Since this is a renovation I am assuming there are many constraints? What is the current layout? What do you hope to achieve with the changes? Are you renovating the bedroom level too?

I assume that is a front porch and that your main door is opening into your living room? If so where do you live? Where will your guests leave shoes and coats? I suspect you all would come in the other door and go to mudroom?

Hi, thanks so much. Yes many constraints. we live in Northern Virginia. I don’t have a current floor plan but we are not moving the stairs. LR is staying the same, but currently it’s our only gathering space on the main level. The kitchen will expand back into the new addition, add a family room, dining and mudroom w it h driveway entrance where we will put our coats. My feeling is guests can put their coats on a coatrack inside the office or guest room if needed, as it currently stands in winter my own family does that because we are 5 people and our coat closet is a single door width tiny spot at the front door.

the office on the new plan is currently my teen’s bedroom and where the French doors are going to be is currently her closet facing in (door right next to the other bedroom with a more enclosed hallway). The bathroom is remaining but it’s getting wider- currently toilet is under window facing the door with a tiny pedestal sink.

ill post the upstairs plan shortly. We have a cap cod with very slanted rooflines in front that will pop up in the renovation.

Upstairs plan. Currently there are 2 bedrooms and one bathroom and my ideal is to have all 5 of us upstairs for sleeping which this plan accomplishes. The addition will add about 1200 SF Across both levels (600ish per floor).

I would want a closed closet in entry if possible. I suspect it is doable if you steal a bit from office.

In the kitchen it seems tight on the side with only 3 feet and a bit between island and cabinets.

I feel your pain with five people! We looked for years to try and make it happen. We built a home instead.

One of your kids is scoring big time with that big room and large walk in!!!!

Also that’s not the correct master layout, we’ve adjusted it so the bedroom space is going to be more like 14x14 And the closets will be slightly smaller.

The front steps leading to the front door should be obvious to your guests. Having them go behind the porch to find the steps to the front porch is just weird. Then they see two sets of steps, one leading to a door. That’s the one they will go to. The delivery man won’t know where to go. The mailman won’t know where to go. What kind of front walkway are you planning? Having the main steps extend from the right end of the front porch would be acceptable and much more logical, with a path leading there.

The 3’6” spacing near the fridge seems tight to some- but I currently have a galley kitchen and there is only 3’3” of space across in the entire thing!!!

felizlady, I already have steps at the front of my house to the porch and up to my front door and the side steps are already there as well to the front door. We are adding a 2nd set of steps from the landing at the driveway that go back to the mudroom entrance. My front walkway and steps at the entrance will remain. Sorry that wasn’t clear!

Bathroom seems far away from where everyone is all the time... are you toilet training littles? How do you get to the bathroom from the kitchen?

Now is the time to address small changes that could make a big difference. Even if you have less space now it doesn’t mean you should accept less than ideal in your renovation. This is our kitchen where the island and fridge are and it’s 4 feet 2 inches. This extra space means someone can be in the fridge and another can pass by. With five people it’s space I didn’t know I was missing until I had it.

Thanks for this! I could widen it by shortening the island, is there another option you see? I really don’t think it’s too bad, it’s only narrow in the moment the freezer or fridge is open and there are other ways into the kitchen. I am going to have less than ideal scenarios because of the limitations on my structure. For example, I can’t extend the renovation to the west (everything behind the bathroom to the rear is addition) because under the bathroom is my basement walk-up that we must preserve and also we have a setback we must abide by; this addition goes right up to that setback On the west side.

the kitchen was renovated 4 years ago (but is much smaller because we didn’t add any space at that time) and we are expanding it but also trying to reuse many of our cabinets and all appliances from that renovation.

in terms of the bathroom, currently that is where the bathroom is and it hasn’t been a problem. We don’t have little kids; my youngest is 9. I am not sure how we could link the bathroom to the family room. I see that it could be advantageous for sure!

my teenage daughter will get the en-suite bedroom upstairs and she is definitely excited about it!

Would it be possible to add a closet to the proposed office space? I am imaging guests in the winter time...also, can that office door be centered on the fireplace?

Perhaps some of the kitchen experts can weigh in on the kitchen. I’m not sure a smaller island makes sense either.

One of my three also has an en-suite while the other two share. So far so good!

honestly I would switch your family room and living room. the current living room seems more like a private family space, while guests will probably stay in the open area. I'd put your tv there. also, unless you really want a kitchen desk, I'd do a beverage station or something like that there instead.

I would tend to disagree with this. Guest are staying in the room adjacent to the living room. They would relax in living room. If guests stay over kids could be up early in family room without bothering them.

Kitchen desk would be heavily used in my house by kids who want a spot to work but not to work at island.

Or am I mixing up the assigned rooms?

So, the living room IS my current family room. I hate it. I hate that you are looking right at all my family mess and TV the second you walk in the front door. We are not moving the the stairs and this house is 80 years old. One of the reasons for this renovation is to solve that- I want a larger family room out of view of the front door. I also really want an entrance off the driveway for unloading groceries and to put all our crap and shoes- the mudroom. An extra fridge will go in there. Window placements aren’t fully finalized.

I definitely plan to center the French doors on the wall, I didn’t see that until yesterday. Also considering pocket French doors dependbig on the cost. I could put a small closet in the corner of the room on one side of the French doors if I decide to.

I feel like the desk would be a good charging/organizing area but I could make it a regular cabinet area while still making it a charging organization spot but not a desk. That’s an easy change and I’ll think on it. We probably don’t need a seated desk but we do need an organizational area for sure.

Here is a rough plan of my CURRENT pre-renovation floor plan that I drew over the new one. It has the original closet layout for the bedroom that will be an office as well:

You know the more I think about it I will change out the desk and put in a span of cabinets. I can then have a mounted microwave and the counter can be used for the toaster (which we use a lot in my house) and coffee maker so they are out of the way. That will be much more useful.

right now we have one upper cabinet and part of the counter for calendar and papers and dog stuff etc but I think a lot of the papers can be moved to the office (we don’t have one now) and I can still use the lower cabinets below that area for dog stuff, makl supplies, etc but the counter will be more useful for toaster for sure. Thanks for that. Something like this:

Yes, I LOVE my coffee area (it's only 18" but it's the best). We're going through a home design now and my kitchen doesn't have space for this and I'm so sad. Consider a beverage fridge, too - if you find that your current fridge gets overtaken by whatever preferred drinks your kids and hubs are on these days. Mine gets filled up with monster drinks and it drives me crazy.

Regarding the bathroom location, I think if you really wanted to you could add a hall behind the kitchen from the family room and reconfigure the doors to the bathroom and guest room to provide easier access from the addition - but I don't think it's necessary.

Just to explain a bit more about why I suggested making the living room a family room and vice versa... First of all, I imagine most people will want to be in the kitchen or in your family room due to the openness, at least until you reach a critical mass of people, where there are enough that seating is scarce in the open rooms. (My parents have both rooms in their house, and people would fill the family room AND dining room before going to the living room). I think that your current LR will function as a very large foyer. Secondly, putting a TV in a room automatically means it gets used (I'm assuming you have a TV). As a bonus, if you put your TV in your formal LR, the noise of the TV will be mostly limited to just that room, instead of the entire open area. (In my current open floorplan home, I can't listen to music while I cook and someone is watching TV - and when people are watching TV and I use my hood, they can't hear the TV. I really want some walls). Your family room will get used regardless if you have a TV in it or not because it's right in the thick of things. Thirdly, your access to your second floor is through the formal LR, so although it's not traditional to have the family room in the front of the house, I think it works for your layout. Most normal sized houses these days don't have both rooms anyway, so you do walk into the family room. Just something to think about. I also don't think anyone should arrange the use of their home around guests unless they're having a lot of them for extended periods of time. Our guest room is right next to the baby's room, so...sorry not sorry anyone who has to sleep there. Good thing grandpa's hard of hearing :) Anyway, my cousin's an architect and told me we should be calling rooms by what they'll be used for...so instead of a family room & living room in our new home design that's probably too expensive to build, we have a "media room" where the TV will be, and a "liberal and fine arts" room, which is where conversation, reading, and the piano will be. Consider what the use will be for your rooms and maybe that will help guide your vision. Maybe you do have a lot of guests and enjoy more formal spaces, so maybe that works for you!

Also, sorry for the novel! LOL. I've been thinking about this a LOT lately.

I mostly like your plan a lot. I might want a coat closet near the entry if I could get one somehow. Even if it meant pushing thst whole wall forward.

you may have some “which is the front door” confusion. That can be partly solved with paint but maybe also change the formal living room door to French doors or a slider etc. or paint it siding color.

I don’t like the porch stairs facing the front door stairs like that on the exterior. I might join up the porches or put the porch stairs elsewhere. you don’t want them on the front facing out though as it might make for more confusion. Maybe On the front but running sideways?

another thing with the portico / front door is that it is nicer to line the stair with the door. Your portico porch is a hallway with the doors offset. If you lime up the stair and door you have a micro porch which is actually very nice.

we have a similar setup in some ways with a front porch and a separated front door portico with porch on the same side of the house. We painted the front door bright red. And the other is one shade lighter than siding color plus with the porch furniture it looks less entry like. it is ok for us although we do get occasional confusion. We call our Main entry ”the portico” and the larger porch “the porch”

the same issue with porch door and porch stair might occur on the front. I find a porch is more usable if traffic is limited. so the part of the front porch between the stair and the door is less pleasant than the part not on that traffic path. Something to think about if you want to consider reconfiguring that stair or door

good luck!

Thank you! I feel like I need to clarify the front door situation. The front door entry and stairs are very clear and the mudroom mini-porch entrance, while facing the same direction, the mudroom is set back and accessible via the driveway which is set lower from my house. That is not clear on this layout I have shared.

here is the current frontage of my house:

here is the side current view- the bump out near the black car is what will bump out further to be the mudroom and the access to that will come off those existing stairs that also go to the front. So it is set back from the frontage of the house too. I dont think there will be any confusion as to which are the front stairs-entrance. The porch will be redone with the renovation because they are very old and rotting but the basic layout will remain. On the 2nd floor, the current dormers will be popped up and connected as a single section with multiple windows to
give us more headspace inside; that will be bedrooms 1 and 2 in the upstairs plan.

we used to have a "desk" in the kitchen too... IMO a total waste of space. all it does is collect junk. I'd replace with floor to ceiling cabinets for storage. personally..

We will have a full size basic fridge in the mudroom for drinks and overflow since the reg fridge is counter depth and not enough for all the Gatorades and “sparkling ices” my kids and husband drink.

Sorry didn't see your other post about the fridge & family room until just now. Well, definitely consider how to make the LR useful. It would be a shame to have it and not use it, which is a complaint of many people who have formal LRs.

I think we would use it when kids are watching TV and we want to read or work on computer, or when guests are over and we want to chat away from them in family room. It won’t be used as often as the family room for sure but it won’t sit empty. It’s also a pretty small space because you need to keep a walkway clear to get into kitchen and rest of house.