I don't think I have room for big chance due to the size of the kitchen. It is not wide enough to fit an island in.

Should I remove the 15" pantry cabinet, move the frig over and make room for an over/microwave wall combo next to the frig? Would that make the room even smaller? I think that corner is kind of dead any way blocked by the frig.

We expanded our window and removed the four top cabinet on the left side of the picture. We have a small TV on that wall now. It swivels so that I can watch it when I cook or sitting at the breakfast table. I like that arrangement but now I under if I should put back two top cabinet on that wall to make it more symmetrical.

Should I extend out the counter top at the front end of the picture to meet the wall?

Many thanks for your help,

Jane

The only way that I can see to fit an island into this design...is to take the fridge/storage area completely out and have a blank wall. Basically remake the space into an L-shape kitchen, with an island, rather than the peninsula. So, the fridge would move to the left of the sink (by the dining area) then the big window with the sink/dishwasher, leaving the range on the other wall, with maybe a pantry unit, at the end. The island could be for prep and seating...with that 'back' wall (with the door to the laundry room) more for display. Maybe calender, message center, etc.? That should give you enough room for stools to be at the island.

I don't know if this would be a better layout than what you currently have...just different. It would mean that people at the island would be looking out the window and not have their backs to the dining area, but you'd have less division between the eating area and the work area. Hope that helps :)

Thanks for the suggestion. Very interesting! I never thought of this before, just not sure about position the frig next to the window.

An island is great for allowing traffic to circulate around a kitchen area, eliminating dead ends, but in this case any traffic would just be walking in circles WITHIN a compact, dead-end kitchen. Islands, of course, are also useful for creating work space in the middle of a too-large kitchen, but that's also not applicable. So this case I don't see the point of considering an island at all--unless you were to do a larger remodel significantly changing the kitchen's relation to the rest of the house.

It's actually a pretty nice work area, but from the if-it-were-mine approach, I'd love to tweak it a bit. Is your diagram showing new windows and new location for the sink? It doesn't seem to match the picture at the bottom on that side. I really like those windows as drawn.

Working within the general plan as drawn, one thing I'd definitely like to do would be to recess the fridge back into the depth of the wall behind so it was flush with the counters. This should be very easy as the wall offers over 3" of depth to use; but if necessary, I might also grab a couple extra inches from the laundry room. A small job with big, big payback. I might also move it a bit farther toward the entry to open up that back corner even more (the little cabinet to the right of the fridge wouldn't be necessary). Finish panels on the sides of the fridge so it looks built in, of course.

I like where you put the sink. My favorite is prep in front of windows, but it'd work for me anyway because I'd be using all counter to the right of the sink as prep area, and of course the sink; even though the DW is under, I think it'd work nicely. Mess in the left side of and to the left of the sink.

I probably would remove the wall cabinet on that prep wall and make the angled corner cabinet a flat one on the stove wall. That'd open up that whole side and make it even more airy and open than new windows will.

Microwave would be moved somewhere else (a number of options) and replaced with an attractive stove hood to create a both good view into the kitchen and good ventilation. Once the fridge was gotten out of the way, the stove'd look as symmetrically positioned as it is, so it'd look very good.

Really, until getting into lesser details of what little things where, I think I could be very happy with that.