Help with great room/kitchen layout desperately needed...
Krista S.
6 years ago
Featured Answer
Sort by:Oldest
Comments (7)
Krista S.
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Room layout opinions desperately needed, pictures to help
Comments (19)looks like I'm late to give an opinion, but I'll share what I was thinking... I must admit I'm not fond of the chair that seems to sit off in a corner by itself. So I was working on ways to get it back into the main seating area. Not sure if that's what you'd want.... but here goes.... How about an angled fireplace in one corner or the other of that back wall (I'd choose the right back corner, since you have a balcony over that way and must have a view or something out there?). Then you could have the sectional in an L shape with the short section towards the kitchen... less of the couch to walk around. You could have a coffee table in front of it, and end table on each end of the couch, and I think your chair would fit fine at the far end of the room (with the little end table between it and the couch). It now won't be blocking the front of a fireplace. If you get that fireplace angled into the corner, you can enjoy it from the kitchen and see it when you walk into the room near the dining room. You could then have huge windows on all 3 walls if you wanted to, or smaller windows on the two sides, and still have room for a nice glass door near the kitchen end for going outside. Because the fireplace would be in the corner, you could still have a huge picture window on that back wall. I agree.... you are so fortunate to have a room with 3 sides of windows. That is my favorite "shape" for a family room. Love it! Whatever you ultimately decide, it's going to be wonderful with all of the outdoors coming in! Happy building!...See MoreKitchen Layout - need help desperately
Comments (16)I love this place. I have used this as an "expert forum" and have used it extensively while remodeling our own home and projects. I am very grateful for and impressed with the level of interest and expertise that youre showing in the problem.Based on this I will give you broader understanding how it works. Home has been in my family for 50+ years. It is shared and owned by 7 siblings (with spouses, children). We are now in our 50s and 60s with children and grandchildren, etc. Collectively there are 59 people in immediate family. The ages are from newborn children, seventeen children under age of 15, and then on up to 92 years of age. The home is the physical place that keeps us all together. There has been no changes or upgrades to the building over the last 25 years since fire destroyed home. We are now willing to tackle some dramatic changes. The home is used extensively four months of the year. Three families, sometimes more, may be using the house at one time. Two families are in the main house and one family in guest house (not shown.) The guest house will be subject to another posting - we are doing a complete teardown and rebuild this fall 2009. So we have a second kitchen in the guest house and a fairly large outdoor grill for grilling. Kitchen problems: During the week there may be one or two cooks in the kitchen along with family popping in and out for breakfast, lunch, drinks, etcetera. We commute back and forth to work from this home and our children still maintain their activities. Dinner time could be one family during the week. On the weekends it is a free for all. There could be as many as 4 or 5 (unwanted) cooks bumping in to each other in kitchen. My sister-in-laws are excellent cooks. They range from home made pizzas to gourmet cooks. All family members are free to use the beach, main house and on Sundays everyone is welcome (my big fat Italian family). The kitchen orientation has the cooking food prep area to the back of the kitchen or the north side of the kitchen. The south side of kitchen faces the lake. The east side of the kitchen is an exterior wall and west side butts against staircase and is limited. seating area with a beautiful view of the lake opposite. There is a formal large dining room off to the right facing the lake where most of heavy eating is done. However, sticky fingers, younger kids are relegated to kitchen area so we need some type of low maintenance eating area in the kitchen along with quick breakfasts by family residing there in the week. The new kitchen will accommodate or have 5 burner 36" range and oven combination w ventilation 2 refrigerators - one mostly for beverages and trays casseroles, etcetera 1 microwave 1 dishwaser (love to have 3) but very limited space Toaster oven Toaster Coffee prep area I will try to post pictures of what currently exists in the side entrance laundry area. The men and few family members insist the current seating w minimum of four people with as many as six if possible. Because of the small kitchen we feel the range is either on north wall or the east wall allowing ventilation to exterior. The home is not air conditioned. Overall, the kitchen is 17.5 feet North to South, 13.5 feet east to west. The pantry in the photographs with the double doors which will be removed is approximately 45" and can be totally removed and it would blend into the formal dining area (not shown) The window on south wall facing the lake/beach, and is 6 feet wide. The window on the east wall over the existing sink is approximately 87" in length. Which leaves 15" from north wall to edge of window. Very limiting factor. We are stumped how to get useful functional island that can accomodate seating in such a narrow kitchen. The width of the kitchen does not really allow for useful functioning island with circulation around it The pantry area to the north of the kitchen is approximately 36" square. Currently that is where one of the fridges sits. Structurally the exterior walls of building cannot be moved. They are heavy poured concrete w stone veneer. Approximately 85" of west wall running from north to south (where range is currently) Is there a chance of extending the sink run toward the dinette area? Yes. How far is the is clearance between the island and the sink? Proposed island is 36" Where do you plan dish storage? (Paper plates lol). This is a problem that we have to work out. The island in proposed layout was temporary unrefined thought. Is it possible to move the doorways? It is not possible to change access to room to west nor change access from the north but both openings can be increased in size. Obviously not less than 36". Is it possible to move waterworks? Yes can be moved anywhere in the kitchen. I wonder about the choice to increase fridge space at the expense of pantry space. The home is empty during winter months. There are currently 2 refridgerators in the kitchen. One is located what we referred to and have not shown what we call a small pantry area along with side entrance on the north wall (not shown) The idea is to remove fridge from small pantry area and make the area an area recycling bottles, beverages, garbage, laundry, mudroom entrance area on the north side of the house. (Not photographed) By the way, if somebody can recommend good software program, wed lay the whole house to help solve the problem. During parties food is buffet style on the tiny u-shaped island. Usually a line out the door to dining room, cleanup which as mentioned can only have one person at sink, and usually delays dessert and coffee prep. We keep dishes bake ware and utensils up there. If family has a preference for a certain utensil or coffee pot they can bring it up. I wonder if an otr mw is the best choice for a multi-use kitchen? If consolidating cleanup and range and island in the same "one butt" space is a good thing? In this In this layout the oven door and dw doors control access to the water. Someone using water will have to move out of the way of someone who wants something from the base cabinets in the islandette. I think, but am not sure, you end up with less prep space than in the current layout. This is also a current problem - very limiting. Is this a vacation house? Yes. Are the two refrigerators shown actually a separate fridge and freezer? They were both refridgerators - freezer in other house. I see two microwaves? Is one actually a convection oven? That is a mistake by the kitchen designer. We only want one microwave oven. When you say cooking is important...by how many people at the same time? Four to five. The place between the refrigerators will never be used for prep with the only sink so far away. Thats very true. I was hoping to have a drink area/coffee prep, wine glasses, regular glasses, cups, saucers, etcetera on this wall. If you have a lot of countertop appliances maybe this is ok, I am not sure how the kitchen gets used. Additional appliances not shown are : Toaster oven, coffee pots, This kitchen is very small for multi-family use. Tight aisles, little storage, little workspace, limited/shared landing space, etc. Do you have a separate pantry elsewhere? There is a small space (not shown) with a side entrance door, another fridge, a utility sink, washer and dryer which we would like to use as storage for paper plates, paper goods, beverages, recycling (a lot in a small space) As others have asked, does everyone work in it at once? We also have a guest cottage - we use that kitchen along with an outdoor grill. Family members also prepare trays, dishes at home and bring up with them. Never enough room in the fridge to accommodate casseroles, trays, etcetera. Sister in law prepares home made pizza up there. How does it function as a multi-family kitchen now? What are the things that work? Don't work? I have tried to get feedback - the people that dont cook dont care. The men think it is important to keep view out the window and seating area. (ugh). They do not want to sit on stools. As I said theyre not cooking and preparing though. Is the seating area off the kitchen in the pics the only dining area? I only see 4 chairs. If you could expand into the table area you would dramatically increase your options and make it a true multi-cook kitchen. I agree with you. I envisioned putting the stove on this wall and putting a very narrow island down the middle of the room with chairs/stools that could be pushed underneath. Like a cozy up bar, etcetera. I thought the two fridges would have been great centered on the current pantry wall, along with additional small prep sink. possibly under. We are very open using that exterior wall. Do you have a layout (can be hand-drawn) of how the kitchen fits in with the rest of the first floor? This is useful for a traffic flow analysis as well as where things would "fit" best. I do have a layout which I will post tomorrow. Husband left it in the office. It looks like the table area looks out over the beach (reflection of beach in windows)...is that the case? Is it right on the beach? Yes, it does look out over beach and it is right on the water. Heres an outside partial shot. I wish I knew how to write on pics to point out which windows are where. But this is the general idea. Before the beginning of season, the existing pantry is filled with paper goods, basic canned goods, snacks, beverages and miscellaneous dry goods. Thanks!...See MoreDesperate help needed with kitchen layout
Comments (11)The problem is that the "standard" kitchen in that layout was designed for looks, not function and to hide the fact that it's a poor use of the space. They know that most people will not realize it until it's too late b/c most people do not understand good kitchen design principles/best practices. That's why one of our goals here is to not just help with layouts and aesthetic questions, but to also educate people via the Kitchen Design FAQ threads - which I will post later - and explanations of why things work well/don't work well in the layouts we see. +++++++++++++++++++++++ So both of the plans have a lot of wasted counterspace - an expanse of counters where it's not very useful - and not enough counterspace where it's sorely needed. Your Prep Zone needs a bare minimum of 36" of clear workspace adjacent to a water source, with at least 42" much, much better. In fact, the two key components of a Prep Zone are water and sufficient counterspace. The wasted counterspace is along the wall b/w the refrigerator and range where there's no water and not at all convenient to the sink in the island. Note that cleanup sinks need space on both sides. If it's the only sink and will host both the Prep and Cleanup Zones, you will need even more b/c you need to provide enough counterspace for both tasks. Is there a reason the cleanup sink is in the island? It puts dirty dishes front and center and on display for all to see. It also puts dirty dishes "in the face" of anyone sitting at the island unless you have a very deep island. Even then, dirty dishes will be tough to ignore when sitting there. A better layout would be to move the Cleanup Zone to the wall, go with a rectangular island, make the island your Prep Zone by adding a prep sink to it, and have the Prep Zone face the range. -OR- Add a prep sink to the empty counterspace b/w the range and refrigerator and make that your primary Prep Zone. But this still keeps the Cleanup Zone on display. In addition, if you want to work facing people, then be aware that the Prep Zone is used far more than the Cleanup Zone. 70% or more of your time is spent prepping while only 20% or less of your time is spent cleaning up - and that includes the time/work of clearing the table, wiping down the table and counter, and loading/unloading the DW - so less than 20% is spent at the sink. (The other 10% is the time spent cooking - stirring, adding ingredients, watching food cook.) So, your Prep Zone is probably the Zone you want in the island b/c you spend so much time in it. +++++++++++++++++++++++ My question for you: You say you want a better Kitchen, but are you willing to make the changes to fix the issues?...See MoreDesperately Seeking ROOM LAYOUT & INTERIOR DESIGN help!
Comments (9)This is a nice room, but it does need some personality and color. I would definitely involve your son and incorporate his interests. Here are some ideas from Target to get you started. I'm sure PB Kids and others will have similar looks. A bulletin board over the desk is a great idea, along with colorful art. Sports, Star Wars, oceans... you can always preselect several pieces you can live with that he will like and let him make the final choice. The mirror can go over the dresser if it will be useful, otherwise stick with decor that appeals to him. It is hard to tell from your photos if there might be a better furniture arrangement since that big bed doesn't leave much space for playing or storage for books and toys....See MoreKrista S.
6 years agokatinparadise
6 years ago
Related Stories
MOST POPULARHow Much Room Do You Need for a Kitchen Island?
Installing an island can enhance your kitchen in many ways, and with good planning, even smaller kitchens can benefit
Full StoryKITCHEN DESIGNDesign Dilemma: My Kitchen Needs Help!
See how you can update a kitchen with new countertops, light fixtures, paint and hardware
Full StoryHOUZZ TV LIVEDesigner’s Family-Friendly Kitchen and Great Room
In this video, Amy Elbaum shows the storage and style details that create durable and fashionable spaces in her home
Full StoryKITCHEN DESIGNKitchen Layouts: Ideas for U-Shaped Kitchens
U-shaped kitchens are great for cooks and guests. Is this one for you?
Full StoryROOM OF THE DAYRoom of the Day: Eclectic and Casual in a Michigan Great Room
Distressed finishes and a mix of styles make this newly built great room fit for a laid-back family
Full StoryREMODELING GUIDESRoom of the Day: A Great Room in a Former Church
Handmade details, beautiful trusses and a bell make the most of this converted church’s good bones
Full StoryROOM OF THE DAYRoom of the Day: Great Room Solves an Awkward Interior
The walls come down in a chopped-up Eichler interior, and a family gains space and light
Full StoryREMODELING GUIDESRoom of the Day: Antiques Help a Dining Room Grow Up
Artfully distressed pieces and elegant colors take a formerly child-focused space into sophisticated territory
Full StoryTRENDING NOW4 Great Ideas From Popular Living Rooms and Family Rooms
These trending photos show how designers create living spaces with style, storage and comfortable seating
Full StoryDECORATING GUIDESRoom Doctor: 10 Things to Try When Your Room Needs a Little Something
Get a fresh perspective with these tips for improving your room’s design and decor
Full Story
katinparadise