I recently purchased a small condo which does not have a current working kitchen AND, because of the pandemic and it is in another state, I have not actually seen. (Yes, I am crazy but it was the right location, right building and right price.) Until a contractor can get into the unit and actually measure everything precisely I'm just working on general options for what I might want done but I want to be ready with ideas once I get to the stage of actually measuring everything precisely. The kitchen will be used by two retired people and will have up to 6 people at the dinner table but no large entertaining. My constraints are that I can't move the stove or the sink off their current wall but they can move along the wall. I've selected an 18 inch dishwasher and a 32 inch refrigerator (which needs 38 inches if placed next to a wall.) The kitchen space is approximately 8X11 and the dining room is approximately 10X11. As you see in the picture this tiny kitchen currently has 2 door openings - one to the entry foyer and one to the dining room. I plan to close off the door to the foyer and remove at part of the wall to the dining room. The wall next to the range has the electrical panel on it so it must stay.

The basic kitchen portion will need to remain a small L-shape due to the odd placement of the windows. I first thought I'd remove the wall between the kitchen and dining room and use a large table as both my eating space and my needed extra counter space for prep. That idea is in the picture below. I'd use a large table with bench seating along the wall to get to my seating for 6. The giant brown object is a large cabinet that I have that I would love to be able to use in this condo as it holds all my cookbooks and larger appliances, in addition to the TV and a collection of antique sugar bowls.

My next idea is to keep the kitchen and dining room separate and just cut down the wall to open it visually and add some 15" deep cabinets to create a small peninsula, although that is awkward due to the window placement. I've seen pictures of another condo kitchen where they have done this and it seems to really squeeze the dining space although that could be due to the size of their table.

With this option I'd need to extend the table whenever there are 6 of us eating but that wouldn't be a major effort since it's only occassionally. It does provide me with a 48 inch run of narrow counterspace and gives me more cabinets.

So, all you design people - HELP. What are your ideas? How crowded is this going to be? What have I not considered? I know that most people are working with much more space than this but it is what it is and I'd like to have functional kitchen that I can enjoy working and eating in. And, can you find a better place for the refrigerator???

All help truly appreciated.