I had almost the exact layout in my last apartment, except that the fridge was directly in front of the peninsula. I don’t remember the exact measurement, but it definitely was less than what’s recommended. We got a French door refrigerator and it worked out fine. I find that we didn’t really keep the refrigerator open that much and didn’t have many problems passing. On the other hand, I tend to keep the dishwasher open for a long time while I’m cleaning, so I would never put that in a tight place.

Your ”coat closet” is one foot deep. unless you are exceptionally skinny, thats a broom closet. your walk in pantry is not functional. too small to be useful. id definitely ditch the walk in. but i am going to suggest you hire a pro or 2.

tighten up the U shaped kitchen . 5 feet across all thats needed. your back wall is 27 feet across. even w overhang and stools you can have space to rotate dining table if the U is reconfigured /tightened up. . by rotating dining table or getting round table you can work with important goal of clearing sq footage for better seating in liv area. it looks like an afterthought.....2 ft counter on left...5 feet across ..6 feet for overhang side and stools leaving 14 feet at dining area so table need not gobble your liv zone. Other kitchen configurations dependent on what you care to do w pantry and that cubicle area adjacent. Budget gets into the play if you want different things. sticking w U shape perfectly fine. sample inspirations of U shapes.

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Thanks, everyone for your answers. Your feedback is very valuable. We draw a new floor plan based on your comments. Please, let me know if you have feedback. I had to sacrifice my walk-in pantry (this makes me sad but I think that this is the right choice). I like better the new proportions and it is nice to have more space for the dining room.

@BlueberryBundtcake - 6a/5b MA:

- I probably don't *need* that big of a pantry but I always dreamed to have a walk-in pantry with the hope that storage would never be a problem anymore. I think that taking that space for the coat closet makes sense though.

- I have to admit that I didn't think so deeply about the problem that I would have to get custom cabinets if I get deeper countertops. Thanks for the comment. Between that and the comment of @herbflavor who suggests saving space, I now think that this was a pretty bad idea to start with (and I didn't have a strong opinion about it anyway)

- Regarding the symmetry, I read a bunch of articles talking about that and it seems that it went too deep into my mind. This should probably not be a priority. (Good proportions are definitely more important than symmetry).

- I guess the height of the window behind the sink is not decided yet. We currently have a sliding door that we plan to convert to a window. I suppose that the height of the backslash will determine the height of the window.

- Regarding the more general questions:

-- For now, it is only the two of us but we plan to keep this house for a long time. We would like to design the house for 2 adults and 2 kids. It is also important for us to be able to host family when they visit.

-- The number of people for dinner would easily vary from 2 to 8 people (or sometimes more). When it is only the 2 of us, we will most likely eat at the counter. Probably at the kitchen for more people. We really enjoy hosting dinners or parties with friends at home. Although we still want to have enough space around the counter so people can hang out there while someone is cooking.

@roccouple:

You are totally right about the size about the depth of the closet. This was definitely a mistake.

Thanks!

Here is the new design:

Not a pro, but I’m wondering about the kitchen storage situation. A u-shape has a lot of corner cabinets which can be tricky to make useful. Do you have upper cabinets on your cooktop wall? Also it’s hard to tell the width you’re assigning to the wall ovens. Wall ovens are typically 27-30” wide and eyeballing (against metric units, so I may be off) the rectangle for your wall ovens looks too narrow. You won’t have a lot of counter space to the left of your cooktop.

I played with the design and standard cabinet sizes*. If you place a cabinet in the right corner towards the DR, there's only one corner cab needed. I made it a 36"x36" lazy susan cab so that you could see out the window when standing at the sink. The *** could either be 21" wide open shelves or 18" cabinet + spacer.

*If you use Ikea, they don't have 27", so you'd have to modify.

Your new layout works better, but I would still aim for at least 3'-6" clearance between pantry and end of peninsula. You will still be able to seat four at the island.