How big is the house?

Do you need 3 dining areas?

How about 1 large table plus counter seating? Use the rest of the space to shift the kitchen to one end or the other.

If possible, get an independent kitchen designer and not a cabinet salesperson.

No to the angled island. Awkward and dated.

Three seating areas within one contained space is redundant and silly.

No to the over the range microwave. Provides less than adequate ventilation. You’re spending $$ on this renovation. You will now have the space the install a real vent hood…for the health benefit of your family…and, upgrade the look of your kitchen. Put a microwave on a shelf…like this:

Do a to scale plan of the space you have no cabinets then see what comes to you from actual kitchens designers not cabinet salesperson. You neve add angles to space that are not needed becuse of the exterior walls . This is hard to read too. Use graph paper to do the plan show every window, doorways where those lead and every measurement clearly marked post here in jpeg format in a comment As for the wall you think you will remove you get a structural engineer to tell you if possible and what will need to be done to make it happen

OK - maybe I haven't had enough coffee yet. I am confused. Is that door next to the stove going to a garage? Where did it go? Is it moved into the dining room? Where exactly is the dining room, now ( it is deceiving when you look through the french door - that looks like living room? ? Why is there a wall now to the left of the french door that wasn't there before?

Can you do a quick drawing of how the space is laid out now? Or take more pictures?

This is sort of my initial thought without actually doing a layout:

Move the garage door further down. Assuming a header and posts left behind, do the ref and pantries on the right of the header. shift the wall over to create a bev/ bar area, put the dining table where the round table was shown and open the wall where the french door is so you can expand the table as needed, and do a large island.

Just some thoughts!

Good luck!

First off how exciting that you are taking this on. Second, I have to agree with others this is not a good plan. There are many red flags and concerns in it. But, dont he discouraged. There is hope and this forum, if you can handle tough comments and feedback, can get you a beyond beautiful, functional kitchen for your space. Please listen to the comments, answer the questions and keep posting!

Initial glance, the plan looks like something from the 1990s. Why an angled island? Why three eating spaces? Diagnoal cabinets in the corners? No hood? Why end chairs that pinch point the fridge. Provide good answers to some of the questions that others have asked about:

- door locations

- whether you have consulted a structural engineer about the beam and wall removal, - - - post a drawing of the space empty, with measurements for all of the existing doors and windows and list of what can change and what your desires are

You will get excellent feedback here. The more time you put into giving clear information, the more useful the replies. Kitchen renovation is expensive. Don't spend good money on this bad design. :)

Hi everyone! Really appreciate the feedback! I'm going to provide more information and hopefully it might help, but let me know what else you need to know! I can also try to sketch out the current set up if helpful.

The house is a a 2400 sq ft center hall colonial in northern NJ. The current dining room is being used as a play room for my kids. I don't want a formal dining room, but love to entertain and felt that combining the dining room and kitchen would make it a more usable space. It is a load bearing wall and we plan to remove it for a flush ceiling. We will also continue the hard wood throughout,

Ideally I would like a pantry, closet space if possible, some sort of home base for calendar and paperwork, spice cabinet, drink fridge and a good amount of seating. I do not like a microwave that is below the counter. My husband would love a wet bar but that's lower on the list.

I'm adding a few more pictures including the other half of our house where we took down the wall between our living room and family room. Sorry, I did not clean before taking pics 😊

Additional pics

From living room

What an interesting space. It looks quite large and like you have tons of options and have also already done a bunch of work. Do you have a floor plan? The room off the kitchen you are calling the dining room really seems more like an office or family room in the pics and the area where the man is standing near the TV looks like a dining area and where the tree is the living. But pictures are hard to understand without context.

Ok, attaching the layout for other half of the house from when we were taking down the load bearing wall on the other side - combining living and family room, I'm calling it the dining room as that what it was intended for. I'm attaching pics of what it looked like when we bought it 10 years ago

Sorry can you share a whole house plan?

I don't have one

I can see what I can piece together

Perhaps from a realty site?

Your layout is understandable through your pictures and description. It seems odd that your living room and TV room are open to each other with essentially two TVs next to one another. Does this set up work well for you? Why not put a wet bar for your husband in one of these rooms?

I'm curious if it makes more sense to move your powder room elsewhere, turn your current playroom aka former dining room into the family room that is open to the kitchen and have a kitchen and open dining space run across the back of the house combining the current kitchen and family room.

Yes Kendrah! That was kind of my point asking for a floor plan. I know how the family is currently using the space but is it the best use of the space?

Unfortunately there was never a floor plan. I'll see if I can piece something together based on what we have 😢

You draw the floor plan. That's where it comes from. The more accurate it is, the better feedback you'll get here.

We just re did our family room and living rooms so aren't interested in changing those rooms

See the Featured Answer in the "New to Kitchens? Read Me First!" thread.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5972404/new-to-kitchens-read-me-first-2020-interim

Thanks! I just read it. I guess I should have made it known. That I don't want to move the location of my kitchen beyond the kitchen now and my kids current playroom. Just let me know if I need to start a new thread one I have a more complete layout. Thank you! I do appreciate the help

Do not start a new thread where all of this info will not be known. Keep it on this one.

Agree that you should not start a new thread. Just add the new/updated info to your starting post. Use the "Edit" option to add a fully-measured layout, the sketch of the floor the Kitchen is on, and the answer to the questions in the Read Me thread.

Notice the "Edit" button b/w the "Comment" and "Delete" buttons.

Hi! Ok, we have hired an architect/designer and given the prior conversations, I wanted to share. We have not fully digested them yet and therefore do not have a preference, but I would love to hear if there is anything about these that dort seem right or that you would suggest not doing. We can of course bring elements in from one to another if it makes sense - as an example, we could add the closet from Option C to D, which I might consider as I need closet space. Anything about any of these not sit right? I am attaching the current layout and additional options given (A, B, C, D)

following

I like D at first glance, but would like to know room sizes and aisle dimensions.

Have you moved any exterior doors or windows?

Her dimensions say 1/4 inch = 1 foot. She said if a door is at a 45 degree angle it is staying the same, if it is 90, it is new or being moved. In option D, I don't believe any of the windows are being moved. My issue with D is that I don't have a closet. The only closet I had is being removed. She said that she might actually take away option C (as the water will be too hard to run to the bathroom), but we can add the closet from C to D if we would like, but then we lose that center hall.

I am following to see what you end up doing!

Initial comment on both! C and D. Will the table be used for most meals and what is the clearance around it? I can see walking past the table as a high frequency walkway and pushing chairs in all the time would perturb me. Maybe your family is better at that than mine is though.

View A has the guest bath as the view from the front door. Don't really care for that but the closet could be added to the end of the hall by the stairs like in plan C giving more cabinet space or closet /pantry space on the backside as well.

Do you have room in the garage for the stairs, are there stairs now?

For half bath usage, is it frequently used by kids/people from outside where it would be more convenient by the garage? I can see benefits to both location.

Hard decision!

Thank you! So the table will be used for dinner every night - we are a family of 4. Our table is actually there in our current design and the space is much smaller so I think it will be ok. What I don't like there is that the window which now takes up the whole wall will not be centered on that wall when we remove that bathroom.

Good point on the view of the bathroom door in design A as well. I hadn't thought of that.

We do currently have steps in our garage, but my initial thought was that the mudroom could take up some garage space rather than taking up so much space in the actual house. Maybe that is not feasible thought. I took a quick measurement of our garage, and it was about 21.5 ft long.

The half bath will be the only bath downstairs and will therefore be frequently used as I do like to entertain. Appreciate the help and perspective!

I like D the best. What is a command centre? Couldn’t that be a closet instead of the hooks on the mudroom
Wall?

So the command center is a place to put our family calendar, school papers, mail, have a junk drawer, etc. I just need a spot to put that type of stuff. I see what you are saying that we could sacrifice that for a closet which is a good idea, but I do need a place for those papers, etc.

I totally get that! I don’t know enough about reading floor plans, but is there space under the stairs on the kitchen side where you could have that? And s that?

Our junk drawer, chore chart, calendar (now on a communal iPad) is in the kitchen. We found this to be the best way to keep it most organized. Kid papers go in the junk drawer too which is actually decently organized.

Or could you make command centre smaller, so you could still get a mudroom side closet? So

So under th stairs on the kitchen side are the stairs to the basement so nothing can be done there. The only place I could pull in a closet is in the location from Option C, but that cuts off the direct flow - not sure how I feel about that, but a large closet would be nice. Any thoughts on that?

What is the closet for? Guests coats or your family’s? And what entry would your guests be using?

Where is your laundry area?

The laundry is in our basement, but I do have hopes of moving it to our second floor at some point as we have a large closet, but that is far in the future, if ever. Guests often come in through our garage as that is where they naturally go when they come up our driveway, but if they don't know us well or at a party, they will come in the front door.

I like D the best. What is the dimension of the powder room? I am thinking that could be smaller ( move the vanity toward the toilet ) and then put a closet on the outside of it facing the front hall.

This was my thought. It totally depends on the dimensions though!

That is a good idea, Debbie. I will ask her. Do you think putting a closet in the hallway (like option C) is a bad idea? My other concern is that the bathroom will have a front window in it. How bad is that? We are up on a bit of a hill and far back from the street, but our walkway to our front door does go by that window, although there are plant beds in front of it, maybe 8 feet deep.

I think you could make the cubbies area a closet and put a couple of cubbies in the lower 1/3.and coats in the upper 2/3.

I don't like a closet in the hallway like plan D. It seems to cut off circulation.

I like Debbi’s idea. Window treatment can easily deal with any privacy issues for the powder room. It is always nice to have a window in a washroom.

We did a similar powder room/closet layout to Debi’s layout when we reno’d our old home - our PR is small (toilet + pedestal sink) - we have a large window in there bc of outside symmetry - i have angled wood blinds on it that let light in and then a short linen curtain panel over for some softness/texture, works great

ill add a pic - small but everything a guest needs

my home · More Info

I actually don't mind the closet in plan C. It just takes away the feeling of a center hall colonial. It would also take a little getting used to , if that is your main door to come in the house. Many homes have a bathroom in the front of the house. A nice curtain will take care of that.

Ok. I have added measurements to my preferred option. Please let me know if you need additional detail.

Please note that we have discussed 2 changes to this plan:

1. Placement of the toilet and the vanity will be swapped
2. Behind the hall closet in that 7-foot space there will be a pantry and broom closet. What is labeled as the current pantry will now be the command center. I do know this means walking across the kitchen to get items, but it will allow me to have a larger pantry. The broom closet will also be removed from the mud room.
3. We have not discussed this, but I would like to switch the trash and the dishwasher so that I don't need to fill in/side part of my current window. Seems like a waste for the convenience of having the trash next to do door.

What I am looking for:

1. What do you not like or recommend?
2. I would like to optimize the space in the mudroom meaning more hooks, more cubbies. Is there anything I can do? Keep in mind that broom closet is leaving so I will have that space. Can I move the bathroom door to give me more mudroom space? Anything else?

Thank you!

You mean that the pantry is moving to the dining room?

Sorry, no. We will put the pantry and broom closet in the kitchen behind the kitchen table on the 7 foot wall where there is currently a table drawn in. Here is a pic.