I'm sorry to hear of the loss of your home and wish you luck on this new build. It really depends so much on the layout, your family, how it flows into the other rooms. You are building a good sized home and a fair sized kitchen. How often and how does your family cook? Architects will often put square footage into dramatic entries, oversized master baths, humungous ceilings. It really depends on what your priorities are. Would it be possible to post some info on you and your family and the layout itself? It would really help us give feedback.

Thank you so much. I am attaching a picture of the initial plan. I like the layout and I think it flows well. We are new empty nesters with my daughter going off to college the month after a fire. Our lives have changed in so many ways. My husband thinks the kitchen should be a little larger and I think the plan is fine the way it is. Feel free to imput!

Here is a link that might be useful:

What s shock it must have been to lose your home! We were empty nesters for about two years, then had a boomerang daughter and her small son move in. You never know what's going to happen next!

My kitchen is ap. 13.5x13.5--a good size, even when all the kids were still living at home. We host extended family meals at least once a month, usually 16-20 people, and I have the flow down pat.

With the island as drawn, you won't have the full 170 (or so) square feet as work space, but for a couple, I think that is a nice size, especially being open the breakfast area and great room. Good luck with your new home.

dnilsen, Oh, how awful for you. I'm so sorry. At least everyone is safe and sound but what a loss. To look on the bright side how many people have an opportunity to build a new home. I wish you well. Our kitchen which you commented on is 16x14. It's the perfect size for us. I agree with remodelfla. Often space is wasted in areas that aren't as useful. How does the size compare to your other kitchen? Base it on that and decide if you need more or less. Good Luck!

It's actually a little smaller than or other kitchen, but it's more square where our other kitchen was more a wide galley. I wish I could remember the dimensions. My husband might remember. I know the layout makes a huge difference and I really like the way he has everything so open and that he has put in a butler's pantry. I will tell you all..I will never forget that night as long as I live. We are blessed to all be here that is for sure.

A butlers pantry, how wonderful. I can't imagine what it must have been like. Were you home at the time?

Yes oldhouse. We were at home at the time. It hit us around 7:30 pm. We thought it was just a crazy loud clap of thunder and did not realize we had been hit. We heard glass break and started walking around the house to see what broke. My husband smelled smoke and pulled down the attic door to see the whole attic was engulfed. We had about 2 minutes to get out at that point. We lost almost everything we had. I woke up the next morning at a neighbors house in borrowed pajamas and a toothbrush that the Red Cross gave me. One of the hardest things I have ever been through in my life. We all got out and got the dogs out, but we lost our precious cockatiel. Through all the excitement, we did not have time to grab him.

Your kitchen, family room and breakfast area are almost identical to mine, counter shape and all. There are 3 adults here and it is more than enough room. I have entertained up to 8 people in that area without having to use my dining room. Good Luck!

So sorry for your loss of your home and your pet, too. It must have been terribly difficult to have your child leave for college, a loss too -- even if it's good/happy -- a month after the fire.

The plans are amazing -- what an empty nester's dream! Love the master suite, wow! But we're talking kitchens here... so....

I can see 13.5 x1 13.5 being big enough, but...... the way your breakfast bar cuts across it, it effectively makes it about 1/3 smaller than that size -- by angling the island you'r effectively giving some of your kitchen space back to the family room and the breakfast room which are already substantial. When I look at the work space, and imagine a refrigerator in there, too, it looks to me like there just isn't a lot of prep space -- mainly you'll be prepping to the right of your sink, and even that space is further divided by the raised bar. Work-space wise, it seems a bit measly especially in light of the elegance of the rest of the house. It seems to me that perhaps by squaring out the room and having stools pulling up to a counter-height peninsula that backs to the family room the space could be better optimized. There might even be room for an additional center work space if that were the case, this would probably double or triple your effective work space, and also allow you to prep away from the cleanup zone.

Maybe asking for help from those around here who are good at layouts would be worthwhile to see what else people can come up?

Thank you Kris...I can see where you are coming from. Just emailed the architect. Also thinking of bumping the laundry room out and adding the pantry to that space so that it frees up the corner. Great idea!!! I am hoping we can add an island to the center too!

I am so sorry to hear about your loss (of your house and your dear pet). Despite having lost all your possessions, it must be a grounding experience to look around at your family & dogs the next morning and know that everything that is important is safe. When I hear about this kind of thing it always reminds me to do a double take on where I am placing my priorities.

My house is an old balloon built house, and generally when they start to burn, they are well beyond saving. Our walls were stuffed with sawdust & newspapers (I call it firestarter) in the early '20s as insulation. ItâÂÂs only my husband, myself, and the dogs in the house. I'm adamant that the dogs sleep in our bedroom with us at night so that if anything happens, we can get them out in a hurry! My husband calls me paranoid.

Your layout looks great! We have a 10x12 kitchen, and we find it works great for two of us. We have never known a kitchen much larger though, so maybe ignorance is bliss in our case. I agree with you, I think the kitchen proposed in your layout will suit you, especially with one less person around the house. You might feel the pain when she comes home at Christmas etc, but those times are so short you will hardly notice.

I'm sorry to hear about the lightening, glad you and your family are ok.

Well, you're busy working on your new home at least, and it is gorgeous. There's a long list of things I like, but I have to confess the kitchen is not among them. It's simply not up to the standards of function built into the rest of the home.

It's not the size, actually--most people don't need or want a bunch of open space in the middle to trot back and forth across, after all. It's the layout. A good layout's 90% of a good kitchen, and that one just doesn't function that well. Not awful, but why build anything that's just okay? That long counter away from everything on the left--if it were mine, I know I'd never use it. It's in the wrong place. I'd be prepping on one of the chintzy pieces by the stove with wall cabinets in my face or, more likely, over by the sink--glad to work looking out into the room but back to the bad old days of sharing my work space with the cleaning area and the unappetizing stuff that accumulates there.

Whether you like to cook a lot or not, you guys'll be in there a whole lot, so some additional attention given to this area will be worth it. Not a giant "look at me" kitchen, or an elaborate duded-up one, by any means, just a good one to be and work in.

What an awful loss! I'm so sorry.

I echo rosie's concern about the long counter without much of a purpose.

I also noticed wasted space in your butler's pantry and the huge amount of space given over to your coat closet. Do you really need one that large? I decided you don't ;-) and came up with this plan (concept only, not drawn to scale.)

{{!gwi}}

The smaller coat closet allowed me to make the butler's pantry large enough to also accommodate a walk-in pantry with pocket door.

I moved the fridge over so that it's not immediately visible from the great room, put the DW and sink on that same wall with the sink under the relocated window. There should be room for about a 20" cabinet between sink cab and corner Susan.

I moved the range to be parallel to the long side of the now rectangular island with prep sink. You should have roughly 42" of cabinets on either side of the range.

I estimate the island to be 90" long. Depth could be as much as 64.5": 2 rows of back to back 24" deep cabs plus 15" overhang for seating, plus 1.5" counter overhang over cabs. One row of cabs will be accessible beneath the overhang. You may not need that much storage, in which case, you can make the island narrower and have plenty of room for stools at the island without infringing on great room space.

Oops, I forgot to eliminate the window from the pantry. You can also make the window over the sink larger than is shown.

If you're willing to make these changes to the butler's pantry and coat closet, then there are more options than what I've drawn for your kitchen. It's a good space but IMO you need to put storage and counter space where it's most useful.

You may get more comments with the image of your home's plan embedded in the thread.

I agree! Thank you so much for your suggestion and seeing it drawn out is very helpful. I agree the Butler's Pantry could be larger and I like the fridge out of view of the family room. We are still playing with this and will show this to the hubby. I am loving the suggestions. We are new to this and I really want a nice usable kitchen.