I can't picture square footage, but I am thinking in this day of open concept stuff where people just don't have walls, how big actually is a kitchen?

According to ABC news, the average house size is around 2,300 sq ft and the average kitchen is almost 300 sq ft. (That would include any eat-in areas).

So, 360 sq ft would be an above average sized kitchen. 40 years ago, the average kitchen was about 150 sq ft though. Americans have definitely decided to supersize our kitchens - and then eat out more. :)

If your kitchen is going to include a homework area for kids, home office/mail center/desk, casual eating area, etc., it does not sound too big at all.

The ABC news numbers above put the kitchen at 13% of the total square footage of the house. Ours will be a little small by comparison at 11% (house 2532 square feet, kitchen 275 square feet).

I believe the size of the kitchen should be relative to how you use it and how important cooking/baking/hanging out in there is important to your family.

Our kitchen is about 360 sq ft in a house of 2750 sq ft. That's including pantry and only includes a small kitchen table, so the square footage it uses is not really as roomy as a dinette area (we generally eat in our dining room, so didn't want/need room to seat everyone in the kitchen). I could see us needing fewer square feet in the future for the rest of the house, since we won't always need bedroom space enough for 9 or 10 people...but it'll be a long time before we'd need less kitchen, if ever, since it offers separated space for baking, cooking, cleanup etc, which I'll always do.

If the concern is for resale, I believe that if you love it and appreciate your house space allotted in that way, so will someone else.

For a general rule of thumb, in a standard house (no media rooms or yoga studios), say 3 bedrooms, 2-3 bathrooms, and two reception rooms (living and dining or LR/DR and family or front and back parlor, or what have you), to be in good proportion the kitchen should be about 1/8 of the total square footage. That's just kitchen or kitchen plus breakfast nook, not including family room or other attached area. Additionally, the bedroom wing should be approximately half the space, or a little less, and the master shouldn't be much bigger than the other two bedrooms combined.

There are many specialized variations, greater or lesser numbers of rooms, etc., but that's a good rule of thumb to start with.

You can never be too rich, too thin, or too kitchened.

I agree with rhome. Our kitchen is large for our house, but it's also the most used room. If I spend 70% of my waking hours in the kitchen, it can be as big as I want.

Hmmm, I measure my kitchen in inches, 110x101, which would make it about 78 sq. ft. And they advertised it as an eat-in! I guess it all depends on how you live in your actual home. My house is a small cottage, 2 beds, 1 bath . . . I actually thought about making the kitchen a den and turning the dining room or 2nd bedroom into the kitchen but in the end we kept the footprint as it is but if I could have made it bigger, I would have.