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Building a Home Design Dilemma Kitchens

seeking kitchen/pantry/mudroom layout suggestions

3 years ago

building our forever home and struggling with kitchen/pantry/mudroom layout. First option below is current plan from builder, followed by a couple other thoughts. Open to suggestions. Worried about seeing the pantry from the main room. Also don't want guests to see our mudroom from the kitchen or the 1/2 bath. Prep area to include microwave, drink fridge, small prep sink possibly, and some pretty open shelving. 10'island for seating.

Open to other suggestions about the remainder of the layout as well! Thanks!

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Comments (3)

PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
3 years ago
Have you considered having a local architect design a house with you that meets your needs and fits your site?
Buehl
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
They're too small to read. However, I think I see "Prep" in a tiny, closed off room. Is that where you plan to perform your meal prep (that's what a "Prep Zone" is for)? If so, I would hate to be relegated to that space to prep...and 70% or more of your time working in the Kitchen is spent prepping. I would also hate to have to lug whatever I prepped to the Kitchen for cooking/roasting/baking. If some place is going to be in a small room off the Kitchen, I'd put the Cleanup Zone (or Scullery) there...that would eliminate having the the dirty dishes front & center and on display for all to see the way it is right now with the Cleanup Zone in the island.

Personally, I'd rather see a Pantry door or even a Mudroom door than dirty dishes! (That's how you "fix" the Pantry & Mudroom views -- add doors!)

I agree with Mark, given the number and type of concerns you have, I think you would benefit greatly by working with an architect for the overall design of the house. The Kitchen, however, would benefit from a true Kitchen Designer (i.e., not architect, builder, or cabinet sales person).
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I would prefer to have the doors and individual lockers with a decent seat in front so people can actually sit down in front to tie laces, put on boots..... Open lockers look messy in a real home, doors keep it cleaner. But also many kids want life quick and easy and may just drop things on the floor instead of opening locker doors. Doors also add to cost, and here they are expensive, it would be several thousand to do the built-ins in your inspiration picture. So cost.... really factors in on what to do. These are our new built-ins in our new home. I cheaped out due to the cost of the whole house build adding up and put in the standard lockers. I wish we would of spent more for the added expense of adding the side walls to each locker. In our previous build, we had side walls to each locker, one double hook at the back wall higher up and two lower double hooks lower on each side. Making each locker a six hook instead of the only the double on the open lockers. Back hooks for jackets, side hooks for backpacks.... So much better and functional to add the side walls. We still might down the road but our children are getting older, but if I had young children in a long snowy winter environment, it would of been a must. This post was edited by xc60 on Fri, Mar 28, 14 at 0:58
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Comments (4)
I agree it does have a nice feel and love the splurge on stainless steel, my own favorite. Your "2 avid cooks plus some little helpers" thing makes this problem special. How about 1. Moving the counter-depth refrigerator back into the "mud room" in the space labeled pantry. If possible, remove the framed doorway and the little wall between fridge and doorway. If not, just remove the doorway framing to widen the passage and strengthen the relation to the kitchen. 2. Putting a 15" pantry pullout on the end of the counter where you show the refrigerator now. This would be readily available to cooks on both sides and create a 31" counter to its right. 3. Putting a carousel or other base pullout cabinet in the left corner, with small drawer cabinet to its left. OR put a 30" drawer cabinet under the counter AND frame a door to the blind, closed off corner space from the stair landing. 4. If problems fitting what you want in #3, how about moving that doorway to the stairway area south to gain critical inches (31" becomes 36" counter?)? If that's out of the question, would just removing the doorway framing gain a couple critical inches? 4. Personally I'd forget about "centering" the sink--under anything. The very last consideration, especially since you're fitting in standard unit sizes. First consideration would be keeping it accessible to both avid cooks at once, right? Second would be using its placement to designate appropriately sized places for cleanup on one side and prep counter on the other? However you see it, massage its placement into greater functional perfection, maybe even do something with the right blind corner. (BTW, depending on the sink you choose, you could center the faucet under something if you wanted.)
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this is the only "major" change we want to make (*aka move cabinets around.) We are happy with the builder just want to redesign the kitchen. Originally we were fine with the pantry but want to maximize our budget aka look at alternatives (aka if we can make the change great if not we are not crazy worried .) And ty for everyones points its beyond helpful. we can't find anything even close in our market for this amount. (been looking for a long time now) plus we love the lot and the neighborhood (small city)
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Just remember, no matter how beautifully organized a mudroom is built, if there are children, it will all just be dumped in the middle of the floor and you are providing a large dumping area. My DD is a bit of a tartar when it comes to neatness in her house and with her two boys (now 16 and 19), but no matter what she provided for them, coats and athletic bags always ended up dumped on the floor. The backpacks got dumped there, too, but were moved when it was time for homework. She would have had to stand there and force them to put them away. One can only do so much.
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mama goose_gw zn6OH
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
By prep room, you seem to mean 'snack prep', since you are including a beverage fridge and MW. Unless you have daily hired help, or never cook at all, then I think having the prep zone in the small room would be awkward.

I like the first plan the best. The closet, pantry, and PR in the second plan aren't realistic--how will you bend to retrieve something from a lower shelf if the aisle is only 2' wide? Where will you stand to open or close the PR from the inside? I don't like the location of the PR in the third option, so I'll concentrate on the original plan:

The better placement for the snack prep area would be to the left of the fridge (as you face it), so no one needs to enter too far into the kitchen. You could have a MW in an upper to the left, or use a drawer model between the main fridge and bev fridge. If you keep the snack prep as part of the pantry, I'd suggest keeping frequently used pantry items in a tall cabinet to the right of the fridge, so you don't need to walk to the back pantry just to grab a box of pasta or cornstarch.

I also like the 10' island--with DW to the left of the sink, and the meal prep zone to the right. Trash pullout could go on the corner to the right, to be convenient to the fridge. I would store dishes to the right of the range, across from the DW, so that a helper could unload the DW, or gather dishes to set the table, without entering the prep zone.

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