Seems to me the top picture with the wall separating a cabinet stack hear the door, sets up a little separate utility-type or message section in the kitchen. Is that a function you want?

Also, having the wall end with the cabinets on the other side closer to the door does break up the space a teensy bit in terms of the island and your seating. I'm not sure but it might make the seating section feel a little disjointed, like it's spanning two rooms. OTOH having the wall end at the start of the island leaves the end seats 'feeling' separated?

I'd opt for the first picture with the cabinets on either side and the fridge situated midpoint to the island. It permits landing pads on both sides and also behind you, which I often use.

I think it's a tossup visually, but functionally the fridge in the middle of the run works better to my sense.

Is there going to be room to open the fridge? Might want to think about a french door fridge? (side view suggests there's plenty of space).

Good luck! Know that these thoughts are from a rank novice, so evaluate accordingly ;)

I like a little more elbow room around the range so I might vote for the fridge farther away from the range, like in your second picture. That, plus I think that the 15" of space next to the fridge in the first picture might just be a junk landing spot and unusable real counter space.

Is the fridge FD or single door? I'm not going to venture a guess as I know that software isn't always accurate.

I think the refrig on the end looks more balanced and moving moving it down 15" is not a lot. It also keeps people looking for snacks or drinks further away from your cooking. That being said I'm a newbie so it's just mho. Good luck! Pevo

That wall next to the fridge is actually going to be a small pull out broom closet. We do have a side by side fridge now ( non counter depth) and will likely upgrade to a French door counter depth next year.

We liked the idea with the fridge closest to the doorway but were concerned about fridge landing space (although we have the island), and also concerned making the distance between the fridge and sink greater (brings it to about 10 ft).

Seems like no matter how we do that wall there will be some sort of trade off.

Thanks for the replies so far.

I agree with the others -- fridge on the end.

And a question about the corner. I didn't see your earlier threads, and this was probably hashed out there, but did you opt to have the dead corner space because you wanted the banks of drawers on either side? Because otherwise you could use a blind corner there with a swing-out. But if you have arranged for enough storage space elsewhere (in the island. I'm thinking), then it isn't as important.

I've got an Ikea kitchen and I can't say enough good things about it. Just make sure you have a plan for where you're going to put all the boxes when you bring them home. Arrange them in some logical way so you're not constantly having to unstack and shift. Some people like to do it by cabinet. We did it by having all drawer/door fronts in one place, all drawers in a second place and all cabinets boxes in a third place.

And when you go in and order and pick everything up make sure to double and triple check your order. There might be some things that are back-ordered or that will have to ship to you. Those things don't print out on the sheet that shows you what you're taking home, so you won't "miss" them as you're checking off everything on the floats.

jakabedy - Thanks for the advice. Did you mean the corner next to the range? If so that's a corner cabinet with a swing out. Maybe hard to tell in the pic. If you meant the corner next to the DW we visually liked the looks of leaving the right wall open (not sure that's the right word?)
We don't have a garage (it's converted into a MIL apartment) so it should be interesting storing all these boxes. I like your idea about having everything arranged to make them easier to assemble.

breezygirl - You are totally right about that spot turning into a junk place. We already have what DH calls "Hoarder Corners" now with mail piles, keys, pens, screws, loose change, lint, etc. Why add another one.

We have been working on the layout since February and it's changed completely based on all the advice here on GW and at Ikeafans. I look back now and am amazed at our first try. YIKES it was bad. There is so much knowledge on GW. (Pevo and Aliris19 - we are definitely newbie's as well and are grateful for your responses)

Thanks again!

I agree with others too - fridge on end - more counter space next to the stove and keep others accessing the fridge farther from the cooking area.

I noticed in the frig on the end that there are 4 cabinets left of the stove. 1 upper and 1 lower I think would have more useful space and probably cheaper too.

Another vote for the fridge on the end. What is the distance between the opposite wall and the island? If there's enough room a shallow pantry would provide LOTS of storage. Check out Malhgold's beautiful space.

Bostonpam - Good eye - The plan would be to do one set of uppers and one set of lowers (30"). We were in a hurry trying to post the picture last night and so just moved the existing two (15") upper/lowers together.

Cluelessincolorado - there is enough space for shallow cabinets there, and we originally wanted to do that. Currently our china cabinet is on that wall and will have to stay there until next year, though. Due to finances we are waiting to add built-in's to that wall and since we are doing Ikea cabinets it can be easily done at a later date.

SLUSH- another vote for the fridge to be on the end. I think it will help with flow by doing it this way because then people can grab things from the ref and get out of the way without actually being too far into the kitchen footprint.

I too think the additional counter space beside the range would be much preferable.

Okay all. Thanks again. We are heading to IKEA in about 4 hours to put in a partial order, having the fridge on the end. After DH saw the picture you posted Cluelessincolorado, he is re-thinking our china cabinet wall and considering moving the pantry over there. As soon as we think we have "it" something comes up to change our mind. Is this normal? So we'll work on that a bit and see what we can come up with. At least we have the main part of the layout decided and can get a big chunk of our order in to make the big Kitchen Sale they are having right now.

Slush..

Wow, your kitchen looks so much like mine and I, too, am about to order Ikea cabs to grab that 10% discount. I think your layout looks good--definitely keep the fridge at the end. Our layout is like that, with island behind, and I find it very functional.

One question for you: what type of cabinet are you using for your M/W drawer, and what type of M/W. I'm thinking of the same thing b/c I'd really love to have a hood over the range instead of a M/W.

Good luck with everything!

Glad you're doing fridge on the end. The fridge in the middle made your island look like an altar of sacrifice to Whirlpool.

Reston1 - we just ordered the 30" base cabinet of drawers. We are going to do a warming drawer as well. Here is the link to what others have done. They said that the MW drawer just fits right in. They did say you might want to get the special oven brackets? We forgot to ask about that last night but will of course be making another Ikea trip this week.

I can't wait to see you kitchen too!

http://www.ikeafans.com/forums/kitchen-appliances/15695-microwave-drawer-2.html

http://www.ikeafans.com/forums/kitchen-appliances/9167-ikea-cabs-compatible-sharp-microwave-drawer.html

and a quote from an older post: "We installed the 30" drawer in a 30" base with a 12 3/4" drawer at the bottom (front was from the 30" set of 3). Our carpenter simply put a filler piece between the top of the drawer and the bottom of the microwave. Actually, the filler is only about 2" high, you barely even notice it."

Ordering last night was painless! The rep was so helpful and knowledgeable. We spent about 20 minutes with her, then went an had dinner in the restaurant and when we got back, she had completed inputting our order and we were done. We were even able to move out delivery to 4 weeks so we don't have to store the boxes until we are ready. Plus we loved that we saved almost $500 from the sale.

Now we have to start working on the pantry.

Thanks Marcolo - your post cracked me up!