I was born in the late 30's and as long as my Dad lived, he never went outside without his hat. Felt in winter and straw in summer...new for each season. Up at 5:00 A.M. & off to the local hotel for his Wall Street Journal, a shave & a shoe shine. He was particular about his appearance and clothing & I have vivid memories of him in winter -dressed in a heavy overcoat, with hat, gloves and spats. And he never failed to tip his hat and hold a door open for the ladies! Mother wore hat & gloves even for grocery shopping until near the end of her life. IMHO we could use a lot more of those more 'proper' times.

I think you have hit a point in this discussion where it would make sense to start a new thread. The current title is misleading now for the direction the thread has gone (layout advice) and won't attract as much of the help you now seem to need (from the layout enthusiasts). Plus even if the layout people found their way here, the information they need to make suggestions is now scattered across many comments. I suggest you do this: 1) Start a new thread. Ask specifically for layout suggestions/help in the title of this new one. You don't need to be discussing the nitty gritty of lighting/finishes till after you have decided on the layout that will work for you. Asking for layout help will attract the layout gurus. Asking for lighting or finishes help later in a different thread will get the lighting or decor gurus. (Involve a KD later when you have exhausted the free help here.) 2) In your new layout help thread, post a floor plan of the entire floor the kitchen is on (not just the living and kitchen, but also every room on this whole floor and the garage/laundry too). It helps us more than you can imagine to see the kitchen fully in the context of the rest of the house. It is fine to hand draw it, same as the other plans you already posted. There is no such thing as too much information or detail when it comes to this floor plan. Indicate on the plan where the best views are. Mark where the windows are, how wide, and how far off the ground. Indicate doorways. All of it. Whatever is written on this plan will be absorbed and understood FAR more than anything you type in your comments. This floor plan should be on graph paper and to scale where one square = 1 square foot. 3) Post pictures of the interior of your kitchen/living area, particularly of things that are difficult to see on the plan -- the shape of the fireplace, the view you want to make the most of. There is no such thing as too many pictures. The better we understand your space, the better and more relevant (and more fervent) the help you will receive. And visuals are a million times more helpful to our understanding than anything else. 4) Write these things (more or less) in the new thread: __________________________________ Title: Please help - kitchen layout! Post: The situation: we are remodeling our soon-to-be-open-plan kitchen/dining/living room (we're taking down the wall between the kitchen and living room) we are couple with one dog (no kids and no plans for them) husband is a contractor and will be doing the majority of the work budget is $40,000-$60,000, plus contingency fund we like to cook/make snacks together and to entertain small groups (4-6 people) -- both inside and out on the deck I also bake often and want to start canning we will live here for ten more years and then buy another house and rent out this house Primary goals for the remodel: ability to have two cooks/snackers in the kitchen at once maximize view/windows towards the deck -- we have wild bird feeders out there and enjoy watching the birds from our current slider make the kitchen very open to the living room (we've had that open layout before and loved the easy chatting between those rooms) we do not use the dining table unless entertaining (on normal days, we eat in front of the TV), so we would prefer a plan where the dining table can be put away or repurposed in between parties and the space used for something else day-to-day desired big appliances: dishwasher, range, and fridge (already bought the fridge -- it is a 36" counter depth French door) --> I made these numbers/details up. Please provide the real ones. places for these frequently-used small appliances: coffee maker, toaster, Kitchen Aid mixer area for pet food/bowls pantry storage Like-to-haves: baking center with spot for KitchenAid mixer to live on the counter not moving the slider -- it works well with the deck now and would be a pain to change cookbook storage (does this have to be in the kitchen, or could it be in the living room?) small appliance storage sink and range on the same run of counter (not across the aisle from each other) microwave drawer seating facing the view towards the deck Here is an awesome and thorough to-scale floor plan on graph paper of the entire floor with everything and its grandmother indicated and labeled: [Image] Here are 12,000 pictures of the inside of my home from every angle: [Images] Here is a picture of my dog: [Image] For more information here is a link to my previous thread: [link] _____________________ That's all the information we need to start making good suggestions, and providing more info. than that just makes it harder for people to remember the important stuff and also can sometimes constrict creativity. Talking more broadly about your goals rather than your conclusions allows people to surprise you with solutions you may never have considered. Also, part of good kitchen layout design is routing non-kitchen traffic away from the kitchen work zones, providing logical locations for trash/compost/recycling, maximizing continuous lengths of counter space where they are most useful, maximizing storage (especially point-of-use storage), making the aisle width appropriate for the kitchen as designed, making things more functional, etc. So you don't have to ask for any of those things specifically. We will make sure our designs have those features to the best of our ability from the get-go. (Any good KD would as well.) What I have posted in bullets above are the parts of your kitchen design that are not automatic for us. The condensed, pertinent information to a layout designer. You'll notice none of the lighting or finishes info. is included because those considerations mostly come later after your floor plan is set.

Current Resident - Very true on the stains...I considered sanding (sanding, and some more sanding) then trying a liming wax over the pine to tone down the orange a bit while still keeping the wood features. I didn't even consider that Sherwin Williams could match a stain to the steely blue I was thinking of for the lower cabinets. I will chat with them this weekend about that process, so thank you! Maybe it would be best to just have my contractor do the floor, butcher block counters, etc. and leave the cabinets until all possibilities have been considered. And the house has a mix of original finishes and updates. When my grandfather started to decline in mobility, the 1970s upstairs bathroom was completely renovated (we're talking white with gold vein floor tiles, yellow and green flower wallpaper, his custom built cabinets, etc.) were torn out for an accessible roll in shower to make it easier for us to bathe him. So that update is more modern (black granite, mosaic and subway tiles). The downstairs bathroom was renovated by my grandfather in the 70s, and has the harvest gold toilet, sink, ceramic tiles, etc. all still intact. It had pink and black tiles from the 50s before that. The den still has pine walls, cream and brown checkered tiles, a huge brick fireplace, and a wall of built in bookcases and cabinets. The entire upstairs (sans kitchen and bathroom) are oak floors with early american stain from the 70s, and the entire downstairs was some version of bright blue, orange or green shag carpets over checkered tiles in concrete. All the tiles have been covered with carpet - we have a split level ranch so the downstairs is rather chilly without carpet. The dining room is going strong with the Pickwick pine panels still... The four bedrooms have all been updated - one had panels and had been painted, the other three are plaster walls with swirls and have just been painted in neutral colors. Stairwells have pine all over and an orange and yellow glass pendant in the main one! So it's a mix!

OMG. This is the color of my bathroom as well! And it's been very difficult finding pictures of other bathrooms with the same scheme. (The reverse -- pink with maroon trim -- is easy. But maroon with pink seems much less common.) The towel bars, toothbrush holder, etc. are all pink. The previous owners covered all the tile with white paint and I can't decide whether to strip it off or not. I'd like the room to be original but it's only 5'x7' and I'm worried it will be too dark and oppressive. For a few days I was sure I was going to strip it off, but the stripper I used on a test portion wasn't very effective, so now I don't know if I want to bother. And of course I don't know the condition of the tiles and fixtures under the paint. Unfortunately the original floor tiles -- which were very cool -- are already gone.