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pkovo

Does this Kitchen Layout Seem OK?

PKOVO K
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago

Family of five in a relatively small house, which works well.....except for the kitchen. Eat in kitchen is too small to be comfortable eating in, and is lacking a bit of counter space for my wife. Dining room is a bit tight and inconvenient to use for daily dining. Plan is to break out wall between the two rooms, and just have a larger eat in kitchen.

Architect draw up plans, and laid out the kitchen. Kitchens aren't really his specialty (we used him for an addition) and we really "fed" him what we thought would work for the basic layout. We're certainly not kitchen designers either :-)

What I am interested in is whether this overall layout makes sense. He laid out cabinets in the drawings, but we'll of course fine tune the specifics of that part, but is there anything glaringly wrong with basic layout? The island will mainly be used for extra counterspace. Kids may eat breakfast or do homework there, but it's mainly for storage/counter space.

FYI, the door next to the fridge cannot be moved, and we may scrap opening the doorway to the living room as it's load bearing and we're trying to shave the budget down. Opening is currently 3.5' arched.


Thanks in advance for any feedback

Comments (9)

  • sheloveslayouts
    7 years ago

    Is the only access to the backyard through that slider?

  • suzanne_sl
    7 years ago

    The 30" space from the dining table to the wall behind it concerns me a bit. I'm not sure what the plan is saying about the radiator. Would that 5" be subtracted from the 30" space you have back there? 30" is smallish, but doable, but 25" is just not enough.

  • huango
    7 years ago

    sorry for drive-by:

    do you have a dining room somewhere else?

    the space like this seems very tight, especially if you have all 5 people in there.

    if yes, get rid of breakfast table, rotate the island to parallel sink and make it longer.

    --

    1. your range/sink working area is squooshed into that corner.

    can you move sink window?

    slide the sink/DW down to the right, to get out of the corner.

    2. dead corner instead of a lazy susan.

    by moving the sink away from corner, you can actually put in an 18" base drawers, much more useful than a lazy susan.

    3. w/ 5 people, you'll need a regular depth fridge (which is cheaper than counter depth fridge), so pull that range wall cabinets out , and you can have 29" countertop, so the fridge doesn't stick out too far.

    4. consider an induction cooktop:

    - the power/response of gas, but the ease of cleaning of electric smooth top.


    Back to accounting,

    Amanda


  • PKOVO K
    Original Author
    7 years ago

    Thanks all. No other separate dining area. We do have an additional door to backyard in mud room...off side of kitchen, however we're in and out through thise sliders quite a bit. They gonout to anlarge deck.

    Should have mentioned, the baseboard heat he drew in will not be there. We're likely doing hotwater radiant instead.

    interesting thought on 29" counter and full sized fridge. Would the island need to be pushed out to do that though, or was that a thought instead of the island?I was concerned about the spacing around island a bit already; How it has the potential to interfere with the table in the rare instance people might be sitting at both. My gut said the kitchen is too small for an island but ive lost that battle.

    We have an extra freezer now in the basement we use, our plan is to keep existing fridge down there as well, so I wasnt too concerned with lack of fridge space. Maybe I should be since I usually do the food shopping :-)

    Moving the sink and/or window is not in budget.

  • huango
    7 years ago

    sorry I thought it was a new build.

    not all sinks have to fit right in front of the window.

    1. I would sacrifice window/sink symmetry to move sink/DW down to fit in an 18" base drawer instead of lazy susan.

    I have 2 corners in my kitchen.

    I dead corner one w/ a 24" base drawers, and other is the Ikea pull-out lazy susan. I use the base drawers 99% more than the lazy susan.

    Put the FAUCET in the center of the window. then people will think the sink is centered.

    2. you've read plenty about putting in base drawers instead of those door bases, yes?

    3. w/ the kitchen so small, I would not do a seated island.

    I would just do a narrow island for more countertop, but no stools to be in the way.


    Good luck,

    Amanda

  • PKOVO K
    Original Author
    7 years ago

    This is all great stuff. Thanks!

  • PKOVO K
    Original Author
    7 years ago

    Man, you would think some of this stuff would be obvious, but to me, its just not.

    A round table....I grew up with 5 of us eating dinner around a small round table in a tight eat in kitchen at 6pm every night. A rock maple table tough as nails that is still in service as my kids art table in basement, yet I never even thought of a round table.

    Opening be wall up bigger like drawn would ultimately be my preference for sure. Thats where we started. However, the house was built in the 50's. Thats the main load bearing wall. Basement beneath is finished and the columns are in the finished wall. We put a second story addition on a few years back, so the entire structure is already carrying more than was ever intended. I just have concerns with pushing it too hard. If I were to do that I may have to disturb the finished wall down the basement; jackhammer the floor and pour a footer for another column. It's all do-able, but I'm already going to have to get my hands dirtier in this project than I care to, just to keep within a budget that makes sense, so I'm just hesitant to go that far. Opening to 6' was a middle ground, because it could be done easily, but at only 6' I'm torn as to whether its worth it at all. Not doingbit (total compromise) helps shave things down.

    One of the reasons I dont want to disturb the sink plumbing is I'm afraid its not vented properly. It drains like a champ, so it doesn't concern me at all in that regatd, but pretty sure it wouldnt pass code now. Hoping if we leave it alone no one it will not be scrutinized. Perhaps a rehab permit would allow for an air emittance valve, but stubbing a new vent out the roof will be difficult if we had to $$. If it stays where it is, the entire plumbing job really only entails moving a gas line and an icemaker line.

    Ghanks again for the ideas. All very helpful, and appreciated!!



  • PKOVO K
    Original Author
    6 years ago

    Additional question on above plan. At the suggestion of Karenseb above, I did inquire about enlarging the opening between lvng rm and kitchen. We can carry the new header all the way to the exterior wall on the left (right side has to stay as is) which allows us to open it significantly further. Essentially, we'll be opening it up all the way to the left, and then building whatever amount of wall we want back in to get the size opening we want.. So.....My question is, if you were in my shoes, what would you do?


    My wife is leaning towards building the wall back in 2'5" to create an 8' opening. She feels a bit of separation between the rooms will look better and help with furniture placement. The way the mudroom door opens is also a consideration for her. But since the header will be posted down to the exterior wall, we don't technically have to build it back out at all; we could just leave it open all the way on that side, which I kind of like the idea of. Thoughts?