I looked at your layout before reading your plan and my only thought was , move the trash to the left of the sink.

As for changing to a rectangle, if it is important to you to sit across from others I think you should do it. You might leave the cabs, or remove only enough to give an overhang, under the rectangle and put a seat at the end so the the person seated there will be somewhat across from the other person seated on the long side of the rectangle. We had this set up in our last kitchen and it worked well.

So would the long end of the rectangle be where the long straight end of the semi-circle is now? Or would you turn it so the long end is parallel to where your stove is? I don't think it's crazy at all. I just wondered how you would orient it. It's really not a huge change so I hope you don't get too much pushback if it is indeed what you want. Quite honestly, I think the trash is in a fairly impractical place right now. If I could, I would move the d/w to the left of the sink and put the trash on the right side, so it's inbetween the sink and the fridge. But I'm left-handed so keep that in mind. LOL. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Definitely move the trash --
And I like your idea about sitting opposite a friend if you don't need the base cabinet space. I think room for one seat on the kitchen side would work though.
But then, there's hardly a point in turning the corner... You're trading good wall cabinet space for less-useful / more-expensive corner cabinet space.

Is there any possible way to add a prep sink into the U-shaped section with the range? With a prep sink, the cook's got a great protected work area where you could easily visit with a friend while you cook. Without it, you'd be standing in the main aisle to work, facing the wall with your back to anyone seated.

Thanks for the quick replies! This is reassuring!
I'm glad the other spot for the garbage seems at least as good (if not better).

Wrt the orientation, yes, I'm thinking the long side of the rectangle would be where the long side of the peninsula is now. It's 48" long. Would that be long enough for two people to sit next to each other, or are we likely to only put 1 person there?

Sweeby, I'm interested in your question about there being "hardly a point turning the corner". I've wondered that myself - whether the peninsula should just be disconnected from the rest of the counter (and in fact be a table instead of a peninsula). But the problem is that the space just isn't very wide, and I'm nervous about creating another too-small-aisle situation like we have now. (on the other hand the new too-small-aisle area that would be created by turning the peninsula into a table wouldn't be the prime traffic area the way the too-small-aisle is now, so maybe I'm worrying too much?) What's considered the minimum aisle space for a low-traffic area?

thanks again for all the comments! It sounds like I should draw up some new options and post them!

I would be a little concerned about the 36 inch aisle between the sink run of cabinets and the microwave cabinets. Could the microwave cabinets be pushed back to the 3'10" of the peninsula? Three feet seems very tight especially with the door there. Have you tried using boxes to simulate the new layout? or blue tape on the floor? If you've already considered this, just ignore this msg. LOL Having had bottlenecks in previous kitchens, I may be overly sensitive to the size of passageways.

My first thought when I saw the plan (like so many others): Why is the trash not by the sink?

My second thought (While you were describing how you use your table): This peninsula just won't be the same. I think they're OK for snacks or the kids' lunches, but wouldn't want it for daily family meals. I think you are right to look for a solution that not only fits the space, but fits how you live and relate to each other while using it. Good you caught this now!

Ok, I've done a quick trace of the old plan and made 2 new sketches, included below (sorry for the low quality!). One turns the peninsula into a rectangle 48" long (length unchanged from current plan) and 30" wide (much narrower than current plan). It also makes the around-the-corner counter, which is currently planned to be 27" deep 30" deep instead, so it connects up. Our plan for that space is to let the kids use it as desk space when they're bigger (it has a 15" overhang), and also use it as serving space at parties etc. I chose 30" as the width of the peninsula in this plan in order to be able to make it line up with the desk space - I could make it wider and just have it jut out, but then it'd be less good for things like board games (and probably conversation, too).

The second sketch turns the peninsula into a table, 2 feet by 4 feet. In some ways this plan is very appealing to me (and might even create a natural spot for a prep sink), but it'd leave a quite small aisle on one side of the table (presumably the side I'd sit on, so that when I was up doing things I wouldn't be in the way of myself). It also reduces the aisle on the fridge side from 4 feet to 3 and a half feet. Other advantages of the table over the peninsula are that it's moveable, and can be made of a different material, and we can more easily fit more people around it if we occasionally need to. I don't know if the creation of narrow aisles renders those advantages not worth it. We could also move the table over so that it's more in front of the fridge, and then there's less of an aisle issue, but then it would stick out farther into the family room, and be less convenient as a work surface for me. (And actually maybe another disadvantage of the table plan is that the orientation of the table makes it less useful to me as a work surface than the peninsula would be?)

Anyway, here are the pictures - thoughts?
table plan:

Thanks again!!

What an interesting puzzle! If you think you'll be unhappy, by all means, change it now. However, I think you'd hate the first revised plan, with the freestanding table. You mentioned that you were bugged in your original kitchen by space around the table. That'll be a huge problem here, too. Sit your largest family member down in one of your kitchen chairs, push them slightly out from the table, and measure how much space they take up. You won't have a pathway on the 2'6" side, and you'll have to ask people to get up every time you open the fridge doors on the 3'6" side. Plus, if your family's like mine, it's a battle to get people to push their chairs in when they get up from the table.

For the second revised plan, were you thinking about keeping a chair on the range side of the peninsula so you could sit and relax?

Can someone figure out a way to squeeze in a banquette? It would allow you to control your space more. I'm not sure what happens as you leave the kitchen, but is there room to extend something like a banquette just a foot or two in that direction?

How big a revision do you want to make? Can you - roughly - flip the stove and microwave (be nice, for me, to have the microwave closer to eating areas, anyway), and use the entire space to the right of the originally planned stove for a banquette? Morgue drawers and all!

I'd love a kitchen with a countertop for snacking, etc. but as a main meal area with kids, that isn't good for family style meals. I liked the original shape of the kitchen plan but I agree move the trash - best near the sink although sometimes because our area is so small I pull out the can when using alot briefly. I'd put the fridge in the pantry area and that will free up more space for a table and then shorten the stove wall (i.e. the two cabinets on the sides of the oven) and bring that all in giving you a bigger table area. You have a nice pantry for storage so to me the priority is a table.

Hi Cate1337 - I think you're right about the first plan not being a keeper. On the second plan, I'm definitely planning to have a stool on the range side of the peninsula - it'll probably be where I sit when we eat (I currently sit on the range side of the kitchen table when we eat).

I'm a big fan of banquettes in general (and in fact my current desk is our old banquette table from our former apartment, which we had instead of a dining room table - it was open plan and this way took up a lot less space), but I'm not sure it'll work here. We've got the pantry, which we want to keep, on one side of the kitchen, and the planned family room on the other (with a door to the outside right near the round-the-corner counter).

Thanks again for thinking about my problems! (I only wish I could get DH to do the same!)

I couldn't help it! Read your response after playing with Paint but still wanted to post this in. Thanks for indulging my play:

{{!gwi}}

The blue circle is the table. I moved the microwave bc it bothered me beside the banquette, and I like mine near the fridge to reheat leftovers.

Obviously I'm not great with proportions, but I left the circle of your first design because I believe it emphasizes the space as a family gathering spot more than a rectangle would. Just my thing. It would make morgue drawers harder, though. The seat on the lower left side, inside the kitchen, closest to the range would be yours. Otherwise, the dimensions on the outer curve are the same as in your OP. I wondered if there should be a way to slide in, not so near the fridge, but didn't like breaking up the curve.

Just curious - what are you using the counter along the wall leading to the french doors for?

Guess I've gotten to the point in my design where I'd rather fantasize wildly about someone else's kitchen. :P Anything other than making more decisions on mine!

Can you give us a plan of the kitchen and family room?

Idea 1: I can't tell how large everything is and how you'll use it, but is there any chance of moving the table down beside the around-the-corner counter...in front of the French doors?

OR

Idea 2: (Using your first sketched plan, but without the table in the kitchen.) As pcjs suggested, move big fridge to the pantry (which is GREAT, by the way) and have an undercounter fridge ...maybe on the wrapped around counter. Then you could use the corner where the fridge was (also cutting back some counter there) for a banquette or a table. Round might fit best.

Jane-o,

You'll have to decide how tied to your original KD you are at this point, but my advice would be to put things on hold, even with the holidays around the corner, and go to a couple of kitchen places or other designers, and see if you can get at least some quick initial opinions on how the space could be used differently. By all means, take a plan with dimensions of the surrounding rooms listed as well as the dimensions of everything in the current space and proposed plan.

I am speaking from the school of hard knocks here. I got impatient with the meandering about whether a wall was load-bearing or not, and just designed with keeping it in, rather than getting a recheck from an engineer. Later, I found out that it could indeed have easily been taken out - and now - what would have been simple in design plusses back then would be exhorbitant to fix now. It's so worth getting it right the first time! Think about resale issues down the road.

Wow, a lot to chew on first thing in the morning! Let me first just post a bigger picture of the area around the family room. More comments to come (initial quick one, though: changing KD isn't an option at this point, but that doesn't mean I can't ask for changes).

The pantry is unchanged from the first image I posted (which was from an older copy of the plans), except that there's now a wall oven under the window, close to the door to the kitchen. I think I don't want to move the fridge to the pantry, because it'll be awkward to get to there - it's not super-centrally-located now, I know, but since it's close to the eating area it works well I think. (It's in almost the same place now, just a few feet closer to the sink, with less counter between it and the sink.)

The thing on the wall next to the french doors is going to be a television - probably the only one in the house, and there'll be a couch on the wall opposite it, with equipment stored in the jut-out around the corner from it. The room that you get to by going through the laundry room is the guest room. The room on the other side of the wall where the range is is my office, and is at a different level (higher up) than the kitchen - breaking through that wall isn't an option.

Thanks again for all the help!

This may be an over-simplified solution to the problem-but what if you moved the trash next to the sink, leaving that as open space under the peninsula for a stool or chair to tuck under. Also turn the corner cabinet under the peninsula to face the other room--storage for the large and lesser used items. The end of the peninsula could be supported with two table legs and you would have a "table-like" situation where you could sit face to face with someone, but also the stool or chair could be tucked under and not always in the way. (I wasn't sure if the peninsula as planned was two levels, but if so, I suggest making it one level so it's more table like.)
Just a thought.

Thanks misstheatre (no such thing as over-simplified - simpler is always better!) - the peninsula is one level. So it sounds like what you're suggesting is sort of like the plan I drew where I turned the peninsula into a rectangle, except that you're keeping it the same shape On that view people wouldn't be quite face-to-face with each other, because of the curve, but it'd be pretty close. - is that right?

It's possible that I'm over-worried about the face-to-face problem, given that there'll be a couch in the family room nearby where one can have tea or chat, and the fact that we use the kitchen table so much now is an artifact of not having the family room yet. (On the other hand, not being face-to-face would change the character of meals in the kitchen.)

thanks -

In a previous kitchen, we had and angle island, kind of shaped like a baby grand piano and there were four stools, one on each "end" and two across the longer side. While it was great to work at, having one side across from the range and the other across from the sink and ref, whenever we had company I'd find myself getting out of a stool and standing at the sink so I could be facing seated guests. My feet got tired a lot! So I would opt for listening to your gut and coming up with a configuration that has you seated comfortably to talk with friends. One cavet though, get a small scale stool for the working side of your pennisula so it isn't a pain to tuck out of the way....

update! here's my current view: my current belief is that I should keep the shape the same, and get rid of the lower cabinets (as misstheatre suggested). Cate137 suggested that a rounder shape is warmer and more family-ish, and maybe that's right. And with the wide peninsula, I can prepare food on one side while kids are snacking on the other, and we can be across from each other. If I made the peninsula a 30" wide rectangle, I probably wouldn't do that. Cozy cups of tea could happen on the family room couch. Breakfasts have to happen in the kitchen because I'm packing lunches and pulling espressos, but maybe we'll someday learn to eat dinner in the dining room. (We did it when we first moved into this house, it's not really so far away, but we somehow got out of the habit.)

phew - maybe crisis averted - I think our KD will be able to live with rearranging the cabinets.

thanks for all the thoughts and support!