Suggestions for a kitchen layout for my house? [closed]

Question

We have just started to renovate our newly bought apartment. It is part of a very nice old building located in the center of Granada Spain.

The apartment is approx 120m2 and we are in the process of a major renovation (tear down walls, build new, new floor with radiation, new doors, new windows, new bathrooms, new kitchen etc.).

The apartment will look like this when walls have been removed and reconstructed:

At the moment the kitchen (large room in center of 3D illustration above) layout are giving us some problems. We are a family with three young children at the age of 2, 0 and 0 (the last two are twins). We wish for the kitchen to be the "social" room where we will spend the most of our time when we are together. We do not wish that the family is split up while one is working in the kitchen. This also goes when we have guests, i.e. we would like to have a “bar” where the guests can hang out while we are preparing the dinner for example.

The room has one window and also gets light from the salon/dining room (we plan to put a glass door between the dining room and kitchen) so it is a quite light room. The ceiling is high (approx 3100cm). We want a large fridge and a stand-up freezer. The oven and microwave should preferable be in “chest” height. We also prefer lots of working and storage space, and we want it to be a open room (not a “cramped” feeling).

At the moment we have this idea:

Can also be seen here: floorplanner view

On the back wall, over the table in 1800cm height, we plan to place closets.

Some pictures of the apartment with other design ideas for the kitchen which we are discussing can be seen here (last six pictures for ideas for kitchen): Google album

Any input would be very appreciated as we need to take decisions latest this week...

P.s. Sorry for my english, am obviously not a native english speaker - I do better in danish and spanish ;o)

Answer 1

My neighbors had a similar long, narrow kitchen to work with.

They decided to go with a long island down the middle, with the 'work triangle' on one side (fridge at the end of the island, sink and stove along the exterior wall of the house).

The advantage is that people can be cooking on one side (there's enough space for someone to pass behind someone else working, although they might need to coordinate if they're moving a hot pot or a tray out of the oven), while people who are just there to socialize can stay on the other side, out of the way. Or, they can even help out with chopping stuff up, if you need some extra hands.

The last few feet of the center island doesn't have cabinets under it, it just has a central support, so they can get 5 stools around it (two on each side, one in the middle), where the kids can sit when doing their homework, or the family can sit there for breakfast or dinner. (there's another table in the kitchen, but the kids (2,5,10) prefer sitting at the counter)

...

The kitchen planner they met with insisted they didn't have enough space for a central island, but she was insistent that she wanted one, and the kitchen deigner finally relented.

I'll see if I can get some pictures and measurements, so we can see how it compares to the size you're dealing with.

Answer 2

I like the lay-out that is shown in the question. I may make one change however. Where you have your table, you may want to add some built in benches in the corner. We had an area like this in a house I lived in. The benches were great for two reasons:

First, it made it feel more informal in the area, more of a place to gather.

Second, with built in benches you can create more storage space for things you only use a few times a year.

Good luck with your re-model