Congrats on getting your city approvals!! One giant hurdle out of the way!!

I was thinking the same thing about deleting the corner pantry and doing tall cabinetry pantry space along the range wall, then move the range to the bottom wall. Then maybe put a counter with base cabinets below and wall cabs above in between the pantry & refrigerator and place the microwave there.

In your current layout, I think the prep sink needs to be larger (unless you have a potfiller over the range) to accomodate filling pots and draining pots. It's a Loooooong way from the range to the main sink. I personally wouldn't do a prep sink smaller than 21" interior space (23" including lip for mounting).

I also think the island should be centered so that it is equidistant from the sink wall and from the refrigerator wall. 36" is not enough and 39" is pushing it IMO. Consider too that the countertop will extend into that space as well by at least another inch on each side. So your 36-39" aisle just became 34-37".

Will your range have double ovens or a single oven. If it will have double, can you just use the second oven for the warming drawer? Set the thermostat to 200 degrees and you're good to go. The money you save on the warming drawer can be a considerable amount that you may find you could use elsewhere. Plus, it frees up the island space for more storage.

Hope this helps!

Thanks so much for looking at this!

The design review process took nearly a year! I knew it wouldn't be quick, but didn't think it'd be that long!

So, if doing the tall pantry cabinets along the current range wall, you're not thinking of doing a complete wall of talls? Instead, break up the fridge and the pantry talls with base and wall cabinets? How long of stretch of base and wall cabinets were you thinking?

I think the prep sink was so small to accomodate the warming drawer and microwave drawer. But if I end up moving those, then I could make it wider (but not deeper given how skinny the island is). That definitely makes sense to me.

We do plan to have 2 ovens in the range -- 1 fullsize one and 1 smaller one. The thing is, I see myself often using both, so I wouldn't have one available to use as a warming drawer. But I'm going to start paying more attention to my cooking in the upcoming weeks to see how much that actually happens.

We had one aisle be larger to accomodate guests lingering in the kitchen for when we entertain. I think the 36" and 39" accounts for the counter overhang. My husband and I did a test to see if 36" would be enough, but I wonder if we'll feel OK with it when we have kids underfoot. But then adding a few more inches doesn't seem like it'd help much anyway, right?

Thanks again for lending your expertise!

I think I'm allowed to bump a post once? :)

Here's my bump/request for further input.

The more I think about this, the more I'm thinking that having a wall pantry on the wall where the rnage currently is, getting rid of the corner pantry, and moving the range to the bottom wall makes more sense.

Then I could get all food stuffs out of the fridge and pantry for prep, turn around and drop it on the island and prep the food. Then cook what needs to be cooked on the stove/in the oven/in the microwave and set out non-cooked food for consumption. Seems less broken up than having food storage (fridge and pantry) separated by the range. Right?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Especially suggestions, photos on what would make good pantry ideas for along that wall... (and what I could do with the corner where the corner pantry was).

So, any and all thoughts welcome!!

Do you have a way to draw your new idea? (a graphic gets more responses) What would you plan for the corner where the range wall meets the wall of tall?

I like walls of tall, but I see one pretty big downside to the change... I really like to prep on the island and turn to add prepped items to the pan on the stove. I often wished the longer side of my island was facing my stove for this reason..so the best prep space and the stove face each other with me in the center. As it is, my island is a little over 4 ft on the end that faces the range with the sink on the corner, so it's not too bad, but where yours is only 33" with the prep sink is around the corner. That means the sink and the best (most expansive) work space is not very handy to the stove... not in arm's reach.

The thing that bothers me about the original and the refinements is that the counters define a vague diagonal line from the inner part of the house to the exterior so the fridge hangs out into the great room a couple of feet more than the island which hangs out a 1+ into the great room more than the sink run leaving the boundaries of the kitchen ill-defined. No matter how functional it is, it is not good design from a design standpoint, and it's not absolutely necessary to the function. There should be some kind of alignment and discernible "boundary" to the kitchen even if it is an imaginary one.

I'm not really clear on what you want to change, but if you want to move the range, I'd put it where you have the appliance gargage and center the range on that wall. Then I'd swap the trash and dishwasher locations, by the main sink.

The fridge could move down to where you have the range and the appliance garage could go in the corner, where you used to have the pantry. That would leave the other side of the fridge (where range and one cabinet are now) for the tall pantry cabinets.

The island could remain 'as is' or you could leave the microwave and move the warming drawer to a location closer to the range.

Another idea...I know everyone likes islands, but this layout might be better with a peninsula. Make the initial changes mentioned above (move range to appliance garage, fridge to old range location, swap dishwasher and trash, pantry on the other side of fridge) but turn the island into a peninsula, where you have the beverage area. This would give you seating on the other side of the peninsula...which you don't seem to have, in the current plan.

I would move the prep sink to the corner (between fridge and range) and the microwave and warming drawer could be moved to the peninsula. The beverage center could remain on the left side of the main sink, or brought down closer to the fridge and prep sink location. Just another idea :)

Thanks all. I'm not so great with the drawings, but I tried to create what I'm thinking about based on buehl's drawing.

rhome -- yes, I see the draw back of not having the space where I'd prep be close to the range. I'm now not sure which is the bigger drawback (that or the issue of having the stove between pantry and fridge).

palimpsest -- the diagnoal came about (more or less) because we were trying to maximize the kitchen space. THe alternative would be to align the island and fridge wall with the main sink wall -- which would be losing about 40" of the kitchen. I think we could chop off the wall where the fridge is (or leave the wall but use the space for something non-kitchen-y?). Would you think that'd be preferrable -- smaller kitchen but having it squared off?

lavendar -- we put the fridge on the outside of the kitchen so people could have access without coming too deep into the kitchen. We pondered a peninsula where you mentioned (in fact, I think one of the old plans had it), but decided it made it a long trip to get out to the deck. No seating in the kitchen b/c it's so close to the dining room. Does my new sketch make more sense? Any thoughts?

Thanks everyone for looking at this and throwing out ideas. It really, really helps (see the evolution of my plans in the old post... new plans are sooo much better!).

I don't think they all need to be aligned but two out of three would be good. I would consider shortening the island to line up with sink run.

In this new one I am not sure how you would utilize 12 running feet of counter, and the DW is in a poor location because you are going to prep a lot in the corner.--I think you will do it nearest the range even though the dedicated area appears to be on the island.

Generally it seems rather unbalanced in appearance and function. There is a lot of storage to the left of the fridge, but I don't know if that arrangement substitutes for pantry storage. I am not a fan of those corner closet pantries, but it provides better storage than what you replaced it with.

Green- Honestly, I liked the earlier plan over this one. The pantry area is pushing the fridge too far from the range, IMHO. I'd rather have the fridge in the middle of that wall, with the pantry on the great room side of it.

Even if you keep the island, I think this would be a preferable layout, but the peninsula seems like a better fit to me...and not that much further to walk around. It also give you seating at the peninsula, where you can have friends/family help in the kitchen...or just visit with a cup of coffee :) {{!gwi}}From Cottage house plans

OK. I think I'll stick with the original. When I think about it, probably 90% of the stuff I "prep" comes out of the fridge anyway (fruits and veggies and meats). Going through the last few meals, the only thing I think of that doesn't would be potatoes... and fruits that sit in a bowl on the counter.

Thanks everyone for your input. It's so hard to make a commitment!!!!