No galley kitchen here, but we have the vestigial front room that nobody goes into, the mammoth master bath that’s larger than most of the bedrooms, and my fave - the “lawyer foyer” at the front door, complete with a huge light fixture that’s so far off the floor that we have no idea how to reach it to clean the stupid thing, never mind change light bulbs. One of these days, I think we’ll just have to rent a 16-foot stepladder. (And how do we get that home?)
As the two married ladies told my (still unmarried) future sister in law when we viewed a flat with that exact feature “you need more imagination, honey :D”
I agree with most of this (I’m planning a large bathroom with big tub for the basement 
). I have no use for a formal sitting room, and one of my ongoing peeves in life is as you say, use machines to make perfect stuff, then use other machines to distress it artificially (or do it by hand) - I hate that shit. I spent a lifetime with old, distressed furniture and houses - when I buy something new, I want it to LOOK new, dammit!
I thought I was going to hate my teeny tiny kitchen when we rented this place, but I really do like it quite a bit. It’s a U shape, with the sink at the bottom, counters on the “arms”, and the stove at one end of one arm. There’s only about a 4X3’ square of open space to stand in, but it turns out to be enough for two people to work in together if they really like one another, since you can be back to back and each have your own counter. It’s actually the most efficient kitchen I’ve ever cooked in, while being the smallest by far.
And it’s open onto the eating area on the outside of the U, so guests can sit at the table and enjoy a glass of wine/beer and chat with me while I’m working in the kitchen. Because, as we all know, every party ends up with everyone in the kitchen anyhow. This layout lets them gravitate towards the kitchen, but stay out of the cooking space.
The only thing I’d change if we were owners instead of renters would be to rip out the cabinets hanging from the ceiling on the side of the U closest to the eating area. They’re pass through, but solid wood, so they’re not *see *through. Can make it hard to have a conversation, ducking under or around it all the time to make eye contact with someone at the table. I’d rather lose the storage space and open the room up a tiny bit more.
[QUOTE=Alice the Goon]
Whoever invented galley kitchens should die, die, die!
[/QUOTE]
<Johnny Cash>'Cause when you taste what I will cook in it, you’ll cry, cry, cry.</JC>
I love my open living/dining area - we knocked out 2 walls to make it so. It’s nice to be in the kitchen and be able to talk to people in the living room.
Re: the front-parlor type room - my SiL plans to put her TV in there so that the kids won’t be tempted to watch TV while they eat. That was the best practical use for the room I’ve heard of yet. It’s still wasted space to me, though.
About open house plans… I always thought I hated them too, until I moved from a house that didn’t have one into a house that did. There’s a huge psychological boost, for me, to be in the huge open front room. It’s L-shaped, with a sitting area in one arm and dining area in the other, and our office in the crook. It’s open to the kitchen.
The key, and I understood this after I read The Not So Big House, is to have an “away” space where people who don’t want the exposure of the great room can hide. We have that–the TV room is separated from everything else. It gives you a nice choice about where you want to be.
If I ever end up living in a house with the traditional formal layout, I’ll put comfy furniture in the “formal” front room so it’s a quiet sitting room away from the television, and make the dining room into a library.