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Help with small kitchen layout, please.

3 years ago

I have to replace my long suffering builders grade kitchen cabinets. I’m not happy with the current placement of my back door—right next to the stove and causing foot traffic through the work area.

my plan is to have the door moved six feet to the left, so people entering would not be walking through the kitchen work area.

I had a cabinet installer come out and take measurements, and he thought moving the door wouldn’t be a great idea, because I’d lose some storage space. He’s right, but I had hoped to gain a bit of storage in a kitchen island.

I’m more irritated by the traffic flow and lack of counter space, than I am about storage. I can make up some of the storage in the adjacent dining room.

Here’s some photos of the existing kitchen.

And a rough plan of what I want to do.

I’d love any input on creative solutions for small kitchens. Thanks.

The new position of the door would direct traffic straight through kitchen and down a small hallway to the living room:

Rough sketch of what I’m thinking:

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Comments (6)

schnoodlemom
3 years ago
Definitely move the door and do an island. People in your way in the kitchen is the worst. I have an L-shape with an island and love the layout.
girlcat36 thanked schnoodlemom
mama goose_gw zn6OH
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Your kitchen is charming, but charming is often easier to look at than to work in. If you observe the NKBA minimums for aisle space you won't have a very large island, so if you attach it at the wall you'll have more counter space (red square). Also if you are planning to have seating on the back of the island, you need a depth of ap 41-42", which would include front overhang, 24" deep cabinets, back cover panel, and NKBA recommended minimum seating overhang of 15" at counter height (blue rectangle).

21" between sink and range is less than the recommended minimum prep space of 36", but you can move to the island/peninsula to finish, after rinsing items at the sink.

NKBA guidelines/illustrated
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With Bmorepanic's layout, I was able to piggy back with tweaking that. What if you were to close off the entry from dining room to kitchen except for a 3-4' doorway at the very end of the room (staircase end). I would then bring the frig to along the DW run. BTW we have a corner sink and we have a small spacer and a 9" cabinet between sink and DW which allows plenty of space for loading the DW). The frig was too far away IMO for everyday use. I would then actually open up completely the kitchen to the family room. This would "enlarge" both rooms. It would also give more natural light to the kitchen. You didn't say anything about wanting to feel less isolated when in the kitchen, but there is definitely a huge trend to join the two rooms. You would then have a few options for an eating area. You could create a huge island with seating. You could place it either vertically or horizontally in the room, depending on what else you want to do with the space by the slider. I'm not big on prep sink, but with the large island, it might be nice to have on on the end closer to the family room. If you don't want to go the prep sink route (I'm not), you could easily accommodate your main sink and DW in the new large island. You could create a smaller island with a round dinette corner in the area to what is to the right of the slider (wall would then be mostly open) Purchase a large table that can be centered lengthwise in the kitchen. If I can think of some of these ideas, it's going to be fun seeing what the others can do with this kitchen.
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Those aisles are very narrow, but with such a challenging space maybe the rules have to be overlooked. The kitchen aisles in my older home are similar, although the appliances are arranged so that it works better. I was working on a variation of the above plan, without altering the pantry (1)--bengiesbride's plan has emboldened me ;), so I'll post it. The work area can be flipped, so that the DW opens into the long aisle (1a), but in that plan the dishes could not be loaded directly to the upper cabinet. If the trash and DW are flipped (1b), the DW can be unloaded to the upper cabinet to the right, and there is a little more prep space, but the DW is in the prep space. The sink is more centered on the window in that plan. Plan 2 uses bengiesbride's suggestion of removing the walk-in pantry, but instead of the one-wall kitchen, I drew a peninsula with a backsplash to contain splashes, and the built in seating the OP mentioned. The pantry is recessed into the long wall, protruding 6" into the kitchen--if it can't be reframed with a header, you can work around individual studs. I have a similar pantry in my kitchen, only 6" deep. It's more work initially, but it holds a lot of canned goods and boxes. Click to enlarge New to Kitchens? Read me first. NKBA guidelines Cindyandmocha's pantry--scroll down in this thread for more info. ETA, another 'out of the box' idea. The shallow cabinet could have by-pass doors to hide the folded table, and it would add extra storage for canned goods or hanging utensils a la Julia Child.
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Thanks so much for all the great input! @einportlandor - I get it! :-) I'm really, really uncertain about the peninsula which is why I was really pressing for input. It does seem a bit awkward to me.. just sort of unnatural. I do like the extra countertop space... can never have too much of that. I might just end up adding one more cabinet next to the dw and keep my pub table. We like the counter height seats, if it becomes problematic in the future, we can always get a lower table. The view is better from counter height though! @rantontoo, @benjesbride & @bpathome - the wall between the DR and kitchen is loadbearing and has hvac. Expensive to remove. Regarding the view: We have a better view from the LR slider and from 3 seats in the DR, we have that view too. I know the DR looks pretty dark in the pic I posted, but it's not that bad. It gets tons of light from the slider in the LR. Since the windows in the kitchen and the LR face west, we have solar shades and use them in the afternoon to cut the glare and heat. We wouldn't lower the window. Here is a picture from the table which shows the tennis courts and clubhouse in our view. It really is a small ocean view.
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girlcat36
Original Author
3 years ago
Thank you, mama goose!

I appreciate you drawing that up!

The amount of working counter space has always irritated me, and I thought I’d eventually have a bigger kitchen but that’s not likely to happen at this point.

One of my reasons for doing an island instead of a peninsula was that we are going to eventually take out that wall where the door is and add a small room on(this will be a work room for me to work at home, I’m a seamstress).

I wanted to do everything at the same time, but now the room addition has been delayed and the kitchen can’t wait(broken cabinets, chipped counters, a dishwasher that’s not even all the way under the countertop, a leaking sink with black mold in the cabinets, and the missing corner lazy Susan unit. I’ve been dealing that for 23 years 😳). But I suppose a peninsula can be later converted into an island?

I keep trying to put lipstick on a pig, but now I need a new pig.
jk113
3 years ago
I’m just here to say your kitchen is so cute and loaded with charm! The “after” is going to be phenomenal I’m sure!
girlcat36
Original Author
3 years ago
Thank you so much, jk113! Very kind of you!
girlcat36
Original Author
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
So here’s an idea of the plan so far

The contractor suggested a D sink—not sure why— but I’m not sold on that at all. And I’ve asked for different grilled on the glass front cabinets, rather than prairie style. The range hood in the mock up is too modern looking but is just there because I’m not sure what I want yet.

I’m going with JSI Norwich slab

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