I like your ideas. Will the oven door open into an often used walkway?

My kitchen is also a major thoroughfare, so I know the challenges that entails. I had a designer come out, and as soon as she walked in, she had some layout thoughts that made a lot of sense. While I am on a strict budget, I decided to use her on an hourly basis for occasional consultations. For me, it was money well spent.

I look forward to seeing your progress in the future.

Is there a reason you can't extend the sink run and peninsula down another 2'? It looks as if you'd still have plenty of room for your overhang and maintain a 4' wide pathway to the sliders. I also might try to tweak the configuration of the frig wall to allow some landing space from the oven, unless it's an under the counter oven in which case there would be no problem.

Thanks chris_in_15. Yes the oven does open into a major walkway, but it is currently where the pantry is and has actually never been a problem for me (guess that just shows how often I use my oven....:) Thanks for your advice on a designer, too.
Remodelfa: The sliders actually begin right after the 2 foot corner cab in the drawing. Kind of hard to see from my drawing, I know. So I can't move the sink run down at all, unless I am misunderstanding what you are saying? And I was concerned about the "no landing zone" too from the oven. I was hoping the peninsula would be close enough?
Thanks so much for your ideas.
Anybody else?
Holly

OK... I have one more thought then. If your concerned about storage space, why don't you double side the peninsula for about 5' or so. You could use 15" depth cabs and curve your countertop in from the door jam out over the extended portion of the cabs. You would still have room for an overhang on that portion but it would make access to underneath a little difficult. You could put less used items there.

Do you really plan a 42" cabinet for your sink? You will need some kind of spacer between the dishwasher and adjacent peninsula or the dw door will be scraping door fronts and handles as it opens and closes.

Great idea, remodelfla! Thanks!
Rhome410-the sink can be adjusted. I have a 45" cab with a triple sink now, so I am spoiled and I love it. But I realize that is the one space on that wall that is optional.
A few more questions if I may - would you do open shelving in the corner beside the sink or lazy susan? I am planning to put my mixing bowls, colanders, measuring cups, and small appliances (hand blender, beater, food saver. And I have a 30 inch pantry planned. I love pullouts, but worry that due to the smaller width by the time I do that I will be out alot of space...opinions?
Lastly, any other layouts you would do with this space?
Thanks so much,
Holly

bump :)

Do you mean open shelving in the base cabinets? Do you really mean 'open' or do you mean stationary shelves as opposed to pullouts?

I dislike pullouts for the reason you mentioned...The loss of space. However, I am thinking of adding a pullout in one of my cabinets for my bread mixer, which has grabby feet and is hard to get out of the shelf. So in specific instances they can be advantageous. At our last house, my dh insisted that I have pullouts (a favor, he thought), but they took up space and I overfilled them and things fell off. I could have put as many things on shelves without a problem.

But if you mean actual open shelves...without doors...I'm not a big fan. If you mean to have them in a base cabinet, I am adamantly against them. They fill with dust and pet hair amazingly quickly no matter how clean you think you are. (I had a base lazy susan with no doors in the mobile home we lived in while we built our house. Yuck.)

I hope that somewhere in here was an answer/opinion you were looking for!

Just so you know I have 2 dogs, 2 kids, 1 cat, and we have cork floors and love them. Although ours are in the upstairs bedrooms. I dislike tile in the kitchen, because between my wife and kids I think 1 glass item a week is dropped in my kitchen, I don't think we could afford the replacement cost if we had tile!

Yes, rhome410, I don't know why I put "open"...I just meant shelving versus lazy susan in the corner cab. Thanks for your advice. My pantry will mainly be for food and I worry that cans and small stuff will be a PITA to get at and see. I know lots of people recommend 12 inch depth for that stuff, but as it is my only pantry I need more space. Another option is to put some shelving on the doors and have smaller depth shelves against the back...
And thanks mcr1 for the info on the cork. I know people who have them in their playroom and they love it too. I was told by 2 different people that in kitchens they can be troublesome due to traffic pattern over time, as well as scratching. But I haven't looked into it further to know if that has to do with cork quality or sealing??

Do you have the ability to have secondary storage in the mud room or garage? Bulk paper goods, costco type cans, infrequently used appliances could go in there to free up your pantry space. Also, as GORGEOUS as a 48" Liebherr is (and I wish I could have one with only 2 people!) do you think you could get by with a smaller frig with again, a second one in garage or mud room to free up some space on that wall.

Hmm. I'm really torn. I don't really want to recommend reducing your fridge size, since the LiebHerr 48" units are my favorite, if-price-was-no-object choice, that I couldn't have. They are so nicely arranged. So since you can't get rid of that ;-D, I would put shallower shelves along the back of the pantry and some kind of efficient storage on the doors. My favorite pantries are a step-in style with shallower shelves in a U or L shape against the back and 1 or both sides. This leaves some floor space and wall space for bulk items and broom, etc. But I think you'd need at least 42" width for your pantry to do that. On 2nd thought it might just work with 36"...Can you cut the cabinets on either side of the microwave to 15"?

I know you said all windows doors have to remain the same, but I just wanted to throw this out there... what if you replaced the dining room window with sliding/french doors? Then plugged up that existing sliding glass door - it seems to be limiting your kitchen space while having a huge eating space.

BTW, your house layout seems nearly identical to mine! my living room is exactly where yours is, and the mudroom and front hall entries, and I'm 13'9' wide - I couldn't tell how long from mudroom to living room was? I too am removing the separator wall from kitchen to formal dining. The link below is my plan (that I'm constantly still tweaking and overanalyzing!!) just to see how you could spread things down without the sliders there.

I would just love to see you get more space in your kitchen. My current setup has my dishwasher in the corner up against the adjacent cabinets and I can't stand it. The adjacent cabinets hold the utensils and rubbermaid etc etc, and it's a pain to manuever. Also, I think I see that your garbage is in that cabinet, have you thought about clearing dishes and loading, it might be hard to dump scraps because you won't be able to access the garbage if the dishwasher door is down??

Here is a link that might be useful: My hopefully soon to be kitchen!

remodelfla - I put my paper goods in my front hall closet, so that is not a problem. Can't do the costco thing as I don't have any space to put that stuff right now, and am losing space in the future! As it is I store all my big stock pots, roasting pan, etc in the basement. And my back up plan is to go with a smaller fridge - the LG french door style, but as it is in the run of cabs I think the fact that it sticks out will really, really irk me. Also, I go downstairs to our second fridge daily for milk, and I would like to change that! We live in Canada and had the fridge in the garage, but the thermostat goes squirrely in the winter and it thinks it is as cold inside as out, and turns off. Lost alot of food the first year we did that!

rhome410 - I guess I could cut down the cabs on the hutch to 15 inches. Am planning on storing all glasses and mugs, as well as coffee and tea and supplies in the other. On the bottom side portions I was planning cereal, crock pot, blender, and kettle. Guess I should measure and see if I can fit what I need to in there.

momof3kids - I like your layout!! I would LOVE to change the dining window to sliders and forego the kitchen ones, but unfortunately backyard is all done in stone and would be a huge pain and expense to change that. That was last year's project and that portion was to be in wood so we could easily change it as that was what I had planned (or actually I thought I would eliminate both and put one walkout in the middle) but that got changed last minute by dh. He said it was no problem to change - "they'll just move the stones" but it has built in flowerboxes and all kinds of stuff that makes it very painful to do so :(
About the garbage location - right now we walk all the way beyond the sliders to a stand up can each time we need to pitch something so I just know I want it closer, and not have to walk around the peninsula to get there!!! I guess the only other place is under the sink, which is an option. I just really wanted an efficient pullout, and I know I will prep on the peninsula, so great location for that.
Decisions, decisions!!!
Thanks so much to all of you for your input so far!

I know you said that windows and doors have to stay put. But somebody else brought it up, so I'm going to, also...Does the slider to the patio have to be a double? If it was a single door (it could be a pretty, mullioned glass door), you could move the peninsula over a couple of feet to the left. That would give your U some more room. Just a thought.

With the U a little wider, you could then switch the fridge and the big hutch-y thing, and the oven would have a landing spot. I like the applicance hutch, BTW -- great place to make toast (I moved my toaster out of my tiny main prep area recently and really like the kitchen that way).

Thanks, scootermom. I was kind of thinking of that too. Love the openness and light coming in from the sliders, but again it all comes down to compromises!