Dreaming of a renovation to improve kitchen / entry / mudroom layout. I rediscovered Houzz and read a few threads and wow! you people are geniuses! So here’s hoping someone can help! Our main pain points are lack of space upon entering from the garage and narrow hallway, too many doors, and poor kitchen layout-some
narrow aisle ways and some wasted space in. I believe it was designed with the intention of having a little breakfast table in front of the window but that is not practical for us. Some things that I’ve contemplated to open up the entry is to stack the washer/dryer and renovate the closet and pantry to be more of a mudroom style bench/shelving/ ‘locker’ situation. For the kitchen we keep debating whether or not to open up to the dining/living rooms, or maybe just the dining room? The living room is open to the 2nd floor so I’m worried about noise from the kitchen traveling up there. The other issue is that the main hallway/kitchen wall that runs down the middle is load bearing so the cost of removing that… not sure we want to go that route. Ideally we would like an island of some sort with seating. Does anyone have any genius ideas?? TIA! (apologies for the crude sketch, I’ll try and get a better one with actual measurements out together)