Kitchen Remodel Planning: A Totally New Layout: a house log

As many of you have already heard (either on our podcast or via the pic below that we posted on Instagram), we have renovated our kitchen in what turned out to be the biggest, most comprehensive renovation project that we have ever undertaken. It was long, it was lively, and – much like planning a wedding – we are thrilled with the outcome, but quite grateful to have it behind us. (Unlike a wedding, there was not nearly sufficient cake involved).

Like our living room and dining room makeovers (which we detailed in our second book), we chose to bring this renovation fully to completion before sharing it. We learned from redoing those rooms that letting go of the whole blogging-in-real-time thing keeps us focused on creating the best outcome our family, instead of being distracted by what might make the best content and stressing about a big public countdown to reveal day. It is pleasant to have time to truly live with a room and gradually tweak little things (and even a few big things) as opposed to racing for the camera before the dust even has a chance to settle.

Now that we have reached a point where we have lived with it for a while and it feels “wrapped up” (said with big bold quotes because no room is ever truly done – especially these shelves, which Sherry seems to rearrange every couple of weeks), there are likely a million ways we could share the whole ordeal. We have a ridiculous amount of photos and topics to cover (so many lessons learned!), but we are thinking we can likely spill it all in a handful of posts – which is not too shabby compared to our other kitchen renos that took 4+ months to share across 40+ posts each. And we figured we’d toss in some wrapped up shots as we go. Like so:

But let us back up. Today we want to talk about planning and how we chose to totally overhaul the layout. The new floor plan is the unsung hero of the whole undertaking and in many ways it was the toughest part (it was something we mulled over fairly much from day 1 of living here). As a reminder, here is what it looked like then:

Our “Phase 1” improvements (like removing some upper cabinets, painting the trim and paneling, new lighting, hanging some open shelves, painting the upper cabs, staining the lowers, resurfacing the laminate counters with concrete, and getting new appliances when our dishwasher died on Christmas Eve two years ago) were a pleasant upgrade from where we began, but we were still sorely lacking in some functional areas.

When we look at the original floor plan, it is what our friend (a kitchen designer) described as “a perfectly pleasant, single chef kitchen.” Since Sherry and I do not typically cook at the same time, we initially contemplated simply leaving the layout as it was and updating the cabinets and counters. But as time wore on and our family grew, so did our needs to use the kitchen simultaneously (to make school lunches and breakfast at the same time, to occasionally bake with our daughter, etc) and it became clear that things were unnecessarily cramped and we were not using the space as effectively as we could.

Our gripe with the layout was not only about its size, it was also how closed off it felt. The person cooking felt blocked off from the table by the extra long peninsula – and walking back and forth from the stove/sink/prep area to the table during meal times felt annoyingly inefficient. I cannot begin to tell you how many times we made that trip while fielding sporadic kid requests for more OJ, food-cutting assist, or the occasional hair pulling intervention.

Even worse, the prep area felt MILES away from the living room (where the kids typically were during dinner making or breakfast cleanup). The wall there meant anyone working in the kitchen could not see or barely hear what was going on in the living room. Whoever was in charge of dishes that night felt like they were in kitchen jail while everyone else watched TV and relaxed. So close, and yet so far. Clearly, that wall had to go.

Another functional issue we were trying to solve was our lack of a drop-zone for shoes/coats/bags (oh how we longed for a mudroom). Since we consistently enter from the garage door that leads directly into our kitchen, for years our solution was to walk all the way through the kitchen and into the foyer to hang bags, backpacks, and coats in a foyer closet while tossing shoes into a basket under the desk area of the kitchen.

It semi-worked for a little bit but then it began to wear on us. Having all of our shoes thrown into one basket created a bit of a jumble, so the whole basket frequently got dumped when searing for some elusive other shoe, or we’d get lazy and leave our shoes out right next to the basket, simply waiting to be tripped over. Bags and backpacks ended up on the counter or floor. Jackets were frequently left on the back of kitchen chairs. Plus, that stretch of floor between the shoe basket and the garage door was consistently SOOOO dirty from whatever we were tracking in on our shoes. We took turns sweeping it nearly every day.

When it came time to reconfigure this room once and for all, we hoped it to work a lot harder for our family. Having shoe, bag, and coat storage a lot closer to the door was a BIG MUST. So much so that at one point we entertained the idea of in short adding a wall to create a legit mudroom and shifting all of the kitchen function closer to the living room. It would’ve looked something like this:

The idea of having that dedicated mudroom space was exciting, but there were some hurdles that kept making it seem impractical and cramped on the kitchen side. We did not enjoy where some of the appliances would be forced to live in that situation, and while we’d be getting the island we hoped, it would not be large sufficient to seat all 4 of us. The kitchen would also be “losing” a window to the mudroom, and this room needs all the natural light it can get. So in the end, there were sufficient red flags to decide that it was not the best option for us.

Fortunately, another solution that we picked up while shooting our second book was waiting in the wings: a hidden mudroom cabinet!

The photo above is from a family that faced a similar entry-into-kitchen issue and they solved it by building shoe and bag storage right into their cabinetry. When those floor to ceiling cabinets are closed, they blend into the rest of the kitchen cabinetry. But when the doors are flung open, they reveal a cubby for each person in the house (kid stuff on the bottom, parents on top).

When we chose to try implementing a hidden mudroom into our kitchen, it got us to a floor plan like this:

By building mudroom function into floor-to-ceiling cabinetry right next to the door, we’d solve our shoe problem – and we’d still have plenty of space for appliances and an island that would seat all 4 of us. We’d also get our open view to the living room, and we’d even be able to widen the doorway to the dining room so that felt more connected as well. But by expanding the kitchen to fill the whole room, a normal 8ft-long island looked totally dwarfed.

The obvious answer (simply make the island bigger!) was not necessarily straightforward. Most stone materials come in 8 foot slabs, so anything larger would require a seam. We in fact encountered this issue in our showhouse, which had an 11-foot island. We made the seam work okay in there, but consistently wished we’d been able to dodge having one.

Our solution came in the form of Cambria Quartz, which is the material we were hoping to use anyway because of how durable and low maintenance it is. We will talk more about it later when we share all of our material selections, but the pertinent layout fact is that they now sell 11-foot “especially slabs,” which meant we could stretch the island to better fit the space, avoid having a seam, and easily accommodate 4 stools (one for each of us). Plus – like the showhouse island above – we could add some bonus base cabinets for storage on each end. Win, win, win. Enter our ten foot island, stage left.

So that is in short where we ended up, apart from one 11th hour switch that we will get into later when we talk about mistakes (oh the mistakes!). You may be having the same reaction we first had: wow, that is a big kitchen. Especially compared to the footprint that we began with. And having come out the other side we can say this: yes, it is big. But it has turned out to be a much better use of the space for us, and we are so glad we took the time to work out the best option that checked all of the right boxes for us, like:

• significantly increasing storage and prep space (there is a lot more of both)
• moving the main prep/sink area much closer to the eaters
• making the kitchen and living room A LOT more connected
• gaining dedicated shoe/bag/coat/backpack storage right next to the entry door
• adding an island for eating/homework/hanging out with seating for all four of us

We did worry that the work triangle (the distance between the sink, fridge, and stove) would feel too spread out, but it has not bothered us at all. In fact, we have been able to group and store things in a way that has made our mealtime routines much more efficient. But more on that in another post. For now, we will leave you with two more wrapped up shots. Here is that “hidden mudroom” we created next to the door, which has been a total game changer for our sanity.

They are simply two identical, side-by-side floor-to-ceiling cabinets (each with two doors). The kids share the cabinet that is closest to the dining room (they each get a side), and Sherry and I share the other. It is nearly like each door creates our own “locker,” complete with a personal basket for shoes, hooks for coats/bags, and a shelf up top for sunglasses, hairbrushes, keys, etc. We even brought in a few outlets so we can charge our devices in there. Plus we can each use the backs of our own cabinet’s door for photos, calendars, and magnet boards with reminders. In a word, it has been Excellent.

Next up we are gonna take you through the whole demo and reconstruction process, so get ready for some fairly gnarly photos of this room getting stripped down to nearly nothing, and built back up in a fully new way. I am sure you have a million questions about that and everything else (again, we have a ton of info and photos to share), so hang tight and we will do our best to get that together for you in the next week or so. In the meantime you can find me not walking around a peninsula 68 times per morning. Hallelujah.

P.S. – If you are wondering what wall colors we used in any room, or where we got something (a rug, lighting, furnishings, etc) we created this page for you with all of that info.