Home Plans And Home Designs - Kitchen living space percentage of home

Im designing a place thats 6100 sqr feet and am trying to figure out if there is a "standard" amount of space thats determined as personal and public. If there is a standard percent of say kitchen size to total sqr footage of house? This may be considered an odd question, I hope not though. I was told the allotment I was giving my kitchen may be too small. Any advice appreciated.

You did not say if you are designing the house for someone in particular, or just designing one for who ever. However with years of building houses and probably 75% of them being "build to suit" I have learned several things. Kitchens are a very personal room in a house. Kitchens tend to be gathering places no matter what the occasion. In your case, your doing a 6100 sq ft house which is very large. I would say that the kitchen should be between 400 and 600 sq feet. In conjuction with the kitchen off to one side, should be a confortable dining area, maybe in the area of 200 sq feet. It should be very open between the kitchen and the dining area. This is not necessarily the formal dining room. Just my thoughts from experience.

Sorry I am designing this house for myself. I want to have a rough idea of what Im trying to accomplish in hand so the architect/end user relationship is smooth and defined for me. Its easier for me to design my space and present it than explain it to someone. Also, I should say that the 6100 is inclusive of a approx 2000 sqr ft basement. So the main floors will be about 4100 plus the basement area of 2k. Dont know if that would change your thoughts.


You did not say if you are designing the house for someone in particular, or just designing one for who ever. However with years of building houses and probably 75% of them being "build to suit" I have learned several things. Kitchens are a very personal room in a house. Kitchens tend to be gathering places no matter what the occasion. In your case, your doing a 6100 sq ft house which is very large. I would say that the kitchen should be between 400 and 600 sq feet. In conjuction with the kitchen off to one side, should be a confortable dining area, maybe in the area of 200 sq feet. It should be very open between the kitchen and the dining area. This is not necessarily the formal dining room. Just my thoughts from experience.

I would still stay around 400 sq ft. Keep it in kind of a square configuration.
Good Luck. Nice big project.

Thanks for your input. Im curious about something. What area of the country are you in?

I live in the upper plains but travel all over building or repairing.

For what it's worth... I have a friend who built a 3500 square foot home (all one floor) and allotted an 18x14 space for the kitchen. It looks and feels too small for the house and both an appraiser and a realtor have told her that the size of it will hurt the resale value of her home.

I don't think I've ever heard anyone complain that their kitchen was too big, so I'd definitely err on the side of a little more square footage than a little less.