Out of scale with the rest of the house. Also, the appliances used are out of scale with the size of the kitchen shown. Shrink everything by half if you want to use consumer standard appliances and not use roller skates. Or upgrade to a 48'' fridge, 60'' range, 2 DW's and a nice sized prep sink on the island. That's also a VERY expensive amount of cabinets shown. My guess would be that you're easily looking at a 100K+ kitchen by the time the dust settles.

I agree with Green - I think you may be overcompensating for your current cramped conditions.

How many people live in the house? How old are the kids?

I'd like to see the existing layout - perhaps the talented folks here can come up with a workable plan that doesn't turn your entire house into a support system for an enormous kitchen.

Agree with previous poster.

How many children do you have and what are their ages?

Do you really need seating for 6 at the island?

How many people do you entertain in the dining room? And do you want the dining room so cut off from the kitchen?

The kitchen is much larger than your dining room and like the previous poster said, out of proportion to the rest of the house unless you spend your days cooking. I also see many many steps. It will get you in good shape!

Just because a kitchen is larger doesn't make it more efficient than a too small kitchen. I'm sure the experts here will come on and give you some excellent advice but also to help them you should give them the breakdown of your family, how you cook, etc.

6 diners at the island and no one talking to anyone else.

Well, they say people always end up in the kitchen, and the kitchen is the center of the house. So, I kinda get the appeal of remodeling to include a large kitchen. But I also think it's probably hard to create an efficient large kitchen and Green Designs wasn't kidding about the roller skates.

Also, it struck me as strange in this plan to have 2 full size refrigerators but only 1 sink. Maybe all you need is an extra undercounter refrigerator for beverages or snakes and then you could add a prep sink somewhere. I also think 6 barstools along one side of the island is a lot, but it really depends on how you use the kitchen.

Not only is the kitchen larger than the dining room, it's larger than the family room, and larger than the garage. It may be tempting from the viewpoint of a small kitchen, but this isn't a kitchen that works well, or lives well. It's outsized, with space in spots that won't pull it's weight, but will still be very expensive to construct. You need another sink (or two) in order to even begin to make this function well. Think of the kitchen as zones. You want your storage zone, with your pantry and cold storage, your prep zone, for washing and chopping, and your cooking zone for applying fire to food, and then a cleanup zone.

Finally, I don't know what your budget for your project will be, but I'll bet that this won't be friendly to it. Or friendly to resale. Yes, kitchens sell homes. But not kitchens too large for the home and inappropriate to the neighborhood in which they are located. Those types of kitchens are penalized at resale.

I would suggest working with an experienced KD to help you create more function out of the existing space first. Only resort to an addition at the absolutely last resort. Those come dearly.

Maybe all you need is an extra undercounter refrigerator for beverages or snakes

Oh, MY, ediblekitchen, you gave this snake-phobic gal a horrible image of finding snakes in my fridge. LOL

I, too, would like to see a current floorplan. I see nothing wrong with a nice, big kitchen but it also needs to be efficient. I can't help but think that the living and dining rooms may end up being neglected and little used and, thus, wasted space. It seems like there should be a way to get better flow for the entire house.

OMG, sorry about that! I meant snacks!!!

Included the existing first floor plan. The deck area becomes at 16x22ft new family room addition, with new gas fireplace and TV mounted above along long wall, built in cabinets on either side of fireplace, and our 11ft long office cabinets row moves to laundry room wall of new family room addition.

We are a family of 4, with 2 kids (teenager, almost teen) and want to enjoy this new Kitchen space while the kids are still living with us. We already replaced the kitchen counter tops 5+ years ago with solid surface, and widened the open side of the "U" to 36in wide. We have 4 bar stools at this counter, where we eat all of our meals. With the kids growing, 4 bar stools is getting cramped along the 8ft of counter top since there is a support column at the wall between kitchen and family room. We also have an 11 ft long office cabinet wall that is in the EIK, that has 2 bar stools. Even though there is 5+ft between the kitchen counter and the office area (36in deep), with kids not putting the bar stools under the counters, it creates a bottle neck in traffic flow.

We
originally had seating on both sides of island at one end, and food
prep at other, but felt it would impede traffic in kitchen if we had bar
stools in kitchen area.

Yes, everyone -family, friends, guest, etc visit in the kitchen. Some will sit on the outside on a bar stool and help prep food. Others will sit at office and kitchen counter and talk. This is the gathering place of the house, even with 3 other rooms (family, dining, living rooms) nearby to sit and chat.

We use the formal dining room for holidays, and extended family meals. Currently, the opening from dining room to kitchen is only 28in wide x 94in tall. Our dining room as a large table with 10 chairs, and we do extend with another table into the living room. Having the living and dining room is one great feature of our house.

We live in the kitchen, office and family room, spending most of our time in this rear part of the house. We can view the TV, in the corner of the family room, to the right of the fireplace, from the kitchen, and office. The kids do their homework on the kitchen counter, even with a desk in their bedroom, just to be with us as we use our computers in the evening (doing research for this renovation).

So, yes, we maybe over compensating with to many cabinets in the new kitchen and there is a big cost for them. In the last plan, we had 2 sinks, one prep sink on short side of "L" , one main sink on Dining room wall, with small pass thru for moving dishes into kitchen.

The only restriction is that we really do not want to put a sink on the island, since we enjoy the nice clean counter top.

I would love larger 48in appliances, but that is not in the budget. We have 2 refrigerators currently with the 2nd old fridge in laundry room (Costco!). Laundry room will be updated with new stackable washer/dryer to create mudroom space with bench, storage cubbies, and backpack storage. So, 2nd fridge ends up in kitchen area.

So, we live in this rear part of house, and are already moving a load
bearing wall between kitchen and family room to open up the space.

That is a lot of great information, I'm sure others with more experience will chime with floor plan ideas. But I will definitely encourage you to work in another sink. Perhaps a prep sink in the island that has an integrated cutting board so that it looks nice and clean?

Also, I understand now about the 2 refrigerators, but it still seems odd to me to have both in the kitchen. What about doing a full refrigerator and a full freezer side by side?

I like the overall space, but the island is what Marcolo used to call 'stadium seating'. It's okay to talk to the cook (or person on other side of island) but difficult to talk to each other on the same side.

What if you did something like this? Now you can seat 7 people, with 2 helpers at the end of island (maybe for baking?) and 5 on the t-shape island. This area can be the same height as the rest of the island or table height...whatever works best for you :)

This is one example....

Since I love to bake....I like the two fridges. One is close to dining room and baking area, while the other is close to cooking area, family room seating and patio.

A second sink would be nice....maybe right across from the N in the kitchen (written on the plan). Just a few feet to the right of the microwave :)

Also...I like the skylights and I'm guessing the chimney is blocking any windows over the sink, but can you add some corner windows? It would be nice to see the patio area and it would really brighten up that prep area! And if the patio door is a French door, it would balance that light very nicely.

Finally, in the family room...are those bookcases/cabinets on each side of the fireplace? Do you plan to have any windows (even clerestory) on that wall? Would you consider moving the fireplace (and seating) towards the window seat? This would give you easier access to the desk area and room for more than one person to sit there. Is this for the kids homework or for other use?

Okay....one more question (LOL) do you like flowers? Could you put a
sort of courtyard garden (maybe some roses and herbs?) that you can see
from the dining room and kitchen? I love small gardens! They can be
mostly seating with plants along the edges. Such a nice view and a
pretty place to sit :)

Yes, a 2nd sink would be a great idea and was in our last layout plan. I will post once I find it (so many revisions over the last year!). We have a 4 year old side by side fridge that we really like and plan to purchase a french door (cabinet depth) as the 2nd fridge. Its just convenient to have more fridge and freezer space. A Costco cake or large serving tray will not fit into a side by side fridge...

Maybe with a different layout and less cabinets, we could do larger appliances. I would not mind having the pantry even larger...

Keep the ideas and suggestions coming..really appreciate the feedback.

Lavender_Lass- the original plan was to add a grill to the outside chimney bump out and have the grill use the chimney. That proved to be a great idea, but costly and complicated. Next idea we are considering is to re-use an existing 30in x 18 window and box it out in the fireplace chimney area. Over the new main sink. This would give us a nice view into the back yard.

Will have to look closely at the island "T" suggestion with my wife.

Family room- the white cabinets on either side of fireplace will be wood doors with glass inserts and glass shelves to display my wife's collectables. Fireplace wall will have wood paneling (spalted sycamore) and a walnut mantel (both we are making ourselves). There is 7ft of cabinets, 6ft wide fireplace wall (floor to ceiling bump out 2ft deep) then 7ft of cabinets

Office area (11ft x 3ft) seats 2 adults and is our computer area, drawers for files, printers, and general hidden storage place for office items/supplies/crafts/etc. In the current location, (EIK) we put sweets/snacks on office counter for guests during holidays since it is out of the kitchen work area.

Garden - good idea. Currently, the AC unit is in this unused corner of the backyard. My wife loves her roses and had to transplant them for this project (near old deck). With a corner window, that would be a good view of back yard.

Ok, my wife and I agree that a 2nd sink would be a good idea. Where is the best place to put it? We are actually considering the island, over the cabinet labeled "oven". The oven on the island has been removed due to the 36in pro range.

We are also thinking of adding a window to the short "L" near the sink area. Since there is a an existing window (36in wide 72in high), we could match the 4x4ft picture window that is over the window seat in the family room...thoughts?

I would decide exactly how you plan to have the island seating...then decide on the sink. You don't want to spray anyone on a stool :)

Does your wife like the t-shape island? It's easier to talk to others, when you're not lined up in a row...

I'm awful at verbalizing ideas, but have you thought about changing the orientation of the island and doing two islands width wise in the room. One could have serving and seating areas and the other a sink and dedicated prep area.

Lavender_lass: Sorry, but my wife did not like the t-shaped island, but did like the rose garden idea

lllhhl: rotating the islands....something to consider

I wonder...could you simply turn the living room into the dining room, incorporate the dining room into the kitchen, and there you are?

Have you considered changing where the kitchen is?

For example can you build onto the back of the dining room?

Then you can put the kitchen up there in the new addition. I'd think that if you're planning on adding on space, you might want to start thinking outside the box as to where you can change the placement of the dining room, kitchen and family room. It may give you more and better options.

Or how about moving the kitchen to where you're planning on putting the family room addition?

Additionally do you need a formal, separate dining room or could you incorporate it into a kitchen/great room/ dining space?

I would first think in terms of not what you have right now, but how you live your lives. If you only use the dining room a couple of times a year, you might be better served with a smaller island, and the dining table where you can all use it and enjoy it daily; in your great room/kitchen/dining area.

For example, I did this very quickly. It's not great in terms of actual layout of the rooms (where I put the pantry sucks!) but it's a start to thinking outside the box. Plus I didn't do it in terms of measurements, but just played around with shapes.

Might I suggest you start with grid paper and just play around with shapes first, trying out different things?

@cpartist, I really like what you did. It solves the flow issue I mentioned above.

Since I'm a cheapie, I thought I'd look for a way to improve things without the expense of the big addition and loss of that great deck. So here's my thought in the current footprint. Very rough with no placement of items, just gray showing where the general placement of counters and island might be.

Ignore the stuff floating off to the right, lol. I don't mean for your sink, range and fireplace to be outside past your deck!

Thanks for the feedback! Unfortunately, the big deck was removed last weekend, since the wood was starting to rot and was starting to get unsafe.

So rebuild the deck, instead of building a whole addition. I think the current footprint has a lot of possibilities, as shown above. I agree that it's silly to have a whole dining room that you rarely use, and your family is squished around a peninsula (or island) for meals. I would much rather eat at a table, especially with kids.

In addition to wanting a bigger kitchen, what are he rest of your goals for the project? What works about the existing house, and what doesn't? In your initial plan, how did you envision using your new spaces?