I think if you have kids (I have 3) and friends and people moving about, I would consider keeping the DR in the middle. My space is similar to above where we no not have a separate EIK. Our island seats 4 and dining table is incorporated into kitchen/living. My kids and friends always gravitate to the table (seats 8) and spread out their things. Being open to kitchen and family room make for easy service from mom! I think if you put the kitchen in the middle you will be closing off the dining area, losing the flow and capacity to entertain in one big space. Plus it makes for more seating adjacent to the family room!

I am not a designer, but like I said we have a similar layout and would hate the thought of losing our big open space. That is the first comment we get when people walk in for the first time!

I just read your original post an you say...

"But for some reason when I've pictured our kitchen in in my mind, the kitchen and living areas run the width of the house and are in a rectangle (open to the back of the house) with the island facing the living area (same as in previous scenario) and kitchen table on that same backyard plane recessed further into the backyard to the side of the kitchen (not between the two rooms) kind of like this from nats_MD but with the table area a little bigger..."

This is more how my space is, bigger and more open so you actually see all the rooms from dining area. If I had a choice, I would prefer the way your plan shows the dining in the middle! Love all the sample photos too!

I think the dining in the middle is more flexible. If you decide on kitchen in the middle, I would consider inverting the kitchen plan within the same space to put the open side of the kitchen to the dining and the closed side to the living area.

Plan 2 is nonfunctional, if that's important to you. Traffic crosses every work activity and the design is far from burn-free.

You guys helped me so much just now! Our architect had drawn up plan with the L-shaped main space (from the linked post) first But then when we started talking about the man room and the wet bar, tweaked some things and plan 2 came along. He had thought I said that I'd be OK with the eating area apart from the rest. I wasn't.

He went back to the drawing board (literally!!) and came back to us with plan number 1 which DH and I loved. My dad, who's designed the houses I grew up in made me second guess it, saying we'd be so far from the living room, etc. Then DH got worried about the island being too far from the TV. But in my head, the 10 foot wide eating area isn't that wide and we should be able to do some neat things to the ceiling areas to visually separate the areas if we want. I think I put his mind at ease though.

I guess I needed to make sure we were right in going with our instincts with this one and it seems we are!

Plan 1 is much more of 2011 design.
Plan 2 is an older and formal (more mid last century design, IMHO) where the dining areas were separated out and you CAN have sit-down formal dinners. What type of feel do you want for your house? I think many of us no longer live this way and we tend not to design new houses this way. If you think you will have "business/fund raising/formal type" of dinners at your house, I would go with Plan 2... (Only you know what type of life you will have) Your "formal guests" will not be a part of your informal part of your house, ie TV, media etc in Plan 2.

I am looking at your whole house plan as shown:
How will you use rear porch? 9x20 is slightly tight for a roomy table to eat on. If you just want chaise lounges for relaxation, it is okay. That looks like the only place for eating outside of the house... I would measure out the space with the table/chair set and see....

Where is your TV? Above the fireplace? I think this type of floor plans speak very much against having the TV in the open area. Everyone in the house will be assaulted by the sound of TV unless you know that all 4 of you will agree to watching the same show. Since you have such an open floor plan, it is really important to plan for separation of the loud sound from traveling through the entire house.

I would consider making the den into a Media room unless you have another media room where the "REAL" TV watching will be done! Then having a wet bar there makes sense since you want to have little snacks in the media room, IMHO.

If the person in your house needing the "sound" sanctuary is the mom, I would put the TV in the den (Mike's den). If the person needing the quiet is the dad, I would make the den into the quiet place....

How do you come into this house? Where is the front door?

How important is television to your life?

How important is conversation with visitors, esp. conversation between cook and visitors?

How important is uninterrupted dining in which people face one another at a table?

How much do you cook? How about others in family?

What do you envision for family dynamic in 7 years as far as changes to usage of the rooms re the above questions?

Wow! Lots of questions! Haha!

Let's see. We live in New Orleans and are a very casual, fun, energetic family. DH and I are in our mid 30's and have a 9 year old and a 6 year old. Both kids are active outside of school.

TV is a big part of our lives because of sports, movies, kids, etc. But Mike's Den is where lots of the sports programming will take place. :) We are planning to offset the TV and put it to the side of the fireplace for two reasons....1) Now that the kitchen is further over, if someone is in there, it will be more centered to the room as a whole and 2) it can be a bit lower and more at eye-level if it's not above the fireplace. We can make the built-ins accommodate the TV at a level more comfortable for viewing. There will also be a playroom/media room upstairs for the kids. So the Living Room TV will be the group/family TV I suppose.

We take turns cooking but both work. So we aren't gourmet cooks but we enjoy cooking meals. We enjoy conversations from the kitchen, thus wanting the open plan. I'd say that because of kids' evening activities, we probably cook 3-4 days a week maybe? Other nights we grill or get take out, pick something up or go out to eat on the way home.

The porch. The house (again, in New Orleans...flooding) must be elevated a bit). This porch is elevated with the house. I know we will also have lower space for a table and chairs and the grill, that we haven't laid out yet. We actually did talk about widening the porch. How wide would you suggest? My dad suggested 1-3 feet wider. What do you think?

The front door...you see the stairs to the right of the kitchen? And the open pass-through there under the stairs in the drawing? If you go through that pass through...actually straight from the back door, you'd pass the turned stairs above you and a guest room above, master below (in the drawing) and the front door is that way. It's a narrow, New Orleans lot...50x122, which has made things interesting to lay out! :)

Thanks again guys! Your feedback is great!

Oh, and again, the furniture placement and the kitchen appliances, etc. is just there in the drawings as a guide. It's not fixed or anything. It's just a visual thing for reference.

Another vote for plan one. On the issue of TV distance, if you have TV capability in the kitchen if you find really want to you can add a small portable one.

Extending the width of the porch is a great idea. An extra 3 feet, giving you a width of 12 feet, would make the space much more usable.

I like plan 1also. It seems like a better layout for most families today. More casual and family friendly. If it helps, there are lots of folks here who have that same layout. Look at Firsthouse's kitchen on the Finished Kitchen Blog. Her house is huge, but you'll see what it looks like. Malhgold is another, but hers isn't on the FKB yet. There are a few other kitchens I can see in my head with this layout, but I'm blanking on the names. Sharonite maybe?

If I am following your words, your front door leads you into the kitchen... Do you really want this?
Have you considered swapping the kitchen and the family room. If you swap, your kitchen will have access to the outdoors through the porch and you will walk into the family room from the front door.
Even though you call it the family room, this is your only sitting room, unless there is another more formal living room in the house.

I like houses where the front door leads into a public part of house. I think of spaces as private and public spaces. Most private would be master bed and bath. One would never walk into the master bed from the front door. I think kitchen is in between private and public. I think of sitting rooms as being more public. I would prefer to walk into the sitting room or living room from the front door rather than the kitchen. If I walk into the kitchen, I feel as if I walked in through the backdoor....

Hi Babs! I like plan #1. It seems to have better flow and not so cramped, between the kitchen stools and the other spaces. It also makes your dining table more of a central feature, rather than being hidden in a fairly narrow room, by the front.

Love the porch! Are you still using the parking area as a part time patio area? I thought that was a great idea for big parties!

Having the kitchen up front won't be a problem, since your eye is going to be drawn down to that beautiful porch and your living areas will look out over your view. Being in New Orleans, I'm sure you'll have some beautiful plants and garden space, almost year round! I really like your plan :)

plan one in my opinion is the way to go. You will get a lot of happy, interacting people.