Adding A Dishwasher To My Kitchen

During the lockdown, the most yearned for gadget (if you didn’t have one) and the most treasured gadget (if you did), has been the dishwasher. Our home fell into the first category. When we originally made our kitchen, I was told by hubby about a million times to have a dishwasher installed. For a whole bunch of foolish reasons, I didn’t listen. And lived to regret it over the last few months. So adding a dishwasher to our kitchen was number one on my agenda when the lockdown opened up.

Adding A Dishwasher To My Kitchen

I know a lot of you have thought about adding a dishwasher to your kitchens over the last few months. And if you did, you must have realised it isn’t that easily done. The main reason for this is that a dishwasher is a large gadget. You can’t just place it anywhere in your kitchen. You need to be able to place it alongside your kitchen counter or slide it under.

If your kitchen is already made, most likely you haven’t left any gap in your counter for the former and your existing counter isn’t high enough for the latter. This means, that to be able to fit a dishwasher into your kitchen, you will have to break a part of your existing counter to make space for it.

This is exactly what I had to do too. Though it isn’t an easy task, it isn’t impossible either. So I’m going to show you what I have done for adding a dishwasher into my kitchen, so that it gives you some idea of how you can add one to yours.

My Existing Kitchen

The main area of my kitchen looked like this pic below. You can click here to read the original reveal post for more details.

I had a continuous counter running in a ‘U’ along three sides. The sink, drain and the plumbing line are in the facing wall, which makes it the best option to fit in the dishwasher.

I most certainly didn’t want to break down my entire kitchen over the single dishwasher. But I did realise that I would not be able to fit in a dishwasher here without breaking down at least some of it.

The Plan

The rough sketch below gives you an idea of how we planned to go about it.

The black lines are the existing counter and sink.

We decided to cut the existing counter along the red line. The entire counter along the facing wall in the picture above, would be removed.

Another counter was to be made exactly where we had broken the previous one. Only the this one would be 3″ higher than the old one. The green lines show where the new vertical would be fixed with the dishwasher to its left and the new sink to its right.

Breaking The Counter

And thus began our mini kitchen renovation. For four days, from 9 am to 8 pm, our kitchen looked like a war zone. Every evening before they left, the workers cleaned it out beautifully so we could use the remaining counters to heat dinner and make breakfast.

The first thing we did was to break down the facing counter along the red line as described above. The workers did a great job of making sure that the left and right counters were not damaged at all.

Remaking The Counter

On day 2, the plumbing and electrical work was done below the counter. We provided a water inlet connection to the dishwasher from the existing connection for the kitchen spout. We also provided an electrical point for the dishwasher and another for a crusher. Since we were anyway getting so much work done, I thought it was a great time to add the crusher too.

The counter vertical was then fixed leaving enough space for the dishwasher to come on its left. The base marble for the counter was laid above this.

Finally, the granite counter was laid and the facia completed on day 3.

I knew finding the exact same shade of quartz as the existing one would be next to impossible. A slight difference in shade would have looked like a mistake. I preferred to go in for a stark contrast and make it stand out instead. Black granite was the easiest option. It would make a great contrast to the otherwise light kitchen, and it isn’t usually a problem to match anything with black.

Finally, on day 4, the dishwasher was installed and Kitchen Studio came in to take measurements for the shutters.

Getting A New Look!

While we were waiting for the shutters (it does take a few weeks to manufacture them) I thought I’d brighten up the kitchen and give it a bit of a makeover.

When we first moved into this home, the kitchen had been newly made by the builder. It didn’t make sense at that stage, when there were already a full list of expenses for the rest of the home renovation, to break down and remake a perfectly good kitchen.

And while the soft, neutral colours of the kitchen are pleasant and easy on the eye, they aren’t totally me. I do like a little more pattern and colour in my spaces. Enter Tileskin by Herrlich. These easy, peel-and-stick ’tiles’ are just what I needed. We didn’t have to break any of the existing tiles. I just selected a striking design to go with my neutral kitchen and black granite and they were installed in a couple of hours.

Sink And Faucet

If you scroll up to the first picture of my old kitchen, you’ll see the huge sink I had in place there. It was a four foot long, double bowl with a drain board. With the dishwasher taking up a whole lot of space, I couldn’t fit in another sink of the same size. But I did want the two bowls.. and the drain board.

I found this ‘slider’ sink that works beautifully in the smaller space. It is a double bowl sink with a movable drain board.

I can slide the drain board on to the left bowl while I rinse the utensils clean into the corner bowl. (The crusher has been fixed under the corner bowl)

I can put it on the corner bowl when I want to use the left one.

And I can pull it off the sink and place it alongside on the counter when I want to use both the bowls at once.

Also notice the spout in all the pics above. I not only love the sleek, black look. I also love its smooth matt finish, and that it is completely flexible. You can easily pull it in any direction and push it back into place when you’re done.

New Kitchen Reveal

Finally, we have the shutters in place, and my new kitchen is all ready.

It’s much easier to start a job from scratch than to have to make adjustments and do makeshift work in a partial makeover. Two counters, of different heights, side by side, means two very awkward corners to fit shutters into.

The right corner shutter, under the old counter, is the old, existing shutter. The left shutter, under the sink, is newly made. Because of the height difference in the counters, we put a fixed panel along the old counter line and then matched the height of the new shutter with the old one. Kitchen Studio did a great job of getting all these adjustments right.

This section, below my stove, had two shutters earlier because when we moved into this home we hadn’t yet got our piped gas connection. The gas cylinders used to go into this section. I thought now was a good time to change this too. We removed the old shutters and had new drawers installed here instead.

Before-And-After

Finally some before and afters to wrap it up.

The facing wall of our kitchen as you enter it.

A raised counter, a dishwasher in place and some pretty tiles to completely change the look.

A view of the gas counter.

Since the piped gas came in, we removed the shutters from our gas cylinder section and had more functionally useful drawers installed there.

A view of the opposite counter of the kitchen.

This side is pretty much untouched, yet looks different because our focal wall has changed so much.

As you can see here, even though most of the work has been done on just a single wall, the entire kitchen has got a whole new look. And though I loved the simplicity of the old kitchen, I’m thoroughly enjoying the sparkle of the new one.

Most of all, we’re enjoying the comfort of the long awaited dishwasher. If you’re planning to get one installed in your kitchen, I hope this post encourages you. It isn’t the easiest thing to get done, but if you’ve planned well and have everything in place it shouldn’t take more than a week to get your basics in place. I think four to five days of discomfort is a small price to pay for the long term advantages of adding a dishwasher, if that is what you want.

What Went Into My Kitchen

I’m ending the post with links to all the basics I’ve used for my kitchen upgrade. I hope you find them useful.

| – 1 – Table Mounted Spout | – 2 – Super Slider Sink | – 3 – Dishwasher | – 4 – Cabinets by Kitchen Studio | – 5 – Stick on Tiles by Herrlich Tileskin | – 6 – Sink Crusher | – 7- Drawer Knobs |

I hope reading this post has made the thought of adding a dishwasher to your kitchen less daunting. Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments section below.

Wishing you all the best with your kitchen renovation!

Until next time,

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NOTE: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links.