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Design Dilemma Kitchens Polls

Opening galley kitchen! Help!

20 days ago

We are about to start renovations on our kitchen, and we are looking to either make the back wall of the living room a half wall into the kitchen, or turn that into barstool seating, looking over the sink. The cabinets with the sink are on the backside of the wall. The cabinets with the stove is what you would see looking into the kitchen from the living room. My dilemma is, do I have enough room to add barstool seating there, and would it look normal and not cramped? If I don’t do barstool seating, then I would need to back the couch up to the half wall, which I don’t think would look that great. I’m at a loss. *Pardon the mess in the photos.

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Comments (9)

Lyn Nielson
20 days ago
I wouldn't want to be seated at a counter looking into a sink.

Measurements and proposed layout would be helpful for comments.

will you be changing any living room furniture or layout?
kandrewspa
20 days ago
Are you going to be able to live without the upper cabinets on that wall? When your kitchen isn't very large that could be a big loss. I like having an upper cabinet close to the sink to unload dishes from the dishwasher quickly and easily.
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@apple I’m going to play with google sketch up. I’d forgotten about it since playing with it when it first came out! Thanks so much for reminding me! @mama I am kind of loving the idea of breaking up the windows... I did this last night with 2 windows on the north and south walls to maintain the symmetry the house really exhibits elsewhere. I think it works both around a big range and a large tv wall? I moved the fridge a bit so it would contain a bit of a butler’s pantry/pantry access behind it. I could store stemware in glass cabinets in there... I don’t know at what point an island is deemed too long, but I feel like traffic flow would really be from the tv to fridge, and then the work triangle, so the rest of the length would serve as extra extra prep space and loads of island dining for my kids and their friends. I’d seen this (attached) kitchen before which has a Long Island leading to a butler’s pantry and it felt nice to be in it. I also thought the upper cabinets being from the counter to ceiling were kind of a cool vibe in an area that doesn’t need full depth counters. @newideas funny you should mention a bar area - the original floorplan had a large wet bar in the FR. That door behind the couch is a secret door in the wall that leads down to a wine room (which we’ve repurposed as a library). The prior owner removed the bar... and we’re working on a cellar under the house.
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Yes, I have thought about that.. Ikea only has one depth wall cabinets which are the same depth as their shallow base.. (Previously that wall had the same thing (wall same depth as base.. But the previous cabinets were built in place.. 13" depth instead of 14 3/4.. ) That's why I designed it with the top 21" shorter than base so that the counter will be useable.. Also thinking of mounting the cabinets a bit higher than normal (19"-20") above counter so counter is more useable. If you have a suggestion of where I could get 12" wall frameless quickly w/o doors?? and maybe use ikea doors with them?
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PRO
HALLETT & Co.
20 days ago
We need an accurate floorplan with dimensions to help- pencil on graph paper is great!

Smith · More Info

This was my old kitchen, there was a solid wall on the left previously with a 'window' to the living room. Yuck
susan49417
20 days ago
What is it that you are hoping to achieve with altering the wall? Opening up to a half wall with bar stool seating will require moving into the living space to accommodate counter depth and bar stools....is that some you want to live with? In addition, looking into a sink seems quite undesirable to me. Perhaps posting floor plan with all measurements here in the same post might allow for some other recommendations to improve your space.
PRO
CAGE Design Build
19 days ago
You would be losing a great deal of cabinetry by creating the half wall. We wouldn't recommend that unless you figure you could do without it.
Buehl
19 days ago
Welcome Kel Allen! We need more information to be able to give you useful help/advice. Please see the Featured Answer of the "New to Kitchens? Read Me First!" thread.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5972404/new-to-kitchens-read-me-first-2020-interim
Louie
18 days ago
Terrible idea. You wouldn't have any room for the giant blobby sofa if you opened it up. It will make both rooms function much smaller. You will lose so much space.
shirlpp
18 days ago
You're trying to bring more natural light into the kitchen?

Is that wall loadbearing?
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
18 days ago
A to scale floor plan of the whole space you are planning to redo Do it on graph paper show every window , doorway where those lead every measurement clearly marked and posted here in a comment in jpeg format . This is the only way to get help here. The pics are pretty useless BTW.

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