First time remodler--feedback on bath and kitchen layouts, please!
5 years ago
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- 5 years ago
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Help w/my layout please(first time poster)
Comments (4)Can the mudroom/laundry get a little deeper? It's so narrow and long, I'm afraid of it being a lot of square footage, but not too efficiently used. I'd want to turn the washer and dryer with their backs to the garage or kitchen to get a sink and/or counter space next to them. The way it is, even a hamper down in the laundry end of the room will get in the way of standing at the machines. They are really in kind of a tunnel. The kitchen looks pretty good. If you foresee using the micro convection often, as you said, I'd want it more in the kitchen, rather than on the fridge wall, past the island. I might place it right next to the pantry and move the range/rangetop down toward the main sink. That way it's close to the fridge and the prep sink, and you could use the counter to the side or the island for landing space....See Morelayout opinions; first time ever posting!
Comments (20)From what I've read so far, both plans strike me as...starters. I also definitely like the U better, but that's not saying much yet. I'm making some assumptions here that may not be at all valid in your case. But, you're having trouble designing a kitchen you really like into that space. You have a lovely room for dining that you almost never use. Is the front living room what you think of when you look forward to getting home or also gathering dust? Yes, center-hall colonials are tricky, but is the way your first floor serving you all you could want? If you could somehow sell seldom-used square footage for $50,000 and the promise of at least hundreds saved each year in expenses, would you? And be happy to live in the downstairs space still left? With this sort of scenario in mind, to me the first plan makes expensive changes with absolutely no promise of genuinely expanding living into the space available. Enlargement of the kitchen should shift at least one daily meal into the space currently occupied by the dining table, but would it? Or would it just perch you guys on stools and damage the DRM's elegant ambiance? I know the bay is new, but it also looks like a former kitchen and breakfast room that underwent an unfinished transformation--that outside wall an obvious remnant of its previous life. (If you did this, how about doors to a nice brick or stone patio outside instead?) The second plan is a simple spiffing up of the parts of your house that get heavy living, so I agree it's a good choice if you like the way you live in the rest your house just fine as is. Small kitchens are greatly underrated and can be truly excellent, so once you work out the details to get what you want--excellent. I'm also guessing the coziness of your kitchen dining area is one of its big assets, so that part doesn't need to be larger. If this were my remodel, though, and if the front rooms were mostly unused, I'd be not be happy with the allocation of my space. People do find ways to make good use of center-halls without ruining their character. Those that do tend to sell very well in most markets. After all, a lot of people who like their look won't buy them because of their space-use issues. For my own list of wants, I like halls for themselves and would definitely want the center hall as a major feature--with nice views in both directions. I would not want a large kitchen, but I'd want a bit larger one laid out just the way I like it. I'd like two places to dine with different moods, but only if they were both used a lot. One would be decorated nicely enough for seating guests to dinner, but so formally that it repelled us most of the time. (We have this, BTW.) I'd want a living area that multifunctioned for daily living and allowed guests to separate--in actual chairs!--into different conversation groups. If it had to be in 2 different rooms, I'd want good circulation and communication between them. I'd want an inviting, comfy area I could go read while my retired DH watches drag races, and vice versa--he splits while I watch Design Star, (one of those embarrassing things I wouldn't normally admit to). I'd like one living space to be sunny, with doors to the garden, and I'd like another to be just right for snuggling up inside when it was horrible out. All this in a center-hall with those great corner rooms and a kitchen remodel opening up possibilities, and I'd start by erasing their labels....See MoreAdvice on Kitchen Layout/Ideas (First Kitchen/First Home)
Comments (6)Luckily, I still had Firefox open so I didn't lose the hours of work I put into it...so here's my reply...again! Ideally, kitchen work flows from Refrigerator/Pantry --> Sink --> Range. However, some common sense does have to be present in that you don't want the refrigerator too far away from the range if you can help it. For example, if you have a refrigerator + 36" counter + 36" sink + 24" DW + 12" cabinet + range...that's probably over 9'...but you can usually do better than that. You also want to be careful where things like the DW are placed...you don't want it in the Prep Zone or in the direct path b/w the range & sink or refrigerator & sink. So, with these comments in mind... First a question...do you need the eating area in the kitchen? You mention a DR...would you be willing to give up seating in the kitchen for a spacious work area? If so, a couple of the plans below will give you that. If not, well I did some w/seating as well. I know you put appliances in specific locations, but if you're open to other ideas, how about something like the first two? They both maximize counterspace where you really need it...between the range & sink for prepping. While they both move the sink out from directly under the window, the still leave the sink very near the window. Since most people spend 70% of their time prepping and only 20% cleaning up, a prep space in front of the window seems like a nice setup. In one case, I added a corner pantry with 12" deep shelves & 15" deep shelves. Most people find that 12" to 15" deep shelves are deep enough and that 18" or deeper are too deep...things get lost. Myself, I have a corner step-in pantry similar to what I put in for you in Layout #1. All my small appliances except my toaster oven fit on the 12" shelves. The 15" shelves provide deeper storage "just in case"...it turned out my potato bins are 15" deep...so it was perfect! [Drywalled pantries are usually less expensive, btw, than pantry cabinets.] In the second layout, I added 5 feet of 18" deep pantry cabinets instead. With an 18" deep pantry cabinet, you have approx 16" to 17" deep shelves inside (account for front & back wall depths). In the third layout, there's a 33" pantry cabinet. (More on the third layout later.) This gives you 3 options for a pantry. Here are the first two layouts that are different than what you specified...note how open the kitchen is with these layouts and how much counter & cabinet storage you have. Layout #1 Layout #2 Layout #1A (Layout #1 w/an eating area) This next one has a small eating area...basically, room for two. It allows you to have a little more room for counters/cabinets than the full-size eating area. (It also shows you more options for seating in the kitchen.) Layout #1B (Layout #1 with small eating area) Layout #3 tries to give you the appliance arrangement you specified while also giving you some decent work space. However, notice how the refrigerator/pantry wall, especially, is "heavy". You come very close to creating a "black hole" corner b/c of the bulk of the refrigerator so close to the window wall. The other issue is that the DW is in the path b/w the sink & range...which is also the space that's most logical for prepping. This first one has the small eating area. It allows you to have a little more room for counters/cabinets than a full-size eating area. Layout #3 Layout #3A Full eating area (like in Layout #1A) ... Which is my favorite? Layout #1. I think it has the best of everything...lots of pantry storage + lots of cabinet & counter space and better balanced with respect to counter space than the others. If some seating is a must, then Layout #1B....See MoreNew build kitchen decision time, layout please help
Comments (22)No, I think extending that wall would really cramp circulation space. If I've got it measured correctly there's only 4.5 ft between the edge of the counter and that post as it is. I think it would be unacceptably awkward to make traffic go around the end of that wall if it were extended. (Also, we wanted 1 freestanding post somewhere in the design of our home, but that's just a silly personal choice, not a requirement for any real reason.) Also, I think the interior views re better to be able to come into the house and see through to the stairs. That range wall is an interior wall, and can move, or be mostly removed. (Obviously the post, however, can not). The other side of that wall is the main front entry. The closets/bench will not be built as drawn. (The upper closet will go, and probably the lower closet will be a bit larger) I want a closet in the entry, and I need at least a little of that lower closet, because I have to hide some HVAC ductwork to the upstairs in a couple of places, and that's one of them....See MoreRelated Professionals
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