One of my first questions is what type of heating do you have? Many steam and hot water systems heat rooms via the pipes in the walls as the heating lines run to radiators in other rooms. Many kitchens and mudrooms were heated this way. So, before you go taking down walls and moving lines, consider your HVAC system. We wanted to open the kit/DR wall up but can't. Now I'm glad I didn't. It would have ruined my 1920s house.

Actually, if you have radiators, don't let anybody but an expert move or alter the lines running to them. You'll likely end up with a big mess.

Mary, thanks for responding. The heating is forced air with registers on the floor. The house was built as a summer home so I guess a heating system was added some time later. The wall between the kitchen and dining room is not original. The kitchen area was part of the dining room and later, a wall was installed to make an area for the kitchen. How did your kitchen turn out? Do you have room to eat in it or some other configuration?

We love our kitchen. It was remodeled in the 50s or 60s, so most of the appliance sizes were standard. We cutup one base cabinet to get in an 18" dishwasher. I had to replace the 24" wall oven and settle for a smaller fridge to fit the available space. We added panels to the flat slab cabinet doors and painted everything white. My DH put granite tile over the existing formica counter. So far so good on that one. The backslash is a combination of beadboard and tin ceiling metal panels. Everybody who sees the finished product thinks that the kitchen is original to the house. The 54" wall cabinets certainly helps.

The room is only 9x12, and has two doors. So no eat-in space. We eat either in the adjacent dining room, or go to the other side of the house to the sun porch. Not having easy access to seconds has helped the waistline.

I took the paint off the dining room side of the door jam and shellaced it. If you look closely at the jam, you can see, carved into the wood, a PO's kids initials, dates and height marks. The dates range from 1948 to the late 50's. If I had opened up this wall, I would have lost this. I couldn't do it.

Look carefully at all the new kitchens in that forum. What do they have in common? Do you think it works for your house? And now you know what not to do.

lov_mkitchen, saw the kitchen of About to get Dusty, and it seemed similar to what I have in mind (although, the wall between the dining room and kitchen was carved out in her design). Beautiful kitchen and mudroom space. I am not strong on visualizing a revamped mudroom with a kitchen. Need a kitchen designer but most seem to be associated with cabinetry lines and I already have selected an independent cabinet maker. It's layout that is my issue as I know what style of cabinets, flooring, and counter top that I like.
Thanks for your reply. Any other suggestions, please do so!

Can someone post the link to the kitchen thread Fall is referring to? I did a quick look and couldn't find it, and don't have time to go through dozens of pages for it.

What is the size of the room? The shape? Layout is the easiest part since you have the cabinet types already set...get some graph paper, draw the room on it, and just pencil in various placements for the cabinets...nothing hard about it.

Keep in mind these things:

1. Plumbing should be confined to a small area of one wall for ease of installation
2. Period-appearing kitchens did not have islands or toe kicks in cabinetry; a work table was common, and to me, works better as it provides a lower surface where you can sit to do prep. Cabinets should appear as individual pieces for the most part rather than one long run of attached units.
3. The 'work triangle' is not a new concept, but it is flexible so you can orient and extend it if necessary due to the room's dimensions
4. Recessed lighting will kill the effect you are going for faster than almost any other aspect. A central fixture with another over the sink was common, if you need more you MAY use indercabinet but make it invisible and not glaringly bright. Houses today are FAR too brightly lit for most purposes--this is a home with a mood, not an operating theater.
5. You can use wainscot below, and various materials for a backsplash...upper walls were most likely plaster which was enamelled and varnished to give an easy to clean finish.

Here you go!

Here is a link that might be useful: Post in Kitchen Forum