My concern is that the pass thru now is opposite the bedroom door. I don't mind the opening to a hallway, it's the bedroom that makes it odd. Could you change the door to bedroom 1?

What's the space between kitchen and dining? Also what's the space by bedroom 1 next to the closet?

Unless you are going to be serving breakfast in bed... a lot... this would be very awkward. The kitchen shouldn't have a pass through to the hallway esp if opens up to a bedroom door.

A passthrough should be functional - a way to get things into the dinning room without people crowding in the kitchen. It should also provide a view from both sides - from a workspace in kitchen you should see the dinning room and from dinning room you should see some part of the kitchen that isn't the dirty sink or laundry.

In this case it's not functional and you would be looking at a closed door - or worse, an open door.

Thanks for the early opinions! The picture I put up of the pass through with the large counter is quite functional looking and I realize that's not exactly what I had in mind. I was thinking more of a non-functional pass through, basically a window with a thin ledge, more like this picture.

pixie lou, those areas are lightwells, open areas to provide a place to put windows. The houses in my part of SF are side by side so there's no place for windows on the lateral walls of the house.

I had a window/pass thru like that in my old townhouse. It technically faced the dining room, but it was over the sink, so it was not usable, I did like the fact that it added light to my kitchen.

Since yours would be to a hallway, ( can't have it face the bedroom door) it see it more as an place to place a piece of artwork or a vase of flowers, giving the kitchen a more open feel. Not as a functioning pass thru.

It's doubtful that any remodel of any sort will add enough value to the home to pay for itself fully. Home buyers expect clean, new paint, and new carpets if applicable. Spending the type of money it will take to achieve this wierd passthrough (with nebulous appeal to boot) is sure to be a money loser. Put your energies elsewhere.

Check the kitchen forum...they may have other creative ideas to spruce up that wall.

Unless you eat in that kitchen, I'd want more cabinetry. :)

Aren't most of the comps going to have a similar layout? The only way to get a true open plan kitchen in a house like this is to move it entirely, someplace like the current dining room, and open it to the living area.

So I am assuming that most people haven't done that, and that most people looking in San Francisco understand that they are not going to get an open plan arrangement in a house like this.

You know the market better than I do, but from all reports the market seems brisk enough that an improvement like you suggest wouldn't give you a return, because people would likely buy your house with a close kitchen as well?

Thanks all, I guess it's not a great idea and I'll bag it.

Most of the comps do have open kitchens. The lightwell in our house adjacent to the kitchen is not typical. Usually the kitchen abuts the dining room and many/most have taken down that wall and combined the spaces.

But it doesn't seem like this would help so I'm going to focus on making the kitchen super nice instead... stainless farmhouse sink here we come!

-- Ray