Center hall colonial- kitchen in a front room

[Anonymous]

Do you have room to put an addition on the back? That is how this is handled in houses of this traditional design.

[Anonymous]

Sounds nice Op. I would love to lookout from the kitchen to the front yard. More to see. Make sure the biggest window is wither over the sink or next to the a seated area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be weird to have the kitchen in the front of a 4 on 4 colonial. Could hurt resale value. But if you are staying there and it is what you want, by all means do it.

Yeah, I know you and DH are right, it’s a little weird. Ugh. But keeping the kitchen in the back room/ even opening up the wall to dining area- will limit what we can do and eliminate the option of having the 4 big windows looking out into our lovely backyard since we will need that wall space for kitchen stuff.

My thought is, we have been here 5 years and know our current annoyances with the kitchen, and we plan to stay for another 20 so resale value isn’t as big of a concern, the kitchen will be outdated anyways when we sell it. But I don’t know if I’m being blinded by just wanting the kitchen stuff in that larger space.

My kitchen isn’t huge, but has lots of windows and very few upper cabinets. I do have storage in a large kitchen island. Since you can expand the kitchen portion of the space, are you sure something like that wouldn’t work?

FWIW, when house hunting, I have seen what you’re proposing done, and it was a deal killer for me. I wouldn’t buy a house like that. But, if it’s your forever home, and it’s what you want, go for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It would be weird to have the kitchen in the front of a 4 on 4 colonial. Could hurt resale value. But if you are staying there and it is what you want, by all means do it.

Yeah, I know you and DH are right, it’s a little weird. Ugh. But keeping the kitchen in the back room/ even opening up the wall to dining area- will limit what we can do and eliminate the option of having the 4 big windows looking out into our lovely backyard since we will need that wall space for kitchen stuff.

My thought is, we have been here 5 years and know our current annoyances with the kitchen, and we plan to stay for another 20 so resale value isn’t as big of a concern, the kitchen will be outdated anyways when we sell it. But I don’t know if I’m being blinded by just wanting the kitchen stuff in that larger space.

The trendy solution would be a big island and no upper cabinets, just big windows. Would that work?

So yes- one option from the designer is the kitchen stays put, sink at the back stays put, and the 4 big windows still go in. Then the fridge is sort of awkwardly in the corner alcove (it works, but it’s the part that seems weird to me) and the oven/ range is along the other side wall next to the garage door. Then the big island between kitchen and dining. On paper , to me, this loses almost all of our overhead storage and loses half of our pantry space next to the fridge. But if the island is big enough- we could put a lot of our kitchen storage items under there you’re saying?

DP. I’m the ppm with the windows and almost no upper cabinets, and it works fine. Almost all of my lower cabinets have drawers. I have six drawers in my island that contain all my dishes, storage containers, bowls, platters, etc. There are small shallow cabinets on the corners of the island that work great for coffee cups, wine glasses, etc. Drawers work so much better than cabinets.

[Anonymous]

We rented briefly when we first moved to northern Virginia and we rented a rancher with a kitchen in the front of the house and I felt like it really cramped our style. I felt weird being in the kitchen in pajamas because I always felt like someone could see in and like we were too close to the street. We had little kids and it was normal for someone to wake up early and you take them into the kitchen for breakfast or whatever and then there was that whole extra step of having to get changed before you went downstairs. I even felt weird in a robe. Much less hanging out in the kitchen at night. We ended up spending way too much time in the basement tv room as a result.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From your comment later, it sounds like your house is actually a cape cod, and not a center hall colonial? If it is a cape cod, I think it is less odd. Those are small cozy houses and sometimes do have kitchens at the front with a bedroom behind.

You know what, you’re right, it’s a cape cod. I’m an idiot. I’m sorry!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you have room to put an addition on the back? That is how this is handled in houses of this traditional design.

Unfortunately no- our house is on a shallow hill so the kitchen, while on the main floor obviously when we walk into the house, actually feels like it’s on the second floor (large family room below it) once you walk to the back of the house . An addition would ruin the family rooms nice open feeling to our back patio (it would cover part of it, and the landscaping would look all wrong).

[Anonymous]

I think you should consult with an architect and see a 3D design of your house before you decide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you have room to put an addition on the back? That is how this is handled in houses of this traditional design.

Unfortunately no- our house is on a shallow hill so the kitchen, while on the main floor obviously when we walk into the house, actually feels like it’s on the second floor (large family room below it) once you walk to the back of the house . An addition would ruin the family rooms nice open feeling to our back patio (it would cover part of it, and the landscaping would look all wrong).

What about to the side? Could you bump out along the side of the back half of the kitchen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you have room to put an addition on the back? That is how this is handled in houses of this traditional design.

Unfortunately no- our house is on a shallow hill so the kitchen, while on the main floor obviously when we walk into the house, actually feels like it’s on the second floor (large family room below it) once you walk to the back of the house . An addition would ruin the family rooms nice open feeling to our back patio (it would cover part of it, and the landscaping would look all wrong).

What about to the side? Could you bump out along the side of the back half of the kitchen?

No, our garage is there. And on the other side is the rest of our house. I think an addition would be too much.

Another option involves keeping the layout with the kitchen in the back, moving the fridge/ pantry shelving/ wall oven to the exterior facing (well, garage facing) wall and then having the cooktop on the island. Cooktop on the island seems to have a lot of haters and a lot of lovers. What do you guys think?? Island would probably be 8ft long and … standard width? What’s that, 4 feet? And 36 inch cook top

[Anonymous]

The key thing is nobody wants to walk in the front door and see a messy kitchen.

The only house where I’ve seen a kitchen in front is a beach house where it’s NBD.

The only way I’d consider this is if you can block it from view—and glass French doors don’t block the view.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The change doesn’t fit the style of the house, so I think it will feel weird and may not age well. A rambler or more modern style house could pull this off.

Having the kitchen in the back is nice for privacy. You tend to use the kitchen at night and early, and sometimes in pajamas. You don’t want visibility from the street.

This is true. I wasn’t considering the privacy aspect as much. I’m worried with the kitchen staying in the back, we will continue to not hang out there though. The second option was to put an island between kitchen and dining once it’s opened up (current kitchen has no room for island) So people will hang out at the island . It will be sort of in the middle of the front and back of the house. Right now, we hang out in the dining room for homework/ drinks/ chatting etc before and after dinner so I’m imagining that would be nice to do in the back of the house with the nice new large windows looking out back. But if we had a new large kitchen towards the front you are right, we’d default hang out there more.

I think whichever thing we do, hanging out is going to happen more in the front anyways, just like we currently do. Because the space is bigger. I know our house is 3k feet but probably 1k of that is the finished basement. The main floor footprint is not massive.

I don't really understand the current obsession with people wanting to hang out in their kitchen. How much time to spend in there? Will you really hang out in the kitchen all the time? If you're opening up a wall, why can't you just build an island or gathering space where the wall used to be?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you have room to put an addition on the back? That is how this is handled in houses of this traditional design.

Unfortunately no- our house is on a shallow hill so the kitchen, while on the main floor obviously when we walk into the house, actually feels like it’s on the second floor (large family room below it) once you walk to the back of the house . An addition would ruin the family rooms nice open feeling to our back patio (it would cover part of it, and the landscaping would look all wrong).

What about to the side? Could you bump out along the side of the back half of the kitchen?

No, our garage is there. And on the other side is the rest of our house. I think an addition would be too much.

Another option involves keeping the layout with the kitchen in the back, moving the fridge/ pantry shelving/ wall oven to the exterior facing (well, garage facing) wall and then having the cooktop on the island. Cooktop on the island seems to have a lot of haters and a lot of lovers. What do you guys think?? Island would probably be 8ft long and … standard width? What’s that, 4 feet? And 36 inch cook top

I love having the cooktop in the island because it's super helpful when DH and I are both cooking a dish at the same time, but if you do that, you will have to install a downdraft with ductwork which will cost some $$$ if you want something that works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a 3k square foot center hall colonial. Classic layout- walk in the front door to a hallway and a center staircase. Left side is a long living room. Right side is a dining room. Straight ahead at the back of the hall is a powder room. Back room, behind the dining room, is the kitchen.

This is not open concept, there are French doors scattered around the downstairs from hallway to living, hallway to dining, hallway to kitchen, and kitchen to dining.

We are doing a renovation of our kitchen and , due to an awkward footprint of our current kitchen- which is also quite small- we are going to take out the wall separating kitchen and dining. We will keep up all the other walls so we will still have the classic hallway down the center.

Due to natural light factors, wanting lots of windows to look out into our backyard, and due to some awkward things about the kitchen footprint that can’t be changed, we are considering putting the kitchen stuff in the front of the house (current dining area) and dining stuff in the back of the house. It will be open, regardless, from kitchen to dining.

This layout makes perfect sense with the awkward footprint of our kitchen (weird alcove area can become a bar/ coffee station/ china display area for example) but my husband is hesitant because it does seem strange to have the kitchen in a “front room” as opposed to at the back of the house. He isn’t wrong, but I guess I don’t see the big deal. Due to the hallway, you won’t see “KITCHEN” as soon as you open the front door: and we come in through the garage 99% of the time regardless (which ironically brings us right into our current kitchen).

Sorry so long. Any thoughts? Has anyone seen a kitchen in a front room of a center hall colonial? Is my husband right that this is too weird to be acceptable?

A neighbor swapped kitchen and dining in an older center hall colonial. Pros: dining looks out to backyard, when hosting groups or larger gathering better flow from dining area to deck and yard, plus a much more spacious open style dining. Cons: kitchen window faces street, maybe they wanted that or there wasn't much other option for the sink to go over window as opposed to placing sink on new peninsula. Nicely done not too flashy and more functional it seemed when they hosted parties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you have room to put an addition on the back? That is how this is handled in houses of this traditional design.

Unfortunately no- our house is on a shallow hill so the kitchen, while on the main floor obviously when we walk into the house, actually feels like it’s on the second floor (large family room below it) once you walk to the back of the house . An addition would ruin the family rooms nice open feeling to our back patio (it would cover part of it, and the landscaping would look all wrong).

What about to the side? Could you bump out along the side of the back half of the kitchen?

No, our garage is there. And on the other side is the rest of our house. I think an addition would be too much.

Another option involves keeping the layout with the kitchen in the back, moving the fridge/ pantry shelving/ wall oven to the exterior facing (well, garage facing) wall and then having the cooktop on the island. Cooktop on the island seems to have a lot of haters and a lot of lovers. What do you guys think?? Island would probably be 8ft long and … standard width? What’s that, 4 feet? And 36 inch cook top

Could you remove a few walls and convert the garage into additional dining/kitchen space?