I'd Love your thoughts on these layout ideas? At a standstill!

11 years ago

OK, repost putting all pics in one spot.

I just want to get started moving forward on a kitchen reno, but we still cant even decide what direction to take our project in!

I'm posting our current kitchen layout which is not working at all mainly due to lack of counter space, and the strong desire to keep an eat in kitchen, and not in budget to add on space to back of house. Family of 5, 3 young kids. Entertain fairly frequently, and 2 cooks occasionally. Like to bake occasionally. I have been trying to come up with some realistic sketches of ideas that would work so we can finally take it to some contractors and get an idea of what this will even cost.
Would love feedback on the general idea/layout of these 2 plans I've come up with. Do they both make sense, are they functional?

PLAN A Involves removing large part of load bearing wall separating KIT and DR. 2 versions include 1 with island and 1 with peninsula.
Pros
- Assuming Less Expensive than Plan B.
- Keeps our current Family Room in place. I like having it wide open to KIT and the having the fireplace wall in a FR.
- Like the look of pantry/hutch wall

Cons
- Afraid having to have REF, range and sink all on the main "L" will be tight.
- Feels odd to have most of pantry storage in "Dining Room".
- Family Room has to shrink a little
- Not as much counter space for small appliances
- Dining table would not be centered with double windows anymore...looks off?

PLAN B Involves removing larger part of load bearing wall separating LR and FR and Foyer. 2 versions, one with island, 1 with peninsula. Also knocking out coat closet and moving it down, to make Family room furniture placement better and a cozier room. Current Family Room becomes large everyday dining area. There's room to put leaves in table for larger gatherings. Formal LR becomes Family Room. I randomly put columns in, no idea where they'd actually need to go but if I need them, Id like to do something like this, so the Fam Room still feels open to Kitchen.

Pros
- Makes large Kitchen.
- Wow factor, open floor plan, lots of family space
- Dining area with Fireplace could be unique and pretty. (This is the upside to losing the FP being in the Family room)
- Open floor plan for 75%of first floor, great for spreading out while entertaining.
-Smallest room still can be a quiet(er) closed off space

Cons/Concerns
- Cost (not sure yet it can be done in our budget...think $60K is reasonable?)
- Is kitchen table "too far" from Kitchen? I'm thinking of how often I get up during dinner to refill milk, grab a napkin, get more gravy, etc, I'm just so used to it all being so close & squished!
- Lose Family Room location being directly off kitchen, and lose FP being in Family Room.
- Afraid to make so many changes to the house for resale value in future. Though we do plan to stay a long time, things can always come up. Would this hurt resale? (I know local realtor could answer better).

My gut tells me Plan B could really work great for our family. We only lose our formal LR which we never use anyway. We are lucky enough to have a large finished basement so that's our 2nd family room/kids area.

Its a lot of change though and it scares me! And I have some people, in laws mainly, constantly warning us not to over improve the house or do too much.

Plan A seems like it would function at least a little, maybe a lot, better than we have now; it would save us some money so we could maybe still do a few other things to the house that need to get done; and it wouldn't change the layout so much that it would hurt resale too much.

Are either or both of these ideas reasonable and practical? Are the resulting kitchen spaces worth the cost of the load bearing wall removals? I still have less than ideal aisle widths but as I see its the best I can do without making the kitchen wider, and I assume the expense of moving side entrance and/or powder room would be cost
prohibitive.

Any better layout ideas??

Any advice/thoughts/comments very appreciated! Thanks!