Can you zoom in on the kitchen, with dimensions?

Yeah, I thought the pool was your island, at first. Couldn't figure out why you hadn't put the "cabs" against the left hand wall, or if you had opted for some very avant garde kitchen triangle.

I also had to laugh at the demands of modern life: your garage is more than three times the space of your kitchen. The space of just one vehicle, and a little surroundng walkway is the size of your entire cooking andeating room.

Long narrow floor plans, and L-shaped ones while more expensive to build, yield wonderfully lighted spaces and a strong feeling of a house larger than it actually is. Most of your rooms have "light on two sides", which leads me to think either you or your architect are devotees of Alexander's A Pattern Language" a great and supremely useful book for those planning a house from scratch.

L.

Besides a larger pic with dimensions - what's going on with the "bottom" wall? Are those cabinets along that wall? Are the windows counter-height?

In the absence of information about you & your family and how you use your kitchen, etc. all we can give you is general advice. Things like:

Look at the primary kitchen work zones (Prep, Cooking, Cleanup)

Look at the workflow in the kitchen (Refrigerator/Pantry --> Prep Zone --> Cooking Zone --> Serving and/or Cleanup Zone)

Look at through traffic in the kitchen (i.e., people going through the kitchen to get to someplace else). In a general house layout such as this, this issue is crucial b/c there's no way around the kitchen - people are forced to go through it.

Usually, it's best to avoid consolidating all three of the zones into a small space - unless that's all you have.

It's also best to plan the Zones so there is little, if any zone-crossing while working in the kitchen.

Is that the only eating place in the house? It looks quite small. Since you're designing this house from scratch, I suggest planning for a bigger table space. This isn't a remodel where you're stuck with what's already on site.

I'd like to suggest two things:

(1) Don't finalize your plans tomorrow. From what I see of your kitchen, I think it needs some work.

(2) Read the "Layout Help" topic in the Kitchen FAQs (linked below) as well as some of the other topics such as "Kitchen work zones, what are they?", "Aisle widths, walkways, seating overhangs, work and landing space, and others", etc. Then, come back here and talk to us some more.

Some of the FAQ topics:

FAQ: How do I ask for Layout Help and what information should I include?

FAQ: New To Kitchens? Read Me First!
FAQ: Kitchen work zones, what are they?
FAQ: Aisle widths, walkways, seating overhangs, work and landing space, and others
FAQ: How do I plan for storage? Types of Storage? What to Store Where?

Here is a link that might be useful: FAQs for the Kitchen's Forum

Hi, AngelaA. What a pleasant house that's going to be. I love one-room-deep designs.

If there's any delay getting a focued plan up, maybe you could give dimensions to begin. The overall width and depth of the dining/kitchen area, the lengths of your island and back cabinet run and the depth from wall to island front? Variations in scale of the various elements make it hard to guess what's really there.

You've chosen an elegantly simple and efficient layout, and if the island really is long enough for even four people to sit at (?), you'll have plenty of work room. What is that room behind the kitchen to be used for?

The partial walls for definition between the kitchen/dining and living room areas frame the view both directions in the main room so nicely. I'm guessing I would have been drawing them in erasing, drawing back partly, erasing, and so on but probably ended up just this way. It's going to look really good.

You must be getting very excited about this time. :)

Your house reminds me of the last home my husband and I lived in. Always told people we bought a 5 car garage with a house attached. The garages were actually a 3 car and separate 2 car with workshop. He restored cars and this was his dream come true. But the house was almost the same size as the garages like yours.

Looking forward to your up close kitchen post.

It looks like too much is crammed into the area between the island and the stove and not enough aisle space for all that will be there, but hard to tell without dimensions.

It looks to be really tight between the island and the table and it is a main walkway in your house and lots of things to try to navigate and get around to get through.

That is a pretty small dining area for being the only place to eat in the house. Will you never have friends or relatives over?

I agree that all work seems to be concentrated in one particular space, the space centered immediately between the island and the right wall. What about moving your cleanup sink to the bottom (front window) wall? It would put dirty dishes out of view of the main living space and separate cleanup from cooking/prep zones. Then include a small prep sink in your island.

Also, what do you think about using both the left and the top part of the island for seating instead of just along one long line? I have lived with just a single long line of seating and it's nice, but I agree with many on this site that having a more conversational seating space on an island can be even better.

Additionally, do you have a clear enough walk way through the kitchen along the top of the island? It looks like that is going to be a main path between the master bedroom and living space and the rest of the house and garage. I am assuming the stairs near the garage lead to a second floor with the rest of the bedrooms. While you lose symmetry, I would probably want the shift the island down further to make more space for walking through.

Guessing at dimensions of space....with no other info...here's an idea: