Yes, it looks lovely! We totally did not see it being such a hassle when we bought the place. It's a tight space.

What about.... closing up the door from the foyer into the kitchen and then expanding the doorways for the kitchen --> pantry --> dining. This would give you two walls to do an L-shaped kitchen and leave space in the center (by the window) for a cart of a kitchen table. Not 100% on the dimensions involved, but you can get an idea from the pics below.

- Obvs the drawn back here is routing traffic through the pantry (upgrade the storage in there to be floor to ceiling cabinets to fully hide all the things)

- Could open the wall over the sink to connect it to the dining room

- Where is the current doorway into the laundry room? Off of the stair landing? That wall is shown as gone in the diagram below...

There is a large built-in buffet on that wall in the dining room that we would like to try to keep - but this is a really interesting idea! I'm not sure what is in that wall between the dining room and pantry. Current doorway to laundry is in the back entry. Imagine that left-pointing arrow going directly up onto a landing and into a doorway. Because our house needs more doorways! :D

Hire a kitchen designer. It will be well spent money and you won't regret it. They are trained to work wonders with small spaces.

Is that the sunroom behind the kitchen.....are you planning on keeping it??

It is the laundry room, currently. It was originally a back porch. We had planned to remove the wall into the kitchen but it's crazy expensive (it's an exterior wall) and we aren't sure it's worth it. We would also have to move laundry to the basement.

Mulling this over, I don't really see the cost/benefit of doing anything structural or moving the plumbing for a 5 year house. I'd just get that island out of the middle, put a range where your wall ovens/fridge are and put the fridge on the dining room wall and call it good. The microwave can go in the pantry and a freestanding/moveable cart can go in front of the window for additional worktop space. It's a bit of a hike from the sink to the range, but it's an old house and functionally, that's the only real compromise here.

Are you able to remove the wall between kitchen, dining and pantry or would you rather keep it?

The fridge would be directly between 2 doors in a high traffic spot, which might be weird? Yes, totally agree that massive changes don't make sense unless we plan to stay forever - which may not be the case. We just don't know how long it will be. That's why I thought putting the fridge in the pantry might be a good compromise. Just tough because regardless, we are talking about all new kitchen cabinet$.

There is ductwork going to the 2nd floor on the other side of the wall in the corner of the dining room (against the pantry). It's about a 2' by 2' box, so it obstructs opening that wall completely.

I’m referring to this

If putting the fridge in the pantry means structural changes to the opening I would say the slight inconvenience of walking around the fridge is worth saving the cost and potential can of worms there. Almost 4' of clearance at the pinch points is quite good.

I've read some conversations here on Houzz about concerns putting fridge or freezer in pantries because of lack of ventilation, but not sure if that applies to your pantry-as-hallway-to-powder situation.

Can you post a pic of the dining room and pantry so I can get a better view?

Regarding the cost of cabinets... It looks to me like you have enough to repurpose what you have to the simple Ikea plan above. If not, there are so few cabinets here, it shouldn't be too expensive to get new Ikea. It's basically four base cabinets, 4 or 5 wall cabinets and a Fridge cabinet + maximizing the pantry storage with Container Store Elfa or the like.

Yes, that corner of the dining room in the middle of the circle is where the ductwork is. Unfortunately, I don't have photos of those 2 rooms that are helpful right now (the listing photos are taken in the other direction).

I'm not sure - we may be able to squeeze the fridge through that doorway. There are A/C vents in the powder room and the door is usually left open, so I don't think ventilation is an issue. Putting the fridge on the wall is definitely an idea - just hard to test it without committing to taking out the island.

I wouldn’t remove the duct work, you would leave as it’s own entity like a column does that make sense

For instance, the Ikea costs in the layout I posted are:

- cabinets + fillers + cover panels + sink + hardware + faucet + toekicks: $3840

- counters: $138 [SÄLJAN laminate]

- some under cab lighting: $179

- appliances: $2589 [DW (built in, with panel): 841; Range: 1199; Hood: 549; Fridge not included]

Our IKEA cabinets are discontinued and the new line is not compatible. The previous owner didn't buy any extra, so we only have what's here to work with, unless we do all new.

I recently needed a complete remodel for what was a poorly designed kitchen. Used an architect - cannot underestimate the worth of his experience. Made a world of difference.

Right. They're the old Ikea Akurum, but you can easily move them around and repurpose them.

Yes, I hope so! If we take out the island we have a few more to work with, but we are limited. I know the cost to replace isn't huge - just trying to avoid it if we can.

What are the widths of the base cabinets in the island and the widths of the uppers around the sink?

No.

Where your fridge is looks about 8’ of wall space. Move that to your 10’ foot wall just add tall cabinets and base next to the window and add a countertop above the radiator. What is the width of your island I was thinking maybe turning the island around as well as your hood which would cost less.

That is what benjesbride suggested as well - do you mean move just the fridge to that 10' wall? Do you think that would impede traffic flow between the door to the back entry and door to foyer? Island is too long to turn without making it shorter.

No I mean the whole unit that’s there, fridge, wall oven and tall cabinet

We have two doors at the ends of that 10' run. If we place something on that wall, it will block the doorways.

I keep coming back to just swapping out the current wall oven and microwave for a regular stove. It would be next to that interior door into the foyer but is there a way to make that safer? Build a half wall?

Why do you say a fridge on the 10’ wall will block the doorways?

benjesbride - I mean the suggestion that we move the whole shebang to that wall.

IMO, you need the 3 feet around the range that moving the fridge will free up. Recommended minimum walkway is 36”. 3’10” is good.

Oh! Right. With existing doorways there just room for the fridge. Since you have the walk in pantry right there I’d choose wider pathways over a Cab next to the fridge.

That fridge is about 36” the cabinet probably 12-15” and that wall oven looks as if it 48” that doesn’t come out to 10’

Claire- are you suggesting she move the foyer-to-kitchen door? As-is there’s not enough wall. Also, ovens opening into a major traffic path is a no-no.

I might be misunderstanding, though.

eta: I meant The 14” wall isn’t enough, not the 10’ wall.

Lol you’re funny, no I’m not suggesting that. If that’s the case with the wall oven there is 5’ feet of space between the end of the window and where the unit stands you can place the wall oven there.

Claire- I’d love to see your solution drawn out to scale.

Thoughts on switching the fridge and wall oven? We would remove the slide-out pantry currently between them and add a countertop on each side of the stove. We have about 57 inches total for a stove and counter next to the fridge (slightly more if we downsize the current 36” fridge). 30” for the stove itself (gas). Maybe open shelving above the counters.

Sort of something like this - but the fridge on the other side.

And what wall will that be on?

On the same wall they are currently on.

Oh that sounds reasonable... so you will be willing on giving up the island

You won’t meet NKBA guideline minimums for cooktop landing space. Every kitchen has compromises, it’s just a matter of making informed decisions about them. If my range was 10 feet from my sink I’d want some decent worktop around it.

This is what I was referring to but where the double ovens are you can place the fridge there

j s - I thought the kitchen was 14’ wide. Is that correct?

If we have 60”? Yes we would still put something in the space. Either a smaller butcher block island or a small table.

51” from the back corner of the fridge to the window frame.

What if you first widened the opening to the pantry as much as possible then fit the fridge in to the opening so that it faces and opens into the kitchen, toward the sink. Obviously you’ll have to frame it out and it will affect the pantry way into the bath.

Instead of a long hallway, you could change the wall to a room dividing cabinet open between the countertops and overhead cabinets both between the entry hall and the kitchen and between the kitchen and the dining room.

There is a door into the kitchen that swings onto the pantry-side wall so would block a fridge placed there. Since our back entry is unheated, we use that door in the winter and can’t just remove it. :(