Linking to old post:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6416457/feedback-on-near-final-kitchen-layout

The impression I get from the first thread is that

1. your current kitchen layout isn't working for you
2. you have more house than you know what to do with

So putting these two things together, you have decided to fill up the house with kitchen. TaDa - both problems solved.

However, it doesn't really work that way, as you are finding out. So start by figuring out how you would like to use the house. It isn't going to be easy. It is going to take work on your part, and some imagination. Rooms aren't formal or informal. They are spaces. What makes them formal or informal is what we decide to put into those spaces. I have a separate, but informal dining room, which we use every day. I have a separate, slightly more formal living room, which I use as my away space.

And keep in mind that children don't stay small forever. There are times when you will want a space to get away from Alvin and the Chipmunks, Barbie Swan Lake, Teen Titans GO, or whatever it is your kids do.

@mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY) i think thats a fair assessment! right now that whole side of the house is just bonus space for us and is mostly used as a large play space. we spend 90% of our time in the kitchen, breakfast nook, and family room, which get crowded.

I think I'm getting closer to a new concept-- This new option opens the kitchen up to the dining room still, allowing me to extend my island in that direction, but not to take over that room.

These mock-ups show the fridge perpendicular to the sink, framed into the wall with an added cased opening to create a separate breakfast/bar room with a small table (or banquette?).

Optionally I could push the fridge back (to the "left") 2 feet. (where the red X is)

It wouldn't allow for a cased opening, but it would give more walking space in front of the fridge.

Show us a 2d plan with measurements. Thats the only way to know if it will work

Sorry! it didnt upload the first time.

Option 2a

Option 2b: with the fridge scootched back further.

Try going the other way - into the breakfast nook. Then eat in the dining room.

42" isn't enough for seating and walking past, especially with cabinets behind it and it being a pathway.

Also the fridge is a bit far from the sink. I don't see it as big a problem from the cooktop to fridge but YMMV.

@mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY) - good thought, but the dining nook is 11' deep by 10' wide, so it's too deep for a galley kitchen but too shallow for an island. Thats why i was thinking it was a good space for the "drinks bar/coffee bar"?

The powder room is behind it, and the current pantry space has a 7" hvac run at the back of it.

@cpartist

yeah... a 14'2" deep kitchen makes an island with seating tough unless I give up putting anything at all on the interior wall. I could do just two seats at the far end?

While it’s considered not enough, I have less and it’s pretty as the pass through I have is not constantly used and we are not huge people. I can walk past my kids and husband seating there

If you are doing custom, you can do a wall of shallow cabinets vs 16” to gain 3-4”

My husband likes the fridge parallel to the sink better.

And I could move the bar (24" mini fridge, 15" ice maker, opt. bar sink) into the bay window, slightly recessed, with a deeper ledge behind.

But has anyone ever seen a fridge extend beyond a wall before, using the back of the fridge to trim in a cabinet?

side profile of trimmed in counter depth fridge:

back of fridge cabinet could be trimmed with beadboard or a finishing panel:

I'm having a hard time finding any inspiration pictures, with the closest being this from JSD, but there is drywall all the way behind the run: