to do a rustic industrial kitchen.  What exactly does that mean?  I envision a rustic industrial style space to have a mix of wood, black accents mixed with shiny metals and classic white subway tile.  There would be open shelves (maybe made with wrought iron brackets or plumbing pipes) and a more utalitarian vibe compared to a “pretty” kitchen.

Because the kitchen isn’t a super large space, having open shelves with tiles to the ceiling will make it seem more expansive.  I’d also like to move the dishwasher to the opposite wall (where the fridge currently is) and those open shelves would be perfect to hold all the dishes.

On the opposite side (where the oven/dishwasher currently are), I came up with two different design layouts:

Essentially, the dishwasher/shelf zone remains the same, and the oven and fridge are in different locations for each option.

Kitchen Layout Option 1

In the first option, I keep the oven as-is, and move the fridge to the eat-in section.

This would allow us to add a full height pantry-type cabinet next to the fridge, and a small drop-zone cabinet with counter too.  The wall with the oven would have plenty of upper cabinets, and this would be a good functional layout.

The downsides would be having to move the light switch (for the “eat-in” pendant), and the sight-lines from the hallway wouldn’t be ideal.  Essentially, you’d see a big fridge/cabinet where you’re used to seeing open space, so it might feel a bit smaller.

Kitchen Layout Option 2

This second option moves the fridge to where the oven is currently, and moves the oven to the eat-in section.

Again, the dishwasher/shelf wall/sink are the same in both plans, and it’s only the fridge and oven that move around.  In this plan, the fridge and pantry cabinet would be tucked away, and the sight lines would be ideal from the main entrances to the space.

Moving the oven to the other wall would also create a nice little cooking zone, and it would look larger from the hallway viewpoint.  I’d probably also have wall cabinets above the oven here (and probably a micro-hood too), but the Ikea renderings above don’t have them.

The Husband is more against this plan because it would involve moving the oven electrical power, which is a big honking cable.

Here’s the mockup of the kitchen (although it looks a bit more grand compared to the small space we actually have).  I hope it shows off the rustic industrial kitchen design I was going for!

What do you think?  Would you prefer option 1 with the oven closer to the sink, or option 2 with a dedicated little cooking zone?

And, tell me what you think of the rustic industrial kitchen plan too!  Remember, I can totally help you with design decisions like layout planning and room mockups (both shown here!) if you need help :)