Kitchen Island in front of Stairs?
Hello, I am renovating my 70s sidesplit into an open concept kitchen, living and dining room. I am trying to accommodate a 7 FT X 3.5 FT kitchen island and also a 68 INCH X 48 INCH dining table I inherited. The only way that I can figure out the kitchen layout is to have the island come out about 1/2 FT in front of the staircase that goes up to the second level. With stools, I assume it will be about 1 FT in front of the staircase. I am planning on leaving about 4.5 FT from the base of the stairs to the start of the island, but I wonder if this will still be bad as ppl will walk down the stairs into the island. In terms of the dining room, we are going to continue our kitchen cupboards into the dining room and make a built in hutch/bar area with them. But, this mean that the dining room table can't sit against the wall and will intrude quite a bit into what is now the living room. We don't plan on using the living room as our family room, more of just a living room for guests, but I'm wondering if the kitchen dining room are intruding too much and essentially leaving us with nothing to work with. I suppose I could lose the cupboards and hutch in the dining room to move the table close to the wall, but I really don't want to. I would really love some advice on whether the island placement and intruding into the living room are horrible ideas. Here is a drawing of the space.
Comments (8)
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8 years agoChristine Ann Victoria
8 years agoHere is a picture of the floor plan with Windows, etc. and nothing in the room.
lisa_a
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoYour clearances around the table look tight. I also think an island isn't a good fit. Are you dead set on an island or would you consider a peninsula?
This is a somewhat rough idea of what I'm proposing.
I know you wrote that sink, range and fridge need to stay where they are but I only moved the sink ever so slightly around the corner so hopefully this isn't a budget buster.
Circulation around the stairs is much less constricted as it would have been with an island the side you proposed.
I also gave you more room around the table (we also inherited a 48" wide table for our DR. Love it, just wish our DR were a wee bit wider so it was easier to move around the table but short of an addition, that isn't possible). Since you only have a wall on one side, you're actually in a better position than I am: slightly narrower aisles won't feel quite so tight in an open area. You could cheat the table closer to the peninsula and give yourself more aisle between table and wall. 36" is the minimum aisle; it's edge past, not walk behind diners wide.
What I didn't draw but strongly encourage is to do a "wall of tall" at your fridge end. Add pull-out pantries on either side of the fridge and an appliance garage at the far left end (birds-eye view). Between that, the DR area storage and the cabs along the backside of the peninsula, you may be able to ditch upper cabs on the range wall, which will give you the open concept feel you want.
Christine Ann Victoria thanked lisa_a
sena01
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoA 6' feet island and a bench/banquet seat on one side of the table may help. I'd consider a prep sink b/w the fridge and the stove. If you void the corner, have 4-5" wide open shelf for cutting boards next to to serve as filler, I think you can have a 18" prep sink and still have about 42-45" b/w the sink and the range. So if there are several cooks in the house one can use the main sink and the island for prep and the other the prep sink.
Sussex New Build · More Info
Edit: I have shallow cabs for the hutch as lisa_a suggested. Depending on the size of your living room furniture, you may be able to go as deep as 15".
Christine Ann Victoria thanked sena01Christine Ann Victoria
8 years agosena01
8 years agoI have a 6' island and 24" deep banquet in the drawing. 75(6'+3" for 1,5 o/h on each side) plus 48 table+24 banquet make 147" (a few inches of the seat would probably be under the table, so can be 144-145 actually)
321-63=258 and 258-147= 111". So you'd have a total of 111" left for the 2 aisles b/w the island and the stairs, and b/w the island and the table. I have 55,5" on each side on the drawing.
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Debbie B.