In need of layout help for beach house kitchen...

7 years ago

Hi Everyone,

I was an avid lurker here a few years ago when we were
redoing our kitchen. I learned so much from all of you and it made our new
kitchen so much better. I should probably get my act together and post some
pictures -- I was just so tired of the renovation by the end.

I am back now because we recently bought a 1900’s farmhouse (1400
sq ft) in a New England beach town and the kitchen needs updating. For the time-being, we’re
planning on using it for ~2 months in the summer and then renting it for most
of the year (weekly rentals to families in the summer, winter rental to
professors/students). We want it to be functional and attractive, but we don’t
need a lot of bells and whistles. We want to keep costs down as much as possible but are willing to stretch a little if it improves functionality.

We have one young son but plan on hosting friends and
family for overnight visits in the summer. I love to cook but won’t be cooking
gourmet meals in this kitchen and so will not have a lot of equipment and food to store. Sit down meals will be in the dining room.

Goals:

-Make the most efficient use of the space

-Island/peninsula seating for breakfast and a place for people
to hang out during meal prep

-Space for two people to work

-I'd love to have some sort of landing spot for people coming in the back door but don't think there's room

Constraints

-Keep current 30” electric range, fridge, and dishwasher

-Windows are below counter height but we’re not planning on
changing due to budget constraints.

-Avoid moving walls (budget again)

-Willing to move plumbing, but I’d like to minimize it

-Tile flooring is probably staying though it will need to be
patched in areas covered by the current peninsula cabinets

Here is the floor plan of the first floor of the house (kitchen at top left). There
are four bedrooms and a bath upstairs. The exterior door at the back of the kitchen leads to the back yard and detached garage and is used a lot. The stairwell door is to the unfinished basement. My long term dream for the house is to open
up the first floor bedroom and/or take down the wall between the dining room
and kitchen, but that’s at least 10 years down the road.

Here is the current layout of the kitchen (oriented upside down from the floor plan). Everything is so crammed into the back of the kitchen, there is no good place for the fridge, and there’s a lot of wasted space if you don’t want an EIK.

This is the initial proposed layout from my contractor. I
like the placement of the peninsula since I think it’s a good use of the space between
the windows. But the U-shape area is too cramped and the placement of the
dishwasher isn’t good. I like the idea of moving the washer/dryer to the
bathroom, but I think we would stage that for later.

Option 1:

Here are my attempts at different layouts (sorry for the change in orientation). Option 2 has the most counter space but would be higher cost for cabinets and countertop
(likely laminate). In Option 3, I like the idea of the movable cart that can be
pushed against the wall if needed.

Option 2:

Option 3:

I am so looking forward to hearing your ideas!! Thank you, thank you!!

Featured Answer

maggieq

7 years ago

We did a kitchen reno in a townhouse where the kitchen windows were below counter height. We ended up running counter across the window at regular height and had removable backs on cabinets that were in front of the windows. Added shutters on lower part of windows so that from outside, it looked like a shuttered window. Hope this makes sense (don't have pictures). This would open a lot more options for your layout.

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