Help revising kitchen layout in new Build

11 years ago

Hi, this is my first post but I have lurked here for years. Our family is building a house and I would like your advise on the kitchen layout.

We are a family of four. My kids are 9 and 7 years old. We eat in most of the time and entertain about 6-10 a year. Sometimes they can get as large as 30 pple. My taste is traditional with some modern elements like stainless. However, I do not want stainless steel appliances. We are meeting on Friday to select cabinet style and stains, as well as flooring and countertops. The builder has given us the dimensions but not the blueprint of the kitchen yet. I drew (as best I could) the layout. Hopefully I can post the layout and a few pictures of some kitchens that are similar from the mls.
Some of my concerns are:
-Is the waste basket cabinet to far from the island where I plan to do the majority of prep?
-Is the drawer cabinet in the island too far from the range to hold the pots and pans?
-Though the range and dw do not touch when fully opened, should the dw be placed to the right of the sink?
Any help will be so much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Ann Marie

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Comments (8)

acheavacci
Original Author
11 years ago
Apparently I need to revisit "posting mult. pics" thread :)
acheavacci
Original Author
11 years ago
Another view.
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Help with revised kitchen layout?
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I'm hesitant to embrace this plan, but I don't know if I have better options to offer you. As for the mw at the bottom of the page, with a broom closet next to it, and seating across the aisle, your only landing space is across from mw is where people are potentially sitting at the counter. Hmmmm. Are you ok with this scenario? At the minimum, I'd suggest a pullout breadboard type thingie (can't think of a better description, :-)) under the mw that you could pull out when you take hot things from the MW. Just because it's a mw and not a true oven doesn't mean that things don't come out at a burning temp and need to be set down in a hurry. I think the fridge is going to feel like a monolith boxing you in at the sink as well as create a bottleneck while setting and clearing the table, especially if you have any more than 1 or 2 children at home. If you really think that this is the best spot for the fridge (not sure on that one myself), is there any chance the wall can cantilever out behind it so that you can put a normal fridge in and have it be counter depth? I've had both an island that runs perpendicular to my stove, and one that runs parallel. I much prefer one that runs parallel so I can spread out and work directly across from the cooktop and oven. Having the narrow end face the stove was a bit awkward, and when it was like that, I found myself swinging around the corner to have the long length of island to work at. The way you have it drawn now, if you are trying to bake at the island while another person is trying to use the dishwasher, you are going to be on a collision course with each other. I had that setup a few months ago and it was quite aggravating to me. The kids jobs and my jobs were at odds with each other! Maybe your children are not home when you are baking and this will not be an issue for you, though. I like your corner pantry, but it does feel like it's chewing up quite a bit of real estate. I'm wondering if Lavender's idea of putting the pantry on the bottom wall would be a better option. How much stuff do you plan to store in your broom closet? If space is really tight, you might like to do as we do, and store brooms hanging on a peg rack on the back side of the basement door. It isn't totally ideal, but it's one less set of things in our kitchen. All right, maybe I do have some options for you. I went ahead and played with your plan in Paint. Unfortunately, you'll need a microscope to see it. If you click on the picture, it will get a somewhat bigger. Let me try to explain what I drew: From the top left, I removed the fridge from this wall. I slid the sink and DW closer to your dining room and gave you a dish hutch style cupboard to the left of the dw. I slid the stove up toward the top wall a bit. This left room for the MW a bit below the stove, and the fridge just below that. At the bottom of the kitchen next to the fridge is a pull-out broom cabinet. I've seen pics of these on GW and they look pretty spiffy. On the bottom wall, I slid the doorway farther to the right to fit in a good sized shallow wall pantry. No more losing things in the corner! By making it shallow, this allows you to swing the island around so that it runs parallel to the stove wall, as well as making it deeper from the cooking area toward the dining area. Maybe there is enough room to fit a small prep sink at the bottom corner of the island. If I understand your floorplan correctly, the fridge, island sink, and mw, are now all near door where kids go in and out. You could store some kid-friendly dishes near this area and they can grab a snack without interrupting the cooking and cleanup flow. Hope this helps. : ) -Amy
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Hello everyone, I wish I could b as handy with computer and posting pics as you guys all are. This is so very useful and helpful. I am a very visual person. @Autumn, you have great ideas, about placing the DW and sink on outside wall. I appreciate your advice re protecting the work triangle. @mammag...your comments and input are valuable indeed...I am open to a prep sink, even though I have never used had or used one. Prepping on the is.and and facing dining/living room is great and what i am used. My current set up leaves me prepping both on island which has no sink, as well as on the counter between stove and sink. When one space gets too crowded, I use the other space. This is not bad, but can be improved. By the way, the architect, is awesome, and suggested 2 islands...so yeah, he can be congratulated (: @benjesbride..Thank you so much for th visual. I wish I knew how to do that! It's So much easier to understand and to review your thoughts. I love the idea of a pocket door. But am wondering how it will work if I put the stove on that side of the kitchen..I like the fridge on that side though as it's closer to hall which leads to the pantry. I notice u didn't put cabinets over the sink. Mayb I can open up that area, and this will let me see out the front window. !? Keep the comments and ideas coming. You cannot know how appreciative I am. Cheers Paula (:
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Help with kitchen layout for a new build
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I agree with cpartist--omit the second island. You could put the breakfast table in the blank space, and make the nook a screened porch. It appears that both aisles are traffic aisles from back doors--I don't know how much traffic, so don't know if this plan is feasible, but I'll post it. I put the fridge next to the pantry, as you suggested, but lengthened the wall, to provide a landing space between the fridge and oven, and to provide a space for a MW. The MW could instead be located in a drawer in the island, across from the fridge. Breakfast items could be kept in drawers below, and in drawers across the aisle in the island, facing the fridge run. The DR wall is also lengthened, to accommodate the clean-up sink and two DWs. Optional dish storage is across the aisles, in drawers on the island and on the cooktop wall, but I included uppers over the sink run. Glasses and cups could be stored in the uppers, or the uppers could be omitted. I normally wouldn't put the clean-up zone in a traffic aisle, but there is another route through the kitchen, and this plan puts the dish storage near the DR, and keeps the hood centered on the back wall, as a focal point. The hood I drew is 6" wider than the cooktop, to provide a wider capture area, since there are no uppers to help contain grease and steam. The measurements are difficult to read, but it looks as if the traffic/work aisles are 3'+?, so I reduced the width of the island. I'd suggest at least 48" for each aisle. Since the counters beside the range will be the least useful for primary prep, I made the windows wider, to let in more light. Incoming groceries can be placed on the counter to the right of the cooktop, to be loaded to the pantry and fridge. Frozen items, likewise, can be placed to the left of the cooktop, to be loaded to the freezer, which is now in the MR, in the former extra pantry storage--just make sure the door swings left-to-right. Click to enlarge: An alternative would be to have double windows on each side of the hood, with a dish hutch on the clean-up side, and an appliance garage on the pantry side, to increase storage while preserving symmetry. Kitchen planning info: New to Kitchens? Read me first.
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Need help with kitchen layout in new build
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You need about 10 feet for a dining table. That's table + people pushing chairs back and getting close to hitting what's behind them when they do. You also need 5' between back to back seating (minimum). You have about 28'9" in width. Your kitchen + island would take up about 9'9" of that. Add in 5' between counter & table, + 3.5' table + 3' for chair space and you're left with only 7.5' in your living room. Enough room for maybe 2 chairs by the fireplace. Probably not what you're going for. You actually only have ~10' between your island and sliders now (17'-7" - 4' - 3.5'), so you really are tight in your dining space. You won't be able to have 5' between your island and dining table, especially since people usually like to leave more space by their sliders so people can get through. We have 4' from our dining table to our island and it's too close. Definitely get backless stools, and don't make your island any wider than 3.5'. Leave your kitchen and dining where it is. Having your hood line up with your island completely doesn't matter...your kitchen isn't symmetrical (island is offset by the aisle width already) so forcing things to line up while sacrificing light in your kitchen is not good. Option A is the best version. ETA: things are ALWAYS smaller in person than they are on paper.
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rhome410
11 years ago
I would definitely put the DW to the right of the sink, which among other positives, put it, I assume, closer to your dish storage cabinets.

I would also put the trash in the 18" spot across from the sink in the island. That's where ours (trash/recycle double bin pullout) is, which works great for sweeping crumbs and trash off the island after prep, baking, etc., and also for getting rid of packaging and other trash from the cooking area, all while still being convenient to scrape plates that are going in the dishwasher.

These moves will allow you to store pots and pans to the right of the sink, which will be much closer to the stove. Much preferable to the spot in the island.
acheavacci
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks, rhome. I was thinking the same thing. I need to put a base cabinet on each side of the island because of the outlets.

Anyone else with ideas. TIA :)
angel411
11 years ago
For the DW placement, consider how you wash dishes and load your current DW. I had one to the right of my sink and was needing to switch hands to load the dish after rinsing it off (I would use my right hand to do a quick scrape...I'm right handed). In our new build, I put it to the left and now it works much better as I can hold the dish in my left hand, scrape with the right, and then put it directly in the DW. Convienience is in the eye of the beholder! ;)
rhome410
11 years ago
I need to put a base cabinet on each side of the island because of the outlets.

I'm not sure whether that is just a comment, or if you think it prohibits you from moving things as I suggested? I don't think it does, but wanted to be sure what you meant.

I have lived in homes with dishwasher placed to the right or the left. Neither took any special effort getting used to... It just was as it was, and I used it. In this house, I have dishwashers on both sides of the sink. Neither is harder to load or unload, in terms of handedness, IMO, but it's much easier to unload the one closest to the dish storage. Just a turn and put them right into place. Or I can stack them on the counter right by the dish storage and they're easy to move into place. When unloading the dw on the opposite side of the sink, though, I keep wanting to stack where the sink is, and if I put them on the counter just above the dw, it's a big move to put them away. But it's either that or run back and forth as I do with glasses and cups that won't stack for better efficiency. I hope that makes sense.

For me, dishwasher proximity to dish storage is a big deal. In prior years on the forum, when dishwasher 'handedness' has come up, the responses seem overwhelming in 'it doesn't matter as long as it's close to dish storage cabinets.' Doesn't mean there aren't other opinions, though! :)
acheavacci
Original Author
11 years ago
rhome410: What I meant is that I have an outlet on each end of my island and I think that prohibits moving/placing the drawers on the end closest to the range.

I like the dw to the right of the sink and then a 30 inch drawer cabinet to the right of that. The uppers are 36" wide. I don't think I will be bothered by the upper and lower not being symmetricical, but the designer has his doubts. The designer also said that each drawer has a 100 lb. capacity, Is this standard?

I am limited to Homecrest or Candlelight cabinetry. Unfortunately, Candlelight is way out of my budget :(

My thoughts on the island layout would be (as you are looking at the cabs): 18 inch cab w/ one drawer, 18 trash cab, 42 inch base cab. with 2 drawers.

Any thoughts?
rhome410
11 years ago
My thoughts from my own standpoint, so you can take or leave, as will work for you:

I would put the pots and pans drawers to the left of the main sink.

I would put the 18" trash on the end of the island closest the stove and across from the sink.

My opinion about the rest of your island depends on what you want the 18" cab with drawer for. I had some cabinets with drawers in our island, but I had them changed to drawers. I also think a 2-drawer bank will make the drawers VERY deep. I have drawer banks with a standard, shallower top drawer and 2 drawers under that, and they're nicely deep.

As far as uppers and design.... It matters most about how they look around the window, because that's what you'll see most easily. If you have cabinets to each side of the window, the spacing between them and the window should match, one side to the other. If you decide to run the stove wall cabinets straight to the window wall, instead of wrapping around, you have more flexibility in how you size the cabinet on the right. You could even have a hutch type of thing, like I do. You could actually have a hutch in either case, if you wanted.

I can't tell what you're planning, but also think that it's important to leave nice wall space between the window trim and the upper cabinets, to let the window and trim stand out and not be crowded. But I know others like to run cabs up to the trim.

Help revising kitchen layout in new Build

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