In re the wall of "ominous cabs", can you step back the top half of the cabs just a few inches, and put a small landing area? The upper cabs would sit on the lower cabs, but it would give some visual relief. The landing are also adds a lot of utility; maybe a foot or so?

I would take out the appliance garage. The counter top, for me, seems really chopped up.
Fridge, 3'counter, stove, 2'counter, garage, 2' counter, counter cabinets. Really chopped up and no big flow. I realize that you have the island for the "function" part of the counter but what about the "form" or flow part of the counter design. I don't know what you're choice for counter is but regardless, the flow or design of it will never flow. I also think, And this is most definitely just my opinion and worth nothing, is that appliance garages are going to say 2010.
Your line of storage cabinets - that's what about 8' long by 12" deep? Breaking it up in some way would be nice. If you made it a buffet configuration you could put different feet on it and maybe different crown molding to make it look like a piece of furniture.

Did you change the configuration of the island? I like this one.

My problem with the wall of storage cabinets is that I really wanted the pantry space + a closet to store my cordless vacuum and cleaning supplies. If I break it up, like it was before, I wouldn't have room for both because I'd need at least two of the cabinets for pantry space (12" deep + 2 growing boys...) I guess I'll have to rethink my idea a bit. I thought I loved the configuration until I saw the picture.

blfenton - I think I agree with you on the appliance garages. I don't like having such a small amount of space around the range to work with - I'm a messy cook! We are hoping to do soapstone for the counters. It occurred to me that we'd be paying an outrageous amount of money for countertops we'd be hiding on purpose. Doesn't seem like a smart way to spend $$$

The island has been narrowed a bit and made longer. I'll probably lose the columns - not really my style. KD added to beef up the price, I'm sure.

Can you eliminate the range and fridge to make more room for the office space and microwave station?

Paint the ominous wall of cabinets the wall color to lessen their impact.

I would also remove the corner garage, make the desk uppers go straight across without that raised area and do the same over the microwave. Don't compete with the hood.

Maybe keep the outer cabs as they are, and indent only the inner ones, with a landing space?

To further add to what pal said - make the cabinet fronts on the storage wall "slab fronts" with as few doors as possible and paint them the same colour as the wall. Make them recede into the wall.

To pick up on what marcolo said (rather facetiously) is there a reason that the desk area is so large? Is it doubling as homework center or home-based business computer station? If not make it smaller. Do you actually sit down at the desk? If not close it up and add bottom drawers.
I took ours out in our reno because we never used it and it became a junk collector - the space was much more valuable as kitchen storage and counter space.

I feel the need of a center, a ta-dah spot. The most important thing appears to be the refrig but it has three rivals: the two curved areas over counters and the range, none of them centered on anything. Even the front of the island lacks a ta-dah, just six equal soldiers in a line across its front instead of two narrow guys on each side and a fat guy in the middle.

If there were color directing your eye, perhaps that could help? A pair of snazzy good-sized pendants over the island might help give a center to the whole.

Florantha, I know what you mean. The edge of the fridge is lined up with the edge of the island and then everything is squished over to fit. Sorry Ayerg It looks like this is being taken apart.

I don't know about this: (quote)

"I'd need at least two of the cabinets for pantry space (12" deep + 2 growing boys...) I think that's taking the often-stated KF principle of storing stuff where just a teensy bit too far. (Just my opinion, of course.)

I would lose the garage, if it were my kitchen but, FWIW, I am not obsessed with completely appliance-free counters so a food processor or stand mixer tucked back in the corner wouldn't trouble me.

I agree with the suggestion to shrink or get rid of the desk, or at least make sure that it's at the right height to turn into a baking counter if the desk thing doesn't earn it's keep later on.

Also you've got the fridge conscientiously lined up with edge of the island. I wouldn't mind if it gobbled a cab on the left, shrinking the desk and adding that space to the stove counter run.

In a similar vein, your sink is perfectly centered on the island - any reason you can't shift it off center, too? That would leave you with one longer counter space. I'd shift the sink towards the french doors so your clear working space is concentrated in front of the stove. It would reduce DW door/oven door aisle conflicts as well.

I just realized the wall o' pantries is opposite the island (duh), not at right angles as I foolishly assumed. In that case I would do as suggested above paint them the wall color and let them fade into the background. I don't think they will look over-imposing in the space they occupy. Of course if the growing boys inside start to complain and howl, then someone will probably call Child Protective Services.....

HTH,

L

liriodendron - LOL! I had to chuckle...partly because we are a foster family and I DO have CPS in my house for home studies on a regular basis. I definitely should make sure the locks are hidden ;)

I agree with all of you about the desk. It's been a bit of a sticking point between the dh and myself. The entire reason we suggested it is because of the clearance in that corner - there's only room to work with shallow cabinets and I thought it better to run something all the way to the end rather than to just abruptly end the line on the wall. Any other ideas of what to do with that space?

I would gladly move everything down a bit and make the range (my BIGGEST splurge on the kitchen, hands down) the center of attention - totally agree with you about that, florantha! I will keep my eye out for the pendants to put some color there. I also plan to do some sort of mosaic tile all the way up the wall behind the hood to draw the eye there.

The baking center is a great idea, liriodendron. I need a place to put the bread maker (which was going to be housed in the smaller appliance garage on the left wall) and I also have a flour miller that I could put there too.

I think painting the cabinets is a good idea. Since I'm going with Mouser, I could probably have them do that - at a hefty cost, of course. Or would it be better to have the contractor find someone to spray them? And - I am notorious for changing wall color. Maybe that's too big of a job to keep up with...?

As mtnrdredux suggested, I will toy with keeping the outer cabs as they are, and indent only the inner ones, with a landing space. That was the KP's original idea. I'm sure she'll LOVE it when I change it back! ;)

I also agree that there's too much extra stuff added to the detail on the cabinet to compete with everything else. Definitely NOT at my request - she "padded" the kitchen with such details to give me a "worst case scenario" price wise. She showed me the pricing and where we could shave costs and is happy to do that. I was worried about removing too much and making it look plain, but I'm a straightforward kind of person - give me function and beautiful finishes and I'm happy. It's good to hear that some of you would lose them too - I won't feel so bad!

What do you guys think about those columns on the island? That's something else I was going to nix. I do like the idea of moving the sink over as I wanted to have the soapstone fabricator create the drain lines on the counter at the edge. Any suggestions about whether that's a good idea or not? I am going with an undivided sink and do a lot of hand washing, so I thought it would be handy...

Thanks for the ideas - keep 'em coming!

I just feel like the kitchen needs to be stretched out a bit towards the sliding glass doors.
Is your overhang 15" on the island? If so get rid of the bumpout and move the sink over the left to give yourself more prep area.

Move the fridge over to the left as well and maybe bring the desk counter up to counter height or baking-height and put drawers into the chair gap. What's a good length for baking - 4'? It looks like your desk is 18" deep and about 7' long. Is that right?
Just try sketching on graph paper moving the fridge over 3'. the sink over 2' and the stove over 2'. You'll still gain an extra foot of counter between the range and fridge.
If the stove is your "ta-da" center of attention then it should be more towards the middle of the room and not squished into the corner.

I agree with the commentors who questioned the need for a desk, or at least such a large desk. I've heard a lot of people say they regretted the kitchen desk because it became a junk collector and ended up not being used nearly enough for it to feel useful. Some people like them, but most people don't, and it really is messing with your ability to create a functional and beautiful kitchen.

I mean, you can buy a desk and put it anywhere in the house. Or you could, if you want to have a workspace in the kitchen, even build a file drawer and pens/calculators/laptop/etc. drawer into one side of the island so that on those occasions when you actually do want to do work (pay bills, whatever), you can do it at the island, and the rest of the time, when you're not using that space to pay bills etc., it's just a regular seat people can eat at. Putting a file drawer etc. in the island would give you a lot more flexibility; if it turns out you do like to pay bills, etc., in the kitchen, you can do so without permanently eating up five feet of cabinet/counter space (or however big that desk is--I can't tell exactly), but if it turns out you don't really use the kitchen as a mini-office, well then, you haven't wasted money and space creating a desk area that you don't use. If the kitchen never gets used for bill-paying etc., then you can repurpose the island's file drawer to hold something else, and that costs you nothing.

And on a related note, what's really wrecking the look of the kitchen for me is having the fridge where it is. It competes with the range. Can you put it on the OTHER end of the kitchen, at the end of the short leg of the L? Given the clearance between it and the island you might want a French door fridge, but that's true either way. The main thing that I think would improve things, apart from ditching the desk, is flipping the fridge to the other end of the kitchen. That lets your range take center stage.

I don't think building the desk so that it can be repurposed as a baking center will work, because 18" of counter space isn't big enough to be practical for preparing baked goods. I speak as someone who likes to cook and bake and deals with an 18" counter every day because the previous owners did a terrible quickie remodel right before resale. Counters this size SUCK. Speaking of which, 18" of desk space isn't really big enough for a desk, either. So if it isn't possible to scoot those French doors a foot or so up the wall, to give you room for standard-sized cabinets there, then probably the most practical use of that space is floor-to-ceiling storage (pantries and/or a broom cupboard) or a little bar, wine storage, etc. area. But there is NO need to line it up perfectly with the island. Let the kitchen overflow a bit; give yourself more counter space. That 18"-deep space does NOT need to be 5 feet wide or whatever it is on your current plan. It can be half that or even less. As long as the French doors can open without banging into something, that's all you need. And if those doors open towards the other direction, you don't even need to consider that; just make the 18"-deep area as small as you can without it looking ridiculous or becoming unuseful for storage, and let the kitchen extend as far over as you can.

I also agree that if you must have the sink on the island, it would look better and be less in the way if it were off center. Having a sink on the island when the cooktop is elsewhere is better avoided, if possible, since it creates opportunities for accidents every time you carry a pot of boiling pasta water or a messy pan across the floor, especially in a kitchen that's open on both sides, since that means people or pets could walk towards you from either direction while you're carrying stuff. And keep in mind that you can move the sink but still keep the DW in the island--the sink and DW don't need to be right next to each other, as long as they are positioned so that you can easily reach the DW shelves from where you're standing at the sink, and so that when you're unloading the DW you can easily reach the cabinets (or drawers) where dishes will be stored.

Perhaps you could play with the idea of doing this:

- Moving the fridge to the other end of the kitchen (the end of the short leg of the L);

- Ditching the appliance garage (i.e., keeping as much open counter space as possible);

- Ditching the desk, and instead having a narrower storage or bar area (maybe 18" deep and 24" wide), and letting the kitchen counter come out farther instead of lining up with the island (so instead of a 54" or 60" desk--I can't see exactly how wide it is--you have a 24" storage space at the far left and then 30" or 36" extra of counter and base cabs);

- Moving the range over to the right ("right" as in when we're looking at the floorplan--in other words, a few feet towards the desk, kind of overlapping with where the fridge is shown in the current plan, with 36" or so of counter to the left of it);

- Putting the sink over towards the corner of the L, on the same run as the range but about 5 feet away from the range (so now you have 3 feet-ish of uninterrupted counter to the left of the range and 5 feet-ish to the right--of course if you want it symmetrical you could position the range so it has 4 feet-ish of counter on each side of it). You could also consider an actual corner sink. Either way, one of the advantages of this range/sink setup is that there is no longer a sink and faucet blocking the sightlines to the range--moving the sink off the island means that when you're facing the kitchen, you have an uninterrupted view of the range, so it really is the star of the show. And then...

- Either keeping the DW where it is in the island, or putting it 18"-24" up the short leg of the L (basically next to the fridge--not necessarily RIGHT next to it, this depends on how much space you have), so that either way you can easily reach it from the sink. Putting it on the L rather than the island will probably make unloading easier, since I'm guessing the dishes will be stored in upper cabinets on the walls.

Notice also how moving the range to the right not only lets it really take center stage, but also happens to make the DW in the island more practical. It would let you have upper cabinets and base cabinets facing the DW, instead of a range facing it. That means you could store the dishes in those upper cabinets, so unloading would be super easy--no carrying dishes from the DW to the upper cabs; just stand there and unload.

Regarding the desk:
I agree that it does not look good in that kitchen as is. However, you NEED to plan for a place where you can keep your house and life organized. If you have no other place near the kitchen (this is a must since this is how we all live these days), then you need to create something in the kitchen or near it. It's not just about how your kitchen functions but also about how your house functions. This is something you have to figure out for you and your household.

Are the FD exterior doors? I can't tell from your plan. If so, then it will be quite expensive to move. If you don't move the FD, no matter what you do, you have to transition 18 inch counter depth to 24 inch counter depth. It seems to me that a desk is the most natural way to do this.... I would keep the desk as is but make it much simpler and smaller. Even a small, 30 inch desk for a place to put the phone and calendar on the desk with a file box that you store in the upper cabinets are better than NOT having a desk area where the action is, IMHO. I keep most of my info on the computer, ie web based calendar. So I need a quick access to the computer from my kitchen!

Regarding the pantry: You can punctuate the storage with little open niche for books and decorative storage. It does not have to be a big niche. Just a few little one(s) placed jut right will look fab!

All in all, I agree with most of what Ideagirl has said.

Are there NO windows in this space? Lighting will be extremely important. Also some or all needs to have light finishes.
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If the whole kitchen went 90 degrees to the right, would you gain anything? Putting the range across the middle of the end wall, to create a big hearth ta-dah! across that end. And perhaps putting a seating/island or peninsula from the right-hand wall parallel to the walkpath entering from the adjacent rooms? And maybe a second narrow island parallell to it below it in the walkpath area? You could increase countertop area and workspace for helpers.

I like the idea of exchanging the fridge and the cabinet unit at the end of the short L. You could switch them exactly.

The thing with the fridge where it is is that it is close to the eating area for getting drinks, condiments etc. It is also close to the doors to the outside for kids coming in for water/drinks/snacks etc.

You guys have some awesome ideas. I'm going to sit down with the blank slate drawing and try out some of them.

My floor plan doesn't show the area that the kitchen table will be sitting in (the KD plans are too big to scan the whole thing), so I'm adding the blank slate to show you where the windows and seating will be.

Although that entire wall is essentially windows, the kitchen is still pretty dark. I do need to be careful of dark woods (it's a very dark cherry right now). I had toyed with white or cream cabinets but decided on the light stain. Do you still think it's too dark?

I have my heart set on soapstone and I know that will be dark, so I'm trying to keep that in mind and want to balance it.

As far as the french doors, yes, they lead to our deck. It would be quite a project to move them as the exterior is brick.

And, I did have the fridge over on the opposite side the first time around, but moved it to this spot because I thought it would be more convenient to have the fridge closer to the table and the deck. (exactly as blfenton just pointed out ;) I hope that if I move it down closer to the FDs, it won't seem like the focal point. But, if it makes the space better, I have no problem moving it back over to the other side.

I'll do some playing with the drawing tonight....
LOVE the ideas!

If you're keeping the range as a centerpiece, may I be the spirit of the Appliance Forum and tell you to get a bigger hood? Unless you get a barrel hood or something with straight sides, the one you have pictured looks scrawny.

An additional way to balance the kitchen would be to do the desk area in the wall color or same color as the wall of tall and then do the kitchen part of the kitchen stained.

Oh, cool, just catching up and feeling very proud I made a suggestion that a professional made. : )

In re locating the fridge, and the competing desire to have it close to the eating area but also near prep, try two.

Near the prep area, put fridge drawers, for fresh veggies, fruits, meats, things that need to be prepped and you would not eat right from the fridge anyway.

Then put your main fridge nearest to where you sit and eat.

I did that in my old kitchen and it worked very well for me.

fori - Good eye - but the hood isn't actually mine...just the KPs suggestion. I'm getting the 48" Bertazzoni range and will be happily taking the matching free hood that goes with it in their promo. From all the pics I've seen, it seem like it will be beefy enough - you think?

palimpsest - good idea, I'll give that some thought...

mtnrdredux - that is a very good idea. I wanted to do a larger fridge, but the budget wouldn't let me do that, the range and the soapstone. I might have to price those out!

So that wall is a fireplace- didn't realize that. Good to know. And you're changing the entrance into your hallway - is that right?
Looking forward to seeing what you draft up. I think the bones of what you have are good and just some minor adjustments need to be made.
Look at giving yourself more counter space around the stove in order to set it off, downsizing the desk - (what about a bookcase in that corner for cookbooks, and display items, it could be a combination of closed doors and open display units about 3' wide).

The wall is a see-through fireplace with the living room - I guess I should have mentioned that detail ;)

We are changing the entrance to the kitchen. When we change it, there will be better access to the dining room with a matching butler's pantry in between (very small one - just 3 feet, didn't think it was worth scanning yet another floorplan to add...) Hopefully, moving the entrance will let a lot more light into the kitchen from the windows in the dining room, but I'm still fighting with a dark space.

I like that idea of a bookcase as well. Lots of ideas to play with. I wish I was better at visualizing it all.