My first post... getting feedback on the layout

13 years ago

Everything on the forum has been quite helpful in working through my kitchen planning. I'm now getting to the stage of selecting a plan and picking a contractor. I'd thought some group-think would be useful in helping refine down some decisions.

The plan is attached. A wall between the kitchen and dining room is being removed, and the spaces combined. The blank space shown will either be a corner banquette or a table. The existing formal dining room is being merged into an adjacent formal living room. A large family room is to the rear of the house.

The walls being removed are shown in gray. The smaller wall leads to the original back porch, which transitions to the family room. This is the main open question. Removing this wall is a little more complicated and adds $4 to $5K to the cost of the remodel. Do you all think it would be worth it?

The home is a colonial built in 1937. The cabinets will be inset, in a mix of cherry and white painted cherry. I'm current planning on putting the stained cabinets on the perimeter and making the island white. I know it is more typical to reverse the two. Any thoughts on that?

I'm trying not to change the window locations.

This post was edited by gooster on Wed, Dec 12, 12 at 14:52

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Comments (5)

remodelfla
13 years ago
I only have a minute but at quick glance I almost want to put the cleanup run on the short wall with uppers for dish storage. That would put them close to the table and convenient. I'd then put the frig at the short end of the L still keeping people out of your workspace. Prep sink on the other end of the island closer to range.
deedles
13 years ago
As it is in the layout, it looks a little tight between the stove and island end. Also, are you having stools on the far side of the island? If so, looks a bit tight back there, too.
Remodelfla has an interesting idea.
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tracie.erin
13 years ago
With regards to opening up that top wall, I would probably do it if I could afford it and I wasn't overimproving the house for the neighborhood. The kitchen won't be totally open to the back porch and family room, but there will be a nice connection and flow.

As for the stained perimeter and white island, I think that would be a nice look. However, note that if people are sitting at the island, you will occasionally get scuffs on the paint from their shoes. Change "occasionally" to "often" if those people are children or teenagers.

I agreed with remodelfla's suggestions before I saw those lovely corner windows you have. What I would do is swap the fridge/pantry and range, inch the fridge "south" a bit if you can, and move the prep sink to the "west" half of the island (but not all the way to the end, you need a landing space for the fridge).

Or another crazy option - if you choose not to open up the north wall, move the fridge and range to that wall and turn the island around to face it, have the sink and DW on the west wall, and NO cabinetry on the south wall. That's helpful because that top wall doesn't have all those doors/windows, but it does takes away the room for you to have a banquette. You would need to float a normal table and chairs.

I hope you don't mind that input. Right now the teeny short end of the island faces the range instead of the long end with the prep sink, that island looks like a hip bruiser, and your prep and cleanup zones are overlapping.
dilly_ny
13 years ago
Can you label where the family room, porch, and living room are located?
Gooster
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks to all the replies! They are all very helpful. I've relabeled the diagram to indicate the original rooms and then attached a blank floor plan to show the overall structure.

Deedles: There are no stools at the end of the island, to maximize the total island space (at 108" currently). There should be 45 inches from the island to the edge of the counter by the stove, but I'll double check with the KD.

tracie.erin: That's a great point about the scuff marks. I've considered swapping the fridge and pantry around. That sounds like a good idea, combined with you suggestion to move the sink down a bit. That would cut down on the triangle distance. I've considered flip-flopping the island like you suggested, but what could I do with the corner windows? The existing utilities are on the north wall, including the venting, so it actually simplifies stuff. What is not shown, however, is the large floor-based cold air intake that is about 10 inches west of the dividing wall (in gray). This means the fridge won't fit on that wall, and probably has to go on the east wall.