Kitchen Floorplan help - third time's a charm, I hope!
T Go TX
4 years ago
Hi,
I posted here about a year ago and got some great feedback, but a lot of it involved adding on to the house or swapping uses for rooms. After much debate, we think we are committed to keeping the kitchen in its current location.
About us:
We are a family of 5 that cooks at home for most meals and eats most meals at the dining room table.
The breakfast room is primarily used for homework/art projects by the kids. I find it to be handy to keep an eye on them (8/6/4) but difficult if someone needs help with a math problem as the breakfast room table is too far away from the sole cook (me). The kids help with cleanup and the two oldest make their own lunches for school.
We entertain informally a lot during the summer as we have a pool and so we serve up a lot of cookouts buffet-style on the counters.
Desired Improvements:
- more prep space - ideally between the sink and stove
- a spot for 1-2 people to sit and talk to me while I'm cooking without them being in the way.
- plenty of storage as we have no pantry - or find a way to incorporate more storage in the breakfast room
- slide-in range - get rid of the stand-alone ovens
Here are two ideas I came up with keeping the kitchen in its current location.
#1
real kitchen · More Info
The major flaw with this plan is that the sink would be weirdly spaced half in front of the window. After talking to the contractor, it will be hard to get the sink any further down that run without jack-hammering the slab.
#2
real kitchen · More Info
Clean-up sink could be added here because of the plumbing for the bathroom in the wall behind it.
Pictures of current kitchen:
real kitchen · More Info
real kitchen · More Info
real kitchen · More Info
The last time I posted, Rinq was kind of enough to do a mock-up of this side of the house:
real kitchen · More Info
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Comments (14)
T Go TX
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Third time's a charm? Not so much! Update on counters!
Comments (29)"If it takes a measuring tape to notice a problem, it isn't much of a problem!" It's a problem when you try to fit something into a space and find out it won't go. It's a problem when you put your slide-in range into place and find out that the front edges don't fit properly. Putting the tape measure to my overhangs prompted me to buy a different range that wouldn't show the differences. I did notice the difference (and it's less of a difference than BlackChamois is dealing with) which is why I bought out a tape measure in the first place. Measuring things and discovering problems now is a way to avoid more problems in the future. BTW, that exposed sub-top and cabinet at the range cut-out is ridiculous. What if you decide to change your range down the road? That really limits your options....See MoreThird time is a charm (I hope)....
Comments (27)If there's no sink in an island, then I still think the DW needs to be moved. It's not just that it's in the corner or that it's near the cooktop/range, it's that it's in the middle of the Prep Zone and will be a major obstacle if one person is cleaning up while another is prepping and/or cooking or if someone wants to put something in or take something out of the DW while others are prepping and/or cooking. I can't tell where the trash pullout is, but I would either put it where the current DW is (my recommendation) or put it b/w the oven and range. The first location is convenient to all three primary work zones. The second location is convenient to the the Cooking Zone, less so to the Prep Zone, and even less to the Cleanup Zone. In both locations, it won't cause outsiders to cross the Cooking Zone to get to it. In the first location, it might cause someone prepping to step out of the way, but it's smaller than a DW and won't be as big a deal as a DW....See MoreThird time may be the charm for my layout :-)
Comments (12)I'm going to start with an apology - back after a long time and am startled/distracted by the interface. There are spacing issues - I'm guessing you're aware of those? An example is the seating on the island behind the dishwasher - actual all of those seats on the long side of the island. A person in a stool takes up 24" behind the counter in the aisle when seated WHEN a counter overhang has at least 15" of overhang. A person is the same size regardless of the overhang, but the over hang allows the person's knees and feet to fit under the counter. When the overhang is less, the person will stick out into the aisle more. At most, then you have an aisle (after a person is seated) of 20" except for the counter overhang on the sink side which will eliminate another 1.5" minimum - could be a little more. A lot of dishwashers these days are "tall tub" meaning that the door itself is usually taller which results in the door extending into the aisle further when its in use. Using a bosch 500 for an example, it's 47.25 inches deep with the door open (47.25 - 24 = 23.25" in the aisle shown) which means the dishwasher door can not be opened when the stool is occupied. If the dishwasher has a big handle it can get worse. The refrigerator ("standard" refs are around 36" deep), the aisle on the family room side, the pathway to the ref from the deck have spacing issues (imagine yourself carrying a tray of chicken). And the doorway to the laundry is now so small I don't think it will pass code. So, pic is an idea, not a finished plan. The island can be reversed (clean up in the upper aisle, but I'd think awhile about the cooktop placement as possibly moving to the island too. You might want to post a thumbnail type of sketch showing where the other rooms are......See MoreLong time listener, first time caller...floor plan review
Comments (26)WOW! Thank you everyone for the great feedback. I was thinking I would just get one or two additional set of eyes on my plans, but this has been great. Let me do my best to address some of the call outs. Consensus seems to be that we review the W/D location, the MBA layout, and the stairs. As far as the laundry room, I completely hear each of your concerns. The walk will be pretty far, but at least one good thing is that we only have to do laundry once a week. I will talk it over with the SO to see if a closer placement would fly. In terms of the MBA layout, I too feel it seems a little big, so we will continue to work with the architect on that room. Regarding the stairs, we couldn't agree with each of you more. Regardless if my in-laws live with us or not, I just do not like 1/2 steps in a house period. We are now working with the architect to see how we can get those garages level and eliminate the stairs. cpartist - your comment on the extra door entrance to the master closet is really intriguing. Especially if we move the entrance to the whole Master area to make it all enclosed. We will definitely keep that in mind. bpathome - It is hard to tell from the plans, but the seat in the master shower has a handheld shower head located there for the frequent ritual we call shaving the beast :) So it will definitely be put to good use. mrspete - you read our minds when it comes to the ceiling height of the kitchen. We have noodled putting in faux beams in the great room, but we really aren't sure if it would look good to run them through into the kitchen. We have talked about dropping the kitchen sink at least 18" in order to set it apart from the other rooms as well as not make the cabinets seem like they are floating right in the middle of the wall. More to come on that decision. lakeviewgirl - thank you for the call out on the DW location. We will have that switched with the trash since we will like be using that right side of the oven as our likely main prep area. I actually like the look of the garages on either side and like cpartist says, they are also very common where we are building and do create a neat courtyard look. Here is what the front elevation looks like: Here is a house that I think ours will look similar to (just flipped): In terms of the closet location through the bathroom, we were the ones that asked for the design to be this way. Like nini804 calls out, we have always wanted the closets to be a little more secluded as we both travel for work at least once a month and have to get up @ 4am just to get to the airport. That way as long as the person can "ninja" it out of bed, the other can continue to sleep hopefully. chisue - I also don't understand the "via a toilet" comment. Yes, you do walk by the toilet closet, but not through it. chisue - As far as the MBR, we currently have our headboard flanked by windows, so we have no problem with it whatsoever. Again thank you all again for the great dialogue and constructive feedback. And thank you for validating that for the most part our plans are pretty cool :) We welcome anything else you can think of. You have definitely given us a lot to think about....See MoreT Go TX
4 years agoAlso, We are on a slab so moving water, particularly the drain line, is a big deal. I've noted here where the contractor says we could move the water and not have it be a big deal
ptreckel
4 years agoT Go TX
4 years ago
Aglitter
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoT Go TX
4 years agoBuehl
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoOK, here you go. I came up with 3 layouts. I tried about half a dozen more, but they didn't work out.
Of these, all three...
- Take down the wall b/w the Kitchen and Dining Room. In one, it's moved about 30" into the Dining Room.
- Re-purpose the Breakfast Room into the Dining Room, remove the built-ins in the former Breakfast Nook, and create a doorway b/w the new Dining Room and Family Room.
- Add a long row of shallow pantry cabinets in the former Dining Room.
- Have seating of some sort in the Kitchen space -- either peninsula or island
- Have at least 42" of linear workspace in the primary Prep Zone
- Have a primary and secondary Prep Zone. While the secondary does not have direct water access, it does allow someone else to be working in the Kitchen at the same time as you are without getting in your way, other than accessing the sink
- The sinks are all large single bowl or double-bowl. I put double-bowls in the two with a straight sink base for the simple reason that you can use one bowl for cleaning up and the other for prepping. If you'd rather have a single bowl, that's fine too. (Just keep at least one dish bin around so you can create a smaller "bowl" when needed -- you won't want to fill up a large single bowl with water on a regular basis.)
.
LAYOUT #1
Note in this one that the sink counter run is 30" deep with 27"D base cabinets and 15"D upper cabinets. The counters are 4.5" deeper than standard and add workspace depth.
.LAYOUT #2
.LAYOUT #3
Buehl
4 years agoThis is more like what your #2 would be. You need to include necessary fillers, a panel to support the DW when it's on the end, and counter edges. Plus, you need to have sufficient aisle widths.
T Go TX
4 years ago
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