50 pounds does not fit in s 5 pound sack. And there is way too much wasted space. Sometimes the original layout is the best layout unless you are really prepared to spend a lot on structural changes. You can’t join a kitchen to a breakfast room without those structural changes.

Also if you're posting the full house floor plan and the kitchen plan, make sure both are facing the same direction. I can't make out what on your new plan the door on the right goes to.

Post the floorplan in a larger format. We can’t read the fine details or words. I can see the word “refrigerator” in the other room, but not in the kitchen. A second refrigerator in the pantry is great, but there must be a fridge in the kitchen.
As your kids grow and you become friends with other parents, you will begin to do some entertaining. Even if you only invite family over now, surely one of them wants to help out in the kitchen. Always assume that there will be other people in the kitchen because there always will be.

Thanks! Sorry for my rudimentary picture / layout skills. Are these any better? I also tried to reorient so it's the same direction now and hopefully less confusing The door on the right goes to the dining room. The fridge is actually just recessed into the hall closet but opening is to the kitchen. What can i do to minimize wasted space?

You can't recess a fridge into a closet because then you won't be able to open the doors fully. Bad idea. Plus where you have it is still bad because your island becomes a barrier and plus you're walking past your cooking zone every time you need to bring food from the fridge to the sink.

Plus you want your pantry near your fridge. We take food stuff out of the pantry and fridge to cook. Plus think about putting away groceries and the hike between pantry and fridge.

Where does the huge opening on the lower left lead to? The outdoors? If so do you need such a large opening there? Or better still can the door be moved to the side closer to the dining room? Which would be a better idea in terms of then having access also from the dining room?

I assume you prefer having the kitchen not open to the dining room?

What is the total width and length of the room?

As for cooking. While you may be the only one in the kitchen now, I'm assuming you'll eventually want to teach your kids to cook, so at some point you'll be at least 2 or maybe 3 in the kitchen?

Thanks so much, cpartist. I thought an integrated fridge can sit fully flush with the wall and still be able to open fully? Is that incorrect? But I take your point that the island is in the way and it's far from the pantry - although I can't find another logical place for the fridge. Any suggestions on where I can move it?

The opening on the lower left is sliding doors to the deck / yard. The dining room also has large sliding doors to the outside. I would prefer to keep the dining room separate, as taking down that wall seems expensive (the ceiling height and flooring are all different). The kitchen has vaulted ceiling and the dining room has normal ceiling.

The total width is around 23 ft x 13 ft. I have included the original layout in the blue shaded areas below if helpful. I'm not too big of a fan of the U shape though. It seems closed off, and I have trouble putting away things in the two corners making them unusable for me. That's the reason behind wanting an island instead, although I understand that the current layout is probably better suited to the house as GreenDesigns alluded to (i.e., triangle works, the fridge and pantry are all together, etc.). But I would really like to eliminate that peninsula...

Any suggestions for improvements would be appreciated! I would like to keep costs down, but if a structural change makes sense, I would consider it. Thank you so much!

This room seems to be huge.. have you put any consideration into altering the floor plan? Maybe incorporating the dining table into the kitchen and adding the dining space into the living room? I think there is so much that can be done with this space... although there would be the dreaded discussion of budget.

Can you post some photos of the area so we can better see the rooms ( kitchen and dining )

You will get great ideas for the folks on here!

I agree. You have a room that is 23' long x 13' 3". That's is quite large.

My first reaction is to do an L shape perimeter on the bottom left and left side where you now have the huge sliders. Open up the kitchen to the dining room by putting up partial walls and adding a nice sized island. Put the dining table near the left side of the kitchen.

(My whole kitchen is 21' x 15' 8" and I have my dining and kitchen in the space.)

If I move the cabinets to the bottom left, where would I put the island? I would really love to get some ideas for what would work for the space. I had not thought about moving or combing rooms at all. Here is a shot of the kitchen area.

This is sort of what I was thinking of:. Nothing is to scale.

That is what I was thinking.. depending on load issues of the walls, you can even manipulate it further. Now you can expand the living room area and have lots of seating space or have a reading area or bar area - so many options

Thank you, Debbi and cpartist! Really appreciate you taking the time to give me your thoughts. Definitely an interesting idea to think about.

Plus to add to what Debbi said, now if you need to, you can turn the dining table around and run it into the living room for when you have tons of friends and family to dinner.

I thought an integrated fridge can sit fully flush with the wall and still be able to open fully? Is that incorrect?

To answer your earlier question. Yes it can but you're talking expensive. Starting at upper 6k.