Kitchen Reno - Galley Layout Small Space
http://cdn.brownstoner.com/51375e41f19eb-.png
Hello, We are purchasing a townhouse with a galley kitchen are a hoping to do some work to open the kitchen area and allow for a living room/ dining area. The tough part is we would the lose the closets. What are your thoughts on opening the area while keeping the bathroom and some flexibility with privacy vs. a complete open floor plan? Any reccomendations for contractors will also be greatly appreciated. The image below is of our entire floor plan with the kitchen on the right.
ivy
in Brownstoner Renovation 12 years and 7 months ago
8
Please log in, in order to post replies!
8 replies
jeanmarine2 | 12 years and 7 months ago
I tend to agree with slopegirl about considering living there for awhile to get a better feel for the space. we have lived in our house for 6 years and only now are doing a renovation and I don’t know that I would have known exactly what to do when first moving in. Over time we have realized we needed a kitchen island and couch in one area of our house, and it’s been a real process of letting the space open itself up to possibilities. it’s easier to renovate before moving in, that’s for sure, and for us we did the minimum to get in due to cost constraints (just buying a house and doing a few things here and there were about all we could handle), but your space looks pretty decent as a starting point, so perhaps you might wait if you are open to that.
slopegirl | 12 years and 7 months ago
there is a beauty to having the space finished before you move in, but you might consider living there first to see how you really feel… I’d think at a minimum you need to figure out how often guests come and stay and how important this is to your day to day living… you could have the back half be kitchen and dining and let the living room be for guests but that all dpeends on who your guests are and how much time they are spending.
brokelin | 12 years and 7 months ago
Or, better yet, put a kitchen and informal dining area across the back, together, and forget about a more formal dining area – then they are both in light. Rip out the closets and kitchen, and add a wall of closets at the end of the living room where your kitchen is now. Just leave enough walls such that your bathroom opens off a little hallway, rather than directly into your kitchen or dining area. Guests go in living room – easy to make a more private space for them there.
brokelin | 12 years and 7 months ago
You need to decide how YOU want to use the space. Your comments are very unclear on that. If you want to leave the back bedroom and closets as they are, rip down the kitchen wall, turn the kitchen 90 degrees, with stuff on what is now the back wall of the kitchen, with an island opposite, open to the living room. If you want to use the rear space for kitchen and dining, definitely keep the bathroom, but rip the rest down and figure out where you want to be in light – in the kitchen or the dining room – and design accordingly – kitchen in middle where there’s less light, dining room in back by windows, or vice versa, kitchen back by the windows, dining room in the middle. It really depends on how you use your space. I know I prefer to be near windows in both the kitchen and dining room, but if I had to choose, I’d put the kitchen in the light, because I know I hate cooking in kitchens without windows. I also hate dining in dining rooms without windows, but since the times I actually sit at the dining room table are few and far inbetween, my choice is clear. Others may have different dining patterns. You’ll figure out where to add closet or pantry storage in there as you figure out where stuff goes. I’m not sure what you mean by french doors for flexibility for guests. It sounds like you may want to have a space where you could put a guest to sleep, but that isn’t typically used as a bedroom. If so, I recommend that the room you use for that purpose be the living room – a sofabed goes in there much better than it does in a kitchen or dining room. Make the living room (or a portion of it), whether it ends up being in front or in back of the floor, able to be closed off by doors (french or not – I think you are better to have them solid wood for guests, sliding pocket ones work well, as they aren’t in the way when you aren’t using them.) Then you can still cook in the kitchen and eat in your dining area while not disturbing your guest. I could see making the guest room portion the front part of your current living room. This also preserves access to the backyard or deck, if you have that in the back, without going into your guest’s room when they are sleeping.
elbow | 12 years and 7 months ago
So you’re keeping a room on the kitchen floor for guests? I’m really not sure what you want to do. If you want a real Dining Room, too, you’ll need to use the back room. You may want to consider moving the kitchen back there and have the DIning Room in the middle. the powder room could be reconfigured. if you keep your kitchen in its current spot, it would be good to open it up to the living room. You could put the appliances on the back wall and an island between the kitchen and living room. You’ll then only have enough room for a small eating area. Further the remaining space for the living room may make a full sized sofa difficult.
Ray | 12 years and 7 months ago
It would be helpful to know the dimensions, and what your goals are. You say you want to create living AND dining areas? Or a single one that is flexible enough to work as both? Do you need to keep the room in the back? Personally, while the current kitchen seems small, the overall distribution of space seems good – but it’s all about personal preferences, that’s why I asked about your goals.
ivy | 12 years and 7 months ago
No, although we were considering french doors for flexibility for guests.
elbow | 12 years and 7 months ago
Are you planning to keep the bedroom at the rear of the kitchen level?