I really want there to be a landing spot next to your fridge. I had a fridge without a counter next to it for years and I hated it. I am not sure how to get it for you - does the long row of pantry across from the washer open into the sitting area? If so could you run a narrow counter all the way from that little wall at the door way all the way down to the fridge area? 12 inches even would give you a place to set heavy stuff as you are opening/closing fridge. You could put cabinets under it and the counter would work for folding laundry.

But maybe the no landing spot bothered me more than it would bother most people. I was moving food for a family and seemed to always have heavy stuff in my hand.

I want one, too. glitter and guns. The door to the broom/pantry is on the laundry side. I toyed with a counter on either side of the fridge but it just makes things seem crowded.

Since we have a side-by-side, it really doesn't help to have a counter on the laundry side as the door obstructs use of a counter there. When it dies someday, I will probably get a top fridge/bottom freezer with left-side hinges and then a landing spot on the right would be accessible and make more sense. I could add a counter then. In fact, if lack of landing spot bugs too much, I might decide to replace s-by-s before it dies and just go for it.

Thanks for the input. It made me re-think the decisions I've made and my options, and that's a good thing.

The only idea I have is something my mom has done...use very flexible furniture. She loves wicker and has a really cute wicker love seat and table...or you could use an ottoman. It's smaller than most loveseats (but still comfy/lots of pillows) and very easy to move!

She also has a great kitchen table that she uses as counter space. If you had one that also expanded, it would solve both problems. She always says the finish of the table top doesn't matter...get one that's easy to use. Table cloths take care of the rest :)

Thanks, lavendar lass. We have a MCM home, not quite an Eichler but leaning in more that modernist direction. We have my mom's circa 1953 dining room set and I love it. It does have 4 leaves so we keep it to the smallest size unless we need more seating around it for a dinner. And a small IKEA loveseat which my husband and I can easily lift up and carry to another part of the house if we need to center the table in the room and add all the leaves. So I think we have the furniture situation handled. It's the dang kitchen layout that I'm really unsure of. I've seen you work magic so any tips there?

Here's a picture of what the kitchen looks like now, with the wall to dining room partially removed. So you can see I'm almost doubling the kitchen space. On the diagram, there will be a beam where the wall behind the current fridge location will be removed.

Yeah, it's an ugly somewhat unfunctional space right now. The previous owners removed the wonderful MCM cabinets (now in the basement workshop) and thought these Mediterranean cabinets were the way to go. So ugly.

You can't fit everything on one wall. And having the stove in the laundry room is just plain wierd. It has to actually be in the kitchen.

So, something like this. It gives you the main cleanup sink at the window, and the prep sink next to the fridge with a good long section of counter for prepping that can also have stools. The counter in the laundry room can double for other kitchen prep if needed, or laundry folding if not.

I appreciate the time you took to respond and come up with alternative ideas, GreenDesigns. The stove isn't in the laundry room. That entire space will be kitchen once the wall is removed with a laundry area in the corner. So I don't understand that criticism.

The landing space next to the fridge won't work for two reasons. It eliminates my ability to use all the leaves in my dining room table for larger gatherings and, in fact, gives me less space than I have now. Also, I can't put a sink there as under the kitchen is the double-car garage and the plumbing would come down about the center of the garage. Plumbing can't be routed along ceiling to outer wall to meet up with the other plumbing lines due to the garage door hardware and openers, and some duct work.

You have put the stove where it currently exists and I really want to avoid the stove being the focal point when people are seated in the dining area.

However, I have been mulling some of your points and am working up a different plan for review which I will put in a new discussion. While your particular suggestions won't work, they have given me some other ideas to work with so your criticisms are appreciated.

Hi funkycamper,
First, I found your layout a bit hard to read and understand. I wonder if that's limiting your responses. Maybe drawing out the plan for the whole first floor would make it clearer. You can always just use graph paper.
Second, I'm not clear what you want help with. You said you really need help, but haven't mentioned any specifics about the plan that you're worried about. It seems that you know exactly how you will use the space, which is great. What specifically would you like feedback on?

Wanting to have the very large dining table will obviously limit your options. (Which is totally fine since that's your priority). I think the layout (if I understand it correctly) looks pretty good. I like spaces with unusual shapes and a bit of quirkiness myself.

Oh, thanks for the tips, AineLane. I'll do a simple floorplan of the space.

I've been lurking here for months and I see a lot of people just posting their plan asking for input with no specific questions. Sometimes those posts end up with just a couple responses, sometimes dozens. Hard to know what grabs people's attention.

Of course, asking a few specific questions makes sense, too. I'm mainly concerned about workflow/functionality issues, I'm reworking my plan and did come up with something that I like better. I'll start a new thread when I'm done tweaking it and be sure to express my specific concerns.

Thanks!

It's confusing as to what area is ''kitchen''. Is it the laundry area? If so then more than half of your appliances arent actually in the kitchen. Is it the area at the top right? Same thing. You've got stuff that you need that isn't where you need it. Either way, I don't think that takng down the wall is doing you any favors if it leaves the whole house so ill defined.

Have you considered removing the entry wall also, since semi-imposing on access to the front door would happen only when you are seating a full 12 people (3-4x/year), I think that would open up some options for you. It would really open up the entryway, unless you are against that.

I'm not sure why you are against having your stove be a focal point. Many, many, kitchens make the stove/vent the focal point which looks great! My current kitchen the frig is the focal point. I've yet to find one kitchen pic with that.

I understand your love of your windows. I personally am going to add 8-12' of new windows in our kitchen into our medium sized kitchen. With or w/o the new windows I have a functioning kitchen. There's give and take in any kitchen remodel.

It will be really helpful to see your plan on graph paper. It would also be helpful if you labeled your graph paper with letters and arrows in reference to the photos taken. Label your photos: A, B, C, etc. Then label the drawings where the pictures were taken with an arrow showing the direction you were looking when you shot the picture. Like this: A---->, B---->, C----> to help us get a better feel for things. : )

I've popped on and off a few times trying to see where your thread might go and to see if I could offer any help. The one thing that comes to mind is to ask if you can put the washer and dryer anywhere else since it seems to be eating a major portion of your kitchen. Can it go where your coat closet is, or in a bathroom, or in a part of a bedroom, or in the basement (and install a laundry chute)? Anywhere but in the kitchen, LOL.

We'll be able to help you more with the graph paper version, surely.

A few ideas.

Consider moving the range b/w the 2 windows and main sink to the right, under the window, not centered, but ending at the right edge of the window. Since you'll have room on the left of the range in this arrangement, maybe you can have a small prep sink under the other window. MW can be in an upper next to the porch door.

While, prep space b/w the range and the sink(s) would be around 30" only, you'll have counter on the other side too. So, I think this will be better than having the 2nd sink in the laundry.

As to landing spot near fridge, how about a a folding table attached to the wall?

Maybe a smaller version of this.

Or, this

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[Contemporary Desks[(https://www.houzz.com/products/contemporary-desks-prbr1-br~t_580~s_2103) by Union Bedding & Bath Bed Bath & Beyond

I think, the above is about 10" deep when table is folded. You can consider adding other cabs around that and make it a buffet or bar if you'll have enough left for the extended dining table.

Thanks for the ideas and questions. I'll respond to hollysprings, aloha2009, and laughable after I've pondered their ideas for a bit.

sena01, I do like your layout idea. In fact, it's virtually identical to another one I had already done. We only have one KD in my area, at HD (yeah, lucky me!) and when I showed him that idea and asked if he could design anything to improve it, he told me how awful it was and that it was totally unworkable. (Of course, I would have to pay HD to find out if he has any better ideas. He was such a jerk I am loath to do that.)

The new layout I'm working on is virtually the same as your suggestion with just a few little tweaks. I'll post it in a bit.

I've actually never had a functional landing space by the fridge in any kitchen I've had and I can see why it might be handy, yet I've never felt not having one is unhandy either. Unless your prep area is right by the fridge, don't you just move things from fridge to landing space and then again to prep space? Now, I take out what I can carry, walk a few steps and put it down, repeat as necessary. Wouldn't I be doing the same with a landing space? Am I missing something?

I was thinking of buying this cute, little cart from IKEA to put to the right side of the fridge. If I'm unloading a lot of stuff at once, I figured it would be easier to load onto the cart and then wheel it to prep area. It's small and wouldn't intrude much into the laundry area and could be easily rolled out to the enclosed porch or into the pantry if it's in my way. This makes more sense to me.

BTW, I love how your program places my kitchen outside, LOL. I would live outside if I lived in a warm enough climate. I'm happiest in my tent in the woods. Maybe I should scrap the kitchen and just become a hobo.

You know, I never realized before, but I guess I don't have a landing space next to my fridge either. I take stuff out, walk a few steps and put the stuff on the peninsula. I've never even given that a second thought, its not even slightly a problem! So, I wouldn't be too hung up on that either.
The little cart could work, but I guess I think it's unnessesary and I don't like little bits of furniture. I'll stay tuned for your updated plan!

We also have a long narrow kitchen (so not many options for layout) and I will say I'm really starting to hate our lack of "landing" space by the fridge. I hate it mostly because it leaves me either stacking things in my arms and carrying them across the kitchen (while the fridge doors stand wide open), or setting bags of groceries on the floor to unload them in to the pantries/fridge. At least with a landing spot you can take everything you need out of the fridge and then close the doors while you're transporting items across the kitchen. I've considered building a little custom rolling cart but then wouldn't we be tripping over yet another thing in the kitchen (dogs, chairs, children)? Do you have rugs? A tile floor? I would think both would hinder the rolling of carts IMO. Plus that little cart from Ikea is cute but it kinda looks like a hospital cart...

You said you were toying with counters on either side - could you cheat the fridge all the way to one side and have a counter on the other? I'm not sure you'll want to base a kitchen design on an old fridge....

Another potential issue I see in the latest rendition offered by sena01 is the aisle between the fridge and the stove. Imagine you're cooking at the stove and DH decides to stand for 10 mins and gaze mindlessly upon the contents of the fridge - will you trip over each other? Maybe that aisle is wider than it looks?

Ahh the things we learn the hard way!

EDIT: PS - perhaps a kitchen yurt?

This post was edited by Swentastic on Mon, Nov 24, 14 at 18:12

@AineLane: Funny you didn't realize that until now.

@Swentastic: Love the yurt! When we were considering building, before we got this house instead, I was trying to convince DH that we should build a yurt. Funny you mentioned it.

My response is not meant to be argumentative. I'm just doing a lot of thinking out loud, so to speak. I don't have a landing spot now and haven't really ever had one. I can see the advantage but I've never considered it a problem not having one. I rarely need to grab more than one handful at once and, if I do, it's just not a big deal to walk a few steps and back again. In fact, I just did a practice run where I unloaded enough things that it required three trips. I figure the walk a few steps back-and-forth added about 20-30 seconds to the whole procedure.

There's nowhere on the wall to move the fridge to create one as that wall is just 36" wide. I could put a cabinet to the right of the fridge as it would be visually better to have it in the "laundry area" then on the dining side. But a cabinet is more permanent and if having it in that space ends up bugging me, it would be more difficult to move the cabinet and find another use for it.

I figured the cart is more multi-functional and it can move into pantry or or the back porch when I'm not using it. The only time I think I'd really like it for helping with the food transport issue is when I'm cooking a huge, fancy dinner. Also, our patio is off the living room on the other side of the house so when we entertain out there, we have to make multiple trips. I do have a nice bigger cart that is made of stainless steel and folds in half for easy storage when I don't need it. But there are times when I don't need that big of a cart to move things to patio for BBQ's and such so I thought that small cart would be handy for those times.

Besides, I think it's super-cute, especially in that turquoise color, so I was looking for a good excuse to buy it, LOL.

I will have wood floors throughout so no real barriers. If I decide to have a throw rug in the kitchen, that cart is small and light and even full shouldn't be an issue to move around.

The front of the fridge is 54" from the front of the stove if we go with that plan. I think 4-1/2 feet is plenty of space for DH to look in the fridge while I'm cooking. It's wider than most recommendations for aisles. It would be nice if it was a bit wider but I think it would work for the few times that would happen. I can see how it would be more of an issue with a house full of kids.

Thanks for the ideas and questions. Sorry it has taken me so long to respond. I’m reworking my plan and really trying to take Marcolo’s ice-water-stone-fire into consideration while doing it. I’m probably not going to be able to do much more work on this until after Thanksgiving. I will probably start a new discussion with my new layout sometime after the holiday. I’ll post a link here when I do so, hopefully, you all will pop into the new discussion and give me more of your great insights.

Individual responses to you all, below. I fear my responses sound argumentative but I don’t mean them that way. I just don’t understand where you are coming from and possibly need more clarification to help me see what I’m missing. Thanks again:

hollysprings said:
It's confusing as to what area is ''kitchen''. Is it the laundry area? If so then more than half of your appliances arent actually in the kitchen. Is it the area at the top right? Same thing. You've got stuff that you need that isn't where you need it. Either way, I don't think that takng down the wall is doing you any favors if it leaves the whole house so ill defined.

@hollysprings: Right now the laundry room is just a big catch-all room which also tends to collect clutter (which drives me batty) and traffic route. If I had a use for the extra space in the laundry area, it would make sense to keep it but I don’t. I don’t sew or do any crafts that would require me sitting in a separate room to do. At 8X16 it's really just a big, wide hallway that is almost as big as my cramped 15.5x10.5 kitchen (see photo in one of my posts above). So it makes more sense to me to eliminate the big hall and put that space in the kitchen where I need more of it.

Or do you mean the wall we’re taking down in the picture above, between kitchen and dining room? I don’t understand why that’s not a good thing. The kitchen is too small to expand or make many changes to the current layout, feels cramped, and the dining room is too small to be very useful either. It seems that I then just have two rooms that both function poorly. What am I missing?

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aloha2009 said:
Have you considered removing the entry wall also, since semi-imposing on access to the front door would happen only when you are seating a full 12 people (3-4x/year), I think that would open up some options for you. It would really open up the entryway, unless you are against that.
I'm not sure why you are against having your stove be a focal point. Many, many,kitchens make the stove/vent the focal point which looks great! My current kitchen the frig is the focal point. I've yet to find one kitchen pic with that.
I understand your love of your windows. I personally am going to add 8-12' of new windows in our kitchen into our medium sized kitchen. With or w/o the new windows I have a functioning kitchen. There's give and take in any kitchen remodel.

@aloha2009: I’m not fond of removing the entry wall. I really dislike front doors that just open into the house itself without some kind of separation from living and entry areas. I’d also like to avoid that because I really like the original wood used on the entry side of that wall. It would make me sad to see it go. The prior owners already removed too much of it as it is, imho.

I could make the stove/hood the focal point or I could have nice, lighted cabinets in that same location that show off some of my fun collection of serving pieces, pitchers, and my colorful “in-between” dishes. If I have a choice, I’d rather have the latter. I’m not big on appliances as focal points in general. I was really striving for more of an “un-kitchen” look, as much as practical while still having a functional layout.

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laughable said:
It will be really helpful to see your plan on graph paper. It would also be helpful if you labeled your graph paper with letters and arrows in reference to the photos taken. Label your photos: A, B, C, etc. Then label the drawings where the pictures were taken with an arrow showing the direction you were looking when you shot the picture. Like this: A---->, B---->, C----> to help us get a better feel for things. : )
I've popped on and off a few times trying to see where your thread might go and to see if I could offer any help. The one thing that comes to mind is to ask if you can put the washer and dryer anywhere else since it seems to be eating a major portion of your kitchen. Can it go where your coat closet is, or in a bathroom, or in a part of a bedroom, or in the basement (and install a laundry chute)? Anywhere but in the kitchen, LOL.
We'll be able to help you more with the graph paper version, surely.

@ laughable: After T-Day, I’ll work up something like you suggest with photos and such. Thanks for that suggestion.

I’m surprised that the laundry area is bothering people so much. I just don’t see it as an issue. I have no place else on this floor to move it. If we put it in the coat closet, we’d have no place for coats and I see no good place to build a new closet. The bathroom isn’t big enough. I LOVE having it there as it’s close to the bedrooms, close to the kitchen where I spend a fair amount of time, so I never have any laundry piling up. If I moved it in the basement, it would be inconvenient and I know I’d keep forgetting to move the laundry along. Plus, it would mess up the Man Cave.

Except for more pantry storage, which I don’t really need, I don’t see what else I would even use that space for. I mean, I guess some of the stuff I do now have in a cabinet in the basement could come up to a pantry area there but this is stuff I seldom use or things like the huge package of Costco paper towels which, because I don’t use them much, takes me about two years to go through.
I’m just not convinced that the convenience of having seldom used items closer to kitchen outweighs the huge inconvenience of hauling laundry up/down stairs. Plus, I am in my late 50’s and we hope to age-out here. Carrying the laundry up/down may not be as easy when I’m 80 as it is now. Or maybe doing that will help keep me young, lol.

If it helps, we are planning on putting a counter over w/d and then adding some louvered, bi-fold doors to cover the front. Does covering them up help make you more comfortable with placement?

Okay...here's an idea with the loveseat, turquoise cart and dining table. Also added a few plants! Hope this helps :)

This post was edited by lavender_lass on Tue, Nov 25, 14 at 20:32

Oh, that's a way of doing it that I never thought of. Clever. I'll definitely play with that idea. Thanks. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Thanks for taking the time to respond to our queries, Funkycamper. : )

My thought of trying to move the laundry was to gain space for actual kitchening, If you don't want the appliances to be a focal point, something could be moved down around the corner to occupy the space that the washer and dryer are taking up. For example, the fridge with landing space could be moved down there.

I'm also concerned about how the two corners of the base cabinets come together near your porch door. I realize you use the door only occasionally, but it looks like there's about 24" of hip banging squeeze space between those cabinets as drawn.

Another idea: Spin the washer and dryer 90 degrees so that they face the hallway. This would give you a much nicer kitchen work area, I think. If you could move the porch door down a bit farther, you could run cabinets all the way to the corner along the top wall.

This sketch is what I'm trying to explain. It's possible to put a dish hutch with your prettier items to the right of the top window, near where Lavender drew the plant by the loveseat. I did not sketch that in.

Putting the kitchen all the way to the left of the room really opens up the seating area. Neither the kitchen nor the seating area feels cramped, and there is a definite division of use of space.

Some fresh ideas to think about. : )

One more question: On the side porch, does it have any other entrance besides the kitchen? If it does, would you want to close off that door completely? Oops, I guess I can't count very well, can I?