We are in the midst of remodeling the kitchen and are in a dilemma! We have 1 powder room on first floor (and 4 other bathrooms on different levels). So only one for guests on first floor.

Our kitchen is 13 x 35 feet (a big rectangle)

Layout 1

The powder room is at the end of the hallway in front of the basement door steps between kitchen and the center hall. Next to it is the exit to backyard and you have access to hall and living room / den.

The good thing about this location for PR is it is centrally located. The bad is that it only allows a 35 inch entrance to kitchen, narrow entrance to basement and 35-36 inch exit to backyard . We do have another bigger entrance to kitchen from dining room. But, basically the PR in this layout is a bit in the way of three traffic patterns. It is also partly visible from the front door by a few inches. If the door is open you can see the tip of the toilet from the front door. (We can move the door to other side but that would make the toilet slightly visible from the living room). It’s probably not as bad as I’m describing it, the main view is the single rear patio door.

In any case, With the PR there, we use the bathroom’s wall and start the kitchen there lining up the kitchen on the left , having sink and stove on same counter and island positioned in front of dining room.

We use the rest of the kitchen for sliding doors and a kitchen table.

Layout 2

We flip everything , We place the PR by the garage entry. We open the entrance to the kitchen 8 feet and connect it to the den, improving the sight lines from hallway to kitchen and from kitchen to den. We make that rear exit a sliding door (instead of the bathroom) so you see a sliding door walking into house instead of part of bathroom door / wall, and have a more comfortable access to basement.

With this layout the kitchen flips to the back into an L shape placing the kitchen table in front of dining room.

The only bad part about this setup is that guest / family would have to track through the kitchen to get to the powder room that’s located behind the stove. While it would be convenient to come home and use the power room and would give guest a bit more privacy since it’s in the back, I’m just worried about how it would feel or effect resale value in anyway if you have to go through the kitchen to get to it.

Attached are rough sketches of both floor plans as well as kitchen designs that go hand in hand with the location of the powder room.