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laurabethmsw

kitchen/pantry plan

Laura Clardy
11 years ago

The building forum suggested I post my floor plan here because they have concerns about my kitchen layout. I will not have the seating area on the bar. My concerns are cooking flow and pantry size and accessibility. Also, it bugs me that the stove is not centered on the back wall. Any input will be greatly appreciated!

Oh and about us: It will serve me, DH and young DS. Possibly another child someday. I work long hours and cooking usually consist of crock pot meals and heating canned veggies in the microwave. I'm the opposite of tidy ;) and usually awake to dirty dishes I never did the night before. Point being- the more convenient the better! Thanks!

Comments (2)

  • Laura Clardy
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Here is a pic of the kitchen from the website where I found the plan. They totally eliminated the pantry but I would rather not do that. We will need the storage. I'm worried the pantry is too small as is.

  • bmorepanic
    11 years ago

    Couple of things. As a warning, this is more like thinking out loud than a cohesive set of suggestions.

    The range is crowded against the corner pantry.

    The island positioning and shape makes a pretty sizable barrier reef between the sink and ref. Barrier islands are known for making klutzy kitchens because you have to keep walking around them to get anything done. Barriers can generally be helped by adding a prep sink. You don't have to walk around it nearly as much.

    In the photo, they also eliminated the funny little bit of cabinets or ?lockers? facing into the garage entry. That ends up making the kitchen space feel a lot larger. It would be VERY tempting to me to kill off the garage entry completely by opening a door into the garage from the "proper" foyer and doing a walk-in closet on that side. That would let the island orientation change by lengthening the kitchen proper.

    I realize its supposed to be some kind of mudroom, but because it's so small, I'd bet people will walk through to the kitchen and dump all their "stuff" on the island first. That would drive me deeply insane - I'd rather put some fancy tile in the house entry.

    Something like the screen porch will block a good portion of the natural light - adding skylights to the porch near the main house framing can help offset the light loses. So would windows on the other exterior wall.

    Personally, I'd think through perhaps eliminating the separate door to the porch but convert one of the windows in the dining room to a door. That would allow for a longer cleanup run. I could also be talked into an "L" plus island where the legs of the "L" were on the windowless wall and the garage wall and the island faced a long bank of windows into the porch area (like the entire porch wall!) with some island seating.

    I'd likely kill the corner pantry and do one with flat walls that extended some into the garage space. Drawing is an example of one way of doing that. Sometimes, if the pantry ends up large enough, people open a door directly into the pantry for putting away groceries.

    Whatever gardenweb did for images, it doesn't understand small pictures so I'm sorry for plan explosion but its not my fault!