Decided to shift Garage door entry so that it's across from mud room. Don't want to hear door slamming everytime someone enters while in the MB. Anyone have creative ideas for sound proofing / insulation between the MB and the Mudroom?

Cheers.

You can use a special soundproofing membrane like the ones used in music studios, although it needs to be installed between two layers of wallboard/sheet rock.

Working
with the plan you posted, I made a few changes. Big one is to move the
clean-up zone to the short wall on the left, and put the cooktop on the
exterior wall, between windows. It will be a focal point from the FR,
and the dish mess will be partially hidden behind a dish hutch. This
plan will make it easier for multiple workers in the kitchen, with no
overlapping of work zones. If you skip the dish hutch, and add a few
inches on that wall, you can put DWs on both sides of the clean-up sink,
with space to stand in the corner to unload.

The ovens (30"?) are on the end, with the fridge shifted toward the pantry door, and shallow shelves added in the pantry and PR. I also moved the PR sink over a couple of inches, to center it on the wall.

I moved the DW and
prep sink on the island down, to give you a nice prep space, with a
trash pull-out below. If you put the second DW on the sink wall, you
could put a shared trash pull-out on the corner, convenient to clean-up
and prep zones, then put the prep sink on the fridge side of the island.
(Red rectangle.) Click to enlarge.

If groceries are brought in through the garage, you might consider flipping the kitchen, to get the pantry and fridge on that side, with clean-up and dish storage near the DR.

New to Kitchens? Read me first.

Will you have a TV in the FR, and will it be on the left wall, so that anyone entering from the garage, mudroom, or backyard will need to walk in front of it to get to the kitchen? Or will they be trained to go around? ;)

Thanks for feedback. I like the idea of putting sink and double DW on the left wall instead of Range+ double oven. Also prefer the trash location and prep sink location on the schematic on the left in RED to the original. Only concern would be opening the fridge and the oven depending on spacing. But I guess that happens fairly rarely.

Groceries will probably be brought in 50/50 between front and garage. I still plan to shift garage door entrance down, but I think will keep Pantry where it is. Part of the creation of this pantry and half bath is the need to put a support beam about 14 feet into the great room so support long beam across ceiling. So we figured to use this space rather than have a support wall in middle of room.

Obviously hoping to train children to go around TV rather than through line of site but knowing path of least resistance this probably won't happen. For now it's not an issue since we don't watch much tv, but I'm sure this will change as they get older. Maybe/Maybe not, find that I am watching less and less tv these days and when we are watching tv it's cause we are home alone or the kids are asleep.

Hmm.. Will think more about these changes.

Thanks for your feedback.

We used regular insulation 30+ years ago between the interior walls of all bedrooms and bathrooms; it helps a lot with sound transfer. It does not completely soundproof but we knew that. We have been in homes where you can hear the "stream" when someone is using the bathroom; we do not hear that. Our carpenter has recommended even stuffing insulation in the doorjam spaces as we remove and replace trim. I would suspect that the new sprayed foam insulation would help with sound transfer but have no experience with it.

Hmm.

Not going to convince the wife to give up the walk in pantry.

The load bearing wall is the wall between pantry and bar.

We were planning to store most appliances in the pantry. Have considered garage entrance off the left side wall, I'm thinking that diminshes utility of mudroom / cubby location. Certainly cuts down on distance to carry groceries, but then we lose some space in the family room.

Per our original plan I feel like we have plenty of counter space for prep. By my count almost 13 square feet of prep space on front wall. and a tiny bit of space not reflected in original schematic. Plannign to put 30 inch counter on either side of range so that we can put things from oven down on left side counter. We also ahve massive 8x4+ island that we can also prep on.

I don't think maximizing counter space is the issue, for me my only potential concern is feeling cramped in family room because of size of kitchen and feeling cramped in dining room because of the support wall now having to be there.

While the original drawing doesn't follow perfect work zones I think it will work for us given how our current kitchen set up is, very similar L shaped but fridge/oven would be where couch sectional is on this drawing. We only have 1 sink now, so 2 will definitely help.

Will probably put DW on either side of clean up sink.

Thanks for all your help with this. You have given me a lot to think about and helped me validate some concerns I had and raised others I didn't even think about!

It's always better to consider your options before starting construction. Good luck, and when you have completed your addition, please come back and show us the end result. We love success stories!

Have you thought about flipping the dining room and great room functions? And relocating the serving bar area to another wall? I like the wider entry area and with the serving bar relocated you can get into the pantry from the dining room side.

I don't know why you'd want to access the pantry from the DR side, but I like the idea of flipping the DR and FR--that would eliminate the traffic in front of the TV. I removed a part of the sectional again, but if you need the extra seat you could consider moving the wet bar to the left wall, where I suggested a garage door.

Kirkarch - we did think about switching DR and LR. Our GC and designer recommended having DR at that location because of entry. Did not think people would want to walk into a house and walk right into TV room. We are going to wire both walls and make a final decision. We were originally undecided. Now that we have to have a wingwall for a support beam we are leaning towards keeping the DR there because I think it would feel cramped as a TV room.

Still debating...

Hi,

Commenting on an old post here - Ari, what did you end up deciding with your layout? We are currently designing out floor plan, and our garage/mud room are set on the opposite side of the kitchen (would have to walk through GR to get to kitchen/pantry). When we flipped the design to get the kitchen and garage in the same area, I hated it. Just wanted to know how you guys did with the walk around through GR to the kitchen and if it ended up working for you?