You'll get better feedback if you post a measured floor plan rather than elevations, especially those that are oriented sideways to the flow of text.

L.

I'd love to help but I can't figure out how these pieces relate to each other to provide useful feedback. Do you have an overhead view to share with us? What I need is a drawing (doesn't have to be to scale but nice if it is) with wall dimensions, cabinets, appliances, aisles marked, windows and doors shown (and where doors lead to), etc. If you have this, add that to this thread.

You wrote that you have 42" aisles - is that counter to counter or cabinet to cabinet or ? If cabinet to cabinet, you'll lose 3" of aisle because standard counter overhang is 1.5".

Sorry, new to this whole upload and forum thing! Here is the elevations (correct way up!) showing the type of cabients (by the way all of the door cabinets will have pull outs) and the floorplan (9ft ceilings btw). The floorplan is pretty close within an inch or two but the elevations should be on. The aisles are 42'' countertop to countertop and we have a few inches to play with if needed. It is cut off on the floorplan, but the opening on the left side leads to the living room and the doorway from the nook to the covered porch.

Also any insight on favorite or must have features and amentities would be helpful. I have already found the Never MT and air switch from this forum and still searching!

Looks good. I have a few quick comments/questions.

One, I think you would benefit from a prep sink added to the island. That would create a nice work triangle and save steps crossing the range when you go from fridge to sink to wash produce, etc. It would also help your kitchen handle multiple cooks better (think holidays and entertaining).

Two, is your fridge built-in? If not, which way does the door swing? I'm hoping it's set up so that the door doesn't bind against the pantry wall, preventing it from opening all the way.

Three, do you still have 42" clearance between island corner and pantry door? Just checking that this isn't a pinch point for you.

Four, does your island have seating overhang? I'm trying to figure out the cabinet configuration for it. An island made with 24" deep cabinets back to back (no seating overhang) with standard counter overhang of 1.5" would be 51" wide. An island with a row of 24" deep cabs with 15" overhang (recommended for 36" high counters) and standard counter overhang of 1.5" would be 40.5. Yours is somewhere in between.

If you do have seating at the island, make sure you have sufficient aisle space between table and island. 44" is recommended for aisles with seating on one side. I can't remember what it is for aisles with back to back seating but it's at least 54" and perhaps 60".

Last comment is about storage. Have you taken a tally and measured your cookware, glasses, utensils, etc and figured out where you'll store them in your new kitchen? If not, definitely do that before you finalize your cabinet plan. It would be awful to find out that you needed a drawer 2" wider than you have and you could have made the adjustment.

Best of luck!

This looks good to me. If it's not a built-in fridge, I think the door will likely be a little ahead of the pantry wall and open across the front, and be OK.

I agree that a prep sink could be really helpful in your layout. It would help create a more efficient work area, and keep you from washing food over dirty dishes, etc. I love mine. Lisa might not agree, but I would place it on the corner nearest the pantry so that you have the most expanse of prep workspace in front of the range.

Just some little things...

The narrow pullout bases can be very pricey - check with the cabinet maker. Remember that with framed cabinets, the pullout itself will be at least 3" less wide than the cabinet. With frameless, it will be 1.25 to 1.5" less wide.

So if you want to stretch dollar bills, simply do larger cabinets. As an example, the 9" cabinet by the range can be married to the 22" drawer cabinet and produce a 30" cabinet with a 1.5" filler. It sounds ridiculous, but that alone can save a couple of hundred dollars.

Having a filler is important when both sides of a cabinet run are up against a wall. Walls are rarely completely level, or square and the filler "takes up" those small differences.

You need to allow some air space on both sides and the back of the ref - generally, its an inch or two.

Corner pantries right beside a ref are difficult (not impossible) to do correctly. Unless you are getting a fancy ref, the doors of the ref need to be in front of the side wall of the pantry. If they aren't in front, the doors won't open at all. Also, if you need to pull the doors open past 90 degrees to clean, you need to insure the entire door depth can fit in front of the pantry and its door trim.

Another small issue with corner pantries and ref huts - The counter should die into the side panel. The counter will be roughly 1.5" deeper than the base cabinets. But the over the ref cabinet needs to be mounted flush with the front of the side panel (or so the cabinet doors are flush to the front of the side panel).

I'm not saying "don't do it". I'm saying be very careful and thoughtful about it because its very easy to get wrong - even when done by professionals. As drawn, you wouldn't be able to open the ref door all the way and the ref door and the pantry door have high probabilities of running into each other. There is no possibility of having the side panel turn out in the correct place or be the correct depth for the counter.

Personally, I would make the cabinets the same heights - either 42" or 48". The every-other-one pattern looks cluttered. I'm a little bit wondering where you're going to keep the ladder.

Great advice on fitting it all in. Whatever anyone wants to do, there's somebody around who's been there, done it.

It's a very nice layout to begin with. I do happily without a prep sink in a kitchen that size, but in your case one right there close to the fridge might be really nice.

I tend to agree the cabinets would do better the same height. Making a cabinet-line feature makes artistic sense when it's echoing or playing off a particular architectural feature (such as a ceiling that stepped up and down in your case :). Your main view is to the stove wall, and there are other ways to make it look special. Just for instance, a line of small pictures all in the same size up above, echoing the color(s) of your backsplash.

Thank you for all of the wonderful input! The island prep sink is a great idea, but we are afraid it will take away from the prep space since the island is only 6 ft. The walkway between the pantry and island is about 40'' so I think it should work with a 2 ft pantry door.

We put a lot of thought into the corner panty and fridge layout. The fridge door should open past the corner of the panty since it will be a few inches past that corner. We are going to double check again though just to make sure.

The island cabinets will be 30'' deep and have an 18'' overhang for the stools. I debated between 15'' and 18'' but decided the extra countertop space would be nice.

I forgot to mention above that we decided to do 32'' wide drawers in the center of the island and make the other two cabinets 20''. I will also have my stand mixer on a pullout on the left side of the counter and that will be my designated baking prep area! We also changed the cabinet to the left of the stove to a 13'' cookie sheet cabinet and 18'' drawer stack.

We should have about 5 ft between the island and the nook seating.

I have thought through the placement of my utensils and supplies and decided to make a the drawer stack on the island a few inches larger just to make sure it will fit everything I want in it. I am glad you mentioned the placement layout since I had thought about it in passing but never really nailed it down.

We ended up deciding on frameless cabinets and they are actually less expensive with the custom cabinet maker we are using. Also you convinced me of not staggering the cabinets and we decided to do them all the same level at 48''. The step stool will be in the pantry! It wont cost any more to do 48 over 42 and I figure I may as well make use of the space if we need it.

Any thought about features or amenities to include? Also any thought about the type of cabinets and if they seem functional, ie drawer stacks where they should be etc.

Thanks for all of the thoughts!

This may have been mentioned but (just coming off of a horrible head cold so still not thinking very well) I noticed you're not doing staggered cabinetry (good idea not to) so to add some visual interest what about considering some stacked cabinets, for eg, maybe some glass uppers on either side of the window OR on either side of the range. I don't think I would do it in both sides but just a suggestion.
Do you have a trash pull-out, any vertical storage for trays, cooling racks, or cookie sheets ( I have built-in slots above my CD fridge - best idea), have you researched the different types of lazy-susans for your corner, is that banquette seating by your table and if so you might be able to do drawers underneath or have a lift-up seat for storage of seasonal linens.

I don't understand the attraction for lower spice-rack pull-outs I would put my spices at eye-level and combine the narrow cabinets into the ones next to it for bigger pot/pan drawers (between 30"-36" is a nice size for a pot/pan and casserole dish drawers - I like 30" but others like slightly bigger) and do them 3 stacked. The top one is not as deep and would be for all of your cooking cutlery (wooden spoons, scrapers, lifters etc).

Other than that - drawers, drawers, drawers. I have one lower cupboard which is 16" wide and in it is my coffee pot and phone books just in case they are every needed. I could have done without it.

I love the look of the stacked cabinets but my husband doesn't. I think he is just cheap! We have a pull out trash, a vertical cookie sheet cabinet to the left of the stove and a vertical cutting board sheet btwn the lazy susan and trash pull out.

We didnt plan banquette seating but I think maybe we should! Just under the eating nook window that would be awesome, I have always loved built in seating. I will have to measure to see if we can fit it depth wise since the walk out to the deck is right there.

We will have a lighted pot and pan rack over the island where we will store some of the pans (not my idea but that was one of the compromises with my husband since I won every other battle) I think everything for lowers other than the sink cabinet and my stand mixer cabinet in the island and the cabinet right next to the fridge will be drawers. I think it works out to 4 drawer stacks total, the lazy susan and the 2 cabinets.

I plan a pull out in the island cabinet and next to the fridge. I didn't think about it until the electrical was in but the one next to the fridge would be great if it was electrified and I could put my toaster in there. Oh well!

We are also doing glass front drawers next to the dishwasher with the insert so I can put different candy and decorations in there seasonally. I am REALLY excited about that feature!

There are GWers who have island smaller than yours with prep sinks. Mine will be a hair under 5' (I'd kill for a 6' long island, lol!) and I will most likely add a prep sink because IMO, it will make the island counter more functional for us. And my clean-up sink is between fridge and cook top so I have water en route to the cook zone.

I understand the reluctance to give it up, though. Walk through prepping meals in your mind and see how many times you cross the range area to get to the sink. Or how often you may want to quickly rinse your hands while cooking and wouldn't it be nice to just turn around to do that? If you're not taking extra steps that often, then going without a prep sink is the right decision for you.

Best of luck! Don't forget to come post your finished kitchen. We *love* reveal posts. ;-)