Open floor plan; can LR built-in doors be same style as kitchen?
Our kitchen is open via window-height openings and a large doorway to our small LR/DR area, which is 2 steps down.
View from kitchen area into LR/DR:
We're getting ready to start buying materials for the living room bookshelves (finally!) and I am working on the final design. We originally planned on open bookshelves on the long wall and flanking the woodstove area. I'm feeling now like that is going to be too much visual clutter. And we have a lot of stuff I don't really want to see out on shelves (paperbacks, DVDs, extra vases, etc.) So I'm now leaning towards putting doors on the woodstove wall and in the very corner. We will hopefully one day have a nice chair + ottoman in that corner next to the woodstove, and I think I would rather see painted wood behind it than open cluttered shelves.
So, question #1 is: am I on the right track here?
Question #2 is: what door style? We like simple plain shaker style the best... however that's what we have in the pantry (which will also be painted white) and in cherry in the kitchen, which of course is visible from the LR space. Is that OK? Too similar? Too kitchen-y?? (We considered plain slab doors as well but I'm thinking that may be too modern for resale. We should probably try to keep the cottage-y vibe...)
Furniture placement to take into consideration: couch will remain where it is, with an armchair perpendicular to it on the dining-room end (where the AX chair is now.). There will be an end table and lamp (probably the marble Florence Knoll table that's used as a coffee table in the pic) between them against the windows (where Aalto stool is now). On the other side of the couch, the bookcase thing will have a firewood bin on the lower part, as shown, so there will just be an end table there. On the other side of the woodstove, a comfy chair and ottoman (we have an old Poang there now, something better later.) And then, in front of the bookshelves, a low, small bench or ottoman that is low-visual-impact but can be extra seating for larger gatherings.
Also re door style: the interior doors throughout the house are all 5-panel square sticking flat panel shaker style doors now....
Forgive the lousy mockups and sketches... but hopefully it gives you an idea what I mean. The chair+ottoman and bench aren't shown in this pic. Try to imagine it with the furniture placement described above :)
In the last pic you can see that the doors-to-open-shelving transition is directly under the opening above. I am hoping that makes the whole thing feel more planned and normal. And lets the long view down the end of the room be less busy; the bookshelves being visible only once you're "in" the room, really....
Thank you for your thoughts!!!!!!!
Rough mock-up of bookshelves, with view of kitchen cabinets peeking through the space top left:
Sketches:
Comments (7)
laxsupermom
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agopalimpsest
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
How many styles can you mix in an open floor plan?
Comments (10)annz--thanks for the advice! You are right that I like contempory more than craftsman, but I like craftsman too as long it has light wood. I do like our current sofa and chair(even though they're really not my style-it's a long story how we ended up with them) but need to replace them because the fabric is defective and the detached back cushions roll into a big lump everytime we sit on the sofa. The manufacturer did send us new covers for the custions so the sofa and chair look better now than they did for a while, but all the cording around the base of the sofa and chair is raveling and looks bad and I can't think of a way to save the sofa, specially when you add the problem with the back cushions. I am working on the accessories. The pictures in the link are old, so it looks better now than in the pictures but I still have a long way to go. We have also added cushions on the window seats which soften the room a lot. We will be adding more wood to the room though in that we are going to do a built-in in the recess where the TV is to clean up that area a little bit and we are adding more wood to the fireplace, but not a lot more--just getting rid of the white spaces and making the mantle deeper so that I can set things on it. As you can guess, my DH loves wood. At least this house has less wood than our old house--our old house had wood ceilings in the living room and foyer and wood walls in the bathrooms which was just too dark for me. Thanks again for the help!...See MoreWould you open this kitchen to LR?
Comments (6)I, too, am not a fan of totally open concept. However, in my remodel I opened up a 32" doorway between the kitchen and the DR into a 47" arched opening. I love it; the two rooms are quite distinct, but they feel connected, too. I dunno; I think I would choose "B."...See MoreStyle question re: Inset doors in same kitchen w/full overlay doors
Comments (8)Sorry, Patricia, the crank pasta machines stay. The penninsula stays, also. There is not enough room for an island or wall ovens. The sink is at the only outside wall and it will say at the window with a view of a creek. An unfinished attic is above the stove. We are both in the kitchen prepping, cooking, and cleaning up at the same time - not one prepping then one cooking. We need more space at the stove and primary sink. This design gives us each a contained workspace without crossing each other's path constantly. . . and takes us out of the walkway. Walking through the living room provides access to the rest of the house for anyone who wants to avoid the kitchen. We view the refrigerator as the appliance that we spend the least amount of time in front of. It's close enough to the stove and the penninsula, and acts as a landing spot for both prep and cleanup. Changing the doorway also brings the kitchen closer to the deck. The only real inconvenience I see is at the doorway when the dishwasher is open. Cabinet style was a secondary consideration. Our experience with a number of purely kitchen designers is that they design great features but won't be using the kitchen with another cook once their work is done. We want and need to be able to function in our kitchen. My question involved how well inset cabinets at the penninsula would blend with full overlay slab cabinet doors. So, here are photos of the current space and preliminary measurements for the redesign. There doorway at the left will be 30" and the fridge will be about 6" to the right....See MoreNeed advice on open plan entry/LR area
Comments (7)Okay, I tried to be a bit more accurate in scaling, using the orange line to help (it's the same as the hallway line, 9'9"). Furniture in blue again; lamps are orange stars (I put a floor lamp between the chairs and table lamps behind the sofa, just to toss the idea out there). This arrangement could be flipped so that the chairs are in front of window and the sofa is in line with hallway (but still serving as a divider to create a bit of a foyer), if you want -- but -- the chairs won't be centered on the window. Don't know how much that would bug you. There's only about 10' between the front edge of the sofa and the TV wall, by this rendering. Any way you could verify measurements? The floor plan labels the living space as 27' wide, but if my math is correct, it's only about 20' wide (added the kitchen and dining together, and subtracted the laundry). 20' minus 5'-6' for a "foyer" pathway leaves 14'-15' for furniture. Sofa tables are, say, 1'-1.5' wide, sofas 3' wide, and yeah, that leaves 10'-11' between sofa and wall. Roughly the same distance between the window and the backs of the chairs. To make it feel more open, the chairs definitely need to be in front of the window, but it pushes the sofa into the "foyer," if the chairs are centered. I dunno.... I'd prioritize creating an entry space, so I would definitely not rotate the arrangement, putting chairs across from the TV. But that is 100% my untrained self, lol. Edited to add:Not sure how I feel about that one.... :-/...See Morecliff_and_joann
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoStacey Collins
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agopalimpsest
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agooceangirlme
13 years agolast modified: 9 years agoWe used the same cabinets in our kitchen and living room. Our set up was a bit different. We had a typical Boston row house where you walked into the living room which took you to thru the dining room into the kitchen.
The couch was tucked along the right of the living room photo and looked down the length of the house. The dining room was located behind the bar stools.
I'm hoping this might give you a visual to work with. Good luck!
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