The best way to have a corner cooktop is to build an angled wall behind it and use a conventional wall mounted hood. However, a 36" corner cooktop takes up a LOT more space than if done on the straight. Instead of taking up 36" linear room, you end up taking up approximately 56" in each direction of the corner (112" total!)in order to have enough room for a hood and clearances to open the adjacent cabinets.

Also, since the most used real estate in any kitchen is the space between the sink and range, and that ideally is 36", and you only look like you've got about 18" between the two, this is NOT going to be an easy kitchen to work in. Do you have an island to add in extra prep space? Or more room down to the left of the sink? There HAS to be a better location for the range.

Having 64" of space dedicated to refrigeration/freezing, is completely out of proportion with the rest of your kitchen. It's out of proportion with even many large kitchens! And yours isn't a very large kitchen. Please rethink your wants here. Right now, you can store cold food in your kitchen, but there isn't ANY room to actually get that food washed and cooked!

You should post an actual layout of the space and you'll get some valuable suggestions as to how to make your layout more functional. Include the adjacent spaces, as that may help to see if you actually can find room for those fridges without giving up room for anything else. But if you really need that much cold food storage, and you have that kitchen, then you should probably think about expanding the kitchen into adjacent space, adding on an addition, or, moving to another house. :)

Thanks, Green! I understand everything your saying. I know it is crazy, but that Frigidaire pair really meets our needs.

I am happy to say that I do have an island w/ sink that will be my prep space. I couldn't figure out how to insert more than one photo in the first post, so here is the overhead view. I look at the large sink and the adjacent counter as the clean up zone, with the island and prep sink getting most of the use (it faces the lake).

We are building the angled wall that you recommend, and when you say a conventional hood, do you mean an under the cabinet hood? If so, does that mean that it ends up only coming 12 inches off the wall so that it meets the adjacent cabinets without making them unable to open? Or is there a trick to getting the hood out over the range more?

As far as the rest of the space, it is a great room style, with dining and living area adjacent to this kitchen. I don't want to expand the kitchen footprint any more.

Thanks again!

Hope that made sense.

The "trick" is that you're going to lose the cabinets next to the range. You won't have room for them when you have the actual projection of even a "standard" 18" deep hood. Put in a recommended depth 27" hood, and there's no room for cabinets.

I would suggest moving to a range instead of cooktop and wall ovens (unless there is another wall here to put something on) and separating the fridge and freezer. Place the fridge all the way to the right on the current leg of the L, then you'll have room for some counter space, then your range, then an actual usable corner cabinet where you can store most of your pots and pans, then your cleanup sink and DW and the freezer would round out the run of the L. That would let you have your fridge and freezer than you want, but it would be MUCH MUCH more functional from the cooking process view as well as the ventilation aspect. You can actually have a decent sized vent and not lose cabinets that way. You GAIN a bunch more storage space and better workflow. The corner becomes usable storage space instead of lots of wasted space, and you gain back those upper cabinets, (and then some) that you would have to lose in order to have proper ventilation.

Or, if you have a walk in pantry, consider moving the freezer to the walk in pantry. It's accessed MUCH MUCH less(1/10 ratio) than the refrigerator and doesn't need to be in the main kitchen in order to be functional for occasional access.

Even with the island, it seems there is no place to store anything bigger than glasses and plates. And there is certainly no counterspace for it. Do you have a butler's pantry for the blender, food processor, stockpot, 12" pan?

Hi,

I just wanted to comment on your f+f choice. I was where you are. I was sure that I wanted the E'lux twins in my new kitchen, until I posted my layout here. I urge you to consider the advice of these experts, they really do make good points.

Fwiw, the fridge you want is probably about 19 cu ft. That is the same amount of fridge space in most full depth FD 36" fridges. Sure, you get a smaller freezer, but you could relocate a second freezer to somewhere else in your house. I'm putting one in my pantry. Besides, you're spending all this money on a new kitchen, do you really want the focus to be a wall of SS?

I've linked my old post in case you want to read through the advice that I got. I've taken almost all of the advice that I've gotten here in designing my kitchen.

Here is a link that might be useful: My old post

Vsalz, that is an awesome arrangement! I would love cooking there.
Diane

Sue, take it from me, once you get the twins, you'll never be satisfied with a normal sized refrigerator/freezer again. Even now that the kids are gone, I don't want anything else.

I did have mine separated for awhile, and it worked, but I like them together much better.

Maybe it would help to show a floorplan of the whole space you have to work with and not just the corner so the pros here can fit in everything you want.

Thanks Marti! Meeting with the cabinet gal to make final decisions.
Vsalz - nice!

This is the corner cooktop you really need:

Opens up a significant amount of countertop space and lets the cabinets move closer in. Gaggenau made them for years, but no longer does. Someone has one on eBay now, and they show up there and on Craigslist occasionally. They were made with electronic touch controls or knobs, halogen or ribbon elements. Caldera had corner cooktops too.

Thanks, Lee. That is actually quite cool. My GC and KD and I had a good look at things on site and two things came from the discussion:
1) I had screwed up and given KD the wrong size for the window, (it is 48", not 42") SO, that forces us to extend the window header SO, we can move the window down.
2) Moving the window down allows us to have a more normal looking upper cabinet to the left of the cooktop, while GC can build a box around a hood in the corner.

That was my original question - fitting in a corner hood that protruded more than 12 inches off the back wall w/o making adjacent cabs inoperable. I recognize the need to maximize that upper cabinet storage. Larger window will have an effect, so I am waiting on new drawing.

The walls are 160" on the sink wall and 205" on the appliance wall. The island right now is decent size and has drawers and cabinets. I'll have room for stock pot, rice cooker, crock pot, etc. Drawers will hold cereal and snacks for the kids and pantry will hold canned goods, pastas, less frequently used appliances, etc. I really am not worried about space, but am going to map things out this weekend.

Funny, things happen for a reason and I do believe my lost sleep and negative feedback from GWers gave me the incentive to meet again with KD onsite and thankfully we discovered my HUGE mistake regarding the window. That would have been tragic had I ordered cabs thinking we had a 42" window!

Thanks all!

What's that old adage - "measure twice, cut once"?

Not quite clear on how having a *bigger* window allows for larger cabinets, but i'll wait for the new drawings. Would there be room for the dishwasher on the right of the sink now if you wanted it there?

I imagine you've seen this, but I always think of sandyponder's corner range when the subject comes up.
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0518355311496.html?38

Here is a link that might be useful: sandyponder

Lee - Yes, measure twice....I am so glad we discovered that major mess up of mine! The larger cabinet was an upper to the right of the sink. I did not like the look of the skinny 12 or 15 inch upper cabinet that was going to have to be tied into some sort of hood. Thanks for your time and help with both my posts!

would love to have the guts/instinct to come up with a kitchen like sandyponder! :)

@Sue_sf - I'm so curious if you ended up with a corner range and how it has functioned for you?

@sue_sf Did you end up doing the corner cooktop and if so, could I see photos? @erinpaul08 How about you?