kitchen in the front of the house
I always see parlor floors with the kitchen at the back or in the middle. But does anyone ever put the kitchen at the front? It seems like it would work well, but is there some reason not to?
Does anyone have photos of a house laid out that way?
rana-foroohar
in Bath & Kitchen 9 years and 4 months ago
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15 replies
sa-architect | 9 years and 3 months ago
You don’t necessarily enter into the kitchen. Even in a narrow house, you can have a small entry hall where the stair begins. And as mentioned above, nice to have the full width for the living room in the back (this is a parlor floor we’re talking about, not a floor thru apt). Here’s one we did a while ago, sorry the photos are not particularly illuminating! Eat-in kitchen in the front (table is in the bow window), then living room and half bath behind the stair. http://www.mesh.nyc/robinson-johnson-house/
bryan_barrett2004 | 9 years and 3 months ago
When I bought my town home, a neighbor , who was an original owner said the kitchen was originally on the basement floor rear and the dumb waiter was used to ferry food to the parlor floor for formal dinners and sometimes to the top floor for less formal meals. Back then folks bought food everyday due to limited refrigeration,(1908) so having the kitchen on a higher floor was impractical.
bryan_barrett2004 | 9 years and 3 months ago
When I bought my town home, a neighbor , who was an original owner said the kitchen was originally on the basement floor rear and the dumb waiter was used to ferry food to the parlor floor for formal dinners and sometimes to the top floor for less formal meals. Back then folks bought food everyday due to limited refrigeration,(1908) so having the kitchen on a higher floor was impractical.
chemosphere | 9 years and 3 months ago
Check out the floorplan for this 1911 row house renovation by Frederick Sterner. 139 E19th st. [Screen Shot 2016-05-06 at 7](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s2/:brownstoner:BYjp:screenshot20160506at7.41.53am.png.jpg)
anotherpsarchitect | 9 years and 3 months ago
As was mentioned, the staircase and hallway takes up close to 1/3 of the width of a typical brownstone. If you want a wide island, it starts getting tight if it is located in the front. It is also nice to see “parlours” when walking down a street of intact houses. If I was gutting the house, or buying a place in which all original detail had been removed, I might have considered it.
cay | 9 years and 3 months ago
A friend has this layout in their parlor floor-through apartment. They did it because, as one commenter mentioned, the area is made narrower by the hall/staircase, and they are also on a busy street (Lafayette), so they wanted the bedroom in the back.
It’s not…great. It’s awkward to walk directly into a kitchen, and to walk through the kitchen to the living area. It also means tracking outside dirt, shoes, coats, etc. into the place where you prepare food, which isn’t awesome. That said, for them, they had to compromise either way, and so they chose the layout that worked best for them. They’re a little worried about resale, which they will do within the year, but TBH, people have paid a lot of money for much weirder things in NYC.
Guest User | 9 years and 3 months ago
When we were building/renovating our Prospect Heights house, which was a shell, we put the kitchen in the front. It is unorthodox – you walk into the kitchen area — but it is where we ‘live.’ Kids do homework at the table, it’s kind of the nerve center of the house. We have a smallish living room upstairs on the 2nd floor. It works well for us. We were ‘House of the Day” back in the day and you can see more details here: http://www.brownstoner.com/interiors-renovation/221-prospect-pl/ [221m](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s1/:brownstoner:pYWy:221m.jpg.jpg)
Guest User | 9 years and 3 months ago
When we were building/renovating our Prospect Heights house, which was a shell, we put the kitchen in the front. It is unorthodox – you walk into the kitchen area — but it is where we ‘live.’ Kids do homework at the table, it’s kind of the nerve center of the house. We have a smallish living room upstairs on the 2nd floor. It works well for us. We were ‘House of the Day” back in the day and you can see more details here: http://www.brownstoner.com/interiors-renovation/221-prospect-pl/ [221m](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s1/:brownstoner:pYWy:221m.jpg.jpg)
resident2 | 9 years and 3 months ago
Most kitchens on the parlor floor are either in the rear or in the center because the plumbing and venting stacks are easier to put in there. Plus the kitchen towards the rear makes for easier access to the deck / garden for summer dining BBQ etc. The kitchen in front does not generally make for good re-sale value due to most people not wanting to enter their house straight into the kitchen or their neighbors looking right into their “messy” kitchen etc.
But that said, I do think it works well in the narrower brownstones, where the front parlor room is extra narrow due to the stair case etc. and so then making for a larger rear parlor room living room.
daveinbedstuy | 9 years and 3 months ago
What chemosphere and carmenR said. Also, harder to work around the front windows in designing in a kitchen there.
chemosphere | 9 years and 3 months ago
People usually do this to create 2 bedrooms in the back of a floorthrough unit. It’s much less common in a duplex or single family house where the bedrooms are on another floor. I agree that the main benefit for the kitchen in the rear is the ability to extend the space into the yard.
Also if you like to cook breakfast in your underwear or your pajamas, you have to think about having the curtains drawn constantly – you will be visible from the street.
In most row houses the plumbing stack is in the center and rear of the house. You will need to tie into the main waste stack. If your house is very deep you may need to run an entirely new waste stack.
agdipierro
in Bath & Kitchen 9 years and 4 months ago
No reason not to.
CarmenR | 9 years and 4 months ago
Our GC is working on another (VERY expensive and giant) project where the kitchen is in the front on the parlor level. He is not a fan and mentioned that in the winter or bad weather you’d effectively be blowing the outside into your kitchen (cold air, snow, etc.) and that guests would immediately walk into what could be an inherently dirty or messy space. I myself am not a fan of the open galley kitchens that seem to be popular in new renovations- I don’t want to think about sitting on the couch and being able to see dirty dishes in my sink.
deanbh | 9 years and 4 months ago
there is one on Hicks south of clark and one in the block north (154?) that have this, I think its a great idea.
cmu | 9 years and 4 months ago
I considered it when putting in a kitchen in the pf, but there are negatives: you enter into the kitchen/dining area, which is imo much less desirable than into the living space. K/dn at back gives you opportunity to build a deck & step out. In my experience, party people hang out in the kitchen so the deck/bbq link helps. Also, I suspect plumbing is easier. Now if you have a large enough central area, consider the kitchen there.