You basically have the layout I have now without the island and while it's not the "ideal" layout, it works fine for a kitchen your size. I find I get the food from the fridge, bring it to the sink to wash and then prep to the right of the stove.

I'm glad you're only planning on a movable island as opposed to one that would become an obstacle from your fridge to your sink. In fact when I gutted our kitchen, we had a permanent island that just got in the way and our kitchen was a similar size.

A few thoughts. You have mostly lower cabinets. I would switch to mostly drawers as they really do store more, and are easier to use. I'm making a stab that since this is your "final" kitchen, you're at least not too young? Especially if you're becoming more "mature", I would definitely do drawers for the ease of not having to reach in or even pull out shelves from a cabinet.

Additionally have you considered a drawer microwave for the same reason? So easy to reach down and lift out the food without reaching overhead. So much safer too.

Lastly that angled upper cabinet is mostly useless. I have one now and will not have one in my new kitchen. (I'm building a new house.)

I would look into the easy reach corner cabinets before using the angled corner cabinet.

This drawing shows a lot of cabinets, it may be practical, it may be too many cabinets, but it is not very personal. How are you going to personalize it?

Personally, because of the costs involved I would initially try open shelving everywhere that you would like it. If you decided after a couple of years you didn't like it I would expect to add cabinets and so now at this time I would try to buy cabinets that could be added onto later without it being an obvious addition.

I think that you will always want all of your cookbooks on some kind of an open shelving area, you need to think about where that might be.

Since this is your last and best kitchen, I would spend some time figuring what appliances you want to have on your countertop and where exactly they will go. This is important because so many of the appliances require a fairly tall space and you have a lot of upper cabinets.

I could not tell from the codenames on your design whether you had trash cabinets or not but if not how are you going to handle the trash?

Electric is so important in every kitchen now because every single thing seems to need to be wired. Do you know the types and locations of the outlets that you will want? If not, you need to be thinking about that.

I like the rolling cart idea. For open shelving, have you considered a shelf under the cabinets all the way around the room, similar to the plate rack?

cpartist - I will look into more drawers. I have them on both sides of the stove but I think the one next to the dishwasher I would like to change to all drawers. I will look into the microwave drawer, but the kitchen has already been wired (by my husband) and If I ask for one more outlet..... well, lets just say its a battle right now. And I agree, that the angle cabinet would be pretty useless, I just wanted a place to show my china, but I don't think it would hold all of it anyways. Thank you for all your suggestions.

practigal, I have a pull out trash bin next to the sink on my left. I think it is a 15". And I agree, it's a lot of cabinets. I do want to do opening shelving, but I was wondering if it would look ok to have it on just one side of the stove and not the other?

On the electrical - I told my husband where to put the outlets- and I can't remember right now but I believe there are is one to the right of the sink, two left of the sink, two left and two right of the stove and at least one on the microwave wall. I really need to go to the jobsite and take photos of all the placement of these items...but its been a busy week ! I know he also had to follow codes on how many per feet, etc., so things might not be where I think they are. We did pass inspection, so that is good!

mama goose, thank you so much for the visuals. I think the sliding doors for the TV is an excellent idea, and I'm going to incorporate that. A TV in the kitchen isn't very attractive and it would be nice to be able to hide it when I wanted. I like the open shelving also, but I think I'm going to need more than that. That is something I need to figure out soon....thanks again.

Thank you so much mama goose!

I like the plate rack! :)

The range hood seems a little small. Maybe a few inches wider? "Borrowed" MamaGoose's ideas....maybe something like this?

Looks good Lavender lass :) I have a lot to think about.