Questions regarding my open plan layout

[Dan_the_man]

Hi folks,

 

I would appreciate feedback on my open plan kitchen/dinning/living layout.

 

Question 1. - Door opening on left or right

 

Which is the best placement for my sofa, option 1 or option 2? On option 1 the sliding door opens opposite the long planter in the garden. The issue I see with this option is it could encourage people to walk through the kitchen triangle to get to the patio door opening? To counter this argument you could argue it is more important to get quick access to the sofa from the hallway which would be a straight line walk with option 2.

 

Option 1

 

Option 2

 

Question 2. - Living ratio

 

Is my Kitchen/Dining/Living area ratio ok? In the below image I have a two door sliding door which is 140mm thick. If I were to choose a three panel sliding door the depth of the frame increases and I lose 73mm in the living area.

 

Question 3. - Furniture choices for living area

 

In order to save space around the dining table on the edge of the living room I am going to have a pouffe instead of a chair. Would anyone ever sit on a pouffe? I found a combined coffee table & pull out Pouffe. So I would have a 3 seater sofa, a swan swivel chair. Is this enough to seat 5 people comfortably?

 

 

Question 4. - Two/Three panel sliding door

 

Which door would suit best, a three panel door or two panel door? The advantage of the three panel door is it lets more of the outside in as the opening is wider, the major disadvantage is the frame is deeper so I lose 73mm of living area space inside the house.

Question 5. - Best position for fridge/freezer relative to the Island

 

The fridge/freezer and food pantry storage are located in a 1100mm wide nook in the wall. I want to know which side directly opposite the island would best suit the position of either the fridge or pantry unit. On the first image below the dry food pantry consisting of a 500mm wide blum pull out cabinet is to the left of the island, to its right is a integrated 600mm wide fridge/freezer unit. The fridge freezer unit is directly behind the Island with 134mm unobstructed space to its left.

 

 

 

 

This above image shows the food pantry on the left and the fridge on the right.

 

Many thanks everyone.

 

 

[tonyshouse]

Option 2 

[ultramods]

Is the entrance to the open plan area on the left hand side of the kitchen? 

 

Will you have a TV in the family area, if so where?

 

What is the depth of the room?

[Dan_the_man]

23 minutes ago, ultramods said:

Is the entrance to the open plan area on the left hand side of the kitchen? 

 

Will you have a TV in the family area, if so where?

 

What is the depth of the room?

 

The Island protrudes slightly into the entrance which is through a sliding pocket door. So the entrance would be on the tap side of the Island. On the last image you can see part of the sliding door sticking out, next to the circle on the wall which is the room thermostat.

 

There will be a TV in the living area. It will be either on a dresser or fixed to the wall. The main three seat sofa will sit directly opposite the TV up against a wall.

 

The whole kitchen/dinning/living area is 4415 at its widest point and it is 8460 long with the two door sliding door and 8387 long with the three sliding door.

Edited June 15, 2020 by Dan_the_man

[Spainy86]

Why not have a slide out pantry unit rather than a door that swings open? We have a full length one sat next to our fridge and it works perfectly

[Dan_the_man]

16 minutes ago, Spainy86 said:

Why not have a slide out pantry unit rather than a door that swings open? We have a full length one sat next to our fridge and it works perfectly

 

Sadly blum do not offer those. I also have a very deep pantry unit with drawers at 600mm deep so would be hard to find one suitable. It does make sense what your saying though as it means access is possible at both sides.

[Spainy86]

1 hour ago, Dan_the_man said:

 

Sadly blum do not offer those. I also have a very deep pantry unit with drawers at 600mm deep so would be hard to find one suitable. It does make sense what your saying though as it means access is possible at both sides.

Yes, that is exactly what we have

[Dan_the_man]

You have 600mm deep drawers on your slide out pantry? Which one do you have may I ask?

[Spainy86]

No sorry, that’s not what I meant, I meant the style. I can measure though if you like, what dimensions do you want?

[Dan_the_man]

Well the usable bottom area of each drawer would be 422 x 566mm.

[Ferdinand]

Hmmm. Very compact, and I like  the mid-century feel. Especially the Guy Rogers style sofa if that is the plan.

 

Admit that I would struggle to keep such a compact layout tidy.

 

I think a pouffe is tricky in that you are really balancing on top  of it, but kids may be happy.

 

I would not expect walking across the triangle to be a huge problem - there is a no-worse alternative route, and if it  is occupied they should go round it. And you can move the sofa.

 

In this layout I would think about putting the table at one side rather than in the middle, and perhaps a vestigial  breakfast bar.  Would  built-in furniture on one side be an option? Lots of  good ideas if you look at eg a programme such as Your House Made Perfect. I think if you are at that stage making  the island a lengthways peninsula might be worth it with a breakfast bar on the corridor side, and perhaps moving the entrance up (in the pic) by 150mm or so.

 

This video features a very space efficient house by Peter Aldington from the 1960s which could provide inspiration; one of my favourites. I  posted it some time ago.

 

 

It is open for visitors.

 

Ferdinand

 

 

  

Edited June 16, 2020 by Ferdinand

[Dan_the_man]

@Ferdinand Thank you for the feedback. 

 

Sadly I can't move the entrance. The Island protrudes the entrance door by 146mm so I cant really afford to make the island much wider. It would need to be at least 950mm wide to make a breakfast bar an option as I have very deep drawers on the Island at 650mm deep due to no upper cabinets.

 

I took your suggestion to move the table to one side. Here are the two possible options. I am beginning to think I should remove the hanging pendant as it would allow more flexibility where I can move the table to in the future.

 

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Dan_the_man

[Ferdinand]

I meant longer not wider.

 

What is the offset from the top of the island to the top of the entranceway?

 

Do you always eat together? How often are 4 or more seats used at a meal?

Edited June 16, 2020 by Ferdinand

[Spainy86]

10 hours ago, Dan_the_man said:

Well the usable bottom area of each drawer would be 422 x 566mm.

Ours is 600m deep, 300mm wide

Photos attached

[Dan_the_man]

47 minutes ago, Ferdinand said:

I meant longer not wider.

 

What is the offset from the top of the island to the top of the entranceway?

 

Do you always eat together? How often are 4 or more seats used at a meal?

 

The gap between the Island and the entrance door is 1 metre. I would not want to make the gap any narrower than this as it would become too narrow to navigate around and your bum would hit the island when retrieving items from the freezer. The Island protrudes 146mm into the bottom of entrance doorway if looking at the floor plan images.

 

I just thought about your built in furniture idea you had. What about a built in bench opposite the book case? Or is the room becoming too cluttered now?

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Dan_the_man

[oldkettle]

On 16/06/2020 at 10:16, Spainy86 said:

Ours is 600m deep, 300mm wide

Photos attached

 

Thank you for the pictures. What is the actual depth of the shelves? Doesn't look like 600, but I may be wrong. 

 

The picture also reminded me that I never could understand why manufacturers don't offer more shelves per unit, could easily fit 8 in this space. 

[PeterW]

3 minutes ago, oldkettle said:

 

Thank you for the pictures. What is the actual depth of the shelves? Doesn't look like 600, but I may be wrong. 

 

The picture also reminded me that I never could understand why manufacturers don't offer more shelves per unit, could easily fit 8 in this space. 

 

Looks like a Hafele unit. You can add more baskets if you wanted to.

 

Dimensions are all here

[Spainy86]

29 minutes ago, PeterW said:

 

Looks like a Hafele unit. You can add more baskets if you wanted to.

 

Dimensions are all here

The kitchen manufacturer is Nolte

[PeterW]

Just now, Spainy86 said:

The kitchen manufacturer is Nolte

 

Yes however the internals are pretty much made by either Blum or Hafele - no one makes their own internal fittings.

[Ferdinand]

On 16/06/2020 at 09:36, Dan_the_man said:

@Ferdinand

 

 

Sanity check.

 

Judging by your overall dimensions the sitting area on that sofa (ie between the arms) is only 1.7m = 5'8".

 

Is that a 3 person sitting width that you are comfortable with? If not you may be misleading yourself as to how much furniture will go in and how spacious it feels.

 

I have some more comments later.

 

F

[Dan_the_man]

18 hours ago, Ferdinand said:

 

Sanity check.

 

Judging by your overall dimensions the sitting area on that sofa (ie between the arms) is only 1.7m = 5'8".

 

Is that a 3 person sitting width that you are comfortable with? If not you may be misleading yourself as to how much furniture will go in and how spacious it feels.

 

I have some more comments later.

 

F

 

You are correct on that sofa width. I could always get a larger sofa. If the dining table is centred there would still be plenty of room between the table and the sofa. I could easily add another 300mm onto the sofa width and keep it within the living area boundary.

Edited June 18, 2020 by Dan_the_man

[Dan_the_man]

I have searched for hours for a pull out pantry with 600mm deep wire baskets but can't find any. I definitely will not settle for less than 600mm deep.

[PeterW]

6 minutes ago, Dan_the_man said:

I have searched for hours for a pull out pantry with 600mm deep wire baskets but can't find any. I definitely will not settle for less than 600mm deep.

 

Sorry not sure what you mean..??

 

Do you mean depth of the basket from front of the cupboard to the back..?

[Dan_the_man]

17 minutes ago, PeterW said:

 

Sorry not sure what you mean..??

 

Do you mean depth of the basket from front of the cupboard to the back..?

 

I mean the depth of each individual basket. I require so much depth as I store all my dry goods in oxo containers and they each up lots of floor space. When you include the carcass and door the total depth of the unit will be around 650mm. Of course this is a non issue with the blum drawers.

[PeterW]

OK so the internal (front to back) depth of standard cabinets is usually about 560mm anyway, and it depends on the configuration of the internal frame for a larder and that can remove between 40 and 60mm so you cannot get more than 500mm normally.