Kitchen - layout advice! Trying to avoid open plan!

4 years ago

Hi there - we're about to embark on the most pressing room in our new house - the kitchen - and really trying to see if there is a way to make better use of the space without having to knock through a wall to either the family room or the dining/living room! We have 2 kids - one with special needs - and the idea of creating one huge great room filled with the sounds of ipads, TVs, dishwashers, pans clattering makes me break out into a cold sweat...!

Kitchen is almost square - 12' by 14'10'' - with all the cupboards around the outsides and a big dead space in the middle. There are doorways on 2 walls - one leads to the dining/living room and the other one to the family room. I've attached the downstairs floor plan so you can see what i mean.

Our goal is to try to have some sort of breakfast bar / eating area in the kitchen so we don't have to have all our meals at the dining table in the living room. But is the kitchen big enough??? Could we add some kind of breakfast bar / nook?

I know the way to add most value to the house would be to knock through the wall to the family room and have an island but I am really trying to avoid making the house even more open plan than it already is....! Can anyone share any ideas / thoughts! Thank you!!

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Comments (5)

jane__ny
4 years ago
I am following your post. I have a similar kitchen however it is narrower. I do not want to lose the wall facing the living/dining room either.

Jane
missb_remodeling
4 years ago
I have a u-shaped kitchen, about 11x12.5, so a bit smaller than your kitchen. i currently have a 2x3 butcher block in the center, and it makes things cramped.

I am not a kitchen designer but I think it would be hard to fit an eating area in there.
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Lisa Harlan
4 years ago
What if you replaced your stove top/ovens with a combo model? You could move your fridge where the ovens are, add some cabinetry/counter on the side of your oven and use the back corner near the relocated fridge for a seating nook?
mama goose_gw zn6OH
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Moving one, or both, entries to the kitchen would allow you to have a peninsula, attached to cabinetry (left), or to the wall (right). Having only one entry on the left side of the kitchen would keep potential traffic from the back door from crossing the work zones, but keeping the existing entry will maintain easy access to the FR slider. To close off the kitchen when necessary, you could use barn door-type sliders on the FR wall. I like Lisa Harlan's suggestion to replace the cooktop with a range.

Houzz article--stud bay storage

NKBA guidelines

New to Kitchens? Read me first.
Hels77 D
Original Author
4 years ago
Great idea on the range Lisa! And Mama goose, that suggestion is really appealing! I particularly like the first option but wondering if moving the entries opposite each other will look weird as they’ll be right next to the dividing wall between the kitchen and the hallway? It would leave a thin wall depth with entries on both sides?