Please help with kitchen layout

10 years ago

We are in the design phase of our dream home and are having some trouble with the kitchen layout. I posted the house plans on the Building a Home forum and the kitchen got criticized quite a bit.

The backstory:

I originally began with this layout and due to width restrictions and other wants, we modified it. Initially we shortened the wall between the living room and kitchen and angled the top of the counters on the right side towards the refrigerator. The problem was that between the slightly narrower kitchen layout and counter, it only left room for a small pointy island.

My wife wanted to keep the island, so I decided to open it all up and have a large island separating the kitchen and living room. I have gotten a lot of negative feedback on the island cooktop. It will be a flat induction cooktop and I was thinking about not having a vent hood since there will be a window above the sink and we don't cook many greasy things. Even though it is allowed, people really seem to hate this idea. I was thinking that the only other spot would be to the left of the double oven. (FYI the fridge and double oven were initially switched).

Please provide suggestions on how to improve the space. Just so you can see how the rest of the house is laid out (ie. access to halls, living room, formal dining room) I have included it below. Thanks!

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Comments (3)

mama goose_gw zn6OH
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Natural progression is from fridge and pantry to sink, to prep, to cooktop, or what we call ice, water, stone, fire. If you move the entry over, you could have the cooktop on the same wall as the oven (on the right, as you face it), in a more protected area than the island. You could anyway, and still follow the NKBA guidelines, but moving the entry would give you more space. Can the hood be vented to the side (red arrow)?

NKBA guidelines

Good kitchen planning info: New to Kitchens? Read me first.
BoomerSooner thanked mama goose_gw zn6OH
BoomerSooner
Original Author
10 years ago
Yes, I would assume that there would be no reason why it couldn't be vented through the exterior wall. There will be a room above the kitchen, so it'd probably be the preferred option.

Do you see any big issues with the doorways to the butler pantry/formal dining room and the kitchen not lining up? That was the only reason I kept them inline even thought he small cabinet to the right didn't serve much of a purpose.
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mama goose_gw zn6OH
10 years ago
It would be nice if they lined up, but given the choice of having the cooktop on the island, or having the two doors perfectly in line, I'd choose to relocate the cooktop. If the view from the breakfast area included the PR toilet, it might be an issue, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I remodeled my kitchen, in part, to put in a ventilated hood, and it was one of the best decisions I made. I think with open concept, you'll appreciate the vented range hood.

Have you considered having a prep sink on the island? The person prepping would be facing the living room, and that would give you a second prep area between the clean-up sink and cooktop, in case two people are working at the same time. You could have a shared trash pull-out on the island.
BoomerSooner thanked mama goose_gw zn6OH