We bought our hour 3 1/2 years ago and we've decided to pull the trigger on a complete remodel of our kitchen. We are now trying to figure out the best layout / floorplan.

Our house is a 1250 sq ft bi-level, built in 1978. The patio door in the Dining Room was added sometime in the '80's and we recently replaced it with a new unit. The rear entry door is no longer used - the patio door now serves as the exit onto the deck and back yard.

The plan is to open up the kitchen to the Dining Room / Living Room:

- Remove the wall between DR and Kitchen

- Remove part of the wall between LR and Kitchen

And extend the kitchen into the space where there rear entry door (currently used as a crude "walk in pantry") and bedroom closet are:

- Remove the wall between Kitchen and rear entry door

- Remove the rear entry door and extend the cantilever by about 3'

- Move the bedroom closet toward the exterior wall

These changes will give us enough space for a good sized island with seating.

The main question we're struggling with is what to do with the space between the LR, Kitchen and top of the stairs. Our original thought was to leave the short hallway between the top of the stairs and the living room and put some narrow cabinets on the kitchen side of the wall that separates the kitchen from the top of the stairs. But the designer we're working with came up with a second option that puts the narrow cabinets back-to-back in the short hallway instead.

Our main question we have with this second option is whether it would be awkward / strange to walk through the kitchen space to get from the front entrance to the LR? The "work space" in the kitchen would be on the other side of the island so it wouldn't be a traffic flow problem in that sense but it feels like a slightly unusual layout.

On the Living Room side it would probably be an improvement - especially if we place a matching cabinet unit on the other side of the fireplace.

Any thoughts / comments / suggestions?