A-Frame Kitchen and the tale of the Marble Sink

Is it possible to make tiny kitchens functional? YES! I never imagined that the tiny A-frame kitchen would be more functional than the large Farmhouse kitchen I was moving from.

*** I will write a new post when the kitchen is completed and will add a link here when that is actually done.

Was functionality a Priority?

When I began designing the kitchen for our cabin, I didn’t start with functionality. I started with the appearance. I feel like one of the strengths that I have discovered over the years is that I can create functionality in any space I am working with. When we were building our house, we were living in a 5-metre diameter Bell Tent (click to read about our journey) and a small RV trailer.

When the tent burnt down, our family of 5 was confined to the small RV. The first few days in the RV were horrible, and we were barely able to walk around. My husband looked at me (both of us extremely frustrated) and said, “do your thing.” At first, I was kind of like, how the heck can I make this space work, then I kicked him out of the RV (to go work on other stuff, not permanently out, haha), and I got to work. By the time the kids got home from school, we had a functional teeny tiny living space without buying anything!

I knew I wanted the kitchen to look a “certain way,” and that was my focus as I started drawing up the kitchen.

A-frame Kitchen Wishlist

As I started designing, this was my wishlist:

• I wanted some open cabinetry.
• No upper cabinets (the walls are angled, so uppers are almost impossible).
• Cabinets only along one wall; I didn’t want a corner cabinet (I think they are actually a waste of space).
• An eat-in kitchen. No island. I hate eating meals at the island.

• The kitchen needed to be minimalistic and look like it was almost impossible actually to cook in.
• A shallow marble sink like Maria from Dreamy Whites has in her kitchen. Made from wood, no MDF.
• Symmetrical. I wanted the sink to be centred and the cabinets on each side to almost mirror each other.
• Raised up. I wanted the cabinets to sit on exposed cabinet feet to look more like a piece of furniture than actual cabinetry.

This was the first sketch I drew up for the kitchen. The one thing I didn’t envision and never accounted for was the actual truss’. These trusses’ would end up being the biggest driving force behind the overall design of the kitchen.

Creating the Actual Kitchen Layout

Once the A-frame was actually assembled and the walls were framed, it created some dimensional issues that I hadn’t planned for. The sink had to be centred under the window. And the window had to be centred between the 2 trusses’ or else that would have looked so awkward. What I hadn’t planned for was the oven also needing to be centred between the truss’ as well so that it didn’t look out of place.

Because my cabinets were going to be black and the oven was white, it would be a very obvious focal point. Finally, I wanted the kitchen cabinets to end in line with the truss’ as well. So the overall length of the kitchen had to be adjusted. And there needed to be a gap between the cabinets and the windows.

Once these factors had been taken into account, there weren’t really a ton of options left for cabinet layout, haha. I wanted the cabinets on either side of the sink to be symmetrical, so we added the small cabinet banks with an open upper shelf. I didn’t intend for there to be a small drawer at the top, but the man who built my cabinets thought it would help carry the visual with my sink across. And also, these drawer fronts help bridge the gap between the sink and the cabinets.

The SINK!!!

A little backstory … the cooktop was the first thing I got for the kitchen … more about the cooktop later. Then I bought the oven (in fact, I bought it before the drawings for the A-frame were done). Then I bought the sink and faucet, and everything got designed around these pieces. I found the vintage marble sink on 1st dibs. When our initial builders walked off our project, this marble sink ended up getting buried in the snow all winter. When I dug it up, it was broken. I was heartbroken because I had dreamed of this sink.

Luckily I found Mike @mwahler24 from Kelowna, who fixed the sink and did an amazing job restoring it!!! The crack looks like marbling; truly amazing how Mike was able to repair the marble.

The sink also still had the original brass drain in it. I had originally asked Mike to remove the drain to drill a larger hole, but once he started working on the sink, he said the drain was in amazing condition and it would be a shame to remove it. I am so glad I kept this drain. We developed a plumbing solution to make it function, and I love it so much. I rarely plug my drains, and if I ever need to, the hole is so small that jamming a cloth in the hole does the trick.

Back to the cabinet design… the bottom of the marble sink is raw, rough marble. The bottom is not even, and the sides of the sink are also raw and rough, and uneven. If the sink had sat on top of the cabinets, then it wouldn’t have mattered so much. But I wanted the sink to sit below the countertops, so we had to be creative with creating custom cabinets to hide large gaps.

The Kitchen FAUCET

This Raw Brass faucet from Waterworks may be my favourite thing ever!! This sink and faucet are the perfect combinations!!

The Apothecary cabinet

I wanted to incorporate a unique design in the kitchen that offered storage for small items. Also, I wanted to add a raw wood cabinet to compliment the black cabinetry. I searched for months looking for the perfect apothecary cabinet that was the right size to add to the kitchen. I couldn’t find anything remotely close to the size I needed.

The man who built my A-frame kitchen is 76 years old and built my kitchen based on my little drawing and a couple of conversations. No legit drawings were ever done! I asked him if he could build an authentic apothecary cabinet, and he looked at me and said of course. Every other kitchen company told me, “no way.” These drawers are all handmade with no “actual hardware.” I also love that the drawers are numbered, and they really only fit in their own opening because they were all made to fit exactly where they belong. So even though this piece isn’t vintage, I feel like it still has a lot of character. Can’t wait to till the drawer pulls arrive!

Hidden A-frame Kitchen Storage

It’s no secret that there is ALOT of wasted space in an A-frame cabin. And there was a lot of space behind the cabinets. I wanted to make use of some of this space. We added a hidden door at the end of the cabinet bank that allows for storage behind the apothecary cabinet. I can also access behind the walls of the A-frame, and a small person can actually crawl everywhere behind our walls which is nice if we ever need to do repairs.

Adding in the built-in wall pantry was an idea the kitchen builder came up with and has been welcomed storage! I am going to finish these doors with the same finish as the walls so that they blend in as much as possible. And the walls still need to be finished as well, so there is tons of work to come yet.

Functional Design Elements our A-frame Kitchen

For the first cabinet bank, I had planned to just have 1 pull-out shelf in the centre of the height of the cabinet. I wanted this shelf for things like my espresso maker, kitchen aid mixer and toaster. I hate having these items on my counters. The kitchen maker misunderstood me (which turned out to be an amazing “mistake”) and made the roll-out cutting board at the top of the cabinet. It pulls out to be additional working space. I asked him to still make me another shelf that pulls out.

Now I have additional counter space and this shelf that pulls out! I have a plug-in at the back of the cabinet, so I use the mixer and blender right in place. If you have a kitchen aid, you know how heavy they are, and they are not fun to move around. I have been doing so much baking, and this is the most functional working space I have ever had!!

Final Kitchen thoughts for now

I’ll be back with another A-frame kitchen post because there is so much to cover. There is also a lot of work like countertops and backsplash, the walls need to be finished, the exposed conduit needs to be painted, and the list goes on. But I honestly am shocked at how functional this kitchen is, and I love how simple it is! Also, I am trying to get better at sharing things before they are finished and trying to enjoy the in-between phase.

If you have any kitchen questions, leave them below so I can answer them in the next post!

Also, I would really appreciate it if you could hit the pin it button to share my A-frame kitchen on Pinterest!