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akshars_mom

Kitchen layout questions

akshars_mom
10 years ago

A little bit of introduction about our family.
We are a family of 3 and our son is 7 years. I am usually the only cook in the house. Mu son likes to spend time with me when I am cooking. He likes to watch and talk when I am in the kitchen.
I cook 80% of our meals so the function is more important than how something looks.
We have done kitchen remodel 6 years ago in our previous house and I have been reading the forum from a long time so know the basic principle of the working triangle.
We are doing a major addition/remodel to the house. The whole kitchen/dinning and family area will be the new addition to the house.
We have finalized the floor plan of the house and now need to finalize the layout of the kitchen. The islan is mainly for prep area and it is not mandatory to have seating.
A few questions I have is
1) The location of the prep sink? Is the location I have in the layout below seem ok or would you move it?
2) The location of the refrigerator is a also a question mark right now? Would you move it?
3) Any other obvious issues I am missing.

Comments (4)

  • rosie
    10 years ago

    Hi, Akshars. It's looking pretty nice to me in general. Of course, you have your own good reasons for putting the prep sink there, but I think I would move it toward the other end so I could prep directly in front of the stove and pivot from chopping onions to dumping them in the saute pan. That's how I designed my own,

    Although the refrigerator would work nicely in that general location, I would be unhappy with its mass protruding so far out of where I would like the kitchen to stop. Even if you don't mind that part of it, it really needs to be moved back at very least a half foot or so from the window. It's meant to be a nice feature; but, even if you found the inches for nice trim, a giant box crammed up along its left side would spoil the whole effect.

    With that nice, long island and good L counter, you're not going to be hurting for work space (my own first priority), and I think I'd have to move the refrigerator to the other end of the counter. That would create a really excellent, compact cooking triangle at that end, and I'd enjoy having the veggie bin, butter or another splash of milk so extremely convenient.

    This, of course, would then allow me to pull in the other end of the counter. I'm thinking about to where that vertical dotted line is, but I don't know what that is. Are you going to have 3 recessed ceiling areas? If that's what it was, I'd want the counter to end outside it, not right at, of course, which would mean further adjustments--to the ceiling plan.

    BTW, if those were recessed ceilings, their strong definition of spaces would dictate future furniture shape, size and placement and severely limit how this large room might be used.

  • akshars_mom
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks Rosie for taking the time to respond.

    In regards to the refrigerator I agree that current location so close to window is not ideal. If I do leave it there I will move it a few inches inside so it looks better and we will also to counter depth version so it won't standout so much. The one reason I like it there is the access from family room and Dinning area.

    But from a kitchen perspective you are right it will be a better to move it to the other end of the L and closer to stove/range. The location of this has been the one that I have been debating in my head for some time. So other opinions will help.

    In regards to the prep sink, initially the architect had it in the middle of the island and I asked him to move to the side. If we do move the location of the refrigerator will move the prep sink also. Would you move the sink to the right/center even if the refrigerator is where it is now?

    The ceiling is shown as recessed/tray ceiling. I am thinking about removing this from above the kitchen and just keep it in the dinning/family area. we are in the process of starting to get bids for the project and I may eliminate this.

    One I have the general kitchen layout fixed. I will work with a custom cabinet maker for the cabinet lay out.

  • tracie.erin
    10 years ago

    I would also move the fridge to the end of the range wall, then slide the prep sink "north" so that it was visulally between the fridge and range (but of course, still on the island).

    I would then make the sink run about 12" shorter to give that nice bay window some breathing space. I can see two upholstered chairs in that bay with a small round end table between them, or perhaps a sideboard for your DR storage.

    I would also consider taking 30" to 36" wide uppers down to your counters next to the DW for a nice hutch-like look. wi-sailorgirl just posted her kitchen refresh and has a beautiful hutch similar to what I am talking about.

    Make sure you put your MW, if you use one, near the fridge as most items in them come from the fridge; a shelf under an upper cabinet or a drawer version under counter between fridge and range, or drawer version in the island are the best options.

    I do have a few notes on the rest of your space, I hope you don't mind..
    Where your slider is currently means that indoor/outdoor traffic will flow right through your family room space. Just a few examples I can think of: the coffee table and any sofa that faces left or right will be in the way and potentially tripped over or shins banged, traffic will obstruct the TV if any one is watching it, any rug you have will be endlessly tracked over with dirt from outdoors and potentially spilled on with food or drink being carried into or out of doors.

    Definitely spend some time at floorplanner.com to see how you can set up this room, because you have to consider these traffic patterns as well as the fact that all your furniture needs to float (can't go against a wall). There is also nowhere to put a TV except for above the fireplace. This is usually hard on your neck since it's high and you have to crane your neck to watch it if you're too close, but you do seem to have the room to put the seating 13' or so from it which is good.

    I would seriously consider making one of the top left windows into your door instead, and probably french doors for ease of use, at that. If you make the top left door on the East wall the door, that will mess up the wall's symmetry since the door needs to be wider than the current window. You can then consider only two matching french doors on that wall, or the french door and a matching window the same width - the middle window is then deleted, which gives you some wall space for a TV on that wall if you care to watch TV from the kitchen/DR or want it off the FP, and leaves you the space above the FP for art since you do not have a lot of wall space in the FR. OH - or you can do a single french door with a single sidelite to get back to your 4' width, which leaves you room for a 6' window in the middle.

    Sorry to ramble on - HTH!

  • akshars_mom
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    tracie, Thanks you for the comments. I do not mind the comments on the rest of the area :)

    In regards to the kitchen layout. Yes I am leaning towards moving the refrigerator at end of the Range wall and I will move the Microwave closer to the refrigerator as this is the setup we had in our previous house and it worked very well. I will also look into moving the prep sink.
    In regards to reducing the counter on the sink side next to the bay window is good suggestion and will do that. For the bay window I was thinking a window seat but your suggestion of two chairs there also sounds good.
    I did save the hutch picture of wi-Sailor girl and will look in to doing something similar.

    In regards to the family room slider door, I completely agree with you I did not want it in the center. My husband felt it would look better in the center. I will have to work with him on that. He prefers things to be symmetrical. But may be doing single french door with a sidelight is a good option.

    I really do appreciate the feedback. Rosie's feed back and yours has helped me move the location of the refrigerator for sure.