You have lots of room between the aisles. If you as a peninsula perpendicular to the one that is there you could have the sink and dishwasher there, with your dishes in the tall pantry and then you could add tall pantries to the side where the sink once was adding more storage as well as a space for the microwave.

Thanks Andrea. I should have added that we are on a concrete slab and all plumbing has to remain where it is :-(

i'd probably make the pantry cab to the right of fridge a single door w pullouts at 15 in wide[ you have another pantry closet] and the inches saved allow a reconfigure of the base drawers and allow for a microwave drawer. i dont think youd regret it.

Is your contractor suggesting a pullout drawer microwave for the peninsula? If so, I agree with you on not wanting to lose valuable cabinet drawer space in a smaller sized kitchen. Also have you priced them out? They are definitely not budget friendly. I think they range between 1-2k.

If you don’t need a big microwave, I have this small corner one that fits a full size plate in our tiny cottage kitchen. It still allows use of the countertop in front of it and works great for us. It could go in that one corner above DW. It would be convenient to the fridge for reheating stuff.

Microwave...

In such a small Kitchen, I would not want to give up what little useful counterspace you have to a MW. The space over the DW is for your Cleanup Zone and any dirty dishes (or clean air-drying) without getting in the way of the Prep Zone. The space to the left of the sink is your Prep Zone and arguably the most used/useful space in your Kitchen. It's next to the sink (a direct water source) and next to your range (Cooking Zone). The peninsula is nice enough, but it has no water source so it won't be as useful for prepping & cooking.

MW drawers are around $1,100. That's around the cost of any built-in MW. Yes, it's more than most countertop models, but, in my experience, they last a lot longer (at least a lot longer than any countertop MW I've ever had - by many years).

That said, I understand not wanting to lose storage. How wide is that pantry cabinet -- 24"? It will need to be at least that, maybe even 27" or more, to fit a MW in an alcove in the cabinet, depending on the MW. Remember that non-built-in MWs need air clearance around them (top, back, and both sides). A 24" wide cabinet only has about 22" to 23" of interior space, depending on the thickness of the cabinet walls. That means the interior space b/w the cabinet walls needs to be at least the width of the MW + required air clearance on the left + required air clearance on the right and the alcove needs to be at least as tall as the MW + required air clearance on the top.

However, pantry cabinets wider than 18" and not a pullout aren't as useful as you would think b/c things can easily get lost in their depth (24"D) and it's not that easy to see everything you have without moving things around as you hunt for what you want. A pullout pantry cabinet (shelves attached to the doors that pullout when the doors are opened) allows you to easily see what you have b/c you can look at both sides and see everything with a sweep of your eyes, not pawing through everything to try to find something hidden behind something else.

So, as Herbflavor suggested, I think a 15" pullout pantry cabinet next to the refrigerator would be better -- you will also gain additional 9" of cabinet/drawer space on the peninsula, which may make it easier for you to install a 24" MW drawer. However, I would place it to the left of the refrigerator so the refrigerator isn't up against a wall and will allow your refrigerator doors to open fully. The current plan you posted appears to have the refrigerator against a wall that's as deep as the refrigerator box + doors. With counter- and standard-depth refrigerators, the doors must stick out past all surrounding items -- counters, cabinets, walls, etc.

Upper cabinet height...

With 7.5' ceilings, I would probably stick with 30" tall upper cabinets so you have room for crown molding above and light rail below and still have 18" b/w the finished counters and the bottom of the light rail on the upper cabinets (or bottom of the cabinets if you have no light rail).

Don't put your toaster oven (Breville) in the pantry cabinet.

You will probably have to put it on the peninsula counter given the lack of counterspace on the sink/range wall. It shouldn't be in the Prep Zone or the Cleanup Zone and there's not enough room to the left of the range for it.

Maybe turn the oven so the back is up against the refrigerator (or pantry cabinet) wall.

Is your Pantry 44" wide or 44" deep?

What is the measured drawing showing? Which are the doors and where do they lead? One should be the pantry, but I don't see where it's as deep as the refrigerator.

Or, are you planning to build it but it's not shown on the drawing?

Hallett - That is a lovely kitchen. I can see he similarities in layout and that is very helpful. I'm always questioning my layout as it isn't ideal but with space constraints I can't envision any other plan. So my main questions - Microwave placement and upper cabinet height.