barricading a kitchen - house floorplan issues

mgnme · Feb 9, 2014

I've come up against a roadblock in my story. I've been planning for a long time for a scene where some characters are barricaded inside the kitchen and no one can easily get in. (Yes, it has to be the kitchen. At this point, I want to do everything I can to keep it that way.) They do this at a moment's notice, they have very little time to block all entrances to the kitchen from WITHIN the house.

But I started thinking about the layout of the house more carefully. And I realized that most kitchens have such "open" layouts. They are attached to family rooms/dens, or there is a large open entryway that leads to another room, etc etc - in other words, it's not just a matter of closing doors and shoving stuff up against them to block them. There aren't doors to block so much as lots of wide open spaces. At least, that seems to be the norm.

The house is a very, very large house belonging to an extremely wealthy family. And larger houses like that ESPECIALLY seem to have more "open" floorplans when it comes to kitchens, from what I've been looking at online.

Their goal is to block all entry points for someone who is already inside the house.

So my question is - is there any way that a realistic floorplan could allow for a kitchen to be barricaded on short notice? I've looked and looked, but I"m really struggling with this. I think I need a reality check. Is there an even semi-realistic way to do this that I haven't thought of? Any help would be really appreciated.
Thanks!

GHO57 · Feb 9, 2014

Thought about an extremely wealthy family?

They might have a staffed kitchen; like a small restaurant kitchen, chef or two, couple of servers, maybe someone to do the cleaning and carrying... that kind of kitchen would be a place of work, not a showpiece, and would have doors.

frimble3 · Feb 9, 2014

Modern houses have the big 'open floorplan' thing going on, for convenience, so that the rooms seem larger and no-one feels isolated and cut-off from the rest.
None of this matters if the family is, as you say, extremely wealthy. They aren't cleaning their very large house, and they aren't doing their own cooking. The convenience of the servants who do that kind of thing is not a factor in house design. The kitchen could be a series of small rooms: kitchen, scullery, pantry tucked away at the back of the house, with the other service areas, the servants' rooms, etc.
Especially if it's an older house. They might have updated the kitchen, but they probably kept the location: in the back for deliveries without disturbing the rich folk, near the outside for the supply of firewood or coal, etc.
What sort of house did you have in mind/have you looked at?

Albedo · Feb 9, 2014

Very big houses might have a 'butler's pantry', adjacent to the main kitchen, which might have a sink, a refrigerator, and importantly only one door. Not necessarily a stove or other appliances, though. Are those essential to your story?

Trebor1415 · Feb 9, 2014

Old farmhouses often had kitchens with doors. What kind of house?

JulianneQJohnson · Feb 9, 2014

Ok, so I got curious, and I googled "mansion kitchen floor plan" and searched images. What I saw was an infinite variety of kitchens in big houses that included kitchens that only had two entrances and kitchens where all the entrances had actual doors. Sure, there are trends that people follow, but there is a wide variety of styles in the world of large house kitchens. I think you can choose what fits the story here, and be perfectly justified.

King Neptune · Feb 10, 2014

You can make the layout whatever you want. House designs are very variable. I can imagine kitchens in large houses that have two doors.

mgnme · Feb 10, 2014

This is helpful! I hadn't thought to look at older houses.
It owned by a family who just came into an emormous amount of money in the past few years thanks to a scientific discovery the husband and wife made. They had been financially comfortable before that, but their discovery is massive (and has been implemented very widely and quickly) so i thought that people who have just come into money would be more likely to buy a modern style house. So that's what i was looking at.

But i guess that, depending on where in the US they are living (i can still change that part easily) it might make perfect sense for them to buy an old house that's been renovated. (not including the parameters of the kitchen, of course.)
Any ideas on where they should live for this to be realistic?

shaldna · Feb 10, 2014

Easy answer - put in a door.

I think you run the risk of getting yourself bogged down in this too much.

As you say, many kitchens are attached to a dining room etc, so surely that room will have a door to a hall or something?

The last house I lived in was a rather large, quite posh new house which was mostly open plan, but our kitchen still had a door.

We also had a smaller scullery kitchen off the back of it which was designed for veg prep and which housed the freezers etc.

A lot of people have a laundry room off their kitchen, or a small store room or somethin

NeuroFizz · Feb 10, 2014

My Great Aunt wasn't wealthy, but she had a fairly good sized house of early 1900s vintage. Her kitchen had as regular door at one end that separated the kitchen from a phone nook. Another door on the opposite wall opened to a mud room and an outside door. On the wall in-between those two, there was an entry to a formal dining room that had double doors that swung in both directions (kind of dangerous for kids and other shorties). The swinging doors could be blocked, but the questionable effectiveness and difficulty of that blockade could be suspense-building.

Maryn · Feb 10, 2014

Many of the homes built by the wealthy where I live (western part of New York state) were erected between 1880 and 1915 or so. These homes are huge, with large rooms, including their kitchens (where a staff would prepare food, not the family), but like most homes at the time, many areas are compartmentalized, with ordinary-sized doors where it's practical and double doors for show. There might be arched openings between living room and library, or between bedroom and dressing room, but nearly all rooms have doors rather than the open-concept design so popular now.

One reason is that it allows the rooms to receive and retain heat better, which is a major factor before central forced-air furnaces. Another is that rooms where the householder did not entertain might be busy with work done by hired help, and who wants to see that? That would include the kitchen, for sure.

I've been in some of these houses, many now divided into unique apartments, and toured George Eastman's house, built in 1905.

Might your nouveau riche family have purchased some grand estate house rather than new construction? They built to last, and with trim and detail work you literally cannot get any more. The kitchen is likely to have one swinging door to a very short hallway to the dining room (so the guests don't have to see the swinging door) and another to the outside, possibly separated by a mud room if it's a cold or wet climate. In the kitchen there would originally have been at least one large table and many chairs (where servants eat), perhaps a smaller table for cooks' use, and a walk-in pantry. If the new owners are like most newly rich people, they'll put some new table in there and use it as an eat-in spot just like the original owners did.

The table, backed by chairs and people, can barricade the swinging door, and the other table, possibly supplemented by benches from the mud room and heavy boxed goods from the pantry, could block the other. And the pantry could be the final "safe room."

Maryn, who covets the big old houses and their wood trims

melindamusil · Feb 10, 2014

mgnme said:
i thought that people who have just come into money would be more likely to buy a modern style house.

Some people would want a modern house, but many people just love old/historic houses. IMO this is a detail you don't have to worry about.

Myrealana · Feb 10, 2014

Make it an older house. Houses built earlier than the 1960s or 70s would have kitchens with doors.

As to where in the US you would find appropriate houses, I suspect just about anywhere.

You are likely overthinking this one detail. Just put the family in a house that meets your criteria. Don't get bogged down in mapping it on Google streetview.

jaksen · Feb 10, 2014

If in New England...

Kitchens in older homes often had doors on them, which might be removed in later renovations. My grandparents had a house which was built in 1888. The kitchen had a door to the inner house and a side door and a 'back door' which led into a room that led to their barn. So three doors, all which could be locked.

My aunt lives in an older home, too, built in 1900, which originally had a door from the kitchen to the dining room. These doors were necessary to shut off rooms in order to keep the main room - or the room where you were - warm.

Oh, yes, all these rooms had stoves or fireplaces in them, too.

The open concept is a fairly new one, though my parents' house, which my dad built in 1951, was very open and for the time, quite startling to people. It was all open area from dining room to living room through to kitchen. I remember as a little girl my friends wanting to see my 'modern' house, with its dishwasher, huge windows everywhere and 'open style' living plan.

So just make it an older house.

Hoplite · Feb 10, 2014

My parents live in the Pacific Northwest, and they had a "butler's pantry" built as part of the original designs (house was built approx. 2009). Like others have said, small room about 8'x8', has sink, cabinets, mini-fridge, etc. Countertop appliances only.

ECathers · Feb 10, 2014

The house I grew up in was built in 1782 in Staten Island, NY, and was built for a wealthy merchant ship's captain.

The kitchen had 3 "doors" one onto the back porch, one into a pantry (later converted into a 1/2 bath/laundryroom) and one doorway (not featuring a door, but one could have easily been put there) into the foyer. On the other side of the foyer was a living room. LOL the house even had a small grand ballroom.

So yeah, put a door in to the foyer, and you've easily got a kitchen blocked off from the rest of the house - with a bathroom too, if you don't want your characters to have to poop in the kitchen sink.

jennontheisland · Feb 10, 2014

It doesn't even have to be that old. The apartment I live in was built in the 50s or 60s and though there's currently no door on the kitchen, there are hinges in the opening.

And yeah, when you get past a certain point in wealthy, people usually stop cooking for themselves and hide the mundane drudgery of food preparation away.

Siri Kirpal · Feb 10, 2014

Sat Nam! (literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

Even if the house is a new "open plan," that just might mean that the dining room opens directly into the kitchen. In which case, you could have a door from the dining room into a hallway/foyer and a door into the garage/mudroom. Easy.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal

Orianna2000 · Feb 10, 2014

My parents' house has a more closed floor-plan. I think it was built in the late 1970s or 1980s. The kitchen is L-shaped, with the short section being an informal dining area and the narrow section being the actual kitchen with parallel countertops and appliances. At the end of the kitchen are double-doors that lead to the formal dining room. At the juncture of kitchen and informal dining area is a doorway that leads to the living room. There isn't an actual door, but you could easily move the refrigerator to block the opening. At the far end of the informal dining area is the garage door, the back door, and a large walk-in pantry/laundry room. You could use the pantry as a last defense retreat, or you could escape through the garage or into the backyard.

Maxx B · Feb 11, 2014

I'd go with an older brick built house, otherwise it wouldn't matter how you barricaded the doors, I'd just go through the sheet-rock walls with a sledge hammer.

This is one aspect of suspense in either books or films I've had issues with. A person trying to protect themselves in a modern built US home. They barricade themselves in a room by blocking off a door. The walls are only a couple of dozen 2x4s supporting two layers of flimsy sheets of plaster, that you could kick through.

Isilya · Feb 11, 2014

Galley Kitchens
These types of kitchens often have only a couple of entrances and since the walls are covered with cupboards instead of just drywall they'd be harder to kick in. You can find them in older homes as well as newer ones.

barricading a kitchen - house floorplan issues

mgnme

GHO57

frimble3

Heckuva good sport

Albedo

Alex

Trebor1415

practical experience, FTW

JulianneQJohnson

Ferret Herder

King Neptune

mgnme

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.

NeuroFizz

The grad students did it

Maryn

Baaa!

melindamusil

practical experience, FTW

Myrealana

I aim to misbehave

jaksen

Caped Codder

Hoplite

Return of the Coffee Shield

ECathers

Amuck! Amuck! Amuck!

jennontheisland

the world is at my command

Siri Kirpal

Swan in Process

Orianna2000

Freelance Writer

Maxx B

Isilya

Rogues, thieves, and knaves abound