Kitchen Layout Help Please, New Construction!
Would you all be willing to help me redesign this thing? This is new construction and we're still in the initial early planning phases, so walls can move, rooms can grow and shrink and wiggle. I want to live in this house forever, so this kitchen is really important.
I would like to maintain the adjacencies. To the left of the kitchen is the living room/family room. To the north is the dining room. We will not have another formal dining room. We want all three spaces mostly open to each other, but are not opposed to columns, wide archways, etc, to define edges. The "back porch" can go away entirely, as can the door. The window you see in the upper left corner will need to be a door to get to the actual back porch and grill area.
Must-haves:
Separate clean-up and prep sinks/zones
A ton of counter space
Counter-height bar seating for the kids. Min 3 seats, 5 would be better, but I know that's a lot.
How we function in the kitchen:
I cook dinners 6 out of 7 days per week and breakfasts on the weekend. I love to cook and most of what I make is from scratch. My current kitchen is a C shape and most of the counter space is in the corners. It is maddening.
My spouse cleans up and he likes to do so while I'm still cooking. We fight over the sink a lot. Hence the separate sinks!
My kids love to be in the room with me, which, in our current kitchen, means they are underfoot. I want bar seating so they can sit and help and be close by without being in the way.
We "entertain" less than once per month. What I mean by that is we have close friends and family over. We do not have fancy dinner parties or formal gatherings. Very informal, and the only kind of friends we invite over are the ones who we wouldn't mind seeing our mess, if there is one. So I'm not concerned with "hiding" the kitchen.
I also bake as a hobby, so counter space is again at a premium. I love kitchen gadgets and small appliances. I would love a walk-in pantry to store pans, counter appliances, etc, where they are easily accessible but not "out," if you get what I mean.
This is my first draft idea. What do you think? I obviously made it bigger than the architect drew it - I used some of the length of the first kitchen to create a pantry and relocate the half bath and then added about a foot in the length. (The bathroom and pantry are 5'-0" wide.) The living room is to the left. I took up the width that was inset as a "back porch" and put that in the kitchen. I increased the width by 2' also. I tried to locate the cleaning zone near the dining area and barstool seating. I also wanted the double ovens near the cooktop - quite a few of my go-to dinners involve searing and then finishing in the oven, so I didn't want to have to trapse too far across the kitchen with a hot pan!
Do you think my kitchen layout works? What problems do you see? Do you think the long side of the island would be better facing the living room to act as a sort of buffer?Thank you so much for your advice!
Comments (3)
Buehl
mamacat21Original Author
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