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cursivesailor

Kitchen design help

cursivesailor
15 years ago

Posted this last week on the Kitchens page, but didnt get alot of feedback. So... here it goes-

Here is my house plans. I HATE the kitchen though, but haven't decided exactly what I want. I hate the bar. I was thinking doing away with that whole wall. And then "square-ing off" the kitchen with an island. Not sure though. Also thinking of getting rid of the closet-type pantry, just having one of those tall cabinet pantries. Any suggestions? I dont have a program to try changing it, except for a notebook and pencil! Also, i was thinking of doing away with the window in the kitchen and putting the range there. Then putting the sink on the island that I would like to have. What shape island? L-shaped? Sorta curved?

I think I have been looking at this too long. I'm starting to loose it! Please, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Comments (18)

  • allison0704
    15 years ago

    I don't think you can have a decent size island in your kitchen. You'd need to leave aisles on either side and there just wouldn't be enough room. A sink in the island wouldn't leave much counter space either. I would hate to do away with the kitchen window.

    Are you married to this entire design? What if you made the MBR closets not so wide (left to right) so that the bathroom could be reconfigured. You could move the laundry - large closet that opens up into the hallway - and make the kitchen larger by taking over the existing laundry room. Walk-in pantry could be larger also.

    Where are all the stairs going on the porch/balcony?

    DH just looked over my shoulder and said "they aren't going to have any privacy." :-/

  • cursivesailor
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    I am married to the design except the kitchen and pantry.

    All the stairs are going down to the ground. This house will be elevated 8 feet off the ground. Front half will be enclosed garage, back half will just be open on columns/piers/stilts/whatever-ya-wanna-call-em.

    Also, just curious. Why would we not have privacy?

  • persnicketydesign
    15 years ago

    What are the measurements for the current kitchen? It looks like it's about 11 X 13.

    I agree with Allison that there isn't enough room for an island. At a VERY minimum you would need 36" of aisle space. Remember that you still have to be able to open the dishwaher & stove. :o)

    I'm not in love with the bar either and think it needs to go, although it is the only long run of work space. Seems silly since the people using it would already be sitting in the dining room. LOL What about keeping that bank of lower cabinets, but use glass uppers? You would get lots of storage space and not block off the two rooms from one another, while allowing for a pass through for dishes between the two rooms.

    Please keep the window in the kitchen. You will really appreciate the natural light and you don't gain anything by removing it. I'd move the dishwasher beside the sink rather than adjacent to it. Move the fridge down to where the pantry is, and your stove can now move to that same wall. Anchor the end of the glass cabinet run with your cabinet-style pantry. That option would give you much more work surface.

    BTW...in one of the houses that we lived in the kitchen backed the dining room like yours. We had doors on both the dining room and kitchen side of the cabinets, so we had easy access to things from both rooms. It came in really handy.

    I have to tell you though...my preference would be to relocate the laundry room and incorporate that space into the kitchen. That LR takes up a lot of SF that could be better used in other areas. If it were my plan, I'd steal space from the MB closet and make a laundry closet that opens into the hall. How much time will you be spending in the LR? The current one shown on the plan looks to be 5' wide and is really too narrow to do much in...especially ironing. It might be an elbow bonker just folding. If you do keep the laundry, try changing the orientation of the washer & dryer so that they are under the window. I'd rethink that area, though. I'd rather have a fabulous kitchen than a non-funtional laundry. :o)

  • ccoombs1
    15 years ago

    I like persnicketydesign's suggestion of taking the laundry room and using that space for additional kitchen and then taking a small portion of one of the master closets and creating a laundry closet instead.

  • bdpeck-charlotte
    15 years ago

    Try going to the MillsPride website, not to get cabinets, but to use their online layout tool:

    http://www.distinctionscabinetry.com/AssembledDesignTool/Pages/AssembledTool.aspx

    That should help you play with the design and see different angles without using a pencil.

  • allison0704
    15 years ago

    I suggested the laundry into hallway also...adding more space to kitchen would be #1 in my book. I would leave kitchen as open as possible to the DR area.

    DH said "no privacy" since all the bedrooms are together. Okay when you have small children, not so much when they are teenagers and stay up later than the adults.

  • frog_hopper
    15 years ago

    The kitchen is too small in proportion to the rest of the house, especially the MBR. The pantry access is just plain strange. Part ot the problem is wasted space throughout the house due to the layout in general, not to mention the oversized MBR and bath, which seems to have resulted in the kitchen being shortchanged. To wit, you have virtually the same amount of open floor space in the kitchen, which tends to be one of the most used rooms in the house, as the master bath, which is one of the least used. It makes no sense.

    There is other wasted space. For example, the laundry room has 17 sf of wasted space just in its entry. The master bath has quite a bit of wasted space alongside the tub. BTW, I make the house out to be around 1,100 sf, with 525 of that being the MBR and bath alone.

    There is also a lot of hallway for such a small house. The hallways appear to be 48 inches wide, which is a good width for a bigger house. In a relatively small house, they eat a lot of space. Good designers can draw a three bedroom house this size with no hallways at all.

    My suggestion is to rethink the entire design.

  • marthaelena
    15 years ago

    Maybe I am mistaken but if I remeber it right, cursivesailor posted a while ago and she asked if it was ok to have the laundry in a closet in order to have less s.f. because money was an issue.
    Most answers were that she/he should keep the laundry.

  • marthaelena
    15 years ago

    It is bad that we can not edit the posts.
    What I just wrote, sounds terrible.
    I should say that I was one of the persons that said she should keep the laundry.
    I think I should mention that I grew up in italy and have been here only 6 years. I feel that sometimes I do not say things in the right way and for that I apologize.

    Here is an idea,
    What do you think?

  • janbanks
    15 years ago

    As you indicated, I would extend the kitchen all the way into what is currently the dining area. (get rid of the bar and the counter area leading up to it) Then, you would have enough room for an island of some sort. I have a large L shaped island with a sink in it. The sink looks out to the greatroom. I like it. However, another idea that I had not thought of when we built would be just a small island (five feet long, three feet deep) with a sink and then butt up to that a counter height dining table. For me, this would have been a good way to have the large island I wanted without it being a permanent fixture in the middle of my kitchen / dining area.

    I like marthaelana's design also. In particular, she moved the dishwasher next to the sink. Currently, I fear it's too far away from the sink.

    As for the pantry.. Again, I agree with your inclination to get rid of it. I'm afriad you might lose a lot of stuff in the back. It's going to fill up, making anything stored back there inaccessible. Would it be at all possible to make that back half open shelving for the laundry room?
    I love your master suite and closets. (is it too late to get pocket doors in the closets? I wish mine had one) Also, pocket door for the toilet area. The current situation looks like it's too tight to fit a body in there while closing the door.

  • rhome410
    15 years ago

    Marthaelena shows about the only way to have an island...Open the kitchen into an L and add an island of your preferred shape. In her plan, repeating what I suggested on the kitchen forum, I would put a pantry cab by the fridge and open that storage space into the laundry.

    I can see the others' point about the master suite seeming out of scale with the rest of the house, and it seems you could possibly reconfigure that whole section to include the laundry without losing too much. That would make room for an amazing kitchen. Which you do (a plan like Marthaelena's or take over the laundry space) just comes down to where you want the space...kitchen or master suite. Different people have different priorities.

    BTW, we have all our bedrooms together with kids ages 4 - 19. We even share a jack and jill type of bath with 3 of our boys. But, our doors close to give us privacy. ;-)

  • allison0704
    15 years ago

    Yes, door close but TV, music, etc noise travels. I wouldn't be able to sleep...but like I said it might not be an issue for her.

    I like Marthaelena design also. Only thing I can see that might be a problem is venting the cooktop - would cut into the openness of the rooms with a hood or get a downdraft.

  • marthaelena
    15 years ago

    I scaled the drawing with the only dimension shown.
    It appears that the masterbedroom es almost 16'x17' (maybe a couple of inches less)
    I know some panelists here do not like the pantry on the side but maybe in this specific case is ok for it to open to the hallway, and there will be room for a counter/cabinet in the laundry.

  • rhome410
    15 years ago

    I like that, Marthaelena! Really improves the laundry room, and relieves any bottleneck problem if the pantry opened toward the island.

  • cursivesailor
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Thats pretty much what I was thinking, Marthaelena. Only thing is I would switch the sink and the cooktop. Other than that, its pretty much how I envisioned it.

    And to answer a few of the other questions. The house is 1914sf. Privacy wont be a factor, because we aren't going to be having any kids. All the stairs go down to the ground, the house is raised 8 feet off the ground.

    I thought about doing away with the laundry room, and just stealing some master closet space. But alot of people discouraged me to do that.

  • dixiedoodle
    15 years ago

    I think you may regret not having a window in the kitchen if you switch the sink/range. There are not a lot of windows in the house anyway. (I think I said this already in a separate thread, but I would suggest considering another window in the master bedroom and at least one on that empty wall in the family room.) Removing the kitchen window will really close in the space...

  • marthaelena
    15 years ago

    Please, do not remove the kitchen window. I agree you will regret it.
    I like the idea of placing another window on the living room and in the master. If money is thight I suggest you to remove the window on the north side of the dining room (so you can place a china/hutch/buffet) and place it in the master or in the living room.
    It is nice to have the masterbedroom windows at the ends of the wall so you can place the bed in between.
    remember, windows sell a house (if you ever need to resale) in addition, they give a very nice feeling in the house.

  • dreamer_2008
    15 years ago

    IKEA (www.ikea.com) has a kitchen designer where you can add dimensions and then place cabinets and appliances. It also tells you if something is too close and you can see the design in 3D. Very easy to use.

    Here is a link that might be useful: My Dream Home

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