No pictures, no plan to see.

personally, I like the banquette. the more built ins the better.

But, it really depends on how you live and will use it?

as for too many cabinets? is there ever too many cabinets?

function over form, for me.

Do you have another dining space?

I prefer the banquette. Peninsulas work in working kitchens where appliances are but your plan just has it as an awkward dead end. Why would anyone go in there? I would only do this if you host weekly buffets... But even then I'd think a folding table or two would suffice.

The banquette shown is silly. Why have seating for 4/5 and a table that only allows for two people to have seats at the table?!! Get a rectangle table if you go banquette!! Where are you at in life? Can the entire family have breakfast at the peninsula/Banquette? I would want the one that allows for that. The peninsula would be a great place to set out a buffet/party food so you get two for one. Breakfast seating and party service. I'm not seeing this bank of overwhelming cupboards you are concerned about. What great work space you would end up with and frankly you need a space for the microwave that would actually be convenient.

Your sink and range seem way too close to each other. I prefer banquet as the right side of the kitchen doesn’t seem to serve a purpose - just cabinetry.

I like the banquette better too. We had that setup for a while in our kitchen and really liked it. A 67" x 72" banquette easily fits four people at the table, round or square, though ours had a 42" round table and I think I'd have preferred square--round was fine for eating but when I switched to using the table as a desk, I'd have liked a straight edge.

The main advantage I see to the peninsula is if you entertain a lot and want to be able to put food out and keep people out of the kitchen--it feels like more of a barrier between the spaces, which could be good or bad depending on your goal. The other pro could be if you want to open that cabinetry to the adjacent room because you need storage there. You could also do a hybrid--a U-shaped banquette with a cabinetry against it that opens into the other room. I've seen that done nicely though you'd have to check whether you have space there for it.

Re: microwave, I'd actually put that in the cabinet run next to the refrigerator.

Where is the dining table? why not put a table that multiple people can sit at comfortably where island is?

It looks like you are removing the wall between the bedroom and family room. So will that be one big open living space on that side of the stairscase?

Will there be a regular dining table somewhere in that area?

I see you have a decent stretch of countertop space, but very little where you need it the most, which is the prep space between the sink and range.

Can the range go on the right side of the sink and then flip the dishwasher to the left of the sink? I am not sure where the beam is.

I understand you were thinking of having the kitchen split into a working side and an entertaining side, but I don’t think that is going to function very well with everything crammed on the left. .

If you are leaning towards doing a peninsula, what about doing something like this?

I am not sure on any of the isle widths because you didn’t show the measurements.

I also did not really think through where the best place would be for the fridge.

I don‘t like that people entering from the peninsula side will walk through the cooking and prep zone, but with this style of a walk through galley kitchen, it is hard to avoid.

I will post this anyways in hopes that it will sparks some better ideas.

Also wanted to add the link to this thread. If you haven’t seen it it has a ton of great info. It also has a section on ”How to ask for layout help” if you are interested in more detailed help. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5972404/new-to-kitchens-read-me-first-2020-interim#n=11

Thank you everyone! Everyone gave us a lot to think about. We kept the prep area and location of dishwasher/fridge/stove the same as our previous kitchen to avoid additional fees with moving plumbing/electrical. We will have a separate dining space which will be near the family room. In our last kitchen our microwave was hidden in the pantry which we liked and will think about doing again. Rebunky, I like your idea but we have a staircase that will be coming into the new addition as well that we have to work around as well.

I think I like the banquette too, but I have to second @rebunky on the stove and sink being crammed to one side. I like thier idea of swapping the dishwasher and stove placements. Also, it looks like you have a beverage center area (maybe?) to the right of your fridge, but a wine fridge near the banquette -- maybe think about where people are going for beverage/snack while you are in the midst of cooking. Keeping those spaces together might keep people out of your way more.

The peninsula option has a space approx 8'x27' long divided into a 13' long Kitchen proper + 14' long (?).

The banquette option is for a compact seating solution but is in an area with a lot of extra dead space.

The family Room is approx 14'x16' but even smaller when you consider circulation needed from the Dining (the former Bedroom) and down to the basement stair. The Dining is approx 8'x8' when you consider circulation around a table. I don't know what the closet to remain is next to the stair or the function of the existing room next to the kitchen. I don't know if you are planning or in construction.

I gather it is an expensive project on a really old 2 story house. Compared to the addition, new basement stair footprint, large beams holding up a 2nd floor, and all those desired cabinets/counters/appliances, moving a sink's plumbing and maybe a stove gas line may not amount to much more in proportion to the overall budget.

Just with limited info presented thus far, the space proportions and the stair location don't appear to be optimally layed out, which is causing the dilemma with the kitchen options.

I would absolutely cut number of expensive cabinets to pay for moving stove. or move plumbing down 2 feet to put sink on other side of window. prepping in front of a window is lovely! and that shouldn’t be too exorbitant? whatever you do don’t spend all of this money and double down on a bad layout.

Ever considered having both? We have both a peninsula with counter stools and banquette next to each other in my kitchen and we use both on a daily basis. Our banquette is movable (West Elm). It works well when we have guests over too. Here are some old photos of it (excuse the mess in a couple of the photos - my son was completing some homework on the peninsula that day, lol).

BTDT but in a much smaller space. We remodeled our 7.5'x12' galley kitchen in 2013 - opened it up to the adjoining 12x12' breakfast room which lengthened the space. I went with a banquette then. It was adorable but less frequently used than I intended and my 2 kids demonstrated that Sunbrella is not indestructible. Fast forward 7 yrs and we basically rebuilt the house and added on. We left the kitchen as-is but extended it to include a small peninsula. It's been a big improvement and someone is sitting at the counter every day (unlike the banquette.) Preferences around these things are very individualistic, but since I guessed wrong the first time around, I figured I'd offer our experience.

Two additional quick points of unsolicited advice - as others have said, definitely build more space between your range and your sink. I have 30" and it's the most valuable real estate in my kitchen. If I could make that 36"/48"/60", I'd be so happy! We struggled for ages in the kitchen reno because I assumed the costs of moving the sink and the gas were prohibitive (we're on a slab.) In the end, we did it and it was relatively minor in terms of cost and time.

Second, having lived through a massive reno/addition, I'd suggest investing in some time with a kitchen designer since that is a big component of your project. We had a phenomenal architect who designed the addition plus 3 bathroom renos, a porch and portico, resized all our windows and basically remade our house from top to bottom. But even on the small tweaks of our kitchen, it was clear that kind of space planning wasn't their forte. You have a lot of space to work with - better to spend a little bit more $ to make sure you're building something that you'll be happy with over the long term.

@smalloldhouse_gw

Your new kitchen with the peninsula is pretty close to exactly what I was picturing with my drawing above! Looks fantastic! I love the olive green!

Rebunky, I like your idea but we have a staircase that will be coming into the new addition as well that we have to work around as well.

I understand if it won’t fit. I must be confused on the stair location.

I was looking at this drawing and thought it might work because it looked like the staircase down started in line with the kitchen wall.

I was thinking the stairs were like this below, and beam would be where the addition starts.

We kept the prep area and location of dishwasher/fridge/stove the same as our previous kitchen to avoid additional fees with moving plumbing/electrical.

Hmmmm, so you are going to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars for the addition, the structural beam, removing walls, switching the basement staircase location, etc, etc, but then you don’t want to spend a few extra bucks in order to fix the biggest problem you have with your existing kitchen now which is the dinky amount prep space between the sink and stove? 🤯

Eta:

Sorry I don’t mean to sound harsh. It is your kitchen, so you are the one who needs to decide where to put your $. I just would need way more prep space in that one area. It is like you have this big kitchen but it functions like a tiny apt. kitchen

Oh and you‘ll notice, just for fun I made the peninsula have the seat in the end like smalloldhouse’s. I liked that better. Probably not going to fly, but worth a shot. Best wishes and enjoy your new spaces! 💕

Thank you! No harsh feelings here, some of these things I need to hear which is why I posted in the first place. The appliance set up is what we had previously so I suppose I am used to that. I see what everyone is saying and switching locations of the dishwasher/stove is something I think is a great idea and will discuss with our designer. If we put the peninsula at the end in front o the back windows does that work better than wrapping it around or does it look more like a dead end? You're right about the staircase, after further looking we could fit it. I'm just worried about how it would look ending before the wall instead of wrapping around.

I agree with the comments about the sink and stove. There is no sense in adding miles of counter only to leave the cramped work triangle. Not only will its function under perform, it’ll look silly.

Oh yes, it is amazing how we can adapt to whatever kitchen we have, even if it is not very functional!

I never had a kitchen with a good layout until now. I owe so much thanks to the info I learned on gardenweb (or what is now this kitchen forum). Boy do I appreciate how functional my kitchen is now. I never knew how much more enjoyable cooking could be! Just wait until you have space to spread out for prep and more then one person can be helping you. It will be glorious!

So as far as the peninsula design I drew, it would look very similar to smalloldhouse’s kitchen posted up thread. I have seen this galley/peninsula style kitchen many times, and it doesn’t look like an odd dead end at all. You just want to make sure you have enough space behind the bar seats to the wall. There is info on seating clearences in the New to Kitchens link I posted for you upthread.

Now if you prefer the other layout where it is a U shape ending with a shorter peninsula, I might have an idea, but it really depends on what your goals for the kitchen are. Like do you want several countertops spaces for multiple cooks to prep simultaneously? Do you entertain frequently? Do you have large gatherings? How do you envision using the ”U” part of the kitchen? Are you open to a second smaller prep sink in the U part? I think a prep sink would be absolutely key to it functioning as an ”entertaining” side.

I also am very concern about what the actual isle space measurement is. What is the measurement from the sink wall over to the staircase wall?

I saw the one drawing showed the banquette bench at 5’7”. The isle looked only a couple inches bigger. Yikes!

If my math is correct and you minus 25.5 for the perimeter countertop, that leaves you less the 42”. Is that right??? If so that is the bare minimum for a one butt kitchen.

Imagine the traffic in and out of the fridge on the stair case wall with it being right behind the main sink prep and cooking zone. That is going to be super tight. It would need to need to be no less the 48”, but I think it would be best even a little wider.

You could move the fridge to the left of the sink and DW and then do shallow pantries on the stair wall to get the extra isle space if needed.

Here is a thread that explains how to ask for layout help and how to narrow down your goals for the space. Please us know if you would like more detailed layout help. We would need you kitchen goals and a measured, to scale (if possible) drawing. Graph paper is great! https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5500789/faq-how-do-i-ask-for-layout-help-what-information-should-i-include