considering moving the kitchen.....wwyd? kd help needed!

11 years ago

So we are considering overhauling our whole first floor. We currently have a galley kitchen in the back of our home but it is in the opposite corner from dining room. Our LR is a decent size, but we hardly ever use the DR because it is so far away. In addition, we have a first floor office that is underutilized and (could) go. There is a sunroom that we eat in because our galley kitchen is not eat-in.

We've talked to 2 GCs so far and the more visionary one suggested the biggest improvement would be if we considered demo'ing the office and moving the full bath (converting to half) and moving the kitchen to the combined office and sunroom space. Then having the new kitchen area open /accessible to both LR and DR.

I've come up with some rudimentary sketches of first floor, indicating new kitchen area and old kitchen area with powder room moved to where old kitchen was.

The struggle I have is that the new kitchen area would only have one wall in which to do cabinets. And that wall has windows.

I need kitchen ideas.....any KD's want to give me some layouts to consider?

Would love an island with seating for four. Would love to have an open of a flow from both LR & DR as possible.

Comments (5)

Iowacommute
11 years ago
Well I can't really help with the floor plan, but I would vote for keeping the galley kitchen. Almost every kitchen I've had has been a galley, and I think they're wonderful. I also do some 'light' catering, and a very small-much smaller than your space can do a lot.

That being said have you tried to work out how to just move your dining space closer to the kitchen? That would save lots of money. Plus it sounds like the more ambitious plan wasn't going to provide you with the storage you wanted so it seems like a lot to go through for that.

I do hope you get the space you want and enjoy your home!
dilly_ny
11 years ago
It's hard to know exactly how things flow now. I assume the above layout is the proposed? Where is the bathroom now located? What would you do with the old kitchen space? Do you have a deck / porch / patio? If so, where is the access to it?

Maybe it would be less costly to swap the palcement of your living room and dining room. The fireplace is a consideration, but it may be more cost effective to add another fp and just open up the existing kitchen than to move a bathroom and kitchen and loose your office. Just an idea.
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herbflavor
11 years ago
I think I'd rather have the office sq footage expand and morph into a small "den" on left side of foyer, off a hallway. Generally keep the powder bath on the left also off the hall with some storage worked from old office and the 3 closet space. Keep the kitchen incorporated with an open living/dining on the right side. The left side would be more logical for a side entrance between such den and section with powder room and storage/closets/hall...but it looks like the side entrance you have is on the right side of the home. Do you have options for the secondary entry-like rear of home..or right side but furthur back?
cwalen
Original Author
11 years ago
herb - we don't use the home office now. My husband works 1 mile from home and rarely brings work home with him. I'm a laptop person and work where ever the kids are in the house. Its totally dead, underutilized space. The entrace to our home is in the dead center as its a classic cape/center entrance. Sorry if it renders that way on the layout (it shouldn't). The back entrace is off of the sunroom.

Dilly - I've attached a current floor plan. When we bought the house (w/out kids) the fact that the DR was in far corner from kitchen didn't bother us - we didn't host much and ate mostly in front of TV (bad). Now we have kids. And we're hosting dinners. And I loathe how far it is from kitchen. And I loathe how closed in kitchen is. I want an eat in kitchen (island seating). We don't use the office and the sunroom while nice, it still feels very much like "another small little room off the kitchen".

I want open, but I want accessible to DR. I know I could swap LR and DR, but I'm not sure i'd get an eat in kitchen that way, and would still need to gut the office and bank of stupid closets to make a comparable LR on THAT side of the house.
robo (z6a)
11 years ago
Without dimensions it's hard to tell. For me it seems ideal just to switch DR and LR, open up the wall between kitchen and (now) DR, double size of kitchen and keep that floor plan very open (island or peninsula between kitchen and DR) and not go through all the expense of moving all that plumbing! That keeps the kitchen on the back of the house (something I prefer) and open to the DR. Right now your bath is nicely tucked away from the action too.

How big is the current dining room? Another thing I could picture is putting LR where DR is, busting down closets, and making an L-shaped LR, keeping bath where it is and relatively private from the LR. Having a cozy nook at one end of LR for piano, books, toys, whatever, could be really nice.

Is your sunroom a fully finished, all season sunroom? Final suggestion I would have would be to make sunroom into very efficient dining room (banquette seating maybe) or eat in part of the kitchen, move LR to Dining and make it a "formal" living room, double size of kitchen down into living room, and stick a little family room on the front of the house in the other half of the living.