Hi there! Congrats on getting started. I'm GCing a whole house reno, including moving the kitchen, living, dining, and family rooms around to different locations. And adding a small mudroom.

I'm not sure what kind of advice I can give generally at this point. Booze helps. Be prepared to make dozens of decisions that you never imagined you have to make. Relax when you can, and try to keep your sense of humor through your project. I'm tired and that's all I got now! Good luck!

Natalie, feel free to ask any questions you have. The folks here are very knowledgeable and helpful. It has been my experience that they will do their very best to answer. If one of us thinks that you may receive better info in another forum, lighting for example, we'll suggest that you cross post there.
Looking forward to your next post.

Post plans of your entire area including windows, doors, measurements etc. Include your reasons for what you are doing, including any constraints and what is available to be moved. The people here love to help so feel free to post and ask questions. But pictures and plans really help.

We are renovating our kitchen and adjacent mudroom too, and decided to use the kitchen cabs in the mudroom to make the two rooms flow. We are also removing and/or shortening some walls in the mudroom to make it more open to the kitchen. It will still be a room, but the closet will go and the header which goes over the door between the two rooms will go away. Do you have space in your mudroom for a cabinet or two?

Wow thank you all for the encouragement! Adrienne2011, I love your name - that's what my baby is named! I will post plans and pictures as soon as I have my computer back. Right now it is with my hubby for his use in the hospital - our eldest son (8) has cancer and needs periodic hospitalizations, so hubby and I switch off "hospital duty". Yeah, not the ideal time for a remodel, but my current kitchen is 15 years old, put in by the former owners, and falling apart; I've been cooking exclusively out of a toaster oven for a few months!
Anyway, in lieu of pictures, I will explain that the future mudroom is 13x12ft with a built-in pantry. The pantry must stay and I am just changing the shelving to make it more usable. We'll be putting in a stacked washer/dryer set, a utility sink where the current kitchen sink is, and a big coat/boot rack area. The future kitchen will be 15ft7" x 12ft and I am putting in an L-shaped island which will house the range. One arm of that island will be USABLE butcher block (as in, can cut right on it), and the other kitchen countertops will be quartz, Dupont Zodiaq in Savory. Sink backaplsh will be Chateau marble tiles, and the hood will be the centerpiece, in Antique Copper by Modern-Aire. Fridge will be counter depth Samsung, range is 36" DCS, and sink and DW are not picked out yet but will be stainless. I am still waiting on the range hood quote and investigating butcher block sources (waiting on samples from Hardwood Lumber Co.). Cabinets, as per GC recommendation, will be Omega/Dynasty. I have a door sample ordered in the Bellehaven style on Knotty Alder in Nutmeg stain with Coffee glaze.

My immediate big dilemma is the coat rack in the mudroom. It will be to the left of the door as you walk in and we will need to have it custom made. GC wants the cabinet company to make it, since we are planning to use a similar but simpler style and stain as the kitchen cabinets for the few cabs in the mudroom. But the coat rack will be a big piece, 7ft tall by 6ft wide, with a bench seat and open boot cubbies underneath, and a top row of short cubbies with doors. We have four kids and live in the country so I need something big and USEFUL. Since the mudroom opens to the kitchen, I don't want them to compete for attention - as you walk in you look straight ahead to the kitchen anyway - but I am wondering if it would look okay to have the coat rack the focal part of the mudroom, since it will be so big. Maybe have it made by a local person in a more rustic farmhouse style with a black stain, and maybe a golden oak beadboard back for the hooks and bench seat? But then would that clash badly if the other cabinets are the reddish-brown stain of the kitchen cabinets? The walls in the mudroom are wide golden pine planks, the floor will be a slate-looking light grey tile, and I am hoping for soapstone counters and sink (there is about 2ft of counter on sited side of the sink).

What do you think so far, and would it be too distracting or clash too much to have the coat stand so different? What would you do?

Again sorry for no pics yet, but I will get them up over the weekend if I can!

don't know if any of this is helpful to you...we've put in a 12 x 25 addition across over half of the front of the house. It is entry and kitchen.

We don't have laundry equipment in our new entry, but the it is semi-attached to the new kitchen as well; it contains coat closet and door to garage and door to rest of house; kithen hall has door to the basement stairway and a door into the dining room. As I type I'm sitting on stool at outside of kitchen peninsula which is in the kitchen hall (our old corridor kitchen which had a lot of doors in it).

I am glad that I can't see the front door from where I'm sitting and that people at the door can't see me (cement crew is out there right now). There's an 8-foot coat closet and a table-ht desk/communication center between us. One of our goals for entry was that two people could put on coats simultaneously, which kept us from making it too cramped. Another was to create a place to stash "things going elsewhere"--library books, items for the cabin, items to go to Grandma, etc. Another was to have boots out of the way when not in use--we've put them into blind corner of kitchen (accessed through back wall of closet).

You will need to factor in the storage of dirty laundry I assume, and a clean place to sort laundry pieces before washing. This will be a neat trick, assuming the room has mud. Can you camouflage or tuck the laundry into a deadend of the space? Or into the far end of a long closet? Could you work up a fold-up table of some kind for a clean sorting and folding surface? How will you handle the laundry baskets?

We have a Labrador dog who is willing to hang out in the entry area most of the time--entry door has full-length window with internal blinds so he can look out during the day. The entry area has been nothing but dirt the last couple weeks because it's mud time in Minnesota and he's a major culprit because he swims. We've designated a couple rugs that are okay for him and he frequently sleeps at the junction of entry and kitchen hall, out of my way much of the time. I had wanted to have a designated dog bed area but there was none to be had; even his dish lives under the desk most of the time. Although we have lots of space we have no space if you know what I mean. So far we're happy and the ivory colored tile floor looks good as long as we sweep.

An attractive art piece posted on wall facing the laundry area can decoy the eye away from laundry and it sounds like you might see it from kitchen.

Lots of posters say they hate their desk areas but it's a good way to keep the mail and other stuff from advancing into the kitchen from the entry. Also, when people can't find something they stop there instead of coming into kitchen. We put in deep cabs above the desk to hold our household business--financial statements, folders of receipts, etc. The address book and calendar live there, and the phone and phone charger.

Hi florantha, I know exactly what you mean by lots of space but no space! That exactly describes my home. In fact, I don't really have a space for a desk right now because of that. I wish I had my computer so I could upload some pictures (I'm using my iPad right now), but I will just have to use words to describe my space for now:
When you walk into my house, you walk right into my kitchen, which is 13ft x 12ft. So if you think of a square, the front door is on the bottom side at the far right. The right side is a wall, along which is the recessed pantry, and this wall stops at the end of the 12ft. There is a walkway in front of you, and the rest of the bottom side (to the left of the door) has the fridge and a short counter. The left-hand wall has that counter continuing from the corner, then a sink under a window, then a counter over the dishwasher, and then a wall oven with microwave and short cabinets over it. There is no fourth wall ahead of you - the tile just transitions to wood floor and there is a wood beam overhead to divide the rooms. So if you walk to the end of the tile, you are in the left half of a rectangular room, and our dining set is in the same room at your right. So, the dining room is a 15ft 7" by 24ft rectangle, and my current kitchen is like a square under the long left side of that rectangle. The dining set fits into the right-hand 12ft stretch of dining room, and the left-hand side (that my current kitchen opens onto) is useless empty space right now. So I'm pushing my kitchen straight backwards into that space, and my current kitchen will be the mudroom/entry.

That was probably clear as mud, but it's the best I can do for now, sorry! The place where my wall oven and microwave are, will house a tall cabinet which will contain the stacked washer/dryer. The sink und the window will be replaced with a utility sink and keep the short counters at either side - I'm hoping to make that all soapstone. So the will be both top and bottom cabinets at either side of the sink (and under it), and I was thinking of having those cabinets and the tall one housing the W/D similar to the kitchen cabinets. The fridge and short counter, to the left of the front door, will be replaced by the coat stand. So that's where I'm agonizing over having the different stains. They would be right up again each other in that corner... Would it look terrible if they were different, as I described in my post above?

I'll be putting in a long countertop between the two rooms to separate the mudroom from the kitchen, leaving a 4th walkway from the door straight to the kitchen, and adding an open shelf right under the ceiling beam as well, to separate the spaces. I figure that can be a handy folding area as necessary, or we can use the dining room table. I don't sort, really, and my pantry is big (7th x 2.5th) so if need be, I can shove the hamper in there out of sight when company comes. Hampers stay in rooms/closets until I do laundry, so I don't think it will be a big deal? And the ironing board can go in the pantry too, with one if those wall retainers which holds the iron up above. I never hang clothes and I suppose I could always use the coat hooks and a hnagerrs for rare occasions, too?

Does this all make sense or have I created mass confusion by now?

Natalie, Just wanted to send healing thoughts and prayers to your son, and your family.

Good luck with your kitchen! We're just starting a small remodel, but this site is awesome!

Thank you sandesurf. My little man is such a toughie, and we are very proud of how well he's handled everything. The poor kid just can't catch a break - he totally finished three and a half years of treatment for leukemia, only to be diagnosed with a relapse the very next day. It was awful, but he is dealing with it a lot better than I am, that's for sure!
Like I said above, its really not a great time for a remodel, but at the same time it does give me something good to focus on and keep me busy? Plus, it keeps things in perspective - yes I want a beautiful and useful space, but construction/aesthetic issues don't have the life and death importance that the cancer does.

Can't wait to get pictures up and show you the space I'm working with!

Natalie,
I'm sorry to hear about your son's health and am sending your family good vibes and positive thoughts!

I am a newbie here too. I can vouch for how wonderful and helpful the people on here are. I've already been helped through a couple of unrealistic floorplans and now have one I am happy with and ready to move forward.

I'm fairly certain that if it weren't for GW, my hubby would be hiding from me at night trying to avoid discussing all the details ad nauseum :)

I am sure having something you are totally in control of (your reno) may give you a little respite from the parts of your life you have no control over. I'm looking forward to seeing your plans.

Thank you ayerg73. That is a good point about the control part, as I have a tendency to be a bit of a control freak when it comes to my home. Although DS' diagnosis does put things in perspective so that I can really let go of some things where normally I would freak out. Hypothetically speaking right now, of course - remind me of this when we run into snags!
I finally have my computer back so will work on pics tonight and tomorrow.

After tons of obsessing, I have now decided to stick with a golden stain for the mudroom coat stand and cabinets, which would match the planks on the walls, instead of coordinating with the kitchen. The door styles will be similar though the mudroom one is a bit plainer, which seems appropriate. My thinking is that the wood tone in the kitchen will be close to my antique hutch and my dining set, and since they are in the same room, I would rather have those flow together and keep the mudroom separate but harmonious. So if the mudroom cabs pick up the tines of the walls, it should be ok. Right?

I can't wait to get my kitchen cab door sample now... It should come in this week and if I am REALLY lucky, it will be what I want, AND will work with my budget. Everything else is pretty much picked out in the kitchen except for the cabs and a dishwasher. I wish I could keep mine (DW), but it is white where the new kitchen will have stainless, but of course they stopped making my model so I can't just swap out the door. Grr! Also waiting on soapstone samples and a butcher block sample, I can't wait to see them!

Thank you all again and I will be posting pics soon!

Our GC is making a custom coat and boot shelving unit, but not very large. It will be 24" wide, 84" tall, and 18" deep, with a top, bottom, sides, a closet rod for coats with hangers, and one shelf. That's all I needed, and I wanted it painted white (a couple coats of paint). It won't look anything at all like my cabinets, but will fit my space perfectly, and he is charging me $235, which I thought was a great price. The way I figure it, all the trim is gloss white, so it will look fine. Good luck, and I hope that your son recovers for good this time.

Pictures finally!!! 14 of them, actually... the first are layout plans and CAD designs, the last ones are actual pictures. Please feel free to critique!

Shoot, I added titles and thorough descriptions but they stayed on photobucket! Here is the link to the album; www.photobucket.com/nataliechantal_current-kitchen Please check it out to understand what I'm doing! Thank you SO much!

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