That is an awful lot of hallway at the bottom of your plans.

In general I think of hallways as wasted square footage.

(But I know some people like them, so ignore my comment if you like it :)

I think desk access from the kitchen is great if you will be using it, or want to keep an eye on kids or help them out. Though it makes the desk area less quiet. (My desk is usually messy so out of line of site site is good for me).

I think your 2 sinks are too close. I would put the island sink closer to the dining room. It will be very convenient for people to wash their hands. it turns out that is what our second sink is used for most often.

lafdr

Just my opinion, but I think you would be sorry to have another opening into your kitchen. It will rally break up your space and give you a lot of doorways and entry points to cross when trying to work. Pretty soon you will have people cutting through your kitchen and interfering with your work there.

I say this from the POV of one who has lived in a home with a kitchen that had way too many doorways.

What you might consider is putting the powder room where the desk center is, pantry where the powder room is, and desk center where the pantry is.

This gives you options for opening up the desk area to have more visual access to what's going on in the house. But this does put the pantry in a slightly less accessible spot.

I would be willing to bet that with the desk area right by the front door it will become a nightmare of a dumping ground.

You might also consider swapping the fridge and oven locations.

lafdr -

-I've tried to get rid of hallways in this house, but also don't like entries 'dropping' into a room. That porch is a 'friends entry', and I'm trying avoid having them enter the home directly into the Laundry Room. That's what is below that hallway, with the garage below that.
- I think the desk will be more for recipes and a quiet spot away from the kids vs. a formal work area. Only going to be about 6 ft. long desk there, but like a window looking out to side of lot where trees are.
- I agree the island sink is too close - it was on the other end of the island on a previous plan, and didn't actually notice it was moved - thanks for spotting that !

greenhaven -

- this opening up to the kitchen is a last minute thing. Felt the receipe area would be too un accessible if we had to walk all the way around. Plus, when sister comes over we head straight for the kitchen - was looking at something like this picture (not quite as nice :) ) - https://www.houzz.com/photos/desk-traditional-home-office-portland-phvw-vp~767384-traditional-home-office-portland
- Am currently considering moving pantry to the powder room area, and moving powder room to the other end of house. But then not sure what we'd do in the current pantry area - 'shrink' the house a bit ?
- wanted to keep the Fridge on inside wall so that we could recess it into the wall so it appears more cabinet-depth

Trying to keep a good size kitchen, without over doing it. Figure that we could put some cabinets in the pantry if needed for extra storage space. Just not sure how to figure how much cabinet/countertop I really need in the kitchen.

The fridge certainly isn't horrible in it's current location, and the ability to recess it would be a major plus in my eyes, too!

I do love the idea of that photo you shared. It is gorgeous! I know in my house it would become a terrible catch-all, even though it is now just me and DH.

I have converted all my recipes to electronic ones and access them with an electronic recipe box. Truly the same thing could be accomplished with a tablet or laptop, too. So what do you have in mind for a "recipe area?" How do you envision that functioning?

Currently I have a bookshelf (actually 2) that have various cookbooks/recipes that we have collected. My 80 year old mother in law lives with us, and she often is grabbing one of those books.

I was imaging using that desk for searching for the recipes, and for general mail sorting, etc. Just a little place to sit and do 'my thing' and not be on a bar chair at the Kitchen Island.

Not up to date with a digital recipe file yet - maybe some day....

Don't move the pantry... Why don't you switch the desk area with the powder room? Easier access to the desk from the kitchen without adding another doorway. You'd have to reconfigure the layout of each room but I think it makes more sense to flip-flop those two rooms. I wouldn't worry about "quick access" from the outside door into the kitchen - you're just asking for lots of grit, dirt, etc. in your kitchen then.