Green Designs & LWO:galley-prep sink+barn door

11 years ago

DH thought that having the kitchen ripped out would speed this along, but...still no further with design--and it's been 3 months! Family of 2 adults, 2 teen boys--very tall family!

I hope you can help.

Original kitchen cons:

no counter space (where I needed it--next to cooktop, on both sides of sink)

oven opened into eat-in area

refrigerator too far from eat-in area and mw

only one sink--prep and cleanup shared same space

raised counter to narrow to be useful--junk collector

counter near eat-in area not useful--junk collector

corner cab useless--and angle prevented two people from working together

deep pantry with center stile

door to DR blocked counter when open

no windows along cooktop wall--zero lot line--sliding doors are 8 feet tall--only natural light

Original kitchen pros:

sink faced family room (did all of my prep here)and not visible from front door since we had the raised counter

oven at counter height--no bending

Modified layout:

barn door pocket door (wall between DR and kitchen is shear wall--$9800 to create normal pocket door that would save 3 inches of space!)

mw moved near refrigerator end: will try to train the kids to enter the kitchen from the barn door side

DH really wants a prep sink--don't know how useful one is right behind the table--DH thinks we won't be using it when someone is seated--want near cooktop for draining as well as prep

keeping cooktop in same location since it was okay before--thought about switching with fridge, but then cooktop would be the first thing seen from front door (if barn door open)

switching to induction (keeping gas connection in case someone else wants it down the road) and undercounter GE single double oven--really wanted double ovens but want counter space even more--hope this works

Thoughts?

First floor floorplan:

Original layout:

New layout:

Comments (2)

lalithar
11 years ago
I would swap the location of the pantry near the sliding door and the fridge. It is nice to have the fridge closer to the eating area. Also if you can bring the microwave closer to the fridge would be good as most food travels from fridge to the microwave. Similarly, utensils, places, bowls, glasses should be close to the microwave and the dishwasher. So maybe you can keep it in drawers close to the dishwasher towards the end of the counter. That will keep it close enough to the microwave and the family can set the table without getting in the way of the cook. Trash should ideally go near the prep sink as ,ost trash is generated during prep. Or maybe even do 2 trash loacation. I would nudge the induction cooktop further down so that you can pivot and reach the cleanup sink. I like the prep sink but you want to have a landing space for the fridge and he microwave before the prep sink. If you plan filtered water etc.., I would do it at the prep sink. I guess the man thing is to look at the traffic flow patterns. What is the aisle space between the 2 counters? I would recommend at leat 5 ft as it is a through traffic area with the barndoor at one end the sliding doors and the access to family room at the other.
socalsister
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks, Lalitha!
I would love to move the fridge down near the eat-in area but it isn't accessible with the kitchen table in front (each square of graph paper = 6 inches)--doors couldn't open. In fact, this is my dilemma--I've worked and reworked this plan and end up with the almost the same kitchen I started with! I would like the fridge closer to the kitchen table (had an oven there before that required someone sitting at the table to move in order to open it). In essence, if I want an eat-in kitchen (I do), the working part of the kitchen must begin about 6.5 feet in from the sliding door side. The frige ends up practically in the center of the long run. Visually, I can't picture this as a good thing. The aisle is around 52 inches wide with counter overhang figured in.

Thanks for any suggestions to make the best of this situation.
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