Today I decided that I am going to remodel my kitchen (and the rest of the house). It's going to be a helluva project and I'll be moving out for a while. That said, I have complete freedom to do whatever I want, within some reason. Here are some things I'm debating...

1. One dishwasher or two? We have big dinners once or twice a month so is it worth it to have two dishwashers? Or just suck it up like we've always done and do a ton of dishes late at night or the next morning.
2. Dual wall ovens and a cooktop or a freestanding range (probably 48").
3. If dual ovens, should I do one electric (baking) and one gas (everything else)? I've heard the electrics give better evenness for baking.
4. What are y'all thoughts on open shelves for plates/bowls? Or should they be stored away.

We have total freedom here so I'd like to hear y'alls' (is that really how you apostrophe that?) thoughts and what y'all might add if you were starting from scratch.

(Yes, we'll be building a small wine room)

My wife loves the open shelves we put in.
Vertical pan storage above the fridge
Most of our lowers are drawers. Feels like we can store a lot more
Uppers all the way to the ceiling. We keep the rarely used kitchen items up there

My dad has 2 dishwashers. One in the kitchen and one in an adjorning "bar" area. The one in the bar rarely gets used. I personally don't think it's worth it unless you do a ton of entertaining.

HTownAg98 said:

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If you're going through as much wine as I think you are (that's a good thing), a commercial dishwasher and a wine glass rack would seem to be a good investment.

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And when it's done, I'm assuming there will be a Texags open house where Scarecrow and SQN will be served, right?

I would worry about the dishes on the open shelves collecting dust. I love the look, though.

Built 4 years ago. Kitchen thoughts: walk-in pantry (with sink and plumbed for 2nd dishwasher, but have never found need to add), no upper cabinets (hence walk-in pantry) with lot of windows (hill country view), 3 sinks (farmhouse, plus prep island sink and pantry prep sink), didn't get pot-filler but kinda wish we had, separate fridge and freezer (fridge in kitchen and freezer in pantry), 48 inch dual fuel wolf range (6 burners and griddle--don't use griddle nearly as much as I thought I would; use smaller oven more often than larger oven, but I do love its pizza stone setting), 1200 cfm vent, quartzite counters. Have fun.

I thought about this, I'd just wipe the top one off real quick. Still, I'm undecided on it.

I would do 2 dishwashers. We built 5 years ago and I wanted dual dishwashers, wife wanted more lowers. Wife now wishes we had dual dishwashers. Put them on each side of the sink, you probably won't use the 2nd dishwasher if it's not where you put dirty dishes.

Large island with prep sink.

We did the 48" Wolf dual oven, 6 burner with griddle. We use the griddle a few times a week, but it's a pain to clean. The oven temps are uneven. Would probably do something different next time.

Pot filler is worth the money.

Is the range dual fuel or are the ovens gas? That's a typical observation with gas ovens from what I gather.

We just put a 48" bluestar rangetop in our new build with dual electric wall ovens.

2 dishwashers. We don't entertain a ton but when we do it's a bonus. For day to day it keeps the kitchen clean and tidy as dirty dishes can go right in the empty/dirty washer and the clean one doesn't have to be reloaded right away. We have one next to main 2-bay sink and the other in the island with another smaller sink. We added a second in-sink-erator too which wasn't needed in hindsight. It was a great decision.

Suggest doors on cabinets for most. We put bookshelves instead of one bank of cabinets for cookbooks which was also a great decision.

Double ovens are nice but not critical.

We did ours a few years ago. Wish we'd done a second dishwasher and put a prep sink and pot filler in the island.

Do two ovens for sure. We went electric for both. I do sometimes wish we had a gas broiler, so getting one gas and one electric is not a bad idea.

We went with a counter depth fridge because we had a second one and a chest freezer in the garage, but now I wish we had a bigger fridge in the kitchen.

Put in a walk in Pantry if you can. Not sure how we lived without it now that we have one!

So my wife is pushing back against a second dishwasher now. She'd rather have more drawer space. We'll see.

I'm still undecided on ovens (dual fuel vs all gas vs all electric and whether wall or freestanding range). As far as brands, I'm leaning towards BlueStar or Thermador.

Freestanding Range
All Gas
ONE dishwasher
Open Shelves

Why the free-standing range over having dual ovens and cooktop?

Because I'm old and that's kind of what I'm used to -

I did have double ovens in one of our homes but I only needed both ovens at Thanksgiving and Christmas. So it's just not a necessity for me.

We installed a Fulgor Milano gas range/oven. We had a devil of a time getting the gas oven dialed in. Not sure if that is typical or not.

I don't think anyone has regretted having 2 dishwashers.

We always seem to have 2/3 of a load of dishes or 1 1/2 loads. 2 dishwashers is one of the few things my wife and I disagreed on before building and now we agree we should have installed 2.

We do have dual clothes washers and dryers. I would have gone 3 or 4 sets, but my wife thought 2 sets was overkill. She's now very grateful for the dual setup.

No. Just 2 kids.

I wouldn't personally care about two dishwashers. We frequently entertain 10+ people and it just doesnt seem worth it. Double ovens however have been amazing. I can't imagine going back to a single oven. We also have a walk in pantry with a sink and additional cabinets thats pretty nice.

Prolly won't be a popular/sellable feature, but, one of my bartenders has been saying that she wants to install a small 3 comp sink, like we have behind our bar, in her house.

I dismissed it at first, but as she kept saying it I started thinking. You can get commercial cleaners and sanitizers from acemart or amazon....it would drastically speed up clean up.....I'll likely do this at some point, even if it's a (somehow) "hidden" feature.

But over all, ventilation is my number one in requirement. Everything else I can make do with. But smoking out a house...... I do often. Oh, and I will have a small Wood-Fire Oven/Hearth in my home kitchen eventually.

https://home.hestan.com/ - I'm upgrading the restaurant and the house to these guys stuff, it's all amazing.


I would dual fuel, ovens.
Open shelving - I love, wife hates, but if it were only me, my kitchen would be all commercial. Feeling like a restaurant kitchen. To be fair, it's not far off currently.

You won't need 2 full size dishwashers. Just get the dishwasher drawers where you get 2 drawers in the same size as 1 full size. Allows you to do multiple small loads.

We went from double wall ovens and cooktop to a dual fuel range. Stayed with a single dishwasher and did microwave drawer and storage drawer where a second dishwasher could've gone.

I was somewhat indifferent to specific appliance types And more driven by design and layout. So I picked appliances to fit in the layout I wanted.

BSD said:

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If you mean "Built in espresso maker with plumbed line," then I'm one step ahead of you.

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We looked into the built in coffee maker but decided against it because feedback we received is that they are a pain to keep clean.

I wish I had done 2 full sinks. Our prep sink is a joke.

We have the 48" Range. 6 Burners and a griddle. I wish I had done the 4 burner with the larger griddle. I don't regret the BlueStar brand. 25,000 BTU Primary burner, 22,000 BTU secondaries, Integrated Wok bowls, and 1850 degree broiler.

One think not mentioned is ventilation. Our Vent-a-hood is the hidden hero of the kitchen. It will suck every single wasp of smoke I can make with the BlueStar

Ventilation...yes. This is a priority for us. My notes to the contractor actually say "vent hood that'll suck the ass out of a cat."

Good to hear on BlueStar. We are looking at the 48" platinum. We might do an extra electric wall oven as well. We'll see how my wife feels about the additional expense for that.

get the bluestar french door wall oven. i couldn't get the wife to AFE it...but they are sweet.

BSD said:

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We are looking at the 48" platinum. We might do an extra electric wall oven as well. We'll see how my wife feels about the additional expense for that.

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If you want to really run up the bill, check out the BlueStar residential Salamander. Wish I had a place to put it or the means to justify it

Saw it. Want it. Shot down.

If we weren't gutting the whole house, I'd probably have a chance but it doesn't look like it's going to happen.