where do the set of doors to the right of the blue piece of furniture go? i think you have alot of different size sets of doors going on here, and its too much. sometimes you have to stop somewhere. i have a set separating my foyer from my kitchen, but have it open from my family room to the kitchen.

I have a set of double french doors going out to my sunroom because I don't want to heat and cool that space all the time. As pretty as your doors are, I don't really see the need for the doors. I suspect you will end up leaving them open most of the time, if not all the time. You could do some really pretty trim carpentry around that opening instead (arched top, columns on the sides, etc) and leave the space open.

My kitchen and family room are a giant square disected in the middle by a wall. I have two swinging doors into the family room that flank a cabinet run. I LOVE having the option of closing off the spaces. When the doors are open, they are flush against the cabinets. It really works for my particular set up, but I think doors look a bit awkward in your space. Your doors will probably be open most of the time it it looks like they will be jutting into the room.

Some kind of barrier would also help contain pets and children. Sorry I don't know your circumstances, but you may want to limit where young children can wander in your home when you are in the kitchen. Another benefit of doors I love is that they muffle sound. DH can have the TV on in one room and I can hear the stereo/ TV in the kitchen or just have a quiet space. I love the option to close the kitchen from the rest of the house. I was really worried about the doors opening into the hall, but it is just fine when they are open.

One suggestion is for the doorway to be just a little smaller so the doors can tuck into a niche by the wall of kitchen cabinets when they are open. Or, is there any chance of doing pocket doors?

I think I just figured out what's bothering me. It's not the doors....it's the location of the blue hutch. It looks like it's sitting in the opening, doors or no doors. I'd love to see how it would look with a smaller opening so the side of the hutch is adjacent to a wall and not an opening or glass. It doesn't have to be made much smaller....maybe get rid of the fixed glass panel and make it solid wall there. Or leave the opening, but make it smaller by 12" to 18".

I agree with ccoombs1. There is not enough wall space surrounding the blue hutch. There are also too many divided light doors. The hutch adds to the mix. At the very least, I think all the french doors should match.

Thanks for all the good feedback. To answer some of the questions and comments...

The opening between the two rooms is just under six feet. The french door on the far right is stationary, and used to increase the visual space and light. The middle would open against the right end one and the door on the left would open against the wall, creating a walk through space of approximately 4 feet.

I can envision myself leaving the doors open when my family is in the family room, but closing them off when I was finished in the kitchen, after dinner, etc. and overnight. I also like to keep non-family member guests out of the kitchen while I cook, as I absolutely cannot multi-task. At least my family knows this!

The other set of french doors to the right of the hutch go the dining room. To the left are the sliding glass doors that go to the deck.

I don't like how the proposed hutch looks either. I feel it is way too big. The wall it is on is about 4.5 feet and there is an equal space to the other side of the dining room french door. The best space for the tv is where we show in the pics. Previous to our construction we had a very large entertainment unit that was invaluable in terms of storage. We are trying to figure out how to replace this, but figured that was a whole other post.

So a couple of questions that I have from your comments: Cotehele - you're saying that if I use the french doors, they should match the dining room doors? And Ccoombs, do you think if I eliminate the french doors altogether, the hutch would look out of place there as well?

Thanks everyone. This is tricky because now it involves the placement of a media center in a rather awkard space.

I like the idea of the hutch, but it is pretty big and makes the otherwise balanced look of that space sort of out of whack.

I think if you made the opening 4' wide and centered it (giving you around a foot on each side) and put a smaller and shorter piece of cabintry in the space on each side of the door, you'd regain the balance and also have the storage the hutch provides. You could hang a picture over the cabinet on the left side to mirror a flat panel TV hung on the wall on the right side. Or just set the TV on top of the cabinet.

Also, it might be possible to do set of french doors 48" wide centered up in the opening. Or moved over to the left to give the hutch more space.

If the doors are left as is, each set of doors will have a different style and size of mullion and glass opening. To me that is very awkward. From the dining room multi-light doors are also visible on the hutch and in the kitchen. Are these different as well?

Cotehele, I think you are referring to the view from the family room into the kitchen. The kitchen will have glass doors also. The hutch is yet to be designed. It doesn't have to have glass doors - it doesn't even have to be there. I could put the TV on the wall by itself and put a hutch on the wall to the right of the dining room doors. I will ask DH to draw up some alternatives tonight.

Ccoombs, thank you for the suggestions. They are worth trying. My only reservation is decreasing the visual space by another two feet.

I also have an attractive oak arts and crafts era bookcase with leaded glass doors that is smaller that I could put there. It was previously to the right of the doorway. Then I would have out to create tv media space to the right of the doorway and adjust the couch and chairs a bit. Scary to think of making a mistake.

That's a lot of doors, but with the hutch, it's just too much. I think you could get away with all the doors if you removed the hutch from that wall and have the doors all match across the family room. With all those doors, you might not want to put anything on those two small walls.

Looks like a great remodel, I'm sure you'll love it. Enjoy

I'm with others on that the mullions in the doors should be more consistent from door to door. Do you own any of the doors yet? I think it's visually a little overwhelming that all the mullions are different sizes or styles. If I saw it with more consistent doors from one opening to the next I might like it more, but right now it looks too busy, imo.

How about trying to figure out how to incorporate pocket doors into the opening? They're available when you want them and disappear when you don't. Otherwise, I vote for no doors. It's too busy with all those doors.

I vote for French doors without the doors. In other words, substantial and contrasting-color trim work to frame the room.

Donka,

The only doors we don't have are the proposed french doors between family room and kitchen. The dining room doors are 5 light each about 17" wide each. The sliding glass door to the deck are 15 light each and are wooden grills.

Here some renderings of the area without furniture - doors and no doors. We want to put a TV on one of these walls and have additional storage.

Open

French Doors

With the mullions and their differences on all the doors, the glass doors/mullions in the hutch, and the angles of the room; I'm finding all too geometric. What if you were to soften it with some curves? Round the doorway and have no door. Perhaps you can find a hutch that also has a rounded top but was true style wise to what your trying to achieve. Dont' know if such a thing exists but it popped into my brain.

i agree with those who think it's too busy and agree to look into pocket doors if you have to have something to close it off.

Consider Pocket doors for those glass doors if you want to be able to close off. French doors will take up valuable wall space on the side they will open on.

We bumped back 7' in order to get a bigger kitchen and connect it to the family room. Previous to this, the wall with the small french doors from my dining room went all the way across and made a right angle with the wall with the sliding glass doors to the deck. We had storage including the televsion all along that wall and partially on the other. I did not realize that this wall space would be so awkward and now don't know how a 41 or 44' tv can go on one side of the french door and a storage unit on the other without looking overwhelming or awkward.

Oh, I like that space SO much better with the hutch gone! So here's an idea. What about putting in a curved front chest or table on those walls? Or even cabinets with clipped corners so the are much narrower next to the openings.

I like the french doors better with the hutch gone but the dividers are still a little busy. I wonder how clear glass would look? The kind of doors with no dividers at all? I understand why you like the doors and think they could work. They sort of match the doors to the left but the doors to the right are really a different style all together. Is it possible those could be replaced to make all the mullions match...or at least to match the new doors you want?

Here is a link that might be useful: sort of like this

The doors to the dining room had to be like that because the doors are so narrow - only 17" wide each. I'm not sure that the proposed doors could come in a different size. I think it goes according to the widths of the doors.

The demilune is a good idea, but I don't think the style works in this room. However, clipped corners might. I think the biggest challenge now with or without the french doors, is how to put a tv plus sufficient storage on those two walls and have it look right. I think you suggested earlier something shorter and narrower and we will probably have to play with the space to figure it out. I stored photo albums, tv equipment, dishes, glassware, liquor, and a myriad assortment of tablecloths and linens in my previous cabinets. Though I realize I cannot recover quite as much space, it will be important to gain back as much as I can and still have it look attractive.

Thanks for helping; it is VERY useful!

Here's another idea that might help with the space shortage on the right side of the door. What if that door swings in towards the kitchen? It could fold back onto the fixed panel. Then let the door on the left side open into the dining room? I don't even know if that's possible, but it would give you more space for whatever you need to put in for the media center. I know that doors swinging in opposite directions is something that is not standard, but I am sure it could be done since it's in interior door unit.

Thanks Ccoombs. We're going to play with some of your ideas and try an arch also.