Remodel Your Home with Brilliant Kitchen Great Room Ideas
If you're looking to create a more open, social floor plan that promotes bonding and entertaining, combining your kitchen, dining and living rooms into one spacious "great room" could be the perfect solution.
Kitchen great rooms seamlessly blend these three living spaces into one larger, continuous area. This open concept layout comes with many practical benefits by allowing your family and guests to intermingle freely.
Define What a Great Room Floor Plan Entails
Combination of Kitchen, Dining and Living Areas
A kitchen great room floor plan knocks down walls to join what are usually separate kitchen, dining and living room spaces. This creates a wide open common zone at the heart of your home rather than closed-off rooms.
By opening sight lines and traffic flow between these spaces that families frequently gather in, great room layouts facilitate casual mingling and conversation. You can cook, entertain, eat, play games, watch TV and more together.
Promotes Socialization and Family Bonding
The inherent connectivity of a great room allows for meaningful interaction. Kids can do homework at the kitchen island while you make dinner. Grandparents can relax on a living room sofa and see grandkids playing. Guests can chat over coffee as you prep food steps away.
Rather than limiting family activities to certain areas, the multifunctional spaciousness of a great room means more flexibility and togetherness.
Allows Entertaining Guests While Cooking
In a closed off kitchen, the cook gets separated from guests and fails to be part of festivities. But an open kitchen layout lets you remain an active participant.
Great room floor plans allow you to cook and socialize simultaneously. Guests can sit at a kitchen island or table nearby. And you can quickly access appliances while still enjoying conversations.
Key Planning Considerations
Creating an efficiently laid out great room requires factoring in issues from work triangles to storage ahead of time during planning.
Relationship Between Kitchen Work Triangle and Other Functions
Make sure your great room thoughtfully relates kitchen work zones for cooking with space for dining, lounging, and movement. Don't cram the work triangle of fridge, stove and sink into a tight niche.
Allow ample room for appliances, prep space and circulation pathways to prevent traffic jams. Ideally position the work triangle near enough to living areas for visibility and interaction while meeting kitchen needs.
Incorporate Attractive Dividers Like Islands Naturally
Define separate functional zones like kitchen, dining and living areas through smart dividers rather than walls. For example, kitchen islands gracefully distinguish kitchen work space while encourages lingering.
Strategic room dividers segment space naturally without isolation. This maintains an open plan with clear dedicated areas and traffic flow.
Address Need for Additional Storage Solutions
Since great room floor plans eliminate walls, built-in storage space shrinks. You'll likely need alternative storage solutions. Creative options range from pantries, hutches and custom cabinetry to under stair shelving, movable storage carts and more.
Carefully consider your family's needs to incorporate sufficient storage capacity for kitchen equipment, dining wares and more. This prevents clutter from marring the beauty of your open concept.
Use Continous Flooring and Design Elements for Seamless Visual Flow
Tying rooms together visually maintains the free flowing spaciousness of open floor plans. Use uninterrupted flooring materials spanning the entire great room space rather than having carpet in one area and tile in another.
Continuous elements like ceiling treatments, unified paint colors, matching trim and lighting fixtures also connect rooms cohesively. The result feels expansive.
Great Room Floor Plan Layout Best Practices
Proper placement of kitchen components along with enough room for circulation and activities makes great room layouts fully functional and livable.
Optimal Placement of Fridge, Stove and Sink 4-9 Feet Apart
Allow around 4-9 feet between your fridge, stove and sink when planning appliance placement. This provides an efficient "work triangle" area for food preparation tasks.
Make sure this work zone seamlessly flows with room for serving meals, cleaning up after guests, watching TV from seating areas and other great room activities.
Sufficient Circulation Space for Multiple Cooks
Unlike closed kitchens, great room floor plans accommodate entire families pitching in on holiday meals. Make sure aisle widths meet building codes and allow several cooks to maneuver simultaneously without bumping elbows.
Plan for 42-48 inches of circulation space for one cook, with more width for additional helpers. Position appliances accessibly without cramping routes.
Avoid Too Much Open Shelving Leading to Clutter
The cleaner the sightlines in an open concept great room, the more pleasing the space. Limit upper cabinetry to necessities, designing sufficient storage solutions like pull-out lower cabinets.
Too much open shelving leads to visual clutter from exposed small appliances and kitchenware when entertaining guests. Strive for clean open lines.
Creative Storage Solutions for Great Room Spaces
Find ways to tuck necessities out of sight with storage specially designed for wide open great rooms lacking ample built-ins.
Pantries
Walk-in or freestanding pantry units provide copious storage a few steps from kitchen prep zones. Stock pantry cabinets with small appliances, pots and pans, baking sheets, platters, dry goods, and anything not used daily.
Install pull-out drawers, roll out trays and other specialty organizers to maximize every inch and access contents easily. Glass door hutches allow visibility to contents without exposing mess.
Hutches
Hutches serve multiple storage needs while accenting room design. Use dining hutches to neatly corral good china, table linens and serving pieces directly in the dining zone. Repurpose heirloom cabinets as charming coffee station hutches near living room seating.
Place versatile hutches strategically to supplement storage right where needed most. Their mobility means repositioning whenever you rearrange furniture layouts.
Custom Cabinets
Bespoke cabinetry solves storage shortfalls by tailoring to your exact specifications. Custom built cabinetry anthromopically fits appliances into compact footprints. Pull out trays and compartments organize everything in accessible spots.
Work with kitchen designers to create cabinets aligning with your unique storage requirements. Though pricier than off-the-shelf, custom cabinets maximize every inch while reflecting personal tastes.
Islands and Other Furniture Dividers
Strategically placed furniture dividers segment open floor plan spaces into functional zones without using walls as barriers. Islands and room dividers enhance great room designs.
Help Define Spaces Naturally
Furniture dividers differentiate areas and guide flow beautifully. Position an attractive island or hutch between kitchen and living room zones to designate unique spaces with purpose.
Kitchen islands provide counter space for meal prep while creating a natural boundary. Other dividers like shelves or half walls divide open areas with style.
Multifunctional Islands for Dining, Food Prep, Casual Seating
Make kitchen islands multitask as food prep space, casual dining for quick meals, and extra seating for guests. Center islands with stools accommodate families and visitors.
Install electrical outlets to equip islands for charging devices and powering appliances. Multifunctional islands maximize value beautifully.
Harmonious Design Elements Connect Rooms
Thoughtful design details continuously connect the kitchen, dining and living zones to maintain an expansive feel.
Continuous Flooring Materials
Unify rooms with consistent flooring materials like wood or stone tile spanning the entire open concept floor plan. This maintains smooth visual flow. Area rugs layer over continuous floors to define spaces.
Avoid abruptly changing flooring types between rooms, which disrupts cohesion. Continuous floors feel seamless and harmonious.
Unified Color Palettes
Repeat paint colors in each zone to interrelate rooms cohesively. For example, use the same soft grey on living room and kitchen walls, then accent with bright decorative touches.
Echo colors in furniture, pillows, art and accessories throughout the open space for harmony. Vary textures and tones to add interest.
Professional Input Essential for Layouts
Consult architects, designers and contractors when planning great room floor plans to optimize layouts meeting your unique needs.
Architects
Architects expertly develop great room layouts aligned with your lifestyle and priorities. They ensure building codes and structural elements like load bearing walls and ceilings are addressed for safety.
Kitchen Designers
Kitchen designers help you map appliance placement, workflow, storage and traffic flow to maximize efficiency. They specify cabinetry, prep space, etc. tailoring the kitchen to how your family cooks and socializes.
Contractors
Hire qualified contractors to execute great room projects, from removing or building walls to installing floors, cabinetry, lighting and more. They'll oversee the remodel process smoothly.
Transitioning Existing Homes to Open Floor Plans
Converting traditionally separated rooms into expansive great rooms involves significant renovation but gains big payoffs enhancing your quality of life.
Determine Feasibility Based on Budget
Have an architect draft potential layouts to understand structural changes needed to open walls. Get accurate quotes from contractors to gauge overall budget, setting realistic expectations before undertaking large scale renovations.
Modify Walls, Add Support Beams
Safely removing walls between rooms or opening sight lines requires adding beams to redistribute weight. Leave no detail unaddressed. Retain experts familiar with building codes and engineering considerations to frame openings correctly.
Rethink Cabinets, Appliances, Ventilation
With changing layouts, carefully remap needed cabinets and appliances in new spots meeting your open floor plan. Update ventilation hoods and ductwork spanning greater distance over islands. Electrical and plumbing may also shift.
Embrace the chance to install fresh cabinets, appliances and finishes that match your new great room style.
Great room floor plans centering daily home life foster togetherness through meaningful interactions and celebrations big and small. Knocking down walls between separate kitchen, dining and living rooms builds bonds strengthening family and friend relationships long into the future.
Leverage professional guidance tailoring open concept great rooms aligned with your family's priorities. Then make memories mingling over meals, helping with homework, playing games and more in your brilliant new great room.