This is a view into the family room....the wall that I am considering for a pantry is where the kids' table and chairs are. I suppose we could also extend the wall where the notional pantry would go a foot or so to the right into the opening of the family room. As the floor plan shows, the whole family room doesn't open into the kitchen. There would be some limitation on view of the kitchen from the couch but maybe not a big issue.

I'm not one of the gurus, but I like to learn from them and I'm interested to see what they come up with. I played around with your floor plan a bit--please forgive how messy it is. I hope you get the gist of my ideas. They may not be feasible.

The first thing that struck me about your kitchen is the sight line from the front door directly through your kitchen. To create some privacy from the foyer, I squared off your laundry room and put up a floor to ceiling wall at the end of the hall. And then I moved stuff around from there.

Do you use your formal living room differently than your family room and your morning room? Have you thought about this?

I just had to commend you for such a thorough initial post asking for help. This is how you do it, Good job! You obviously read the "new to kitchens-read me first". I think you will get a lot of great ideas.

My first thought was that your laundry room would make a great pantry. Any possibility of moving the washer & dryer? If you didn't want to do that, could they be stacked? Building shelves and/or cabinets in there would help get stuff out of the basement. Your little existing pantry could be re-figured as a coffee and snack station, getting the coffee maker off the range landing space.

Would it be possible to recess the fridge into the family room wall, the side where the couch is? Doing that would free up the space the fridge takes up currently. Also gives you the option to do a full U shape giving you more counter and storage than an island.

How about running a hutch along the back wall of the morning room? Cabinets below for the art supplies, shelves/cabs above for extra kitchen items? Once the kids outgrown glitter & glue, that space would make a wonderful sunny sitting area.

Thanks for the thoughts. benjesbride, are you suggesting a floor to ceiling wall in the kitchen on the "island" where you put the range, kind of creating a galley kitchen?

Right now, we primarily use the living room for our large bookshelf, a small loveseat and leather chair and our desk. They are the remnant of our pre-kid days when both the living room and dining room were one big grown-up space for reading and chatting over coffee....we've since moved the dining table and chairs from the morning room to the dining room and consolidated furniture into the living room. We don't use it too often, except for the desk (like right now!) but when we have parties, we always set up a food serving table in the living room or have a large folding table and chairs so everyone can sit together when we have more than 8 people.

I do wonder what we would do with the morning room once we don't need it for train tracks and glue, which is where the idea of combining it with the kitchen space came from.

I had not at all considered removing the wall between the kitchen and dining room and combining those spaces. I'd be interested in hearing some opinions on that, though.

llucy, my mom had suggested putting pantry shelves in the laundry room years ago! : ) The thing is, that tiny room has to function as a laundry room, mud room and drop zone for all of our things that we bring in from the garage. We have hooks for the kids' coats, shelves in that little white box area in the floor plan for backpacks, lunch boxes, purses, etc, a set of Ikea cubes for hats, mittens and sunglasses, a shoe rack, a charging station for electronics and cabinets above the W/D for cleaning and laundry detergent, plus a hanging bar for clothes. Phew! I worked on that space about a year ago since the mess was spilling onto the kitchen island and if we move a pantry in there, I'm afraid that we won't have anywhere to keep all of those things. I'm kind of proud of the transformation from unpainted and scary looking to bright and cheerful...it was my first real DIY project : ) We could technically move the W/D hookups to the basement but I decided against it so I could keep the laundry moving with small kids around and keep it cleaner than it would be in the unfinished area of the basement.

View from kitchen into laundry room:

View from laundry room towards kitchen (closed door with shoe rack):

If I understand your suggestion about recessing a fridge into a wall, I think we would have similar issues with losing pretty valuable space in the laundry room...either the shelves for backpacks on the wall near the family room or the 4 cube organizer on the wall near the hallway. I may be misunderstanding, though.

I like your hutch idea....if you look at the picture I took of the kitchen and morning room ceilings, you can see two tall oak cabs. Those would be replaced by upper and lower cabs with that plan.

I am not an expert, but if it were me, I would totally remove the wall between the kitchen and morning room and run the kitchen all along that back wall. Add a really big island with prep sink, plenty of storage, and seating. Pick an island top that will stand up to anything - our solid surface has survived 3 boys, Easter egg dye, permanent marker, glitter, glue, and dropped scissors. (Although the last puppy did destroy some base molding!)

Is there any room upstairs near existing plumbing fixtures where you could move the washer and dryer? That little room has a lot going on and it would be nice if it was just a mudroom.

For a bigger project, I'd look at making the morning room under the vault your dining area, the dining room and half the kitchen your kitchen and your family room and the other half of your kitchen the living room. I'm noticing in a lot of new construction that people are putting an office or flex type room at the front of the house, so id turn your current living room into an office area. So ultimately you'd have a great room type of space on the back of the house and a den/office off the foyer.

My drawing above with the galley-type of layout (adding a full wall behind the range) is my best attempt at not moving plumbing very far if at all and no major structural changes. If youre open to a major reconfiguration, my wheels are turning :-)

When we gave ourselves permission to entertain the idea of moving our kitchen, it was a total game changer and I'm so happy we did it. Moving the kitchen made our house much more livable.

I'm at my computer now, so here's my thought on consolidating rooms and opening everything up...

the rooms...

For the very short term, consider purchasing a small cart or buffet to place at the end of the sink run, where you have your trash can now. IKEA has some, or craigslist. Depending on the exact model you find, you could use this for everyday dish storage, silverware (in a basket or tray, if the piece doesn't have drawers - check somewhere like hobby lobby for inexpensive options), coffee maker and supplies. That would open some of the 15" cab for baking pans and often-used foods. (I would move the trash across the aisle, so its next to the island instead of next to the cabinets. Still usable in the same standing spots as before.)

I give this suggestion because I learned... From my own kitchen.... That alleviating the most pressing problems, even temporarily, made it easier to contemplate all the different options for a permanent re-do. For us, it was adding a command center (through a standalone buffet/console table piece). For you, it seems to be spreading out the need - at - the - same - time kitchen items, and straight up adding storage space.

I'm know it sounds cuckoo, but if your present set up makes it impossible to work efficiently... you could temporarily put the fridge on the wall where the small kids table is outside the family room and as elizardbethday said, you can get some IKEA freestanding stuff on Craigslist to add counter space while your sort out what you want to do.

Interesting ideas so far. I'm a little more inclined to consider combining the kitchen and morning room rather than removing the wall between the kitchen and dining room....seems like a huge project and quite a bit of $$. From the bit of research I've done, it seems like roughly 10% of your home value would be a reasonable ballpark amount to spend on a remodel. Our home is 11 years old and about $250K; we have about 2200 sqft and a finished basement. I looked at the homes for sale in our neighborhood and most of them have kitchens similar to or not substantially bigger or nicer than ours. I'm interested in looking at possibilities, but spending a ton on reconfiguring the whole first floor is probably out of scope.

If we pursue the idea of combining the kitchen and morning room, would the transition from 8ft ceilings to a vaulted ceiling in the middle of the room just be too strange looking? Does anyone have floorplan thoughts for this?

your kitchen looks fine to me i wouldn't change a thing

IMO, the two ceiling types define two separate spaces. Perhaps someone here has a good idea for making it look intentional, but I think it would look strange.

If you like the great room concept, it wouldn't hurt to iron out more detailed drawings and consult with a few contractors as well as a few realtors. We held off on removing a wall, moving an exterior door and adding a window only to be pleasantly surprised at the cost. A good realtor could give you an idea of the ROI if you think you'll be moving.

If you really want to just combine the kitchen and morning room, you could look into removing and patching the half circle window and making the morning room ceiling the same as the kitchen ceiling. I don't think you'd be losing value if you leveled the ceiling in the process of improving your kitchen.

Here are some very basic pics to give you an idea of one way to combine kitchen and morning room, expanding your laundry/ garage entry. There's about a 5 foot opening to the family room and it assumes the windows stay.

If the wall between kitchen and dining room isn't load bearing, there would be minimal costs for doing benjesbride's plan. Your greater expense would be moving plumbing. And since you're willing to consider that for moving the kitchen into the morning room, I just don't think you should nix the other idea so quickly. I think benjesbride's plan would create an amazing space.

But if you're really not interesting in going there, I do think that you need to expand that kitchen into the morning room to get what you want and need. Here's a very, very rough idea as I'm unsure of dimensions and if this would even begin to fit in this space.

BTW, I really like your little laundry/mud room space. I can understand you wanting the laundry close by and it looks like a great space for gathering up everything and preventing clutter. If you could move W/D upstairs near the bedrooms, that would also be convenient but I'd never move it to a basement or garage either.

Oh, I think I like benjesbride's plan better than mine. Well, at least that gives you a couple of ideas to consider anyway.

If you can expand into the morning room, can you close off any of the exterior doors?

Have you considered just getting a larger island? Ours has quite a bit of storage and seating for 4. Your boys could then do some of their projects at the island. I would then get a large hutch ( many can be found on Craigslist) to place along the wall in the morning room. Hutches can hold so many dishes that you currently keep in the basement.

Our island has pantry shelves that hold all of our canned goods. The other side has 6 drawers and a large area for whatever.

By the way....I love your laundry room redo!!

If you can completely remove that wall between kitchen and morning room, I would do something like this. Now you have seating at the island and a banquette table with seating...both for four. Just an idea :)

Thank you everyone for your ideas!! You have my wheels turning : ) I have another thought that I was hoping to get feedback on. I have no idea how much it might cost to move plumbing, so if we talk to a contractor and find that to be more than we'd like to spend, what else might you suggest keeping major appliances where they are? One jumping off point might be to move the W/D hookups up to our large walk-in closet which is next to the master bath, which frees up space in the laundry room. We could move our mudroom items to the space where the W/D currently are and free up space where I have the built-in shelves (in the nook behind the kitchen door) or where the Ikea 4 cube unit is. Would it make sense to build a pantry in either of those areas? If so, would that be accessed by going in the laundry room or would it be better to make doors from the kitchen side? Thanks again for all of your suggestions!!

Can you measure the exact locations of your gas and water plumbing so we know how much flexibility there is with your stove and sink locations?

I think you would love having your w/d near to where the laundry comes from and gets put away!

Unless you are on a slab moving utilities should not be expensive. Get more than one estimate if necessary and/or consider DIY

Is the morning room original to the house or is that sink wall an old exterior wall and the morning room an addition? I'm just wondering if there is foundation/basement wall between kitchen and morning.

If you combine rooms and move plumbing, I think moving kitchen to dining is going to be your best bet.

Something similar to LL's, except that the island is shorter, ends where your current kitchen ends (but I think you still have room for 8,5-9' island). The cabs on the other side continue in the morning room, but make them different from the kitchen cabs, could be different counter, deeper/shorter uppers, whatever you prefer. I'd have a small sink there, not exactly for prep, but can become handy when you need to pour boiling pasta water or making coffee etc.

I'm enjoying churning over the challenge of your kitchen. I think I'm going through withdrawals now that our house is finishing up.

This is an idea with the constraint of keeping plumbing in place and not removing walls.

Here's what I did:

1) tried to get as much distance between the sink and the range as possible without moving utilities

2) Added a wall at the entrance to the family room that is the same width as the wall on the other side of the entrance; looking from the family room toward the kitchen the walls framing the opening should be equal widths.

3) Angled the island parallel with the wall with the existing laundry so it looks intentional and also create more comfortable counter seating for 3 kiddos.

4) To add storage,but not do anything that competes with the ceiling transition to the morning room, I added base cabinets to the morning room side of the kitchen proper. It's essentially a big peninsula with no seating.

5) Be mindful of Ice-Water-Stone-Fire. The mantra that has changed the way I will evaluate kitchens forevermore :-)

I'm going to see if I can plug this into the IKEA planner quickly

Quickly, yeah right...

@benjesbride - I think within the constraints of not moving plumbing or making structural changes, you've created a nice, functional plan.

Thanks to everyone for the amazing ideas and thought that you have put into this plan. I think that I have a wide range of options for talking to a kitchen designer. I'm going to see what they come up with using these suggestions as starting points and will report back. The whole notion of doing something that disrupts our lives for months is a bit overwhelming, especially with a 2 year old causing havoc (and still needing naps which would be difficult with major demolition going on : ) In any case, I really do want to think though my options and have a plan for whenever we do decide to go forward. I think that I will also try to find an independent kitchen designer to see if they might be able to find creative ways to maximize our space rather than selling one brand or another. That's the thought, anyway : ) Thanks again!

benjesbride, I can't thank you enough for the time and creativity you put into these designs! You obviously have a good deal of experience thinking about and planning kitchens and I'm blessed to have had your help! I honestly never thought about most of the changes that you suggested and I'm sure that one of them will really work with our space. You are awesome! : )

PS - I love the coffee station!! ;-)

I also have a two-year-old (and a 5 year old.) I understand the importance of a coffee station.

I can tell from the pictures of your home that you are incredibly well organized and make the most of every inch you have. I hope you get a space that works better for you. When you do, please share it with us!