I assume there is good reason for this, but your post begs the question: If you are going to completely gut the kitchen, is there a reason why you can't completely locate it to some other part of the house?

It's a thought but it just seems like such a scary project. The obvious choice would be to swap the kitchen with the family room (which is in the back of the house and leads outside). But, we have really nice built-ins and a fireplace there, and I'd hate to lose them.

I personally wouldn't worry about the front facing kitchen - close your shades while your eating if it bothers you. As far as spying on the neighbors while you're doing dishes - it's unlikely they'd see it that way - just don't worry about it.

Could you just change the windows, into smaller panes? Breaking up that huge expanse of glass would make a whole lot of difference.

That's exactly what we did - switched our kitchen and family room. The kitchen is now more central to the rest of the house, and the eating area is more private.

You're not in Vienna, VA, by chance, are you? I am :) Your screen name is similar to one I use elsewhere - ViennaMom

Yes! We're not Town of Vienna though- we're closer to Reston.

We'll have to give more thought to relocating the kitchen.

We also have a front facing kitchen (across from a school, so a lot of car/foot traffic) and our kitchen designer really stressed to us that we can give ourselves a lot of privacy by redoing our landscaping. Once our remodel is done (and our pocketbook has recovered...), we are planning to landscape our front yard. We'll put in a low berm right next to the sidewalk (so as far away from the kitchen window as possible) and then plant some native bushes, grasses, etc. to give us much more privacy. Please note that we won't be doing a tall, fence-like hedge -- that felt too much like we would be shutting out our neighbors -- rather we hope that it will look nice from both sides and so we'll have privacy and walkers-by will have nice landscaping to look at. Can you do anything like this?

We are swapping a front kitchen and back family room, as well. The privacy issue wasn't the main thing, but traffic flow through the house and to the backyard and from the garage was a mess. We are demolishing a fireplace, and moving it into the living room.

All this is costing much more than a straight kitchen redo, of course, but I am very happy with the improvements it will bring in the way the house works.

Viennamommy, how about telling us a bit more about your current location and layout? Can you share a floor plan? Is any other room/space facing front? Anything else facing back other than the family room? Do you have a front yard in which landscaping might help achieve more privacy? Is your street heavily trafficked?

What about keeping the fireplace in the kitchen? Could you move the built-ins to the new living room?

We moved multiple rooms to get our kitchen out of the middle of the house and to the back. Since I had such a horribly-placed kitchen, I would be willing to sacrifice built-ins (or perhaps incorporate them into the new kitchen) to get a better location for my kitchen.

Please post a layout - there could be other solutions to your challenge we aren't able to see without a layout.

Totally agree on the landscaping idea. I had a courtyard in my last house, which meant that none of our heavily-used rooms really looked out onto the street. In our new house, adding a brick wall/courtyard to the front will be $$$, so our alternative is to plant some privacy screening. I've seen a lot of blurbs in Sunset magazine covering this topic.

I'm another Vienna mom (on the Dunn Loring end, outside the town). I don't have any real helpful solutions but wanted to say hellow to my neighbors!

We have a bay window in our kitchen that starts at table level, and that's where our table is. We love it -- but we think of it as us looking out at the world as opposed to them looking in. My peninsula also faces that window, so I love watching my kids play out front while chopping, catching the first glimpse of DH coming home, seeing when the schoolbus, trash truck, etc. is going by.

I just went outside to look in -- from the sidewalk, you can't really see much when we're sitting at the table, because the house sits up a tad higher than the sidewalk. We do have a big bush outside in the middle of tye yard that doesn't block the window, but does draw the eye elsewhere. Maybe landscaping is a good suggestion, as someone else mentioned.

Good luck!

Some of our neighbors have huge front kitchen windows that go almost all the way to the floor -- you can see everybody's legs while they're sitting at the table. That would make me uncomfortable to live in, is that what you have? Some of those neighbors have cafe curtains across the lower half (and I thank them for it!). Cute wooden shutters that cover half the window, or maybe pretty sheers, could help.

my kitchen will face the front (actually a bit of an angle toward the front and neighbors on the east - the view is the mountains) but I'm on 2.5 acres also.

i love it facing front - I can see who is on the road, what the dogs are barking at, Mr UPS coming in the drive and the mountains.

don't worry about what the neighbors think. keeping an eye on the neighborhood is a good thing tho. maybe tint the lower part of the window by the table? I love sitting at the table looking out!

and a lot of light coming into the kitchen is a good thing to me.

My kitchen faces the front. I do have blinds on the big window in front of the table so I can have privacy but the window over the sink allows me to see what is going on in the neighborhood. I like that - kitchen work is so boring anyway.

If I had a deep backyard I might change the layout but my land is not that deep and there is less privacy from the back.

I also have a front facing kitchen and love it. Easy to keep an eye on the kids and a beautiful view of the front yard.

What about top down blinds? Or ones that go both ways. You get the privacy you need when it's dinner time and a pretty view with bottom up most of the other time.

We live on a very quiet street. The kitchen faces front. I like it that way. Easy to keep an eye out. especially a particularly annoying neighbor and their antics.

We use blinds for the large window. nothing over the sink window. no need for it.

I just finished doing the Opposite in a house in a townhouse development. The living area faced out the front to the driveways and the street, while the view and the slider to the back yard were wasted in the kitchen. (The kitchen was turned away from the view, and the slider was near the table, but only one person got a view)

At first it was a bit odd to stand at the sink and look out at the other houses: across, the neighbor's TV is so huge you can watch it from her kitchen...but you only see the TV, no people. And before, the other houses could look in at You in the kitchen from their living rooms on the Other street...its just a trade off.

The HO has a venetian blind on the front window (now over the sink)and it doesnt even really need to be closed, just turned a certain way. In the daytime no one can see in really, with it wide open.

And, now the main living area has a great view and direct access to new patio and garden.

We're also in the DC area, and I love facing out the front window when doing the dishes! We have a moderately private front yard, but it's lovely to look out and see what's happening outside, where the kids are, who's coming by, whether the deer are eating my pansies, etc. We have a large, beautiful Japanese maple in front of that bay window, and that really blocks the view from outside for at least half the year. Also, I'm glad the sink (and its accompanying noise) are as far as possible from the family room . . . . I remember from growing up how annoying dishwashing noise was when we had company over.

Hi all!
Thanks so much for your feedback. If I knew how to post my layout, I would.

We live on a quiet street in a cul-de-sac. Our house is a cape-cod and the front and back both have slight overhangs that make it a challenge to get a lot of light. Our windows in the kitchen (both the picture window and the small one over the sink) have plantation shutters, which are beautiful but I feel that they block out light. So, I'm always playing with them- trying to maximize privacy while letting in the most amount of light.

The other thing that bothers me is how the picture window and small window over the sink look from the exterior. I think it would look much nicer if we had standard windows that matched the other side of the house (our living room and dining room face front as well).

Most of the neighbors homes are setback off of the cul-de-sac but ours is not. Kids play in the cul-de-sac and people walk their dogs (our family included). I've just had a few odd moments where I've made eye contact with people on the street when I'm in the kitchen and it makes me feel like a nosy neighbor!

Landscaping might be the most ideal solution. In fact, I might just plant a tree now, well ahead of our reno plans just to see if it works!

Unless you're dead set on swapping rooms in your house, I echo the suggestions given to create the privacy you crave with window treatments and landscaping. A planted berm, a small courtyard, a fountain: any of these will create a pleasing view whether you are inside and outside. It doesn't have to be a solid screen (I'd discourage that anyway for security reasons) to stop the eye and distract the viewer from whatever is behind it.

I have a friend who is a garden designer in the DC area. Let me know if you'd like her name and contact info.

You can also tint your windows. I have a friend who does window tinting for a living. Everything from low-end to high-end homes, but especially higher end homes where the owners have these massive massive windows that it's difficult to find window treatments for. She uses a film that adheres to the glass which allows you to see out, but you can't see in from the outside.

Works a treat (she does it to all of her windows at her house...no curtains needed, just big bright views of the outside with no nosy neighbours peeking in.) It's pretty inexpensive to have done, certainly tens of thousands cheaper than relocating your whole kitchen!

I agree with others that window treatments and landscaping can solve your problem. Our kitchen and dining area also both face the front. We have a big enough yard that we don't feel too exposed, but our street is pretty busy, with quite a few people walking by in the late afternoon/evening hours as we are cooking and eating. So, in the dining area with the large window, we have bi-level shutters. We keep the top set folded back open all the time, and the bottom set stay in place but with the slats open. This provides enough of a screen that we feel some privacy while still letting in light. Outside our kitchen window, there's a small, spindly fig tree and a large tree with some low-hanging branches. These trees let me see out fine, but they make it a little less obvious when I am standing at the sink.

I've just had a few odd moments where I've made eye contact with people on the street when I'm in the kitchen...

Smile and wave! (It works for us).

-Lena