First thing I noticed is that the island seems to be a barrier to the fridge. Have you considered a range, and putting the fridge where the wall oven is now? You could still do the drinks area where you planned, and put the microwave there. If you change (or eliminate) the island seating you have enough room to get a 48" aisle for the working area. Or keep the island seating, and drop the shallow cabinets. Given the age of the house, maybe some between the studs recessed storage would work.

A 12" cabinet is really small. I put one in our kitchen because the cabinet line we went with did not offer a less than full height cookie sheet pull out, and I needed to keep silpats and various probes/thermometers and baking pans like muffin tins, etc. It fits my needs, but make sure you know where you want to put things, and how much space your things will need. It sounds very anal retentive, but it helps to make a storage plan/map. That way you can tell if you have the right type/size storage for your needs. It also comes in handy when packing/unpacking your kitchen things, as you have things grouped together for the different areas.

I would also swap the DW to the other side of the sink, so someone could load it while someone else uses the stove. Also, definitely need more drawers.

Suggest to put main sink center under window with dishwasher & waste bin. Keeps others out of cooking way to clean dishes at same time.

A nice big prep island to spread out with & maybe a prep sink near cooking area.

Line up island end with wall counter end.

A 18"wide pantry with a 3"filler against wall would be great storage.

Switching the fridge and ovens will make it easier to take food from fridge to sink. Also, when the time comes to replace the fridge, you will be able to fit a 36" one giving you a lot more options.

If you do the L, you can still put a bookcase on the blank wall for cookbooks, etc.

If you drop those 12" cabinets you might have room for two pantry pullouts on either side of the fridge if you need the storage space.

The Social Kitchen · More Info

I like artistsharonva's plan (with the DW moved to the right side of the sink), but can you elaborate on the following:

...sink has to be 6' from the window (no room for plumbing)

Does the sink need to be at least 6' from the window? Within 6' of the window? The plumbing/drain for the sink on your plan is ap 9' from the window.

Hopefully plumbing can somehow go under window,but if not it still may be good to lineup island to end of cabinets.place waste bin elsewhere. It depends on the space as a whole.

Try using some big boxes & placing in space to get a feel of where best place is to end the island. sometimes it looks fine past,but sometimes it looks out of place.

mama goose_gw zn6OH & artistsharonva ,

It is an OLD 1829 farm house, built by farmers, with multiple additions, so the sink needs to be at least 6' from the window.

I do like the suggestion of the DW on the right side of the sink - THANKS!

I think the support column would look silly smack dab in the middle of the kitchen. That's why I put the island up against it so that it didn't look so "odd"...if that makes sense.

I do like the stacking wall cabinets! But I'm also liking the idea of having the space for when we entertain, plus a space to put the coffee maker, cookbooks, etc. ugh!

Oh! I should have said that the appliances are already purchased *sigh*

catlady999

Yours is a true statement, however the kitchen designer said it was too tight when the fridge doors are open - between them and the counter. Plus when folks get beverages as I'm plating dinner on the stove...it's too congested. ???

Looks like you are making the best of several limitations (plumbing & post)! The renderings look like you have doors on the bottom cabinets. Strongly consider getting drawers instead.

The pictures I submitted were done by the first designer. Since then we've requested drawers for all but 4 base cabinets (2 - 9" cookie sheet and cutting board cabinets, the wastebasket cabinet, one four odd appliances that wont fit in a drawer). Totally agree. Drawers are what we're going with :)

Thank goodness for drawers, full extension. Love them. If it weren't for that development, my very favorite kitchens would still be ones retaining vintage repainted built-ins from earlier in the last century. Warm fuzzies.

I love my little area that keeps the coffemaker, microwave, etcetera separate and so on out of my work area, and you keep mentioning that, so I think you might miss having one. One-foot-deep (as opposed to wide) shelves hold a LOT, in fact the vast majority of what goes in a kitchen could fit on one. Drawers lose a lot of space to mechanisms but can still hold a bunch of coffee cups and other smaller items in convenient position. We have both.

Our main kitchen works wonderfully, but the one big "if I could do it over" is I'd get rid of the lower corner cabinet, just abandon the space in the corner itself and save money on the cabinet and expensive mechanisms. Much of what's given up would actually be taken over by wider and far more efficient drawer stacks extending all the way to the corner on each side. I did that in a vacation kitchen, and it's incredibly more convenient and permanent-nuisance solving.

I wouldn't find the refrigerator's current position to be a problem worth sacrificing something else I wanted and would love working between it and the stove. I do wonder about that width, though. Not because 33" isn't perfectly good for us, but because of what may come next in appliances. What other functions might be incorporated into refrigerator, stove, wall oven area? It's possible they'd might become most affordably available in the ubiquitous 36" width, which does have some room to give over to other use for a lot people. If the big touch screen on smart refrigerators becomes as valuable a center as they tout, will that be a good place for it? Probably could be installed elsewhere and smaller for an extra price. :) But where will you want it?

Can't tear ourselves up over this, but it makes sense at least give some thought for flexibility for new technology so hopefully the choice wouldn't be complete remodel or do without, as the larger refrigerators once did. And then decide with eyes open.

Have fun. I envy you your older home. It's going to be nice.