Forced to choose I'd pick A, but that very narrow island is problematic, the aisle looks quite wide and, if the sink in the island is the only one and across a five foot aisle from the range, it's not safe. It's safer than B though that has a traffic lane through there.
I prefer the laundry layout in B, if you change the door to a pocket door.

I'd combine A and B - keep the laundry room configured as in A, but put a doorway into the kitchen from the hall as in B.

I like the flow of B much better. And if you had something messy you needed to run to the washer from the kitchen, you do not have to go through part of the living room

Between A and B I'd prefer A, but yes, with a bigger island and a narrower aisle.

What's to the left of the laundry room?

We have a nice wide hallway area between our kitchen and laundry room, and we use it as a mudroom space. Small bench w/ cubbies and lots of hooks. I wonder if you could make that hallway bigger (maybe by making the laundry room slightly smaller) to allow for something like that. You'd only need another foot or so.

And if you could also give your recommendation on the location of the appliances in the kitchen? I do want a larger island.
-Refrigerator
-Wall Oven
-Sink (would like to have a small prep sink but I don not think there is room)
-Stove top
-Dish washer
elizard: The guest/hall bathroom is to the left of the laundry room

This post was edited by KayakCove on Wed, Sep 3, 14 at 21:46

What about B but having a grocery pass through where the door is to the garage? That way you can still have cabinets and countertop there

1) Are there no windows in the kitchen?

2) What is the 3' 3.5" wide framed out thing in the kitchen, and what's the pale grey thing to the left of it?

3) In the laundry area, the walkway through it, is that coming from the outside of the house into the hallway/kitchen? Or where is it coming from?

4) What is the 2' 7.5" wide thing in the laundry area? It looks like a closet? Is it a mudroom.

What it looks like is that, if you are positioned at the bottom of the floor plan and walking towards the center of the house, you are walking in the house from the outside, passing a mudroom/front hall closet and the laundry and ending up in the kitchen. Please let me know if that is correct.

Jillus:

1) There are no window in the kitchen because there is a guest room behind the main wall and a hall way on the other wall. The great room and dining room will have a wall of windows and with the kitchen and great room having cathedral ceilings. Wish there was a window in the kitchen but it did not happen. With good lighting, the large windows, and the cathedral ceiling I think it will all work out.
2) I guess my pantry. We did not go over the kitchen in a lot of detail except the size. I thought when we ordered our cabinets we would plan it out better
3) The door in the laundry room is coming in from the garage
4) He put a closet in there because I couldn't decide what to do with it. I thought a pantry or mudroom.
Communication has not been very good between the architec and us. So we just finalized so we can get on with the build and bidding. We would ask for a change and did not hear back from in for a few weeks. I can tell by the feed back that things may need to be changed some. I just can't figure it out ~ Thank you!

I have no brain for layout, but I wanted to comment on hanging things from the dryer.

My dh wears dress shirts to work every day so I dry and dewrinkle a lot of things that need to get hung right away. I used to have a wire shelf on the wall to the right of the dryer. Standing in front of the dryer there was a wall to the right, a wire shelf on which you could hang hangers. It did its job well, but I felt I was always dodging it to avoid knocking my noggin.

When I replaced a bent towel bar in the bathroom the bent one replaced the shelf in the laundry room. This works out GREAT except for the hangers that don't have hooks that turn.

So, if you use wood hangers with hooks that turn a towel bar can be a low-profile solution. A short wire shelf with an attached hanging bar is better, but you want to hang it above the dryre where it will not interfere with your desire to keep bruises to a minimum.

A short wire shelf could be tastefully attached between two cabinets (if you are doing uppers in your laundry room) so that it looks built-in and not random or free-floating.

All that said, I do have a closet in my laundry room but I took down the wire shelf and put a shelving unit in there instead. It doubles as my stock-up pantry and holds appliances seldom used.

I also feed my dogs in the laundry room and store my cleaning supplies there. I get a whole lot of stuff in one room, lol, and it isn't even that big.

I can't decide between A and B. I do like that the laundry room is not visible to the living room in plan B. I like the straight shot into the kitchen from the garage, although A is okay too. You really don't lose that much cabinet space in plan B. No lost corner cabinet, but then again corner counter space can be nice. You might have more traffic in Plan B near your stove, but if this home is mostly for a small family, I don't think it would be a problem.
That looks like a wall oven next to the pantry and I find that I use my island a lot when I remove things from the oven, even though I have counter space next to it.
I thing your island could easily be 42 to 48 inches deep depending how you arrange your furniture in the living room.
I don't think you'll miss windows at all in your kitchen. The windows are very close by in rooms with catherdral ceilings. It looks like a very nice floor plan.
Are you putting a TV in the Living room? If so, a corner fireplace would make placing a larger TV on the wall easier.

Sorry, but I'm not a fan of the plan as a whole. This will be a very dark house to live in. I'd want the kitchen to occupy an outside wall, not a guest bedroom, and would rearrange that whole family entry way and laundry room area to make that happen. Hard to say what could be done as the whole plan wasn't included. But, I'd throw that back on your architect.

I don't agree that this house will be dark, unless I'm reading the plan wrong - the kitchen/dining area/living room are all "open plan", correct? If so, the wall of windows in the dining room and living room will provide plenty of light. I have a similar setup, and the room is very bright (mine measures about 22'x42', and isn't L-shaped like yours, but the concept is the same -- its so bright at certain times of day that I have to lower the shades).

Which way is north on your plan?

Is this a stock plan or something you and your architect have drawn up from scratch?

For me, it's not so much the amount of light that is/is not coming in but that you can't see out. If you're in the middle of an ugly subdivision that's one thing but if you're in the forest or in the mountains or near the beach or have any view whatsoever that is something else entirely.

You spend most of your waking hours in the kitchen/living room and your sleeping hours in the bedroom.

You need someone such as an interior designer or another architect to look at this space.

Have you been to Building a Home forum for comments? I have provided a link. They may have some ideas.

Here is a link that might be useful: Building a home forum

Duplicate

This post was edited by pitterpatter94 on Thu, Sep 4, 14 at 15:08

I think you'll be fine. We had a similar layout and I loved the view from the kitchen through the dining room and living room. We had a walkout basement and no deck behind the living room or dining room space. (Which really enhanced the view). Our screened in porch was in a location off to the side like yours. We also had a very small grill deck on the side of the screened in porch(covered also).
Choose white or light colored cabinets and a medium colored floor to help keep it bright.
I like the bedroom at the back. It could make a nice office/guest room.

I vote for B. Not walking around that wall will be priceless. Plus, you won't be losing much cabinetry: You're losing a corner, which is a good thing. Corners are expensive to build, inefficient for storage, and difficult to reach into.

Things I'd alter:

- Make the door into the laundry a pocket door. It'll probably stay open about 90% of the time, and a pocket door means it won't be in your way -- no blocking the hallway, no need to open the door when you come in with groceries in your hands.

- Yes, I'd make the island wider and the aisle more narrow. My current galley kitchen is about 5 1/2' wide, and it is just a step too wide. I don't see how it's unsafe, but it's extra steps.

- I can't identify that square adjacent to the pantry, but whatever it is, I'd rather have a pantry. That extra 2' or so would move you from a small pantry to a moderate-sized one, and that's worthwhile.

I agree with everything Mrs. Pete says. I think that is the oven stack next to the pantry. In plan B, just put it at the end of the range run so that it balances the fridge. I would also move your dw to the other side of the sink so it isn't opening into your cooking zone. I don't see a good place for a second sink, sorry.

And don't worry, I have no windows in my kitchen. I overlook an open great room with lots of windows and don't feel it is dark at all. And I even went with dark stained cabinets and black counters.

Controlfreak & MrsPete: That is the built-in wall oven next to the pantry. The kitchen appliances are just plugged into the plan and were not give much thought to the location. It was hard enough to get the plan changed in a timely manner from the architect for a wall to be moved much less asking to move an appliance. Do you think the refrigerator is in a good spot or should it be at the other end?

biflen: This plan is from scratch. And I received a lot of help from the "build a home" forum here on the plan.

Greenhaven, karenseb,sjhockey, livewireoak, jullius, scrappy, christina ~~~ Thank you for all the feedback. It really helps me to have a little clarity.

OK. Seeing it all, I like B better --

- make the pantry wider, to take up that whole wall. Move wall ovens to end of the long run.

- create a hallway between the laundry room and closet, as in plan A. I would NOT want to walk through the actual laundry room on the way to/from the garage.

- consider changing the closet across from the laundry room to a smaller closet (std door for instead of sliding) + mudroom area.

- create a hallway between the laundry room and closet, as in plan A. I would NOT want to walk through the actual laundry room on the way to/from the garage.

Yes! That's exactly what I was trying to say (and didn't say very well)