SFGate

Sterling Wilson Design Take down the wall between kitchen and seating area (add a beam if necessary for support, can add more beams to disguise the one that's actually needed.) Add an island, could put sink in the island
if you're not opposed to that, then move range closer to center of the wall and move fridge to end of wall toward stairs. Create new seating arrange ment in an "L" shape and put TV on wall in front of
stairs. You will love having an island in the kitchen! Good luck.

northeastgal Thank you for your suggestions! I didn't think to put the sink on the island, than we wouldn't have to travel from end to end from the fridge to the stove! There isn't a wall right now in front of the stairs, my husband actually just removed all of the railings! Here is a picture of what that wall now looks like... (I know....it's ugly)

Ironwood Builders Oh my! Why did he remove the handrail? This creates a major safety issue! Bear in mind the seven P's, OK? Proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance! Put things down on paper, get your ideabooks together...hire help if you flounder! Local pros are out there, waiting for your call...they can make this easy!

gillianlf Is the rectangular block at the bottom of your kitchen basement stairs or a bathroom or is this space that could also be considered in a redesign? I would also suggest a sink and dishwasher in an island. Just make sure the dishwasher door won't be obstructed by a fridge door opposite. Can you get rid of the table and chairs and just have bar seating at the island?

Place one sofa coming out from the wall by your front door which will create more of a separate entrance. Consider trading out the other sofa for a couple smaller chairs and place your TV in the corner between the picture window and the other window.

gillianlf Dimensions of each room would also help with making better recommendations on the placement of appliances.

Sterling Wilson Design Is he planning to put a handrail back? Remove the carpet and paint everything but the treads (the actual steps), white, including the riser and the wainscotting on wall.
This will make it feel bigger and lighten it up.

northeastgal Rug at stairs is going to be removed and railings will go back! I think the base of the house is 23' x 36' and the approx. size of kitchen is 11'x13' and living room is 11'x16'. The stairs are at the center of the house (if you were to look at the overall floorplan) and the door to the basement is directly under the stairs going up to the second floor. This attached plan is very rough and not to exact scale but I did my best with Autodesk.

Sterling Wilson Design very nice, you could still take the wall out and mount TV on the wall between the windows
opposite the stairs.

northeastgal That's what I was thinking Sterling! Maybe even someday put a fireplace there!

Sterling Wilson Design that would be nice, it would be great if you could make it flush with the wall tho.

vivian1962 We are currently in the process of remodeling our kitchen, dinning and sunroom area to combine them. Working with designers that are cost congestion. When I looked are your layout it reminded me of ours. Definitely take down the wall between the kitchen and living room. You can make it a island or a peninsula and I like the sink & dishwasher in the island/penisula. You can have a breakfast bar on the living room side of the island/peninsula area for quick meals for the kids, homework and over flow sitting for young dinner guest. You can also make it so you have storage on the bar side of the area. Do you have a separate dinning area or does it need to be combined into this area?

Jean Tuck I wouldnt remove any walls for structure integrity, maybe a corner shelf or stand near window window in wal adjacent to stairs, could be a small bookstand with a plywood corner cut to fit snuggly in corner on top of shelf big enough to carry weight of tv and shelves below for kids or famly books .Keeping an island between kitchen and livingrm may maintain building structure integrity only a design engineer could assure thus would be necessary, would allow a more spacious feel of the area myself I would want an arched look there in the island wall(to be part of that look) ,Having bookcases to flank every wall Halfway up to accomodate need and a smal table at end wall for extra work area and desk running along wal north to south wall from door, bdrm to have bed floating in centre area of room and other peices according to size around bed and maybe a small chair for dressing in a corner. Remembering that all light tones will encourage us to see rooms bigger than what they are Tiny accent of rm color adds luxurious feel.