Trying again to post the layout...

That seems like a tiny amount of workspace on each side of your stove considering what a big kitchen space you have. That's about what I had in our old kitchen ... very hard for me to work with and one of the main reasons I wanted to renovate.

I would lose the corner pantry altogether. They can be a wonderful feature, but in this layout, it just seems bulky and in the way. Making it much smaller will just make it less useful. The cooktop area does look very cramped, especially being right next to the doorway. I wouldn't want an oven opening across a doorway like that, either.

If I were you, I would move the ovens down next to the fridge, and put in a floor-to-ceiling pantry cabinet between the doorway and the ovens. I'd take away the corner pantry, scoot the stove down a foot, and put in uppers and lowers in that corner, giving me plenty of elbow room on both sides of the stove. You would lose the landing space next to the fridge, but that's less important in my mind than landing space next to the stove. Plus, you have the island across the aisle to use for fridge landing space.

I would take almost 2' away from the pantry and give myself decent space on either side of the range. I also agree with holligator to slide the frig down by the ovens.

I also think I would eliminate the corner pantry and turn it into conventional cabinet and counterspace.

I agree with erikanh - I had 15 inches on each side in my old kitchen and it was one of the few things I changed in the new layout. You have a large kitchen - I see no reason to live with that little space around the stove. I will leave it to the talented layout gurus, to tell you how to change it :)

Do you have a specific use for the counter between the fridge and oven? If it's your baking center, I'd say, keep it...But if it's not, you could put the pantry there and have counter where you need it by the stove.

Another option: See Vicnsb's pantry in the gallery thread I've linked below. It's in the corner of her kitchen, but tucks in behind from one side instead of setting diagonally and taking so much room. And it looks large enough to be very helpful to me. That way you could get a lot more room for the stove area.

I am confused by one thing...It looks like you have 5 ft aisles and such a narrow island? I would narrow those aisles and get yourself some counter space beside the prep sink on the stove end.

Here is a link that might be useful: Panty thread

ha ha, you said panty thread.

(Just acting 11, don't mind me)

Aaaargh! Sorry--That's what I get for not proofreading...

It's a PANTRY THREAD!!! :-)

could you then expand your pantry toward the sink?

btw, is the sink centered on the window? not supposed to be?
that does look like a lot of space between stove area and island end.

Oops, Desertsteph has a good point. When I redrew the plan, if it were mine, I'd definitely extend the island another 6 inches or a foot toward the stove. We have 3 ft between our island and rangetop and I wouldn't want any more. (Don't have ovens to open, so maybe I'd want 3 1/2 ft for that) It's very roomy...I can show you photos of 2 people working at once at the stove, or some with big dogs sharing the aisle, and no one's crowded. :-) But it makes it great for chopping veggies at the island beside the prep sink, and doing one simple turn to put them in the pan/pot/wok on the stove...Efficient.

Thank you all so much! Your input is greatly appreciated. I like rhome's suggestion to switch the pantry like that. How clever! That helped being able to see the pictures of Vicnsb's. I'm so glad I asked on here about that, as my gut was telling me I might be sorry to not have more landing space by the cooktop.

I hadn't even thought about the ovens being in a bad spot. Ack.. I had been planning on that 4' section of countertop between the fridge and ovens being a baking area with my kitchenaid mixer sitting there and glass doors on the uppers. Sounds like some of you think it would be better to scoot the ovens down close to the fridge. I'm trying to picture what it would look like though.

desertsteph - The sink will be centered under the window, and I've wondered about making it a 3' wide window instead of 4' in order to get more upper cabinet space. Does that sound wise?

Thanks again!

I think your oven/fridge wall is great, as long as you're not concerned about people zipping through that doorway into a possibly open (and hot) oven door. (Depends on how that doorway is used and its visibility from the non-kitchen side) I have 4 ft between my oven and fridge for a baking center and love it. With the prep sink where it is, I think your fridge location will work. If you slide them together, you have to worry about the left door of the fridge hitting the oven door handle, if you are having a side-by-side, as shown, or with a French door. If you slide them together with cabinet in between, you lose too much from your baking center.

I would figure out exactly how much upper cabinet space you need and leave the window as large as possible. Are you going to be able to have as much storage in the island as I drew? If so, maybe you can decrease the uppers and have more window instead of less? I had a 3 ft window in our last house, and now have a 6 1/2 ft...I don't think I could go back! It's SO nice to have the light and openness.

Thanks for the additional feedback. I don't know how much people might go in and out of that doorway. I think we'd mostly be using it when coming in from the garage or laundry room, and visibility would be good then I think. But we do have a lot of kids and bake quite a bit, so I can't say that it'd never be an issue either. It's hard to tell when it's just on paper.

What about this layout?

This would get the ovens in a better spot, still give counter space next to cooktop, and I could still have a pantry and leave the 4' baking countertop intact. It wouldn't be a huge pantry, but I think it would be sufficient considering we'll have a nice size walk in closet just around that corner underneath the stairs that will be lined with shelves for bulk items.

I was thinking this might give a better look/flow to the kitchen when looking on from the dining area. What do you think?

mitri89- I think this is much more efficient arrangement of work space. You might also want to move the fridge to the left of the main sink for easier access to cooktop and prep sink. That would leave the former fridge wall for just the pantry and cabinets.

riverspots - I had wondered about moving the fridge there, but I'd hate to lose my upper cabinets by the sink.

Nothing new to add, but I second all the things said about getting rid of the corner pantry. We had one in our old kitchen, and it was horrible beyond words.

rubyfig - Thanks, I'm feeling better and better about nixing it.:-)

This has plusses, and I think either plan could be very functional. The minus with the corner range is that the island isn't as efficient for prepping/cooking movements with the corner facing the stove. I like as much island facing the stove as possible. It may turn out that it's easier to prep to the right of the stove, which puts you facing the wall. It's one of those things you'd work out, and having never had a corner stove set-up, I can only guess. Also, if you ever have 2 people trying to work at the stove at the same time, it's more crowded in a corner installation. As I said, overall, I could consider either this or the plan I drew as 'good'...and if I walked into a house to buy with either plan, I'd be thrilled.

How many kids? (we have 8) I'm just wondering if you might want to consider another dishwasher and/or more refrigeration.

Good idea moving the pantry out of the corner.

The one thing is that the counter area between the pantry and fridge has a bit less use now, wouldn't you say? I don't say get rid of it but I suspect you'd probably use it for breakfast type of things - coffee, toaster etc. I'm not sure it would be that useful as a baking counter now. I suspect that the island is what will really serve as the baking area. To support that, I'd suggest two things:

(1) Move the prep sink to the other end of the island. The cooktop is now closer to the main sink so you won't need the prep sink behind you quite so desparately much. SO the prep sink could support fridge item processing for prep on the island and also dining room use. Moving the prep away from the oven side will let you use that end for the oven use.

(2) If possible, make the island another 6" longer yet by making the oven-side corridor 42" if it is adequate. I can't quite tell how long the island is - I think 6feet - but with the prep sink using space also, you want to leave enough space for your baking purposes, too.

In general, I will say that I'm not the biggest fan of corner appliances but you seem to have a large enough room for the loss of space not to be a consideration here.

Good luck!

I still see that counter area as a useful baking counter...The oven is still plenty close, especially since, if like at my house, things will get kneaded or rolled and put in pans on the island. Mix on the counter, put in pans on the island, and place in the oven.

But Mindstorm brings up a good point about needing a place for those breakfast counter type of things. Since you have that other pantry space, I'd seriously consider nixing the pantry cab in the kitchen and extending the counter, uppers, and lowers. You still have the lower cab storage and the upper...Not losing a huge amount compared to a deeper, more-difficult-to-access pantry cabinet and, instead, you gain space for the toaster, etc.