I am normally a lurker here but I had to respond. My kitchen layout is almost identical to yours. I am in the process of finishing my remodel. I will try to post either pictures or the layout diagram but I just wanted to respond first. My refrigerator wall is the opposite of yours. Where you have your microwave is where I have 24" pantry...to the left is my 36"refrig...then to the left of the refrigerator is upper 16" depth microwave holder and cabinet. I do have a smaller microwave there. Its a fridgedaire model and i believe its depth is 14". The lower cabs are the normal 24" depth. I do use the counter below for placement. I don't know if 16" of counter might be a little too tight. I also use the countertop to the right of my stove since the micro is opposite of that landing. This does not interfere at all with passing through from the garage. (btw...I also have a small island). Also, if you are totally gutting the kitchen, why not a stove/convection range. I will try to post a diagram later on...off to the dentist!!

Judy

The only thing I see is I would have a wider 30" pantry on only one side of the fridge and eliminate the two 15" pantries. I just think you would have more storage in one larger pantry than two smaller ones.

Could you make the 16" deep part all pantry and move the fridge over next to it? Then you could put the microwave next to the fridge with a full depth counter under it. We have a set up something like this with a 15" deep by 48" wide pantry that holds a lot. Something like this

While symmetry has its place, I would really encourage you to ditch the 15 inch wide pantry cupboards in favor of the wider one suggested by mercymygft. I had an 18 inch wide pantry cupboard and it drove me crazy; it was better than nothing for sure but... The wider pantry is just more flexible. I like cluelessincolorado's proposed layout.

Hi, it's me again, your huggable neighborhood GWer. I have to agree with pattie_bee above. You might find those 15" "pantry" units tough to use. I have one tall cabinet like that, but it's used as a broom closet. If you have that kind of use for it then that's great. The funny thing is I have a span almost exactly as wide as you do. In that 66" refrigerator span, I have a pair of those Frigidaire Pro All Freezer/Refrigerator units. Prior to going that route, I had a 36" FD fridge on the end and a prep sink and counter space next to it. That probably wouldn't work for you since you have something around the corner, so just a thought.

On the cabinet depth to fit the MW, it looks like you're leaning toward a GE Profile product. They're designed for a max upper cabinet depth of 13.5 inches, so keep that in mind.

I'll echo exactly what Mercy and Patti said -- the 15'' wide pantry cabs will not be all that practical. Especially if you add pullouts -- you'll loose a lot of precious space and end up with maybe a 12'' wide pull out tray.

Can you mount the micro above the dishwasher and have a deeper cabinet there?
Then slide the fridge one way or the other, do a single wider pantry, and either totally skip the prep zone that's currently on teh right of the fridge or do a shallow 12'' deep floor to ceiling pantry without a counter?

Or, eliminate the micro area totally. Slide the fridge to the right and have a deeper cab with the micro accessible from the hall area on the left side of the fridge. Does that make sense?

I love this forum! You are all fantastic! Thank you so much for your replies! They are Extremely helpful!!

Judgejudy1: After reading the feedback to our layout, I think we will flip it to match your configuration. I'm impressed that you fit an island in there too! (We thought our kitchen was too small for one.) Our range is a convection oven as well; DH wants a microwave and I wanted a smaller convection oven for heating up/cooking smaller meals (and cookies!). I would love to see a photo of your layout and/or kitchen! Thank you so much! (I hope you had a pain free dentist visit!)

mercymygft: Thanks for your reply! I like your suggestion very much and have suggested it to DH! :)

cluelessincolorado: You are awesome! I can't believe you made a mockup of the revised layout! I love it!! It makes terrific sense to have a proper 24" deep base cabinet to the left of the fridge (when you are looking at it straight on) and shallower pantry cabinets to the right. This will require DH to build out the wall 15" to the left of the fridge, but I think it will be well worth it. (If you look at the layout, the wall ends just past the fridge's left side. He then had the 15" wide cabinets next to it, and cabinets behind those 15" wide ones. But, if we do a proper base cabinet with a counter and wall cabinet to the left instead - which I Really want to do - it would need a real wall behind it, right? We'd have to mount the wall and base cabinets to something.)

Now all we would need to figure out is what can be do with the tiny bit of wall space facing the garage door. It's only about 18" wide and 12" deep. (With a real wall extending behind the new microwave area, the 18" wide space will end up being 18" wide less 2 x 4's and sheetrock.) I wanted it to be a tidy place to keep our keys and things. It would be a shame to box it up with sheetrock and lose it all together. Maybe we could build some niches into the wall, or build a recessed cabinet in there?

You can see what we had planned for the little 18" space in an older mockup here (NOTE: This is just to show the 18" wide space, it's not the current layout, since I am very much sold on the newly proposed layout!):

This is very exciting! Thank you, thank you!

patti_bee: Thank you for your reply! I'm totally sold on the new layout! It is growing on DH too. Stay tuned! :)

jscout: Lol! We hope to one day have a side by side separate freezer and fridge! (Too funny!) It's just not in the budget right now. And wow, you know your appliances! Yes, that is a GE Profile! Thank you for the tip about the depth, it is greatly appreciated (as is your whole thoughtful reply)!

editionk: Thank you for your reply and suggestions. I agree that a wider pantry will be more useful than the 15" ones. There will be a cabinet with glass doors above the dishwasher that will house my beloved dishes (I fought very hard for the glass doors there!), so I'm not willing to part with it. I am really loving the mockup that cluelessincolorado made and would like to go with that. Which just leaves the 18" wide space facing the garage to be dealt with. (It's only 12" deep, so it isn't wide enough for much of anything. I'd like it to be a tidy place to store our keys and stuff.)

Thank you all, again!