I'm having a little trouble understanding your descriptions here. It looks to me like the sunroom is straight ahead - or am I missing something? And, I'm not sure what you mean about flow decisions. Maybe you could be more specific about that. Do you mean that the eating area is in the foreground, and how to direct traffic from the door and last the eating area?? Without knowing too much more, I would say that whatever type of window is being used throughout the house, you would stick with this style (unless you are planning to change out the other windows as well?). One last question - how do you intend to use the sunroom? Thx.

Thank you for your comments and questions. I am attaching a few more pictures to illustrate the floorplan. The sun room had been just that a sun room - and now we are raising the floor and trying to make it into a family room kitchen. I do appreciate your comments about the windows - as that does make sense.

Lad amass, I have been studying your pics and trying to get a handle on your lay-out. So, if I understand it correctly, you have a T-shape going on, with sunroom (former), eating area, then family room connecting laterally, then kitchen perpendicular in the middle - off the eating area? I'm tempted to sketch it out, but I'm guessing at dimensions also, so it's probably not worth it as I will probably get it all wrong. It looks as if your kitchen is 10' wide and maybe 10' long, 11' at most? So, I'll toss out some ideas and let me know if this could work:

First, I can see that you are a very busy family, with bulletin boards, a desk with computer in the area, etc. so, I see your eating area becoming part organization station and part storage space. On the wall that has the small window, you could install a 4' long desk, or a bit wider if you prefer, and on each side of it put tall pantries. Or, if you don't need tall pantries, could you use some coat storage - storage lockers for each child or whatever? It looks like you would be coming in the doors off the sunroom, and assuming all three windows of the sunroom remain, the eating area would be your only storage space for boots, backpacks, etc. or, you could have that desk go straight across that wall with multiple work stations, and have your bulletin boards on the wall on each side of the small window.

The sunroom would then become your new eating area. To take care of the view toward the neighbours, just install California shutters or wide slat Venetian blinds which can be tilted, or fully opened or closed. Your round table would really suit this nice, square room, and you should have enough clearance around the table for doors to swing open and people to get by.

For the existing kitchen, I wonder if you should put the fridge in the spot where your stove currently is, and put the stove on the fridge wall, centred in the space, so that you have a few feet of counter space on each side of it. It would be safer than its current spot, the only drawback being that there is a traffic pattern coming from that one doorway by your bulletin boards. This could get annoying if you are trying to move back and forth from stove to sink while cooking, so you'll have to decide if you could live with that. And, for your microwave, a shelf might be a better spot, rather than an OTR microwave. It can be somewhere along the run of upper cabinets and would be a good height for accessing.

Please let me know if I'm on the right track. I may still have the layout confused, and I'm not sure of your dimensions. Don't give up - soon the area will be up and running again, and you'll be so glad you did this!

Thanks for such a comprehensive note. The shape is actually L shapped - to illustrate it better- I included a floor plan that I had done up by a Home Improvement store. Although this is not the floor plan that we will be going with - it is actually pretty close to how we will end up with the layout. Given the challenges with plumbing and heating - and the narrowness of the room - our options are limited. Your observation about our family is pretty accurate - although my hope with the new kitchen will be a better design - and less exposure to "our chaos".

I have been considering the Sun room becoming the eating area - I like the idea of how spacious it would be ... but also am throwing out the idea of a family seating area - with a small television. My husband enjoys cooking and therefore homework, evening conversations, friends over .. all end up at the Kitchen table.

Based on how I elect to use the space - also impacts my choice of windows. Three sides of the Sun Room (for continuity) or two (to avoid the view).

Finally - fabulous suggestion in regards to the oven and refrigerator. I have been really considering this and your explanation further confirms the placement. As we will have a "real" range - I agree the microwave would be better placed elsewhere. Was considering a bottom shelf around the L part of the counter.

I appreciate your help.

That was my drawing - I am working on uploading the real floor plan. The small square is the sun room.

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Ladajasa, While I wait to see your floor plan, I will throw out that the window you are considering removing because of the view toward the neighbours is a real feature in your space. I would keep it. If you get rid of a window on that wall, I think you might feel,closed in everywhere in that area. Do keep the window, and just use very attractive window coverings - even if you have to keep them closed most of the time!

Just glancing quickly at your floor l,an, I think the peninsula might make things a bit tight. It also creates a corner cupboard on that one side, which is not a great situation. Otherwise, that would work. I would like to look at it later, though, once dinner is out of the way lol.

You could then do a desk under that small window, as I suggested earlier, and do upright cabinets on each side, with the one side (closest to your FR) having a shelf large enough to fit a TV. On the right angle, it could be seen from the eating bar, as well as the kitchen. The sunroom would then become your eating area.

The only thing I would add here is that I would change the peninsula to an island. You're going to get very tired of walking around that thing to get to the sunroom.

Ladajasa,

Throwing out a window idea. Keep the triangular gable windows. Then under those and on the other two walls, do awning windows all the way around the room for privacy. You get all the light from the three sides but gain privacy as well. Think 2 x 2 windows, doubled or tripled up in the upper part of the walls all around.

Like This:

Thank you for your comments. I too have been deliberating on where the peinisula goes. Unless we have very narrow cabinets on the kitchen side custom made, I don't believe an island can fit. Do you happen to know the recommended distance between counters? Karemore55 are you suggesting not wrapping like the diagram and just going straight?

For two of the sides we have or will have a nice backyard to look out on.... It probably would look weird if they were not all the same?

Keep your muntins the same style and you are good to go.

Got it... If I moved the kitchen table into the sunroom.... Wouldn't the kitchen are look a bit empty?

Larger kitchen table than my 60" round right?

Yes, ladajasa, I thought those were clerestory windows? I also was thinking that on that gable end facing the neighbours, maybe you could do a 30" wide window on each end, and then wall in the middle. This would effectively block out the neighbours and still bring in some light, along with the clerestory windows. This could then become a small family room with the TV on that wall between the windows, and you should have room for a love seat facing it. However, you wouldn't be able to extend the counter on the sink wall, or I think things will get pretty crowded. I was thinking some more about the angled peninsula that the people from Lowe's did - how much space does that leave you for walking over to the eating, or other, areas? If your eating area stays where it is, and you do a family room in the sunroom area,the angled peninsula might still work.

Sorry, everything's getting out of order. I'm in a big hurry because dinner is almost ready! Uh, yes, I didn't think an angled peninsula would work - it looked a bit tight. So extending the counter straight would be a good solution. I you did a desk and other built-ins across the far wall of the eating area, I think it wouldn't feel cavernous. But if you do that idea, the eating area would go in the former sunroom. Whereas if you walled in the middle portion of the gable end of the sunroom to create a TV space, and then put a love seat in there, you couldn't do the eating bar that runs straight. You may be able to do the angled one, if you're sure there is enough passageway there. And if you do that, and keep your table in the eating area where it has always been, you won't have room for a desk anywhere. And it really looks like you could use a really big desk lol!

Ladajasa, as I re-read everything, I am understanding your ideas a bit better. I shouldn't have been trying to do this and cook dinner at the same time lol. Guess I'm not as good at multi-tasking as I used to be! So, the triangular windows you referred to are the ones I was calling clerestory windows. I looked at your ideas off the Houzz site, and I see what you mean. I'm just not sure if you will like not having actual views. Bringing in the light is good, for sure, but your kitchen and eating area windows are not big, and I'm concerned that the space will feel smaller without the borrowed views of the outdoors.

I do think you could do a six foot wall in the middle of the gable end and, with the triangular/clerestory windows above, plus a narrow window on each side as well as the windows on the adjacent walls, you won't even miss that section that looks toward the neighbours. If that ends up being your eating area, that wall would look fine with a large clock or picture. You have a nice, big 60" table so it will be the perfect size for that area.

If you keep the eating area where it currently is, and extend the cabinets on the sink wall to create an eating bar that faces toward the kitchen and eating area, you could use the 6' long piece of wall on the gable end to set up your work station, bulletin boards, computer, etc. you could then have a TV on a shelf in the upper cabinets to the right of the stove (in the drawing from Lowe's). So - TV facing eating bar, eating area remains where it currently is, and sunroom becomes your work area. Or the other options I mentioned above. Or...? Maybe we'll come up with more ideas!