Can you post a floor plan?

I should add the fridge and some additional kitchen cupboards holding alcohol and recipe books etc are currently all situated in the utility room (on the interior wall against the hob) which doesn't work very well. I've been having a play this evening and wonder whether knocking through the utility all together might be the way forward? It would save moving the door out to it, and I don't think we would lose masses of cupboard space?

Excuse the novice workings! It would mean all appliances are in the kitchen which would be nice, but it would rather dramatically reduce our boot and wet coat storage. Hmm...

Are you renovating the whole kitchen?

The kitchen is tidy so ideally not, but if we are spending time and money I would prefer to get it right first time, rather than wish we had spent the extra money / made the bolder choices down the line. I guess I'm hoping someone can come up with a cheap and simple fix, but I'm open to bigger plans if that's what it takes to get the result we are after?!

How wide is that hall to the garage? Could you do a board and batten wall treatment, with coat hooks and wall baskets, that extend from the garage door to the door on the upper left of the kitchen? I did that in my back hallway and it is wonderful, holds tons of coats and there is space for one row of shoes/boots along the bottom. I have a narrow shelf on top for decorative items. If you google "board and batten coat hooks" you will get tons of images to look at.

I like the open plan. You should do deeper counters since you do not have room for an island. You could always build a "pantry' or closet where that utility sink was, for extra storage.

I like scrappy's idea for coats. But if that wouldn't work for you, how about something like this? I would also keep the sink since you have plumbing already.

How wide is that hall to the garage?

You could widen that hall and therefore have room for a built-in, if you move the toilet and bathroom wall. I don't know how complicated that is.

Is it possible to relocate the door on the left side that apparently goes from the current utility room to the outside? If you were to move it "down", you'd have room on that wall for something (cabinets? Sink? cooktop?)

Well, if you want to deal with multiple doors into the kitchen, you're going to have to move some stuff around. It won't be an easy fix.

Are you very interested in a peninsula specifically, or just a better connection between the kitchen and dining room?

This is a very functional kitchen with a wide doorway into the dining room. Like this:

There is no longer any through traffic in the kitchen. The fridge is more conveniently located, the range can now vent directly outside, and there is a lot of space for multiple people to move around in the kitchen and two wide counters for two cooks or one cook and one clean-upper to work at simultaneously without being in each other's way. The cabinet to the right of the dishwasher can be dish storage, so they are handy for setting the table, and the dishwasher is also close to the table for clean-up. The pantry is a shallow floor-to-ceiling cabinet, which is the best kind of pantry storage because you can see everything at a glance and nothing gets lost in the back.

In addition to that, you get a roomier half bath that also now has a window and some shallow built-ins facing your new hallway.

I moved the door from the garage to the front hall, but it could also be moved to open into the the new back hall. From this picture, it just looked as if the front entrance hall had a nook off to the right that might accommodate a bench or coat stand or whatever you need when you first walk into the house.

Edit: the word "closet" should not be in the middle of the kitchen. Copy/paste error.

Before you tear out any walls, but sure to have someone see if it is load bearing. The DR wall, minus door openings, runs from back to front of house.

Oh, Jillius, I love how you always consider flow and sightlines and how the kitchen relates to the rest of the house. I need to remember to do that. Nice plan.

PR room looks quite spacious compared to other rooms. Maybe you can consider a wall hung toilet/concealed tank and resize the WC to gain some room on the other side for coats/boots etc.

For the corner of the L counter, I'm thinking a cab facing the DR.

I don't know where you live, so not sure about the sizes of the fridge and the oven. If you'll have a 36" fridge and a 30" oven then I think you should consider a range instead of a cooktop and an oven.

Thanks, funky!