Full gut kitchen - need floorplan help
I need some major help with our kitchen!
Background: we live in a 1927 pier-and-beam cottage that we are renovating and adding onto. We have a lot of limitations due to lot size and restrictions. Our goal is to open up the house a bit (but not full open concept), Increase storage (throughout house and for kitchen). We have 3 young sons. My husband works a lot and isn't interested in cooking at all. It's usually exclusively me prepping, cooking, and cleaning. I like to cook but usually at this stage it's quick cooking/assembling more than heavy duty cooking. I do like to bake and my kids enjoy helping me with that. I am a pretty neat cook. I like to gather all my ingredients first so I'm not running around the kitchen much. We entertain casually with other couples and kids relatively often and extended large family a few times a year. I do hope to have more formal dinner parties eventually when my kids are older.
Things I want: separate walk in pantry, formal Butler's pantry for all entertaining pieces, eat in kitchen (we have separate formal dining room), natural light.
Ceilings are going to be 10'
We would like to minimize upper cabinets and will primarily do drawers below.
My husband wants some wooden beams across ceiling.
We are going to have a Lacanche stove which is sort of the "star of the show". my husband is sort of insisting the sink be under the triple widows overlooking the back patio. It's silly but symmetry appeals visually to us a lot too. The wall the stove is on would have 2 counter-to-ceiling upper cabinets at the far ends.
We have been working with an architect and come up with the pictures attached.
My concern is how spread out the range/fridge/sink are. We originally had an island in place of the farm table but I prefer the warmth of the table. I really don't like sitting at island height. I want us to be facing each other when we sit and eat. But...If there was an island we could put in a prep sink and that would help with the prep zone plus storage of course. Because we are still in early plans I haven't started designating what would be stored where yet except all food and dry goods will definitely be in pantry, as will a lot of small appliances. Mudroom which goes into kitchen is going to be family primary entrance. There is not and will not be a garage.
We absolutely cannot go out any further with side wall (stove) but back wall (sink) could move in or out by a few feet.
Thanks for any feedback!
Comments (17)
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Need FloorPlan Suggestions - Desperate
Comments (10)I've looked at your plan several times, but have found it difficult to come up with ideas since I'm not clear on what can be changed, and it's hard to see the measurements. Looking at your second plan, it's guesswork to see what the old plan was. It would be very helpful to see the original, existing plan. But I'll take a stab at it. What is it that you don't like about the MBR, besides the location of the WIC door? You said you're redoing the bathrooms. Can their fixtures be relocated? Can the kitchen cabinets along the dining room wall be changed? Seems like there must be a better way to do the butler's pantry, which is inconvenient in its present location. Can the locations of the appliances be changed in the kitchen? The great room seems huge--what are the measurements? Do you really need it that large? The reason I ask is that it seems like you have space in it for the dining table at the end towards the kitchen. If so, I'd go back to the 3 car garage, and just attach it to the house. Then I'd rework the present dining room, mudroom, and butler's pantry. How many people/ what ages are living in this house? Is there a reason the mudroom is so large in Baton Rouge, especially with the laundry elsewhere? I assume you need 4 active bedrooms, and wouldn't want to convert one to a study/guest bedroom? Living in the north, I don't know much about life styles in Louisiana. How much of the year are the doors and windows open, or do you mostly close up and use air conditioning down there? Which way is south on this house plan? How wide is the lot, and how close to the lot line are the doors of the present 3 car garage? More info and the original plan will help! Anne...See Morekitchen floor plan help needed
Comments (4)160" x 260" is too big, in my thinking, so you can increase the island, or peninsula, or something, and get more counter space, more storage space, more cook operating space, or something like that. 10' x 10' with stuff on opposite walls is too far to walk (if you want to be efficient about space and work planning), so you can increase something in order to reduce the effective aisle space: this achieves both objectives of giving you more (more of something not yet determined), and improving walk/workflow. Two birds with one stone. Having said that, I'll have to take it all back if you post a diagram showing reality as it is in your situation. Word pictures are not enough. Details may become barriers. Is the stove gas or electric, is the exhaust hood ducting here or there, is the unheated 2.5 season room positioned this way or that way, are the entrance points here or there, are the views this way or that way, and so on for another 500 "is it this or is it that"' type of question. how much do you like having both a breakfast room and stools at a small island? Hope this helps get your thinking onto the right track: thinking about layout in a big square requires some degree of openmindedness before you deselect some concepts and go in for a specific placement of each major component. Cook zone, cleanup zone, prep zone, hangout zone, etc. If you had a thin rectangular area with entrances at the far ends, there would be almost none of this discussion as the space would force you to think of two parallel counters as a starting point. The constraints you have are totally different. Each one is practically impossible to describe in a sentence or two. Taken as a set of constraints, it would require a whole book to describe them in words. Picture a novel where you explore your options. Or, post a floor plan that shows the whole area in its surroundings: stairs, sunroom, hallways, bkfst nook, views to keep, views to avoid, etc. HTH...See MoreNeed Help On FloorPlan Renovation
Comments (9)Dear Jennifer, I see you’re not getting any traction…Here is a partial floor plan based upon your field dimension supplied. It doesn’t look like your sketch…exactly. Your drawings don’t need to be pretty but you’ll need to supply all the information if you want to get others input. If you correct the dimensions shown you can get an accurate floor plan to work from. Then you should start to receive input. Once you have your floor plan you should space plan every possible layout option you can think of (like shown here) that meets or exceeds your needs established to make your home improvement project as successful as possible for as long as possible. Your home improvement project should retain its value and continue to pay you dividends long after you complete it. Demand Better Performance Joe Brandao Kitchen Performance Consultant...See MoreNeed help with kitchen/mudroom floorplan
Comments (11)Hi all. Thanks for all the responses so far. I'll try to respond as well as I can to all of them. mamagoose: - Thanks for the suggestions. The peninsula was my architect's idea and honestly I'm not a huge fan of it and would take it out. The idea of extending the wall between the laundry and kitchen is an interesting one. Buehl: - The layout I've posted is the current proposed layout for the complete gut renovation + addition we'd like to do. My original home's footprint are the dotted lines that are probably hard to see in the pic. - The total width of the kitchen + laundry room (including exterior walls) is 20' 3.5" - Length of the exterior laundry room wall is 11' 11" - Length of the exterior kitchen wall is approx 15' (sorry, don't have an exact measurement) - I'm willing to expand the kitchen as far into the middle area as necessary to optimize the layout - Sorry, when I said not to change the exterior walls, what I meant to say was that changing the actual footprint is not really an option (with the exception of perhaps the front porch area). However, all the windows and sliding doors can be reconfigured to whatever makes the most sense. If you have any ideas on how to "stack" the kitchen and mudroom, I'd be interesting in hearing them. lefty47: - interesting suggestion. I'll need to think about whether swapping the kitchen and dining room makes more sense. - I have no problem staring at my fridge. lol. - I will be hiring an interior designer. I just wanted to get some crowdsourced thoughts to chew on beforehand....See More
E G
8 years agoYes, the dining room is in the very front of the house. Like I said, this is an old house. We have a lot of limitations for a variety of reasons. We would like the front rooms to remain intact. Many houses in our neighborhood when they have been renovated have turned the front room into the formal dining space. We will be eating in the kitchen when it's just us. The dining room will be used for entertaining. And yes, the butler's Pantry will essentially be a closet. It will be storage for all of our formal and entertaining pieces that we don't use every day. And wine fridge and ice machine in there.
The top of the picture is the front of the house that faces the street.
We have 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms upstairs. We also have a separate small guest house
The driveway is on the side of the house but mostly in front of the house. We would walk from the driveway into the mud room. Visitors would come in the front door
E G
8 years agoE G
8 years agoE G
8 years ago
mama goose_gw zn6OH
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoI was adding that idea when practigal posted, but here is her suggestion, which works well, IMO, especially since you gather all ingredients before you start--you won't need to cross to fridge once you start cooking. You'll be prepping and cooking with the view to the back yard--since your husband likes that view, maybe he'll help out with both. ;)
ETA, I must have stopped reading practigal's post with ...put the sink trash dishwasher on the end by the fridge...
I think this is more what she meant, but the Lacanche doesn't get to be the star!
ediblekitchen
8 years agoE G
8 years agoE G
8 years ago
PROAnglophilia
8 years ago
cpartist
8 years ago
Kacey Stotesbery
7 years ago
mama goose_gw zn6OH