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Please Help With Kitchen Layout

3 years ago

I'm designing our house and need help laying out the kitchen. We do a lot of cooking and want a functional kitchen to accommodate two cooks. We want the kitchen to be a good place for entertaining small groups of friends and interacting as a family. An island with seating for four or more would be ideal for both entertaining and for family (of 4) meals - preferably with seating on two sides of the island. The long wall (east wall) of the kitchen will have big windows that look out towards mountain views and our back yard. We're trying not to obstruct those views with a vent hood. Ceiling height is 9'.

Shown below is how I've drawn up the kitchen layout. I've also included a blank slate for your suggestions. Please help!

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Comments (5)

cpartist
3 years ago
What happened to the better layouts I showed you on your original thread?

In this one the fridge is so far from the sink to be almost useless. Wasn't that a complaint originally?

And you don't need two sinks right across from one another. The idea of a prep sink on an island is so you have a good work flow from fridge, to sink to prep to cooktop. This is not it. Please post the original plans I designed for you and let the others see what they think.
Gabe Cascadia
Original Author
3 years ago
What happened to the better layouts I showed you on your original thread?

Below are cpartist's versions: In the top version, there is a wall section for the stove right in the center of the east wall of windows, which completely blocks our views - a major design feature of our house and site. The bottom verson is actually quite similar to mine because I incorporated cpartist's helpful feedback. In my version you have a prep sink that is close to the fridge in the island where you can interact with your guests and family while using. The cleanup sink is both close to the stove and away from the public area. All of the dirty dishes can get dumped in the corner next to the cleanup sink and they are out of the way. One of the challenges is the distance between fridge and stove and why I'm looking for other ideas here.
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Comments (62)
Khj- We were discussing a similar situation on another thread. Two dishwashers can be more convenient together, but if one is for mixing bowls, utensils, pots and pans...and the other is for dishes, glasses, silverware...then the two dishwashers can be in separate locations. It only gets confusing when you start mixing them together...and then have to walk all over the kitchen, to put stuff away. I think my favorite plan so far (given your building restrictions and DH's input) is Buehl's latest Plan B. It's really an excellent plan and I think you would love cooking in it. The only thing I might change is to put one of the dishwashers, by the prep sink in the island, just for pots/pans/mixing bowls and utensils. This way, you can clean up as you're cooking...but DH (or maybe kids?) can load the dishes after dinner, into the clean up area, by the pantry. This also gives you excellent dish storage area, by the dishwasher and close to the beverage center. Easy for other people to help/clean/or prepare snacks out of your main work area. I would also keep the two doors and leave the pocket door by the cooking area. You can close that off during parties and also close off the mess. When you're not cooking, you can leave that door open, for more light. So, Khj, can you see yourself in that kitchen? Can you visualize all your finishes? Working in the space? Making dinner or setting out a buffet? If so, I think you have a winner! :)
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Comments (57)
Thanks again everyone, CP, I appreciate the fight for a good idea:). The door is very much a possibility and is under consideration with dh. I will sketch up the 18” cabinet suggestion and see how it looks. However I do have the breakfast table nearby so I don’t really need a lot of island seats. LL, if I add the dr door I will most likely move the bev chiller/MW up as you suggest. I’m not sure I want to close off the dining room opening though. Ever since I read a thread on the importance of “flow” I am hesitant to have any more dead ends. I like the fireplace in theory but having it right in front of the dining room table could be a problem with 1) cooking anyone sitting there and 2) the fact that the view of it would be blocked by the table. I think a fireplace may be better in the LR. MG, I vote for option number 2 but as long as the kids are well behaved and DH helps out, I can live with the first option. Thank you for the nice thought experiment:) As for the DR door, I think I would prefer it on the far right. The center door would open right into the table and would take up a lot of space that I don’t have to make it work. I will toy around with moving the DR opening down a bit to block the mudroom. Maybe I should put a door on the mudroom.
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Comments (17)
As rantontoo stated, a 33" aisle is really tight. Where is the plumbing stack for the condo? Is it in the column in the lower left corner? I'm wondering if you might be able change the peninsula's shape to make it deeper and rectangular, creating essentially a galley lay-out. Like this: The above will require sacrificing a cabinet to run plumbing lines to the new location (and condo board approval). If you want to keep a table in the nook area, I wouldn't extend cabinets into that area. You'd be left with lots of floor space in front of them but not enough room for a table and chairs. Have you considered creating a banquette in the nook area instead? That would give you some additional storage and allow you to keep a cozy spot for friends and family in the kitchen.
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Comments (2)
Can you take some space from the living room? If the stub wall must be 30", you could put a full-height cabinet on the LR side, and extend a peninsula to the point where the door was. If you need a support post for a beam, it could be incorporated into the seating overhang (plan on left). However, if the stub wall can be eliminated, or if only a support post is necessary on the exterior wall, you could extend the peninsula farther into the LR, and make the remainder of the room a dining area. With seating at the peninsula, the nook could be converted to storage and serving. areas (plan on right). Another option (on right), would be to keep the sink under the window and put the fridge on the stair wall. The fridge would be a trek from the range, but adding a sink to the peninsula would give you a better prep space, and the fridge would be more convenient to the FR and new DR. NKBA guidelines New to Kitchens? Read me first.
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mama goose_gw zn6OH
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
I was going to suggest m/l the same location for the range as cpartist's first version, but I'd move the fridge to the short wall, with the ROTS pantry beside it and leave the DR as is. If you center the entry door, you can have a long view through the window to the left of the hood, and both the island seats and the DR seats have a view through the wider window above the sink.

I like the separate clean-up zone in her plan too, but I'd put it on the right side of the kitchen, with dish storage in drawers on the right, where helpers can unload the DW or gather dishes to set the table, without entering the prep triangle. Since the sinks are fairly close together, you might want to make the work aisle wider than the standard 48" for two people--maybe 54".

The MW is a drawer model on the island, facing the fridge, again to keep people out of the work aisle, but you could put it in an upper cabinet to the right of the fridge.
AFritzler
3 years ago
I quite like mama goose's plan, the only thing I would change is I would switch the placement of the fridge and pantry (unless you are getting a counter depth fridge)

I find that appliances, especially fridges close to a corner like that make the corner much harder to access because they stick out so much further than the cabinets. You can make your pantry and fridge panels only 26" deep (just slightly deeper than a standard counter) and it would make the corner more accessible without always bumping into your 30" deep fridge.

I also agree that a larger isle would be preferable.
mama goose_gw zn6OH
3 years ago
I've been thinking about the overall plan for the living areas. Would this work so that one is not walking directly into the kitchen from the front entry?

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