Layout help - please help me get this right

12 years ago

I am very glad to have found this site and have loved reading so many thoughtful posts and seeing so many inspiring kitchens. I have been puzzling over a new layout for our kitchen for some time and would appreciate forum members' feedback and suggestions to help me optimize the fuction of the space within the constraints of our house.

The house:

- 2800 sq foot Victorian

- from the front door you see straight down a short hall, through the end of the living room and right through the center of the kitchen - the range wall is visible from the front door

The project:

- gut and renovate 14' x 25.5' kitchen; basement is unfinished, so we can readily move services

- currently we have a disfunctional U-shaped layout (one window currently bricked in), washer and dryer in kitchen (will be moved to new laundry room), 50 year old cheaply home built cabinets, one sink, no vent hood, poor lighting, not enough counter space, etc

Limitations:

- pass through to family room will be new, so its location can shift a bit (the location drawn will be convenient to door from family room to patio)

- window and door locations cannot be moved; bottoms of windows are low (below counter height), so we definitely don't want cabinets in front of them

- I would like to have the prep counter facing the front of the house (on the peninsula); right now it's on the top short wall and I have my back to the front of the house (and all of the kitchen)

- the only viable place to vent the range hood is on the top wall, where the range is drawn; also, I like this location for the range as it's a focal point for the kitchen

- I am right handed and like the dishwasher to the left of the clean up sink

About us:

- small family; I love to cook and bake; about once a week DH is cooking at the same time

- four burner range is often not enough - I want a 36" 6 burner range plus a 24" electric oven (which will be the oven I use the majority of the time)

- entertain casually 2-3 times a month (6-8 people)

- a few times a year we host family get togethers of 16-20+; although this happens infrequently, we want to plan to space so that it can function for these larger events

- we have a formal dining room off of the living room that we use regularly (keeping this)

- we like having a table in the kitchen and don't want to replace it with island/peninsula seating

- no plans to sell the house, though we don't want to do anything that would be expected to repel potential buyers in the future!

This layout:

- not shown: we have a freestanding pantry cupboard along the angled wall (bottom right) that we plan to keep; I'd like to put in some sort of desk/planning center area in the bottom left corner of the kitchen

- like: prep facing table and front of house, clean up sink not in line of sight from front of house, range as focal point, having working part of kitchen at top and eating area in bottom half (originally the kitchen was actually two rooms, divided and used this way)

- concerns: fridge location relative to peninsula prep - is this workable?

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Comments (8)

GreenDesigns
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Your layout grid didn't transfer well when I copied it, so you'll have to work out the clearances yourself. But, it struck me that your table could just be an extension of your island and work great. Then you wouldn't need seating at the island because the table would be right there. Moving the sideboard down to the vacant wall frees up the space for more cabinet storage, and moving the MW to the other side keeps the snackers out of the cook's way. You will need a 30" oven as 24" are virtually impossible to find and small inside.

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saute
Original Author
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
GreenDesigns - thank you for taking the time to respond. I had looked at orienting the island that way, but hadn't considered attaching the table to the end. I'm still thinking it over - it's a new concept and I can't yet quite see it in the space (the view from the front door, through the house and through to the end of the kitchen is a long one and breaking it with the peninsula has its appeal, but I am also a bit concerned that there will be just too much going on in the peninsula/ table/ chair area). I'll check out some more photo examples as well - thanks for including one.

Your layout also gets me some extra space to the left of the clean up sink. In my layout, the greater the space to the left of the clean up sink, the farther out the fridge goes.

Any one else have some opinions or suggestions? Thanks so much!
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Hmm, I don't like either of the two layouts much, and I am a peninsula lover. It just seems that with an 11' x 16' space, it shouldn't be so cramped. And yet, an 8' wide table space is crampy, I think. Will the DW be housed in some kind of cabinet, or will it have some kind of paneling over the back and open side to match the rest of the peninsula cabs? I don't know if that will work, especially if you have a heavy countertop material. You might need a cabinet on the other side of DW. It's hard to tell, even in the old thread, how big all the windows are at the end of the kitchen. Do you have two sliders at that end, plus a really wide window? How far from the floor does that big wide window go? Seems like this space should be more useable somehow! Oh, I do see something in the old thread where bmorepanic referred to getting rid of one of the sliders...I think that's a good idea. I would possibly turn the other slider into a single door rather than a double slider; that will get you some deeper useable space near the wall. Anyone remember that small kitchen a couple years ago where they did that? Seemed to work well. If you're going to stick w/ the peninsula plan, what about getting rid of the slider on the fam room side of the kitchen? You'd have more room for a longer bank of cabs where you have the cooktop; instead of a table, have an overhang, which would take up less space. Sorry it's too late for me to draw; I need some sleep!
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saute
Original Author
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
forgot to mention the oven - I have looked at a 24" that I like. It's an AEG (I'm in Canada, I don't think these are available in the U.S.). But I will think about a 30" as well. The 24" AEG gets me what I want in a lovely package at a decent price, but it will also depend on whether it's still available when we get around to buying appliances.
lavender_lass
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Saute- I like your layout...but I really like Greeen's layout.

Just an idea, but if you like to bake (as I do) then what about a marble countertop on the island and then use the darker wood top for the table area. In the picture, the island looks like the eating area is at counterop height, which might be nice, too.

How old are your kids? If they're old enough for counter height stools, they'll probably love them as they get into their teenage years. Great for parties, too :)
saute
Original Author
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
lavender_lass - marble would be more of a possibility with the island/table combo. While I do love marble, I'm not sure that I would be happy with it while it developed its patina (and I can be a messy cook). DH is strongly against marble counters in the kitchen - partly because he thinks we've got enough already (fireplace surround and raised hearth, plus floor and counter in bathroom), partly because he doesn't think he'd be happy patina-wise, and partly because he'd prefer soapstone for the counter. Does soapstone come close to marble as a rolling surface for baking? But the combination of marble and then wood on the long island would be striking...

I did some searching and found more discussions about extending islands and attaching them to a table and found info on houzz and here. One thing that came up was that with seating on only two sides, you lose some of the face-to-face contact that you have with people around a table. We do eat dinner in the kitchen about five nights a week, and I think I might miss having us around a table. The other concern I have, for my old house, is that the big island is quite popular right now while we're really after a fairly traditional look. Still intrigued a bit, though, so I'll mull some more.

Any thoughts on the viability of the fridge location in the initial layout? Will I regret having to move around the end of the peninsula to get into the fridge?
adel97
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I love Greendesigns' idea of an integrated table coming off your island. I have one and it's very functional while keeping the visual clutter down. I collected images of these in this ideabook.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lookbook of table/islands
lavender_lass
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Saute- What about soapstone for the perimeter countertops and marble on the top half of the island/baking area? Then wood on the bottom half...and then extending down to the eating area?

A little marble will be great for baking, but the soapstone on the perimeters should make your husband happy and be easier for the kids to work with, too.

The fridge will cause a little bit of a pinch point (not too bad) but that wouldn't be a problem, with the island. As for the seating, two and two on either side should be fine for a family of four to interact and one on the end, if you're five. It's three on a side (IMHO) that causes problems with conversation.
saute
Original Author
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks for your suggestions. Still thinking over the island/table combo vs peninsula and table - trying to stay focussed on the layout for now. Some perspective drawings may help me to figure out what will work and what won't in the space.

Layout help - please help me get this right

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GreenDesigns

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Layout help - please help me get this right

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