The peninsula is much the better layout.

I had a u-shaped kitchen with an island. The aisles were 39" wide and the island was 30" wide and 60" long. It was very cramped and the island was not very useful except for one person prepping. No room for seating. When I redid the kitchen a few years ago I eliminated the island and installed a peninsula--36" x 72"--so much more useful! We now have 2 counter height stools and a much larger prep area. It is a 13' wide kitchen, and is just at the cusp of being too small for an island, just like yours. I'd keep the layout you have now. Having an island is great if the layout supports it, but it is not the be-all and end-all in a kitchen.

Thanks for the perspective everyone.

Karen - My thought on the mobile island was that I could store it against the wall so I wouldn't lose out on extra storage underneath but when I was using it to prep food, I would pull it away from the wall like an island. That way I wasn't looking at a wall as I prepped and others could gather 'round it. It's kind of hard to articulate in writing :)

The existing peninsula is 3' wide and 5 feet long (+ 2 feet of counter space under the cabinet on the wall. It's big. And it does have an overhang for 3 barstools. Our barstools were worn out recently so we removed them but didn't replace them as we knew we'd be remodeling soon.

Diana - thank you for letting me know your experience with the u-shaped set up. I had a feeling it would be too cramped. I think I've got it in my head that I don't want the exact same kitchen so I have to lose the peninsula. But also, the cabinets on the sink wall don't go all the way to the sliding glass door, so we have a good 2' of unused space there.

We also don't have enough cupboard storage. Most of our canned/boxed food is stored in a pantry in the garage - clearly not ideal as we have to make several trips up and down the stairs to get what we need. The plan was to either move the fridge to the dead space next to the sliding door, move the dishwasher to the other side of the sink so we can center the sink under the window, and put a floor to ceiling cabinet/pantry where the fridge is now. Or, leave the fridge where it is and put the floor to ceiling cabinet next to the sliding door. If we keep the peninsula, we can't really do either.

I'm curious if either of you (or anyone else) have thoughts on getting rid of the peninsula and adding cabinets and countertop to the load-bearing wall? Essentially it would be the u-shape without the island. It would give us much needed storage and counter space against that wall, but it would only be 2' deep so I don't get that large workspace I currently have with the peninsula and no barstool seating.

We have a mobile island/work table, and did that instead of a U-shaped kitchen with a peninsula that several kitchen designers recommended. (The U required getting rid of an architectural feature that we wanted to keep, so we designed around it against most professional advice!) So what we ended up with is an L with a wall of cabinets/counters opposite it. I think (?) this is roughly what you are thinking about. (What we have is your fridge and sink walls, and then cabinets/counter along your calendar wall.) We did a mobile island because the space was very tight for a built-in island (156" wall-to-wall) and we wanted to see how we'd use the space before committing to narrowing the walkways. (One is the main path through the house so we wanted to keep it at 42", and then wanted the sink-to-island space to be at 36", but that only left room for a 28" wide island.)

I've actually been pleasantly surprised by the mobile island. We keep it permanently in the center of the room (nowhere else for it to go in our layout) and do use it heavily for things like baking and entertaining this time of year. There would definitely not be space for any seating at it, and we consider it more an alternative to no island than an alternative to a built-in island. But it works for what we need, and I would not hesitate to put in a permanent island of the same size now that we've had a number of years to test this one out. I don't think I'd want anything wider, but I would definitely miss the workspace and the storage. (Ours is 27" deep--it is a modified IKEA freestanding kitchen piece [unfortunately no longer made] with a custom butcher block countertop on it.)

I think you should provide a scale drawing of the room, with dimensions, and note what rooms are off the kitchen. One of your problems is the doorway adjacent to the refrigerator. Is it possible to close that up? or does it lead to the dining room?

If you lose the peninsula do you have room for a "galley" look with full cabinets/counter tops opposite the window on that wall? If the kitchen is then open to the table/eating area in front of the slider--they will gather there....

if it were my space I'd run the window wall cabinetry right to patio door. Give yourself deeper counters . How many inches between the two doors to living room? I do think this empty wall is your opportunity. But I would eliminate peninsula, and sketch up counter seating along the empty wall . It is substantially long, it appears , and it may be hard to imagine, but with the right details, comfortable stools, you would get better seating/destination than peninsula. Four stools, maybe five.....or four stools and a bit of base cabinetry.....floating wall shelves....maybe a bit of glass doored upper cabinets. Just make the window wall of your kitchen deeper with cabinetry/counter and run it to near the patio door to give you a better L in your space....then the blank wall with counter, swivel stools, some details like angled ends, the right combination on the wall above can give you a transformation that the small amount of seating at the peninsula can not.

If I understand correctly, were you thinking something like this on the load bearing wall?

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4 or 5 stools lined up facing the wall? No.

If you decided to keep your current set up, more or less, you could add a floor to ceiling pantry in the dead corner (where peninsula and sink counter meet)... but have its doors open on the sliding glass door side. Just make sure you add enough filler on the wall side so the door can fully open without hitting the wall. This would cut down on your counter space, unfortunately, but maybe you could see if there was room to run the sink counter down a few more inches towards the sliding glass door, and the peninsula counter out a few more inches into the middle of the room. It may be a bit awkward to access the pantry as you’ll have to walk around the peninsula to open it, but at least it’s still in the kitchen.

A measured drawing would really help, as Diana Biers said, and probably measurements for the room with the slider as well so that the effect of moving cabinets down towards the slider can be evaluated. My understanding of the layout is that the door by the fridge goes to the stairs and is therefore how you bring in groceries, so I wouldn’t remove that.

I am not at all a fan of an island in your kitchen. I think they work best as an alternative to a wall, and since your wall is staying, it just doesn’t make sense, mobile or otherwise. When moved out from the wall for seating, it will be in the way. And I would never sit at a counter that faces a blank wall without a window or opening into another room, so I can’t imagine that stools on the currently blank wall are a good idea.

Have you considered shortening the peninsula a bit to two stools and then adding a shallow but tall and wide pantry cabinet on the blank wall, maybe with a shallow coffee station counter on the end? That might help with the storage space, but still leave you with the stools facing the cook. Or if you make it more of a galley kitchen with a run of cabinets on each side but no peninsula, would the family gather at a table by the slider?

I would love to see a to scale floor plan with as much detail as you can provide like window, door and plumbing placement and the areas surrounding the kitchen just written on the sides where they are.

At first glance it looks as though the Lshape layout fits the space best.

It looks as though there is enough room to possibly put less deep cabinets 12" to 15" for extra storage on the blank wall

Or extend peninsula some for more countertop space.

Depends if need more countertop or more storage.

There's many island carts on wheels that can be purchased. It will be tight. Try a fold up table for a week to see if you like the spacing.

I would rather prep facing a wall than have an extremely inconvenient kitchen layout. My kitchen has 4 walls, and is also not large. I generally prep on the counter between the sink and the stove, facing the window. But I have a long counter on the other side which I use for baking, rolling dough etc. I am facing the wall there, but it certainly doesn’t stop me from interacting with whoever else may be in the kitchen. When I’m prepping food, I am usually looking at it rather than people in the kitchen. I would use whatever configuration gives you the most functionality and base decisions on that.

Rethink the peninsula. It does the same job as the island. Use the load bearing wall for extra cabinets and counter. Maybe the coffee and toaster counter.

If you add the floor plan of kitchen and surrounding rooms here, it will help us give you options. My former kitchen was also a u-shape, when we remodeled the kitchen became a longer u. My contractor tried to talk me into an island but I knew the space was too narrow. Thought about the mobile island, but I decided for me it was just too much of a pain. We added a peninsula that seats two comfortably. Worked fabulously for me. Gave me counter space, storage and allowed movement through the kitchen. Current kitchen also a u-shape, no peninsula and no counterspace to speak of but no room for peninsula either. More room for movement through the kitchen and with current floor plan that is required but I really miss having a decent work and serving countertop.

Thanks to all of you for the comments and suggestions. Sorry for the delay in responding... my scanner was not working and I just got time to fix it so I could upload the floor plan... it's got the measurements around the perimeter for the entire upstairs as it exists today. I also included a few drawings to show what we've gotten from other designers... this one included an island with seating... I was never 'sold' on how we could accomplish that comfortably in this space. But, it gives you an idea of what we're doing in the rest of that big room which is attached unobstructed to the dining room.

We are currently rethinking the layout to include a shortened peninsula that is pushed further back into the dining room toward the slider in order to take advantage of the dead space between the current cabinet/peninsula/bar and slider now. We would also put in 24" cabinets on the current blank/calendar wall. That way we'd have seating at the peninsula for two, a 3' countertop in that space, but just 24" shorter in length to accommodate better use of the blank wall for more counter space and cabinetry.

There is another dead space outside of the kitchen next to the fridge that we are going to use to relocate our coat closet (seen in the floor plan currently at the top of the stairs.

The drawings for the dining room are roughly what we'd like to do. Today, we have a hutch centered on that wall. We want to go built-in with lighted cabinets, some glass fronts. Floor to ceiling cabinets on each end with a counter top and open shelving in the center.

Again, open to any and all suggestions. Thank you all so much for your responses!

I'd do an L-shaped kitchen, move the refrigerator to the end of the cabinet run on the long wall, and use a built-in or counter depth fridge. Place a pantry where the refrigerator is. Keep kitchen sink by the window--a triple window if you can--and range where it is now. Move microwave somewhere else. Then build some shallow cabinets on the load-bearing wall, and purchase a nice long table in lieu of an island.