Need kitchen remodel layout help, please. Sketches and pics included!
Hi! I am new to
posting here but I have been reading along for a while. I am in the beginning stages of planning my
kitchen remodel. Well, really the entire main floor will be getting updated –
new kitchen, update powder room, flooring on entire main level and 2 sets of
stairs, new windows, new exterior doors.
I would love your help with my kitchen layout because I really don’t
know where to start. I have read the
thread about asking for layout help so I am just going to jump in and start
answering the questions from there. If I
forget anything, please ask!
To start here is a blank slate layout of my kitchen. In this picture I have not included the load
bearing wall, pantry, etc that I want to remove.
Link to photobucket so you can actually see it: http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p157/lonestardawn/Main%20Floor%20Renovation/2017-04-29%2009.57.56.jpg
Closer view of kitchen measurements:
And here is a picture of my current kitchen and surrounding
area which shows the load bearing wall, pantry, and doorway to the dining
room.
Here is a rough sketch (not to scale) of the entire main
floor.
I live in a pretty cookie-cutter neighborhood. Many of the other homes are the same model
(or mirror image) of my house. And many
of those people have already remodeled their kitchens. I have yet to see a neighbor’s kitchen layout
that I absolutely love and feel would work perfectly for our family. So I am turning to the experts here to help
me figure this out!
Goals:
Counter/prep space for 2 people at a time.
More storage/cabinets than what I currently have.
Very functional space for lots of people to work in the
kitchen at one time. No bottlenecks or
pinch points. Wider aisles than the minimum
recommendation.
I would love a long, beautiful island but I don’t see any
way for my kitchen to support that without the aisles being much narrower than
I want. So I am thinking about a peninsula
instead.
Family: Myself, husband and 2 daughters (ages 5 and 7). Not planning to have more kids.
Kitchen workers: On a
daily basis, I cook dinner either alone or with 1-2 kids. Then my husband and I clean up together. We have groups of friends and family over
several times a month which means 3-4 cooks in the kitchen at one time. I am
also a Girl Scout leader and have my daughter’s troop over often to work on
projects. That means 16 girls at my
house. Usually a group of 4-6 will be
working in the kitchen together.
How do you see your kitchen used? The kitchen is primarily
for cooking, clean up and hang out space while entertaining. We also do messy projects in the
kitchen. We are a very creative/artistic
family. We turned the formal family room
into an art room so we would have plenty of space for everyone to work on
projects. Homework is done in the art
room and the huge square table in there is almost always covered in the kids
projects. The dining room is next to the
art room and the large table in there is usually covered in my projects. We also have an eating area off the kitchen
with another small table. This is where
we eat all of our meals since the other tables in the house are covered in
projects all the time. We only use the dining room as a formal
eating area 2 or 3 times a year for holiday dinners. The rest of the time, even when entertaining
we eat in the eating area or out on the screened porch off of the family room.
Would you like to open up the kitchen to adjacent areas? I would like to open up the wall between the
kitchen and dining room. From our
neighbors renovations, I know this is a load bearing wall.
Do you plan to merge two rooms/areas? I am open to this idea if it helps the issues
with the layout.
Where are you flexible?
Everywhere. I really want a
functional kitchen that doesn’t irritate me everyday. I am willing to spend what it takes to open
it up and move whatever needs moving.
Can windows or doorways change size? Yes, the windows all need to be replaced
during this remodel so now is a good time to make any changes if needed.
Can they be moved or eliminated? Can windows be
raised/lowered? Yes, with HOA approval.
So I would prefer not to do that if possible.
Can any walls come down? Yes, the dining room/kitchen wall
can partially come down. The rest of the
wall has the stair well behind it and will have to stay/cannot be moved.
Does the sink have to be centered under a window? It would be nice but I am open to other
options. I hate having it in the corner
where is currently is located.
Does it have to be under a window at all? No
Do you bake a lot and do you want a Baking Center? Yes that
would be great! Preferably near a wall
oven.
Do you want a coffee/tea/beverage center? A coffee center
would be great. Or at least a space of
countertop dedicated to the coffeemaker.
Right now it shares the space next to the sink where we dry our
dishes. I always have to stretch over or
move drying dishes out of the way to get to my coffee.
Do you want a snack center? No
What appliances do you plan on having (helps to figure out
work flow, work zones, and types of cabinets...upper/lower vs full height,
etc.) I want a fridge, dishwasher, cooktop, wall oven and microwave.
Range or Cooktop or Rangetop? Cooktop
Single or Double or no Wall Oven? Single wall oven with a microwave.
Warming Drawer? No
MW? (Advantium, MW Drawer, OTR MW/Hood, countertop,
built-in, shelf?) Can it go in the wall over the oven?
DW? Standard or drawers? If drawers, 1 or 2? This is the only appliance I currently have
that I would like to keep. We had to
replace it last year and I really like it.
It is just a standard Bosch stainless dishwasher.
Refrigerator (Top/bottom freezer, SxS, or
all-fridge/freezer? Counter-depth (CD), standard-depth, or built-in?) I really have no idea. We currently have a side by side that came
with the house. I think I want standard
depth or built in. And maybe bottom
freezer with the 2 doors on top?
Obviously I need to think about/research this.
Ventilation Hood? I am not a fan of the huge stainless
hoods. But I really haven’t thought
about the hood too much. It kind of
depends on the placement of the cooktop in the room. If it is centered on a wall as a focal point
then I would like an attractive hood. If
not, then the hood doesn’t need to be anything fancy.
Sizes of desired appliances
30" or 36" cooktop
36" Refrigerator
24” dishwasher
Pantry: Walk-in or
cabinets? In the Kitchen or outside the Kitchen (e.g., Mudroom or hall)? I
currently have a reach in closet that I hate.
It is so deep I can never find anything.
I would love to have something more shallow. A walk-in would be great, but I don’t think I
have any space for that.
***** Very Important *****
Is there anything you:
Cannot live without? Light.
I love lots of light. Our house
has tons of windows which I love. I want
to keep the great light in the kitchen.
Definitely do not want? Bar height counters on the
peninsula. We currently have this and it
visually blocks off the kitchen from the rest of the house. No one can stand or work at this counter so it
just ends up junked up with all kinds of crap sitting on it.
Would like if you can find a way? A really loooooong,
beautiful island. Not gonna happen, but
I can dream.
Comments (8)
Jennifer
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoHere are some photos of the main floor of my house. I started cleaning up before I took them and then I quit. Lol. Please don’t judge. I figured it will help you to see my current issues (just look for the places with all the junk piled up!).
From the front door:
Going to the right towards the family room.
The family room (standing in the corner by the laundry room door):
The eating area/kitchen (view from family room).
The kitchen (standing by the desk)
The kitchen (standing by the sink looking toward the eating area/family room)
The kitchen (standing by the sink looking toward the dining room/art room)
The dining room/art room and front door.
The dining room and art room (other wall)
So that was a lot of info, but I am sure there are plenty of things I forgot. I would love to hear any and all ideas you have!
Jennifer
7 years agoI worked on entering my layout on the computer this morning so that the dimensions would be easier to read. Here is a new diagram of the layout.
I also have been working on using Ikea's kitchen planner to try to figure out some starting layouts. I keep getting stuck with not being able to fit everything in and still have the recommended amounts of prep space between the sink and cooktop. I would love to have some help on this if anyone is interested in giving me layout ideas!
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Comments (13)Bellsmom, We will not be wanting a table/chairs in the kitchen. A peninsula with bar stools will serve nicely for eating/homework etc while my husband or I are cooking. No kids yet, but in the near future after the kitchen and rest of the house gets done I imagine there will be a few ;) Dining room is more a formal style dining room for large gatherings. Just my husband and I doing the cooking. Groceries and trash will go out the back door I want to put on the remaining living room wall after the 24ft kitchen area. We dont do anything more than an average family would probably. We make dinner every night, but arent extravagant chefs by any means. No computer or tvs needed in the kitchen. Small appliance storage out of sight is a must for my large stand mixer, toaster, blender etc. I would also like to do a large vent hood over the range and not an over the range microwave. I like having my microwave at a more useable height, counter height is what I'm thinking. I will try and add some pictures of the mantles etc for style reference later. On my way to the kitchen planner appt....See MoreLayout Help for my kitchen remodel, please
Comments (11)Thank you, bmorepanic, I appreciate your response. I will try to answer your questions first. The family room is pretty formal and traditional with dark wood antiques and I am hoping to make my kitchen more transitional and lighter in feel, with slab cabinetry, so I think it important to keep the wall up between the two spaces. I also use that wall to hang art on the family room side, and cannot figure out where those paintings will hang if the wall is not there. The sunroom is currently where we eat almost all our meals, on a Moroccan tiled table that is 39" x 78.5" and I hope to incorporate that table into the new kitchen/sunroom area as it's a very functional piece. I am ok with the sunroom becoming more of the hang out place, but am not sure where the table will go if that happens, as it seems too large for the breakfast area. We currently have three stools at the island but the overhang is only 7 inches so knee bumping is a regular occurrence, and the gas cooktop is there, so there is not much room for plates, etc. I only use the dining room when I am entertaining, and when I have the extended family over we split up and sit down to our meals in three different rooms (the dining room table, the sunroom table, and the living room sofa and coffee table.) It isn't ideal, but it works. Problems with current kitchen are too little usable counter space (microwave, toaster oven, juicer, coffee maker, drying rack, etc. occupy too much space), and lack of storage. I also have all of my 12 year old builder-grade appliances breaking this year. We seem to be in each other's way as a result of the layout, getting stuff out of the fridge, using the sink, getting to the pantry. My garage has a ton of stuff I never use that belonged to my husband, old gallons of paint, old chandeliers, etc. I think I can clear out the back part, and still have enough room in the front half for the stuff I do need, ie. trash cans, recycling bins, bikes, scooters, etc. We are able to split up responsibilities with one person needing prep and oven and the other person using cooktop. By my count there will be one regular electric oven (30" Wolf) and one microwave/speed oven (Miele or Adv) and one warming drawer (also 30" Wolf). Finally, the load-bearing wall that separates the kitchen from the solarium holds the HVAC return and I don't think I want to deal with the expense of re-routing that, so it will probably remain as is (behind and to the right of the current ovens). I was thinking the bottom half of some of the load bearing wall could remain, at least for additional counter space and now that you mention it, to stop people from coming into the kitchen prep/cook area from the family room, what do you think of that idea? I like your sketch but don't know what P1 and P2 refers to, please forgive my ignorance. Thanks for clearing up the dimensions and aisle widths, good to know that 48" is the minimum for two cooks. Currently, I have a couch and table in the breakfast area, and my boys sit there all the time and use the table for coloring, legos, etc. I am having a tough time imagining that area gone, especially if it means I have to replace the windows in that area with ones that start 42" from the floor (which one designer tells me is necessary if I am to put the clean up area there) and deal with the exterior siding of the house being matched to the 12 year old pre-existing shingles. If I can keep my existing windows, then I would be more amenable to the idea. I look forward to your response. And thank you again for taking the time to come up with a plan....See MoreKitchen Remodel Layout Help Needed Please!
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7 years agoI took a shot at making a layout myself using IKEA's kitchen planner. Here it is. I would love some feedback on improving the layout. Here is the overhead view.
In the view below I'm not sure why it cut off the other two 24" cabinets that make up the peninsula. They should be on the right side next to the one 24" cabinet.
In the view below I was thinking about putting a window seat under the low window on the left side. This is in my dining room area. I didn't know how to add those cabinets in the program though.
Any thoughts? This was just a first try at putting something on paper so please let me know what I can do to improve it!
Kristine
7 years agoHi Jennifer! Your space is a little challenging, but I will try to help. Can you move the refrigerator off of the far wall to make room for your cooktop? It would give you a lot of area between the sink and cooktop. You could move it to where the oven is, which would make it easily accessible from the family room, and not too far from the sink. It looks like this is maybe where the fridge sits now? This would push the oven into part of your peninsula, or possibly over to the cooktop wall.
Jennifer
7 years agoThanks for the advice, Kristine! I moved some things around in the Ikea planner like you suggested.
Your suggestion for the fridge location is where my fridge is currently located. I moved it in my original plan because I dislike how much it sticks out into the middle of the room. I could probably solve that issue by getting a counter-depth fridge. I need to do more research on that because I am concerned that we won't have enough fridge space with a counter depth model. I frequently put cookie sheets in the fridge and they take up the entire depth of my current fridge (a side-by-side model). I think I could fit them in a counter depth fridge if I got the kind with 2 french doors on the top and the freezer on the bottom.
I moved the wall oven/micro over to the far left wall because I didn't want to make the peninsula any shorter than it already is. It is only 6 feet and any smaller seems like it won't be long enough. I would like to be able to have enough space for 6 girls to be working around it at one time and 6 feet will already be tight (3 girls on each side).
I do really like moving the cooktop to the far left wall as well. It seems to give me a lot more bottom drawers for storage along the top wall which would be great. I was only able to fit an 18" cabinet between the cooktop and the wall oven. I'm not sure that is enough space on that side. I think I remember seeing that 24" of working space should be the minimum. I could get more space by using a range instead, but I don't really like that setup. I frequently use both the oven and the stovetop at the same time with 2 people cooking. So the person using the stovetop is always in the way of the person trying to open the oven. I would really like to have the 2 separated.
Jennifer
7 years agoJennifer
7 years agoI came up with this layout this afternoon -a U-shaped layout that also adds a lot of cabinetry in the dining room area.
The benches under the window in the bottom left corner (dining room) would be a built in window seat. Then the opposite wall would have lots of cabinets for my china/glassware. The countertop there could be my landing place for mail/purse/etc. In the layout above with the peninsula I realized I didn't have a place for that and I really need that.
The table in the top right corner (eating area) should be set back a bit into my bay window. I couldn't figure out a way to illustrate the bay window in the Ikea planner.
I think this U-shaped layout has a better flow of walkways through the house but I am concerned because the oven and microwave open into the walkway. I couldn't figure out how to avoid that but perhaps someone here could suggest some alterations that would make it work better.
I used Kristine's advice from above and bumped out the cabinets next to the full depth fridge so they would be flush with the fridge. I think that makes it seem less like the fridge sticks out into the room, without sacrificing the space to a counter depth fridge.
Anyone have any thoughts?
Kristine