Kitchen, 1st floor and elevations

A 300K+++ project does not jibe with keeping the wrong fridge.

Layout 1 and 2

Why so committed to the fridge? You are building, and creating pretty generously-sized kitchen. What about a counter-depth 36" fridge column, since you have a separate freezer in the pantry?

Haha, that's true. Never thought hard about it, inertia to change and I really like our fridge set up now. And before we got plans back, I didn't realize how much disruption a standard depth fridge causes with the walkway. When thinking about changing things that are working well, I fear I wouldn't like the new setup as much.

We currently have a 4 door fridge. The bottom left is a freezer and bottom right is a fridge. What I like about it is that we have everyday freezer items close by, kid food goes in the bottom right and is easily accessible to them and the top portion has plenty of space for cold proofing bread dough, bagels, or other dough overnight.

With a 36" column, that does seem like it would have enough space, so I'll have to think about it more.

Absolutely replace the fridge with counter-depth--I would not want a fridge sticking out into the walkway as it is in the plan, and I don't see an easy way to pull the counters out unless you narrow the doorway on the right too (and probably would need to lose the chair on the end of your island). We have a similar L setup and really like it. Our coffee/tea area is where yours is marked in your second plan (corner of the L)--would not want it on the other side unless you put in a prep sink over there. We have a range and no micro, so no good suggestions there, but I would mock out how many steps to get to/from them to figure out if they're too far from your main prep space. In general I'd put a microwave on its own near a refrigerator on the assumption that food is often going from fridge directly into microwave (but maybe not necessarily the case...?), but would want the oven nearish the main prep space.

4 door counter-depth fridge/freezers are available. e.g. https://www.canadianappliance.ca/product/Samsung_RF23A9771SR_French_Door_Refrigerator_Samsung_RF23A9771SR.html

A counter depth fridge is great, and they come in all sizes: what you lose in depth you can make up in height and width. Not cheap, but neither are custom, extra deep cabinets.

I would not want my fridge across a main passageway through the kitchen, especially with kids. To the left of the pantry entrance might work.

Here is a basic fact of geometry: you get more counter space with a range than with a rangetop and wall ovens. It's usually cheaper, too.

Moving your main sink and dishwasher to the island would give you more counter space around the periphery.

Even if you take away the island stools, the passageway behind them is probably too narrow.

Just another chorus comment on the refrigerator from another point. That wall has a soffit in the wall plane up to the cathedral ceiling. So a ref sticking out would be even more obvious above the ref too.

Also along that wall, that entire cabinet run is "inset" into the wall, and I am not sure if there are 24" deep uppers, if not it probably should not have 2 open counters flanking the ref if that is what your alternate schemes are showing. If you have any counter space, it should only be on 1 side, so maybe starting at the Pantry door a 24" deep cabinet/double oven/counter depth ref, then 1 open beverage counter would be better.

I also see no uppers on the stove wall, and/or is your dish storage strictly in the island?

I would consider doing a lower counter for your baking center. As you are not doing seating there, that's absolutely something you could do. That would create a true baking center.

I would not move the sink & DW to the island. You might have more peripheral counter but you just shrunk the size of usable kitchen. Now you have a separate cleanup zone, which (to me) is aspirational in kitchen design. Make sure you get a large enough prep sink.

I would agree with doing a range instead of a cooktop for a few reasons, but mainly cooktops generally have less space on top than ranges, so you lose cooking room. If you want a baking center and you plan on using the CSO for that, then keeping that close to the baking center is best. 30" can feel tight and if you take up space with controls, it's even tighter. I prefer a range for stove-to-oven cooking as well.

If you do a range, you can move the CSO to the end of the range run (where you show the CO in one layout) and keep the hot things out of the way of passersby - grazers to the pantry or fridge. My ovens currently open into a walkway and I'd prefer if they were more protected. I feel like i have to announce that people need to stay out of the kitchen when I'm working with them.

Agree with the counter depth fridge advice. I might consider putting the oven on the other side of the fridge (to the right)...again, for separating cooking and baking zones.

Keep the tea near the end of the fridge run closer to your dining room - you don't want people to have to go into the kitchen to get tea. Consider a hot faucet there?

MW can go on an upper shelf next to the fridge (closer to pantry). If you really want it on the counter it can go there as well.

Make sure you consider door swing and wall clearance for the pantry freezer. Our freezer does not have the option of changing the door swing (we didn't check it - thankfully it doesn't matter for us).

For example:

Goleta Residence · More Info

Thank you everyone for your thoughts! I can see clearly now that a standard depth fridge doesn't work for the space. Since I hadn't really looked, I didn't think about having a wider or taller counter depth fridge to make up for the lost space. I'll have to see what counter depth options I like. An undercounter fridge would be nice for easy kid access.

@latifolia Wouldn't putting the fridge to the left of the pantry still mean that you have to walk through the same area to get to it? I had the fridge near to edge so that it would be easier to pop in and out of the kitchen. Are you referring to the passageway between the island and dining table or between the current fridge wall? We currently have 45" between our fridge and opposite counter and do not find it too narrow.

@3onthetree Thank you for your thoughts on how it'll look in 3D. I'm very bad at picturing things and we don't have a 3D model with interior details yet. I would want uppers where they make sense. On the stove wall and some on the fridge wall? Once I get more cabinet details, I will plan where everything will go. Have most of my appliances measured and won't forget about dish storage!

@anj_p I did have a passing thought to do lower counters! Especially because of my height. But to accommodate more users, I figured it's easier to adjust my own height with a stool. I agree about the sink since I want to work on the island I don't want to have the cleanup area there. I was thinking a 15" prep sink. I've seen the prep sink size mentioned a few times, but I haven't seen what people could or couldn't fit in the sink, so it's hard for me to determine if that's enough for me.

I did consider induction ranges, but I didn't find one that had the features I wanted on the rangetop and oven together. That's a good point about the usable space. I am mostly a one or two pot cook. Every so often I'll need 3, but I will bring my pots to the store and make sure it all fits. Right now anything is an improvement to what I have. Currently surviving on a 30" range with only two working burners (not even the big one!) and it is annoying. I was debating a 36" cooktop. I'll keep that in mind about oven placement. I've seen people mention using the CSO to reheat food, so I was treating it as a microwave in function (being near the fridge), but I will obviously also be doing a lot of baking in it.

I put the tea on the edge for that reason, but the tea location is much more flexible that the others. Will definitely check that freezer door. So many details to consider. Thanks!