I would look long and hard at that layout for one major reason: everyone who comes in through the garage or needs to get to the garage is going to walk right through your kitchen work area. And in my house that means they put all their cr*p on my kitchen counters. I would move that door to where the pantry is and put the pantry in the other corner.

I like the idea of having a direct door from the kitchen to the courtyard - what a great place for an herb garden!

However, I don't know about that island to the dining room. I'd be more inclined to do a full wall between the ktichen and dining with a doorway right smack in the middle of that wall. I'd flank the doorway with upper and lower cabinets. If you want to preserve more openness between the two rooms you could do a double french pocket door that you could open or close as needed.

Then I'd put the door to the courtyard just to the left (facing the sink) of the left dishwasher, and shift the dishwasher,sinks, and windows a bit to the right.

Just some quick thoughts that I hope will help. I love your floor plan - it looks like it will be a lovely house. I have mudroom envy now.

Thanks for the suggestions. I like the idea of moving the pantry to the other corner. I hadn't thought about that before. I'm just wondering if I'll have enough room on that west wall (the rear of the house faces south) to put the sink 2 dishwashers and my 60 inch wide range if I stick the pantry in the corner. But, yes, we have the same problem with everybody piling everything on the island. I can see how if you are forced to walk through more of the mud room, then you'd actually pile things where they're supposed to be piled--in the mudroom.
Do you think I should close off that entry to the kitchen from the foyer hall so that I could get some more cabinets in the kitchen?
Yes, I'm not so sure about the island idea between the kitchen and dining room. I could make it look like a built in by putting shelves and glass fronted cabinets on the dining room side. I hadn't thought about putting the opening between the 2 rooms in the center, but I'm wondering if that would look weird bc it doesn't attach to a wall in the great room. Also, I'm trying to preserve the openness between the dining room and great room. Sometimes (and I know this is a bad habit), we like to have the t.v. on during dinner and catch glimpses of it from the dining room table (e.g. certain football games, American Idol).
I'm torn about losing uppers if I do the island. Can you think of any other options to preserve the openness and may be keep some uppers? I'm out of ideas. I do like putting the door to the courtyard to the left of the dishwasher.
Am I creating more work for myself, or do you think I need that door to the courtyard from the kitchen. I'm kind of convinced that I do, otherwise, I feel like it will feel like some remote netherworld that nobody will want to make the effort to use.
Thanks!

Much of the island workspace is across from the sink and dishwashers, and there's not much by the stove and ovens, where I'd want it. The counterspace by the dining room isn't really of much use either. You have a huge kitchen, but all the task areas are crowded at one end, while you have miles of counterspace at the other, where it'd be inconvenient to drag everything to work on it.

I think I'd try moving the sink and dw's to the counter between the kitchen and dining room, moving the cooktop down toward the center of the room with windows on each side. It will, in addition, make your hood and cooktop (with the flanking windows) into a focal point when looking from the great room. It would give room for baking items, the mixer, etc. between the cooktop and oven.

I'm torn about moving the doorway from the mudroom like you've discussed already, because I'd rather keep it a shorter and more direct shot for bringing in groceries from the garage. With that enormous mud room with the cubbies and closet, I'm not sure there'd be a reason for people to drag anything into the kitchen? Moving the cooktop down will also mean the traffic isn't coming so close to your work area.

Also, noticed the oven is opening into a doorway, where people might come around into it...So I moved it up, too, and shortened the island to give more clearance.

I think there might be some brilliant idea to rearrange the fridge, freezer, and pantry, but it's not coming to me...Maybe someone else will see something. You didn't say why you wanted more uppers, but would the cabinet now on the other side of the oven help?

Wow am I glad I discovered this forum. Thank you so much rhome for the input and the great illustration. I'm a visual person; so, it helps.
So, your suggestion has gotten my thinking and gotten me unstuck from feeling married to my drawing. I was wondering whether moving the dw/sink/dw to the wall between the dining room and kitchen would be too messy looking. I was trying to hide it behind the island. I'm worried that our stack of dishes would be in such open view to the great room. It did have me thinking though, what do you think about moving the range to that wall between the kichen and dining room? (Btw, even though the drawing shows a double oven, there isn't one. Just a 60 inch wide range with 2 ovens underneath). I could then move the fridge/freezer to where range was in my original drawing. Does that make the range too far away from the fridge/freezer? It's a huge kitchen, but it's tough to layout (for me) bc there are harldy any walls!

Do a half wall that wraps around the end of the counter to hide the sink? Deep sinks can hide lots of dishes. ;-)

I think it makes better sense to keep the sink, DW's and dish storage near the dining area. For me the range would be way too far from the fridge if down there. And would you leave that wall open or close it up? I wouldn't want a large, high powered range in an open spot.

The fact that you have a range instead of the cooktop and ovens makes things more flexible, because I was thinking it'd be good to have the fridge and freezer on that back wall.

Trying again:

I'm not sure if you'd be interested in making your kitchen "smaller", but if you moved the pantry down to where the frig/freezer are in Rhome's last version, you would then have created a wall where you could put the frig/freezer. You could have the door to the pantry at the top of the left side(where it says 4'5" now). I'm not really liking the frig/freezer in the corner. I think it's really far from the dining area. Your space/layout sort of reminded me of this picture.

They have a pass-thru (to the right of the refrigerator) that leads to the pantry.

Something like this? I like it. It's smaller, but still large, and has some wonderful work areas (nice place for baking projects between fridge and range) and you gained some upper cabinets.

You'd lose the new uppers, but you could put the opening to the pantry directly across from the place where I wrote "2nd opening?". It'd be a pretty convenient way to get into the pantry from the kitchen and the walk-through would be handy, too.

This is what I meant:

very modern...
{{!gwi}}

Bar is 42" high, behind range is a stainless or tiled riser to about 12" above counter for a splash, heat guard that wraps the bar a bit before dying off. French doors to courtyard and a dbl window over a baking area with a single 30" wall oven with its top at about 48" high. Can have warming ov under or on island. Would plan on second ov being one of the new, cute, 18" tall ovs under baking counter. Prep sink/hand sink near ref, mw near ref.

So just up for fun. If being my own critic - be nicer if ref or drinks ref was on the other side of the room near the cleanup area. Be nicer if did walk-thru pantry from garage somehow - could ditch groceries right away. Not sure if you entertain or how you like to entertain or how you like to cook or what you cook.

yellsNext in line!

Oh, I like that last one rhome! The WIC could be expanded, which in my family is what WE really need, LOL. And a door to the courtyard could be put where the window to the left of the range is. But you lose a bit of counterspace to the left. Not that big of a deal since you have a large island right there. You could slide the range down or go with a smaller one.

Couple of things I see with moving the pantry from where it is currently. One now has a clear view of the sink in the mud room from the kitchen or dining room. Not sure if this is an issue or not. Maybe this sink could move closer to the garage side? One other thing I noticed. Your powder room seems really far from the "heart" of the house. And if you extend any of that wall, it makes it more difficult to access. Would you consider moving it to where the WIC in the mud room currently is? Maybe with the door opening on the Great Room side? Just a thought.

I see I neglected providing a door to the courtyard...That made me think of another of Malhgold's inspiration kitchens with twin glass doors (or one could be replaced by a window). The pantry and fridge area could be adjusted as desired. These are just to show the doors out of the kitchen.

Thank you all so much for the suggestions and illustrations. Now, I'm really at a loss! There were several good ideas, and now I'm not sure what to do. I like the idea of 2 entrances from the mud room. It really opens that space up. I also like the idea of making the range more central. I wonder though if getting rid of the row of windows over the sink would make it too dark. A couple of people have commented that they thought my kitchen would be too dark. I'm going to have to think all of this over....

You could put more windows flanking the stove... But I have to wonder how much light you'll get through windows in that location...Will they get good light with the courtyard there? It looks very much enclosed, which made me think the windows on that side wouldn't be of much value, so reducing them might not make that much difference?