Oh, and I just noticed that I posted the drawing where the upper cabinets are definitely *not* drawn to scale. They are standard depth (what is that? 13" or so?)

*sigh*

Um, where's my "H?"

Regarding the space between the refrigerator and the hutch: I think that would be an awkward place to sit, either as a window seat or a stool at a counter, because it's where one of the fridge doors needs to open. Can you make that area a regular depth cabinet that fits under the window?

Have you checked the specs for your range? Do you really need 3" clearance on each side???

What type of cabinets are you planning? Inset? Full Overlay? Partial Overlay? Frameless? The answer determines how much filler, if any, you need at various points.

I don't think you have to have a blind corner cabinet...but, if that's what you want, then OK. But, IMHO, a corner susan is a lot more useful than a blind corner cabinet (I've seen/used both (MIL has blind corners...she & I both hate them!), the susan wins hands down in my book!)

I agree about the Susans--HUGELY useful, especially the kind with the doors attached right to the disks, so there's no fiddling with doors required. That's where I keep my lobster pot, pasta pot, dutch o*vens, saucepans, saute pans, etc.--all in one.

Personally I might put them on both sides of the range. If you wanted, you could then make that "island" a continuation of the countertop with a stool tucked below. Or keep it a separate, moveable piece. Either way, with a corner susan on the left, you'd no longer need to get into the drawers on the left of the range and could make that surface bigger as needed.

Oh, yeah. Those red lines represent the range hood. ::sheepish::

I'm using IKEA cabinets with Scherr's doors - and IIRC from my former house, the filler is needed by the wall for optimal function (and I have the space to give up for it). The filler at the corner is for the knob/handle which I suppose I will need as I make the turn to the sink run.

As long as I absolutely, positively don't have to have one of those "piano hinge" corner doors, I'll take what I can get for accessing the corner. I don't mind the concept of the magic corner inserts. Everything used to fall off and then get stuck behind my susan thingy in my old house, but maybe that was operator error.

There are a few places - in the corner and 33" sink base, for example - where there isn't a stock IKEA cabinet. In those areas, I plan to just have Scherr's custom one.

Chicagoans, good point about the fridge door and the window area in terms of sitting. I'm not wedded to a FD fridge, but my husband really wants a 36" fridge minimum. I like the FD's that have the internal water so I don't have to have one of those coolers or make room for a chiller under the sink. Oh, and that they don't cost $5K.

And Marcolo, your "H" goes into the other room and I haven't finished laying that area out yet! :-) Remember, I tossed the architects on their bums, so I'm carefully going over the plans (again).

Can you do the blind corner with only 18" access? I thought it had to be 24". You have a 36" sink cab drawn but in your recent post, you mention a 33" sink base. I would either give 24" to the blind corner unit, eliminate the 12" cab, keep the 36" sink cab with trash underneath, and give your aisle in front of the fridge the benefit of the gained 6"...OR...Do a super susan as already suggested, which would only use 12" of the 18", again giving the gained 6" to the aisle.

If you set up the laptop in that center space on the fridge/micro wall, it won't serve you well as landing space, which I think you could use.

I'm confused about the island. When 'open' it folds out toward the sink? What is the part where the stool is shown? Is that a fold out section, too? What is the purple outline for?

I'm not awake enough to critique, but I had to pipe up to say that while it may need tweaking, this plan looks very workable and like a much nicer kitchen to work in than the architect one. It may look more like a normal kitchen, and less quirky, but that's because the L shape is functional! I'm not sure how not to scale the distance between the stove and fridge is. That would be the big downside for me, but that doesn't mean this isn't the best gneeral plan. I agree with Chicagoans about the width of the "desk", but again, you're limited by the space. It's enough if it need be.

I'll have to check the corner cabinet options re: size of entry door.

The "island/table" is 36" deep and 22" wide, so it as close to the sink run as it needs to be in a permanent sense. It opens to the L and R. I can move it, but as it is, it doesn't block the oven door, etc. so I think it's okay. It has two gate legged sections so fully extended it's 58"W. Of course, it can't be like that always since I wouldn't be able to get into the cabinet to the left of the range. On the other hand, it doesn't have to be extended, I was just trying to illustrate what it would look like if it were open and someone was scooted up to it. It's in the Sundance catalog...the Belden Island/Dining Table.

The purple by the island is door casing. As for door casing/doorway, would someone be sitting at the island all that often? Probably not. And they could tuck in a bit to the main kitchen area.

I doubt that my family would leave the laptop at rest in the kitchen since the main computer would be living in the loft at this house. I suspect the laptop will only be in the kitchen when I am home alone :-)

There is a bit of a hike between the fridge and the stove, but it's really rather unavoidable because of the constraints of the room. It's a little longer stroll than is ideal, but on the other hand, it keeps folks looking for snacks and drinks out of the main cooking zone. So I guess that's good.

This layout also keeps me from having to buy and plumb a second sink. Which is good. Can you imagine having two sinks in a space this small? Architects must be crazy!

Talk about sheepish. I was going to suggest you put something vintage in for that moveable island. Then, I noticed the huge cap^ital letters saying BELKEN KITCHEN ISLAND. D'Oh! It's just the kind of feel I was going to suggest.

Okay, here's how the architect drew it out. I was trying to use stock sizes for cabinets and I also figured I could move the knee wall for the sink in a bit whereas the architect increased the cabinet size. I am not quite sure why there's a 30/48/39 thing happening above the range, but in reality, it isn't going to happen because I'm trying to do this with as many stock IKEA cabinets as possible and I'm fairly sure there isn't a 39" wide glass door wall cabinet. Also, I think I will just go with the 42" range hood. That's more than sufficient. We can also see how the fridge would encroach on the desk/prep area. You can see it's a little wider than I indicated (but he's right about the measurements, I just looked them over and I wasn't sure how chubby the side panels for the fridge would be, so I was conservative). You can also see the steps in his drawing. We can also see that the walkway is a bit wider than 3 feet. So that helps there. The other nice thing about this layout is that the kitchen isn't wandering over into the living room area. I didn't like that before.

I'm also not 100% sure about the filler on the wall cabinets since on the right, there isn't an actual wall. It's a half wall so it has no interaction with the cabinets above. I suppose I need filler beside the range hood, though, right?

And here's an image of the Belden Island.

You can see it's a gateleg, so it definitely doesn't need to be open all the time. I can see that in reality, if someone were to sit at the table, we'd probably have the fixed section next to the actual door and raise the right hand side. Granted, it's not ideal, but it's just a temporary perch point.

The main cabinets will be painted, lots of reclaimed wood as an accent and some industrial lighting of some sort. Our old floor joists are going to be planed and used as a false beam to cover the scar where we removed the wall between the kitchen and living room.

You can get pullouts for a blind access that work with door openings as small as 17". My full (48") blind cabinet (as opposed to the 42" or 45" that are pulled from the corner) only has an 18" door and it has a complete pullout mechanism. If you don't have any guts in them (just a vast unreachable space good for dead storage) you can have a door as narrow as 9".

Well, then, I guess I'll go in using the range wall for access to the blind corner. Thanks, palimpsest.