Kitchenettes and In-Law Suite Kitchens in Wilmington, DE

The core layout fits a sink base, a compact or under-counter fridge, and a microwave into one run, with 2 to 4 feet of counter to work on. The fridge sits at the end of the run so its door can swing open without hitting the counter. The microwave goes on the counter or on a shelf above it, at a height where the person using it can lift out a hot bowl without reaching over their head. The stretch of counter beside the sink doubles as a place to set down groceries and to dry a few dishes.

With more wall space, the trade-off becomes a compact dishwasher or a full-height fridge. An 18-inch dishwasher fits beside the sink base and drains through the same plumbing as the sink. Its power has to come from a circuit already in the house; a new circuit is work for a licensed electrician. A full-height fridge gives a household that cooks for itself real food storage, but it takes a column of wall from floor to ceiling that would otherwise carry upper cabinets. The better pick depends on how the person living there cooks and shops.

Upper and lower cabinets keep dishes, pans and dry goods off the counter. We install KraftMaid and Wood-Mode cabinets, and stock cabinets where a simpler room calls for them. The top can be quartz, laminate, or butcher block. For quartz, the countertop fabricator measures off the installed cabinets, so the slab is ordered after they are set. Quartz can accommodate an undermount sink, whereas laminate requires a drop-in.

Several things have a say in where a kitchenette can go, and the drain leads. Water leaves a sink by gravity, so the drain line has to slope downhill the whole way from the sink to the house drain it joins. A sink that sits below that drain, or a long way from it, changes the plumbing plan, so the drain and its height are found before anything else. The drain also needs a vent so it empties without gurgling or pulling water out of the trap, either by being tied into an existing vent pipe or, where one is allowed, by being fitted with an air admittance valve under the sink. Hot and cold lines are run from the nearest pipes that supply the sink, and soldered or joined with ProPress fittings.

In a Brandywine Hundred split-level, the lower level sits half a flight below the main floor and its kitchen, so a kitchenette there may only be a short drop from the kitchen's own drain and water lines, as long as the new sink sits above the drain it empties into. Where the house drain leaves that level through the foundation wall above its floor, a sink set lower than that point can't drain by gravity, so its spot on the wall is decided by the drain, not by the floor plan. A sink set on the wall under the main kitchen keeps the run short and the opening in the finished ceiling small.