"We moved away from the slide-in due to possible issues with one appliance: cook top broke, oven works, etc."

It's far easier to replace a range than it is a cooktop. Pull out the old one and slide in the new.

CR-recommended gas range (among others): GE Profile PGS930YPFS

"We also moved away from overhead vent hood to keep the openness of the kitchen as much as possible, even knowing the limitations of a downdraft vent."

Why wouldn't the kitchen be open? The cooktop or range would be against a wall.

"we thought of keeping the gas cooktop above the Frigidaire wall oven #GCWS3067AF that will be placed under the counter"

It'll be far less expensive and much easier to install -- and if necessary in the future, to replace -- a range than a cooktop and wall oven. Consider how you would need to cut the cabinets and countertop for the cooktop and oven, none of which would be needed for a range.

"The refrigerator & freezer is a Frigidaire Professional freezer and refrigerator placed side by side"

Do you really need 66" of refrigerator and freezer?

Won't the refrigerator and freezer be inconvenient to reach behind the peninsula?

As for the 66" wide freezer & refrigerator, all I can say is "if you don't know, you don't know". They are two separate Frigidaire units that can be side by side or separated. They look like the Subzero, etc but at a fraction of the price. There is so much room inside them it is amazing. We have owned this model twice in the past and both times when those houses were sold (one was planned to be sold, the 2nd was not), people at the open houses would almost run to them and then open both. How many times in open houses did you open a fridge or freezer? lol And, at $2,995 each, plus $400 for the trim kit, they are about the price of many standard combined fridge / freezers. If you have the room or can make the room, buy & don't look back. Will it be inconvenient with the peninsula behind the door? It could be so we will probably put the refrigerator on the left since it gets used more than the freezer. This way the peninsula will not be behind the door, meaning only behind the door when using the freezer, However, there will still be 6" - 182 of the peninsula available to use even with the freezer door open.

I'd want my range / cooktop against a wall so I could have a real hood vent, so #3 is the only option I'd choose. I'd lose the peninsula - you have to walk around it to use the refrigerator and that would be a hindrance to your workflow, and it doesn't really add that much counterspace. In addition the left side door of the refrigerator won't open fully.

Can you post a bigger version of just the kitchen layout, without the other images? It's too small to read easily. If folks here have a better view that lets them read the measurements, they can help you get a functional layout.

Yes, a slide-in range is easier: one item to deal with. But, I read of multiple instances where either the cooktop or the oven would quit while the other item still worked but it required replacement of the entire unit. We wanted to avoid that issue and after comparing over 10 different models, we decided the slightly lower, as compared to a slide-in range and if lower at all, racks of a wall oven placed in a base cabinet were not an issue. Additionally, relocating the cooktop away from the oven provided for increased counterspace in a better location: we will now have almost 8' of uninterrupted counterspace. Additionally, Frigidaire has a sale on the cooktop and wall oven we are buying so we are able to purchase both for $2,199. This is less than the ranges we looked at which were in the area of $2,800 up to $8,300.

We also agree that location #3 is best as we can now avoid the need for a downdraft vent and go with the GE Profile JV966DSS vent hood we paid $100 for, brand new unused in the box, that another couple bought and decided not to use.

I am unsure about the upper corner wall cabinet comment. I believe they are best when there are cabinets coming together at right angles as they will be in this kitchen.

All in all, we paid, in round #s, $8,400 for the IKEA Bodbyn kitchen cabinets with gray bases and ivory uppers, $800 for the Frigidaire gas cooktop, $1,400 for the Frigidaire wall oven, $850 for the KitchenAid dishwasher #KDFE204KPS and $100 for the GE Profile vent hood # JV966DSS - a total of $11,550. We are buying two Crystalo translucent slabs and two Caesartone Concrete-color slabs. I do not yet have the price of the two Quartzite and two Quartz slabs but I suspect $15,000 for the purchase, fabrication, and installation. The addition of a new 1.5" Red Oak hardwood flooring ("laced" into the existing dining room hardwood flooring), of about $3,500 gets us a new kitchen for about $30,050. I will add $4,950 - $9,950 for miscellaneous items so for $35,000 - $40,000 we get a fabulous kitchen with backlit (lighttape.com) translucent stone. I think that is pretty good!

Is this bigger & better to see?

Don’t do this. Screams 1990. I hate to use the word dated but these are dated.

"relocating the cooktop away from the oven provided for increased counterspace"

How? Whether the oven is below the cooktop or inside a range doesn't change the length of counter space.

"GE Profile JV966DSS vent hood"

I see what appears to be a 30" wall cabinet (#21). Is there a 36"-wide base cabinet for the cooktop and a 36" gap in the wall cabinets for the hood?

What's the distance between the peninsula and the row of cabinets on the opposite side (i.e., that contains the sink)?

The corner cabinets are dated? What would you do instead? If we put the 36" wide GE Profile vent hood in the center of that 94" wide wall (26+30+36+2" filler) that leaves 58" (94-36). 58" divided by 2 = 29" on either side of the vent hood. IKEA sells a 24", 30", or 36" wide wall cabinet. And, not putting that corner wall cabinet probably means doing something different to the upper cabinets to the right of the sink. What could we do there? Also, if we don't use the corner cabinet that means two straight wall cabinets need to be put at right angles to each other, which means one cabinet has a "hidden" area on one end. The nice thing is everything unused, opened or not, can be returned to IKEA.

Correct, whether the oven is or is not below the cooktop does not change the length of counter space. However, by putting the cooktop above the oven the uninterrupted, open length of the countertop is changed; instead of 8' of smooth countertop there is about 30" of open countertop, then 36" of cooktop, then another 30" of open countertop. Moving the cooktop to the opposite side appears to be better. Yes, the length of countertop is the same but because it is in the "U-shaped" section it is more crowded and pretty much for only one person at a time. Since typically only one person at a time is tending to items on the cooktop, it seems better in that location. This allows multiple people to be congregated around both sides of the countertop that the oven sits under. And, putting the oven, and or range, in the "U-shaped" section also seems crowded given there are cabinets on both sides when the oven door is opened. In the opposite area there are cabinets only on one side of the oven door when it is opened.

No, there is a 30" wall oven base cabinet that will need to be modified for the 36" cooktop, unless we decide to change to a 30" cooktop. The 36" cooktop was my desire because it allows for larger pans, etc. Modifying the cabinet is not an issue and we have done such modifications previously. As shown on the plans there is not a 36" gap in the wall cabinets for the vent hood but when the cabinets were ordered that issue was identified and addressed. A smaller cabinet will be placed to the right of the vent hood to allow for the 36" wide gap needed for the vent hood.

There is approximately a 42" distance between the peninsula and the cabinet row that contains the sink. We would like more distance and 42" is the bare minimum we will accept. However, given our cooking styles (leave me alone, get away, I got this... ha ha) this works for us. Additionally, the nice thing about us is our flexibility, the engineering/design of the IKEA cabinets, and our step-by-step installation process. As we put this kitchen together if we do not like the peninsula we will eliminate it. The big issue is the massive fireplace in the middle of the room. We seriously considered removing it but it was cost-prohibitive given it is part of the structural support of that part of the house. So, we have to work within some constraints. Any cabinets we do not use can be returned to IKEA, built or still in the box, and we also have a kitchen in the basement to create so what is not used in the primary kitchen can be used in the basement. This house was built in 1971 so there are construction ideas and layouts that are difficult to update when considering the cost-benefit ratio. Even though we have discovered undisclosed major foundation issues with this house (a whole other story for the far-off future), we still are happy with this location, the house, the lot size, and the price we paid. This just means there are some constraints, like this kitchen layout, we need to live with and do our best.

I did a quick look at IKEA and did not see the right angle cabinets with the piano hinged door. That is what I am seeing a lot of with an occasional blind corner. The diagonal corner cabinets are black holes and those other sets ups give more functional storage.

"If we put the 36" wide GE Profile vent hood in the center of that 92" wide wall (26+30+36) that leaves 56" (92-36). 56" divided by 2 = 28" on either side of the vent hood."

You have 44" (=92-24-24) to work with because you have 24" deep cabinets on the sink side and 24" deep cabinets on the peninsula side. If you want to center the 36" cooktop cabinet in that space, you'll need to fill 4" on each side ((44-36)/2). So you need 28" (=24+4) of cabinet on the left-hand side. However the corner wall cabinet is 26" wide and the base cabinet is 30" wide.

(IMO the JV966DSS hood really looks like it should touch the wall cabinets on either side.)

I have had angled corner upper cabinets, and could not wait to get rid of them when we remodeled our kitchen. I used Easy Reach uppers (as RNmomof2 described), but apparently Ikea doesn't carry them. I would rather have a blind corner than an angled corner (and I have had those as well).

Are those 12" upper on each side of the sink? That's too narrow to be very useful. My old kitchen had 3 of them, and they are next to useless. Even 15" is a vast improvement.

"the nice thing about us is our flexibility, the engineering/design of the IKEA cabinets, and our step-by-step installation process. As we put this kitchen together if we do not like the peninsula we will eliminate it."

Interesting. I always thought measure-plan-build was the best approach but I suppose "step-by-step" (aka measure-plan-build-oops-undo-plan-redo-build-etc) is another approach.

measure-plan-build-oops-undo-plan-redo-build-etc

ha ha - this made us laugh. Been there, done that. What I meant is the peninsula will be the very last cabinets placed so when we go to set them if we do not like them they do not very need to be used.

No, they are not 12" uppers but 9" uppers. They can be used as straight shelves for books or wine bottles as they come with both flat shelves and wine bottle inserts. We had them in a previous kitchen and they worked great.

Ahh, upper cabinets with hinges so the corner is accessible. Yes, if that was an option at IKEA we would use them vs the corner cabinet.

Here are some pics of the last kitchen we did, our 1st IKEA kitchen. We were not planning on selling this house - it was to be our forever home. Funny how God sometimes laughs at plans we make. This house had varying height ceilings thruout. The kitchen had 10' ceilings so we used 40" tall upper cabinets, one corner cabinet (the different height was a mistake but added an interesting detail in the different cabinet heights), and we stacked two of the 9" cabinets. We also used the 9" cabinets next to the range, The backsplash was custom-made for $600 and thinking about it now, I will have another made for this kitchen. We did add two wire rack shelves to the back splash as there is a heat lamp in that hood. The hood was a 48" Jenn-Air we got as a floor model at 70% off. The dual fuel 48" two oven range is a Bertazoni floor model we got for 60% off. The 66" wide Frigidaire refrigerator & freezer The dishwasher was an Asko we paid full price. Both sinks were Ruvati sinks and came with cutting boards, colanders, etc. We also bought a SKS microwave for full price. There is also a Scottsman crushed/chewable icemaker next to the small sink - a "hand-me down" from a friend. We used Quartz from Arizona tile and once again, the countertop, waterfall, and full backsplash cost more than the cabinets. I believe the cabinets were $11,000-ish, including the lights, etc, and the Quartz was about $19,000 (five full slabs). With the grinding of the concrete to remove traces of the previous tile floor, the flooring & installation, and electrical work I believe the total cost of this kitchen remodel was about $45,000; just say $50,000 in case I forgot anything. We were quoted a minimum of $80,000 plus appliances from two different remodel contractors, and they both said if any issues were discovered, it would be more than $80,000. As seen, the corner cabinets and the 9" wide cabinets worked out great.

I truly appreciate the comments & insight. They have all been considered and helped us review our plans. Location #3 was not really on our radar until we started conversing in this post. The 42" of space between the peninsula and the sink-side cabinets was not really a concern until this conversation; we will revisit it as we create this kitchen - hopefully around the end of June 2025. THANK YOU !!

We have remodeled the kitchens in our last two homes. Here is the first one using standard cabinets from Lowes, and I believe there was one corner cabinet in this. The video did not have a good shot for me to grab a still picture.

Again, thank you for the assistance and thoughts. I will share pictures of the final results in July (hopefully). And, if anyone wants to view the full YouTube videos of these two houses, please DM me via Houzz.

This write up with photos shows you how to handle an upper corner, without using the "dated" angled corner cabinets.

https://archedmanor.com/the-best-ideas-to-optimize-kitchen-corner-cabinets/