Not a pro but I doubt the cabinets will fit into a reconfiguration. Before tearing anything out I would get an interior designer to help you formulate a plan. Sounds like you'll need a structural engineer for load bearing walls, etc

You need to post a to scale floor plan and FYI never like kitchens open to LRs only DRs IMo this needs some real thought and design before touching anything. Have you even had the walls checked by a structural engineer so you know what needs to be done to keep the house from falling down. High ceilings gobble heat and cooloing and often destroy good sound for stereos and TV. Get a pro NOW . BTW reusing cabinets can be done but that would require some real thought to make it look right. You will need to find new cabinets to do what you want and finding ones that match could be tricky and of course you will need to have all of them painted to match which could end up costing more than a new kitchen. I can say right now the layout you have sucks so that needs to be planned. Get a designer and slow down until you have a complete plan.

Yes, we have a structural engineer coming. Our kitchen already has a high ceiling, just not the other rooms.

We definitely need a kitchen designer, we’d have to add more cabinets as part of the plan.just wondering if the cabinets could come out and be reinstalled differently or if that’s just recipe for disaster.

Since some people are able to carefully remove their kitchen cabinets to donate them,
it IS possible for you to remove and rearrange them. Just be aware that it will take a good planner working with exact measurements of the kitchen and all individual cabinets to design the new kitchen. Keeping the plumbing in its current location may or may not work.
Additional cabinetry may be possible if you know who the original maker or manufacturer was. The counters won’t be reusable, of course. I agree that having an island without sink or any appliance is the ideal.
One thought: it may cost a good percentage of what having your kitchen done custom would cost. Get estimates from two or three contractors for a new kitchen to find out if reusing, refurbishing, and reinstalling the existing cabinets will save enough to make it a good deal. If your garage or den is in need of more storage, reusing your kitchen cabinets in your own home may be a good idea. Adding in the cost of structural changes, this will still be costly.

Thanks for your feedback! We’d try to minimize moving things.

Since we were doing structural changes we’re hoping to keep kitchen as-is or minimal changes (expand island, maybe leave the rest of it if that’s best).

We know the cabinet details to order more of the same hopefully (bigger island, and would like to add a pantry cabinet too).

In the end it may be better for us to keep most of it as-is and only mess with the island! I can live with the corner sink.

@patricia thanks for your feedback. I agree. We have a structural engineer coming soon to start vetting things out.

Most of our neighbors have also raised the ceilings and knocked down walls, so fairly confident it can be done. Looking at their homes has helped guide what we think we’ll do!

Our home is 2500 Sq feet with the rest of the beds/bath a great fit. The main living area is just too small for a family of 4 (soon to be 5).

We’d really want to relocate fridge so that side of the kitchen can be a peninsula (no uppers) into a new great room.

We know the make/model/and vendor used for the original cabinets (a local vendor that’s still in operation) so our thought process was to add to the island and move minimal cabinets. I get that matching color/stain may be challenging.

Will painted cabinets hold up to 3 boys? I love the durability of wood and that it doesn’t show every little ding. All new cabinets seems wasteful at this point as the kitchen is only a few years old.

Is this DIY? Or will you be working with professionals? It’s really difficult to match aged wood cabinets. They change color as they age. It’s also difficult to play Tetris and rearrange them. You have to make a list of all of the sizes, and pieces. And then work on the design like a puzzle with too many pieces. Most Kitchen Designers would only do something like that on an paid hourly basis.

Not DIY. Will be using professionals for everything. I hadn’t considered it would be hard to match the wood/stain (stupidly assumed maple would be fairly standard/classic).

The fridge placement doesn’t work so we’d want to move things minimally, but I think it seems a much bigger job (of course!!)

You might be pleasantly surprised to find out the cost of a custom cabinet maker in your area. Keeping the cabinets for reuse in another room may make the most sense. From what I see, your uppers will be sacrificed and your lower ones are harder to reuse in a new configuration. Take your time and explore a local cabinet company’s bid on a full redo ( with stained, not painted cabinets).
It’s probable that painted cabinets will get messed up faster with a young family. But it depends on your children.

My kids are pretty well behaved. But they are 4, 2 and another on the way, so just expecting a lot of wear and tear/fingerprints!

Definitely will look local for our options. I think I’m probably leaning more towards make the kitchen work or only do new island if we prioritize the open layout.

I appreciate the feedback!

You can absolutely remove and reuse the cabinets. Which is much easier than the sledge hammer crowbar routine on TV. Use a screw driver.
Get graph paper figure out the layout. Cabinets come is standard sizes .
When you are arranging upper and base cabinets make sure they line up - for the look. And make sure you screw them into studs.
We have rearranged kitchen cabinets and we have used standard bases for an island
And put on a butcher block top. Measure carefully. It is not hard but it is heavy ie dont unscrew a cabinet before you have figured out how
To hold up.
Good move to move sink to window. Good luck.

"Yes, we have a structural engineer coming.

We definitely need a kitchen designer..."

This is bass ackwards. First you get the design, then you engineer.

We shouldn’t have an engineer first to see what our options are in the constraints of the house?

@Michelle Wright There's nothing wrong with your approach. The engineer can help you assess the feasibility, scale and scope of removing walls. Then the designer will have a definitive footprint in which to design a plan.

I definitely appreciate all the feedback- thanks everyone! It’s been helpful here- basically may be trickier than we thought to add some matching cabinets. We’ll see what our options are! The goal is to have everything look cohesive like it was always supposed to be like that.

All the houses on our street are the same and we’ll be touring the neighbors homes to check what they’ve done - most other homes have done a similar project to open things up.

Joseph, normally I agree with you, but she's talking of integrating a covered patio into the house. That is something the structural engineer can assess. My guess is this project could get expensive. She hasn't indicated budget, but, with a growing family, knowing a cost estimate could help determine feasibility. If that is the case, it doesn't make sense to spend a lot of money on a kitchen design.

Yes! We are hoping the engineer can help assess if we can “keep” the roof our covered porch to make that a room vs only opening ceilings/floor plan. At this point we wouldn’t want to design 2 plans.

Budget isn’t unlimited, we have also explored moving... but in our area upgrading the living area would really mean not much additional Sq footage. Unless we are doing a big jump in Sq feet (2500 to 4K which is frankly too much space and money).

Update... spoke to the rep from the store where cabinets were originally purchased. The cabinet style and stain is no longer available. Shrock cortland maple cider....

Was really hoping to match our existing cabinets and had settled on keeping cabinets the same - only new island and bar area.

We have architect coming next week for a consult.