Truthfully? I think you will be cramped. The way the kitchen is setup, it's really a one-person kitchen. All three primary zones (Prep, Cooking, Cleanup) are crammed into one pretty small space...with very little real workspace in each.

Is this a new build? (I'm assuming so since you said you're also posting on the building forum).

What I see is a a kitchen as an after-thought...oh, we'll put the kitchen here s/he vaguely waves his/her hand.

You've given yourself very little wall space to work with...it's all openings and doorways and no place to put anything.

Would you consider switching the DR and the kitchen? It would make a huge difference to the kitchen. For example, you could eliminate or move the door on the far wall and, instead, make it a run of counter-height windows with the sink and Cleanup & Prep Zones along the wall. Then, put the range/cooktop and Cooking Zone on the left or right wall.

Or, put the range & sink on the far wall, maybe flank the range w/windows, and the refrigerator on the left or right wall...

There are many configurations that open up if you either switch the DR & Kitchen or close up some of the kitchen walls a bit.

I'd think about incorporating the mud room, laundry and walk in closets as part of the overall kitchen space and rethink it. You can still have all those elements, but a better layout, this is assuming this is new construction, not yet built?

I totally agree with buell about switching the DR and kitchen. As it stands, it occupies a lot of square footage, but it works like a one butt apartment kitchen.

It does look a little tight...mainly small areas for prep on each side of the range and not much room for prep on the island. If you had space for a separate clean up area and maybe a prep sink on the island, it might work better.

I know you're only asking about the kitchen, but I have to ask you about your walk-in shower. It's a lovely master bathroom, but the shower (even if it's glass) is blocking the windows, over the tub. It also blocks a third of your tub. For such a big space, I think it will feel small and cramped, when you try to take a bath.

That being said...I love the screened porch! Very nice and good size, too. That will be wonderful :)

Here's an idea:

{{!gwi}}

I moved the garage entry, which allowed me to eliminate the back hallway and add that space to the kitchen. The kitchen is still fairly rough since I have no idea what your dimensions are. Ideally, I'd like to have the clean-up sink and DW off the island (perhaps on the bottom wall, move the ovens to the range wall?) so that you can add a prep sink to the island. But without knowing the room's dimensions, it's impossible to do a more thorough lay-out.

btw, it looks like you've designed for a CD fridge, which seems on the small side for a family of 5. The above allows you to put in a full depth fridge and bring the rest of the cabs, etc forward to hide the fridge's depth.

Oops, one thing I meant to change and forgot. I'd change the pantry door to swing open from the other side. This will allow you to add some shallow storage (inches deep only) on the long wall against the laundry room. I have a similar wall in my pantry. I added hooks to hold aprons, a step stool, reusable grocery bags, and extra oven racks, and a spice rack to that wall. Uses every bit of space very efficiently.

As for that little nook area in your laundry room, if there isn't enough space to stand in front of cabs, then change that out to shallow, tall storage facing into the laundry room. Do full height cabs on the bottom end and to the counter cabs on the upper end.

Your layout is fairly similar to mine. I posted mine so that you can see it below. This isn't quite exact, but is pretty close to what we have.

We've been in our house about a year and a half now and the entire floorplan actually has quite a few similarities to yours, although ours is smaller. We are a family of 4 with 2 young children.

Here is our first floor floorplan before we figured out our kitchen layout:

I think our kitchen is big enough for our family and works well that way. I LOVE my pantry and how handy it is to my kitchen. I have a small freezer in there and keep all of my food stuff and most small appliances in there. This works great for me. I actually regret the tall pantry cabinet between the pantry door and the oven cabinet. This cabinet is actually still half empty. The cabinets above the range hood and over the fridge are also still empty and under the sink just has a basket of sippy cups. Everything seems to have a handy place and these spots just haven't seemed necessary. I wish I would have moved my range to the window wall (flanked by two windows) and made the bottom wall fridge, oven and tall pantry. The only other thing I regret in my kitchen is that we went with the Dynasty/Omega cabinets and although they are great quality, the top drawers are shallower than standard and don't fit a lot of my spatulas, etc. and so I have a crock on the counter next to the range for them.

My favorite things about my kitchen are my pantry, microwave drawer in the island, pots and pans in drawers flanking range, really all drawers, mixer lift cabinet under window and little cabinet created in island void next to dishwasher that is the perfect place to keep my dishwasher detergent.

As usual, lisa_a has a great suggestion, which I can say because I was thinking the same thing. That hallway is a useless waste of space.

I also agree that with five household members you should see whether you can get in a separate washup area, so you have two sinks and get people out of your way.

I think Lisa hit the nail on the head, again. I third the idea of a seperate cleanup area if possible. We're only four in my house, but I think it's practically a necessity even at our level. Or at least at my level of intolerance for interference when I'm prepping and cooking. ;)

Well, I am so not a "spatial" girl...but I think you will be cramped. I would turn the island so that the long part of the island is perpendicular to the dining room and I would make the dining area smaller....add seating at the island...I don't like a sink and DW in island, but that is just me...I would make sure that you have enough walking space between island and all counters...enough for 2 people to walk side by side so that you are not bumping into each other. Our plan had to be tweeked MANY times to get it right, so be patient. The planning part is the most important.
HTH
capegirl

It isn't too small, but the design isn't optimal. There is a lot of wasted space nearby, so keep at it. Good luck!

I like Lisa's idea, but maybe reconfigure the space so the laundry and mudroom share an area (maybe laundry against garage wall) and have the walk in pantry, where the laundry is now. This would give you more space for the kitchen work area and you could move the pantry door down a bit.

It would be nice to have more natural light in the kitchen, so maybe windows on either side of the range, with the clean up sink on the island. (Most people like that better than the cooktop on the island, but if that works, then the sink could be under the window.) The fridge wall would be a great place for the second sink and microwave. A snack/beverage area would be great for a family of 5 :)

THANKS so much for taking the time to give your opinions!

Yes, this is a new build.

As far as the hallway between the kitchen and mudroom, I asked to have that put there because I did NOT want the kitchen to be seen from the front door since I usually have a messy kitchen. I like the open concept, but to a certain extent. I don't want to stand in the foyer and see absolutely everything in my house.

Here is our previous version of the floor plan, before I asked for the hallway:

And here is the awesome Summerfield(if you know the building forum, you know Summerfield) plan that I stole the hallway idea from:

I don't think the kitchens on any of these plans are very big??

I don't think I can switch the kitchen and dining room....the porch and deck both being over in the dining area just seem to make more sense. I think the best thing to do is work with the back mudroom area and incorporate that into the kitchen. I will reread everyone's responses and think long and hard about this. Thanks again!

If you want to hide the kitchen from the foyer, that's easy enough to do without creating a back hall that eats up kitchen space: add a door. Have the stairway wall built a bit thicker for a pocket door. Close it when the kitchen's a mess and company's due over and leave it open the rest of the time. A pocket door is there when you need it and out of sight, out of mind when you don't.

stephpi, I just looked at your plan again and even with the changes I made to your kitchen, it will NOT be visible from the front door. The stairway and the partial wall in the great room will block the view. The only room that should be visible from the front door - unless a visitor has some nifty see-around-corners toy from a Cracker Jack's box ;-) - is the great room. They might see a little bit of the DR but that should be all that is visible from the front door.

Someone would have to walk more than halfway into the foyer to get even a glimpse of your kitchen. I could be wrong but I would think that if someone came in that far, they were going to be invited even farther in at which point, yes, they would see your kitchen because it is open to the great room and dining room. At that point, a back hallway to hide your kitchen seems moot. IMO, of course.