Custom house build - looking for kitchen design input

4 years ago

We are building a custom house and we are getting close to having our final floor plan. We have not designed our cabinets yet so there is time to customize all of those fun things we want to add, so I don't have . Our kitchen plan is below but doesn't reflect our latest changes. It is at the end of a large great room, the dining table and living space are to the left of the the kitchen in the plan below. To the right is the garage entrance into a mudroom with a desk and inside storage room (what we are calling our Costco closet), the walk in pantry is on the other side of the rangetop wall with a door from the hallway, the laundry room is next to the pantry, then the master suite is down that long hallway with access to our closet through the laundry room. The back patio and kitchen is just outside the great room. Just to give you all some context.

We have already made a few changes. The range is now a 48" rangetop and we will have the double wall ovens in the bottom right corner. We will move the warming drawer to the right so it is on the end of that run of cabinets, with a narrower set of drawers or pull out on either side of the rangetop.

The bottom run of cabinetry will be as follows and has changed since this design, right to left; 1. double wall ovens (left side opening doors), 2. integrated freezer and fridge, 3. tall cabinet with lower drawers, and behind two retractable doors will be a countertop for toaster and blender, and MW built in to the top with some extra storage above that), 4. Coffee bar with ice maker and beverage center under that counter, 5. then a build in buffet area that lines up with dining table.

One question I'm working through now is the rangetop lower cabinets (and uppers as a result). Architect has the lowers at 30" and I think that was left there because we originally had a pro range planned and I wanted all of the countertops to be same depth across the full span on that wall. We now are doing a pro rangetop. I can't find many examples of rangetops with extra counter space behind it, 6" as he has it planned now. I'd like to have the extra deep countertops, but will the extra space back there look odd? I want the rangetop controls to project out 1 1/2" from front of cabinets. We will be doing some kind of tile backsplash, so I don't think we are required to have the extra space if we use the island trim. The isle will be wide enough to accommodate deeper counters.

We will have 2 dishwashers, flanking the sink under the counter height windows. There are no upper cabinets on that wall. I plan to put all every day dishes in the island drawers closest to the dishwashers. We will have two trash pull outs, currently planned for one on each end of the island. The one on the left end of the island feels a little far to easily trash prep scraps, but I still think overall it's the best place for it. (ideas?) This puts one close and within easy reach when doing dishes, and the other one close for food prep trash and trash from the coffee bar area. And both are accessible to guests w/o entering the prepping/cooking zones.

I struggled with placement of the "prep" sink in the island. It's not a standard prep sink, it's a large sink, as big as the clean up sink. Since it's a 12' island, I felt that it belongs in the middle and still leaves over 4.5' of working space on each side. I'm right handed and it feels natural to me to work on the left side of the sink so I wanted ample prep space on that side. But I didn't want to move the sink to the other side because the walk from the fridge to prep sink feels too far. I feel like this is my best option.

We will use one of the buffet top drawers for a charging station.

I'd love comments or suggestions on our layout and appliance/trash/sink placement. This is my first time building a house and it's quite overwhelming.

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Comments (13)

One Devoted Dame
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
My first thought, kinda minor, I admit, but one I think would improve things a bit, is:

I'd move the Pantry entrance to the bottom wall (where the plan says, "shelves," across from the double doors). This places all of your food-gathering in one area (fridge/freezer/pantry all close together for preparing meals, all out of the work zone, all accessible from the dining room, *and* all easily allowing groceries and Costco hauls to be put away). :-)

I'm sure others (like MamaGoose!) will have excellent ideas to share; I like your current set up pretty well, and am interested to see what others have to say. Especially regarding the fun, fancy stuff! :-D
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Nicole
Original Author
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Interesting idea One Devoted Dame. In fact my first design had doors on both sides of the pantry. I can see how that would make things a little easier. I was worried about too much activity in that one area with the garage entrance, mudroom, desk/computer, and the busy part of the kitchen. I'll give that some more thought. Thank you for looking. I appreciate your time.
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My wife normally does most of the cooking for our family but has friends who also enjoy cooking and will help out when over, so up to 3 people working in the kitchen at a time. Breakfast and lunch will likely be at island (we figured we could seat up to four there (three at outside edge and one just around the corner across from the entry to the pantry) dinner will be at the dining table which is just out of shot in the drawing but part of an open concept layout. In terms of types of cooking... a bit of everything really, stirfries, braises, roasts. She only bakes occasionally but has been known to make macarons, meringues, and other types of treats for teachers gifts/ parties, etc. (hence the preference for electric oven). We would go with a dual fuel range but that isn't a possibility with the BlueStar. We usually don't entertain large groups probably up to 12 at a time. We have a desk drawn in but during our site visit today we realized it's sort of puny and the kids will likely prefer to pull up to the island for homework rather than staring at the wall so we thought we would turn that area into a concealed storage for phone, mail, stationery, etc. In terms of the refrigeration, we figured a 36" fridge and 30" freezer would be adequate based on what we are currently using.... although feedback is helpful here as kids are still small. We do have a secondary fridge & deep freeze currently which could reside in the garage but we've also considered ditching those for a secondary fridge in the pantry just to keep the groceries central to the kitchen. My wife is the only coffee drinker in the house and we currently have a very compact Nespresso machine which serves the purpose, I don't think we need a dedicated breakfast bar/ coffee bar area. In terms of the range hood, there is a second floor but we've allocated space for the ventilation to pass through (behind a closet) to the roof with hopes of mounting the fan remotely to reduce noise. Thank you for the thorough questions!
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ILoveRed, I had thought about that (the higher seating), but we are both tall, so it's not a very big step up, but that's a very good point. I may have to revisit that idea. reff31, we do have a much different lifestyle than most people, so it does make it hard to design because our own needs are not the same as the vast majority of people's who are building a home, but I have gotten some really great input that has made a huge difference in my planning, and I have completely redone the kitchen, which was a mess. (It still needs some tweaking.) Cherie, I think that's not a bad idea of the prep sink by the cooktop. I tire of balancing things on my cutting board or dripping across the floor from the sink to the cooktop in order to get from prep to the stove. I am going to give that some thought. It would solve a couple of issues. I am going to have an outdoor shower by the pool. I have one now and absolutely adore it. I have a pretty outdoor table with shower gel and shampoos, and keep some fluffy towels in the sunroom I can grab on the way out. There is nothing like taking a shower outside in the sunlight! It's also great to rinse off after working outside and then jump in the pool for a refreshing dip without even having to go into the house. The master bathroom has two separate vanities - one for each of us. The bathroom is actually the same configuration we have now, and works very well for us. My husband has a home office and stays well clear when I am getting ready for work in the morning, lol. mama goose, I meant to snap a pic of our current two-level island last night but forgot. In looking at the photo of one similar to mine, it seems welcoming for a drink but not for a meal. (If that makes sense?) Hmmm, that's a problem for me. I think I may have to move the prep sink from the island to the counter, and make the island a combo of smaller prep/serving space and regular dining height seating. I agree with everyone it's not going to work well to try and have a giant elevated bar height seating space there. Or back off on my island size altogether and combine it with a separate table and seating at the back of it as suggested earlier. Edited to add, I think I may have found the perfect solution - I really like this idea a lot! How wide/deep do you think this island is? There's plenty of room on the great room side to extend seating in that direction. Here's a photo similar to what I have in mind for the microwave.
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bpath
4 years ago
I’m curious, are you okay that every time you come home, you will walk between the range and prep and cleanup sinks to get to the master? I’m not sure where the kids are, are they doing the same?
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Nicole
Original Author
4 years ago
bpath reads banned books too. Yes we are OK with that. The kids/guest rooms are on the far left side of the house so they will pass through between the island and fridge wall to get to their rooms.
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just_janni
4 years ago
hmmm - your kitchen is large - but it's not feeling to me that it is that functional. I can't 100% put my finger on it - but here's an example: the double ovens, fridge and freezer - they are all clustered together and there's no natural landing zone. I'd say it was to the left of the sink in the island, but that feels like it's "behind and to the side", and that there is a lot of the "business end" clustered together and too much open space put other places.

It's a large kitchen - large enough to do whatever you want - but it feels disjointed / not cohesive to the actual cooking function. (and I am not talented enough to fix it! - but don't discount a total redesign of the space.)
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PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
4 years ago
I can't actually read the plan as it does not enlarge on my computer .
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knkeiser
4 years ago
This may work.
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anj_p
4 years ago
Not a pro. I agree with @just_janni that the fridge/ovens are too clustered. You should have at least 2' of space for both fridge and ovens for landing zone. Also, if you cook a lot and do any range to oven cooking, you may want to consider going back to a range with at least one oven so you're not carrying hot pans across your kitchen to your oven (I that a lot with cast iron and I would hate hauling that pan to the oven. Plus you'd have to open the oven before you grab the pan). You could then have one wall oven for baking and combine the microwave/speed oven with it instead.

Regarding the dishwashers - do you tend to fill up two dishwashers with every meal? Or is this something so you can avoid emptying the dishwasher daily? If it's not something you use every day, you may consider moving one of them to the island and putting trash next to your sink so you could be efficient with loading one dishwasher. Otherwise you could get an under sink trash but it wouldn't be large.
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knkeiser
4 years ago
Just_janni thanks for your response. I actually feel like our design is very functional but I appreciate the perspective of others.
The wall ovens are side opening so the landing zone for that is the counter to the right of the range top. That makes it easy to open with my left hand and grab the food with my right and pivot a step to place it on that countertop. I also don’t camp out in front of the ovens causing crowds, I put stuff in and pull stuff out and I’m gone. The fridge and freezer landing zone is the space left of the island sink as that will be my prep area so it’s all in one place. The microwave has a countertop below it for those needs.
I wanted a clean up zone and I have a large one on the other side. The right side of the island is where I will store my every day dishes so that is the natural plating area for meals. I will also put my baking gear on that side of the range. That side won’t get as much use as the other side but it is a very large kitchen so it’s ok. I also didn’t want to have a bunch of stuff on that side because it’s the pathway to the laundry room and master suite.
I think I will add a pantry door to the other side of the pantry, near garage/mudroom, so that is a walk through, and feel that will improve the flow.
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just_janni
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
the distance from the ovens to the side of the range top seems too far, too many turns / pivots and crosses a traffic path. - as you will naturally turn right, right, right to swing around and out a pan on the counter - you won't take the "left" approach because 1) your ovens are hinged on the left and 2) the uppers to the right of the cooktop mean you'll want to approach that counter "head on". (the plan is lacking in dimensioning, so it's hard to tell the true aisle widths, etc - but judging off the 2'3" or so cabinet depth - it seems too far.)

But - seems like you've thought this through and this layout works for you.

Best of luck with the new build.
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laurafhallen
4 years ago
I agree with needing counter space very near the oven. You don't want to be carrying a roast or whatever halfway across the kitchen.
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nhbaskets
4 years ago
Am I the only one confused with who the OP is? Is it webuser_895712576 (shows on main Kitchens page) or Nicole (shows on original post and a few others) or knkeiser (most recent posts)? Is this a glitch with Houzz or is this person changing their name?
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mama goose_gw zn6OH
4 years ago
I like the separate clean-up zone under the window. The prep path crosses the traffic aisle, but other than that, I think it's a functional plan. I would move the ovens to the other side of the fridge and freezer--you can use the counter to the right, or the island, as landing, and if someone comes in while you have the oven open, he has the option to peel off through the aisle to the right. Imoved the trash pull-outs to the working side of the island, but they would each pull out toward the short aisles.

Also like One Devoted Dame's suggestion for the pantry door, which would allow you to enlarge the closet on the back side ;).

I turned the plan to fit my drawing program--this should enlarge if you click on it:

Custom house build - looking for kitchen design input

Comments (13)

One Devoted Dame

Nicole
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