Can you push the sink a bit further to the right, to reduce butt collision potential?

I don’t know about using a 48” insert for a 63” capture area. Will the capture area be entirely steel lined with plenty of volume (internal height)? Honestly at that point you might simply have a custom 68” wide hood made. It can still be concealed behind wood panels, doesn’t have to look like a restaurant.

You can't have shelves and bi-fold doors without constructing a "pocket" for the bi-fold doors to be recessed into. The shelves need a vertical solid piece of material on both side to support any shelves.

See the pocket for the doors?

You will loose several inches of storage space inside the cabinet.

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Your fridge door will bang on that perpendicular wall. You might be careful to avoid dents, but kids and/or guests won't be.

For the "corner cabinet with bifold doors to conceal/park small appliances":

Bifold doors have two narrow doors, the first door is hinged to the cabinet, the second door is hinged to first, the two doors fold up against each other like a closed book, the second door runs in a track. Without that track, both doors could simply swing open as one floppy unit. Most of us had louvered bifold closet doors in an apartment or house once, remember how they kept coming off their tracks?

Pocket doors are a single door that is hinged to slides that run into the cabinet, the door is swung open to 90 degrees then slid back into the cabinet. If the cabinet depth is greater than the door width, the door can recess entirely into the cabinet. See 18" EZ Pocket Door Slide | Rockler Woodworking and Hardware . Accuride, others make the hardware too.

I don't know of any hardware specifically for bifold+pocket doors. A good (custom) cabinet maker can probably put a bifold door on pocket door hardware, so you fold the door, then slide the folded door back into the cabinet. The inside edge surface of the second door could be notched so the doors fold flat despite the hinge. Use magnets as door closures.

Without a track, it won't work exactly like a traditional bifold door, you'd be able to swing both doors open without folding them, but in that unfolded condition the doors won't be able to recess entirely into the cabinet. I think it would be fine, if users manipulate the doors with some respect. If users are gorillas, that could be a problem.

If you have shelves behind the bifold-pocket doors, they could theoretically be "floating" if you don't want a distinct "pocket" built into the cabinet to contain the folded and recessed doors. That will require unusual cabinet construction, the back will have to be substantial rather than the usual 1/4" finish plywood, and stuff hanging off the edge of the shelf may interfere with the sliding of the folded door. So, yeah, as chispa says you should have proper pockets made and give up a bit of interior width.

Have you used pocket doors? They are a bit slow to fully operate - swinging them open is just like a regular door, but pushing them back into the cabinet is a second step, albeit only takes a few seconds, and you want to press smoothly and ideally in the middle area of the door edge - if the gorilla just slams on the bottom of the door edge, the door can get crooked and jam. They also need flush pulls if they are to fully recess - hinged ring pulls look cool and nautical but, again, an extra step, or use recessed pulls.

No problem if you're going to open the cabinet and leave it open as you work (e.g. use a mixer or blender) then close it up when the work is done. A problem if the gorilla is just wanting to yank the door open, grab a cookie, then slam it shut or worse just leave it open and flopping around. Right after they slam the refrigerator door into the door frame to snatch out the milk.

Are there gorillas in your house? Or baby gorillas?

1. 42" aisles are way too small, especially for the high end look you are going for. And yours are measured to the box, not the overhang, so you actually only have 39" aisles. Way too tight.

2. 14" overhang doesn't include cabinet doors. 15" is the minimum recommended. Do you actually need that storage?

3. I had cabinets that had hidden doors. Didn't work as well as I thought it would, and yes, it requires adding a double cabinet to create space to house the door. Took away interior space. I also would think that for anything but the toaster you'd move it to the island to use, so the ease of use and accessibility may be a moot point.

4. Where is your trash? Typically it would be next to the sink.

5. Hidden spice pullout? Reconsider. When do you typically use spices? Are you mixing them and adding them during prep? (I cook from scratch most nights and this is typically how I use spices except salt). If you are using them during a prep, a spice drawer in your prep space is the best spot.

6. Verify how you want the doors above your appliance cabinet to open.

7. What's through the pocket door?

8. Why a double bowl sink?

9. I agree, I would look at getting the correct size hood for your 60" of cooking space.

10. If you are installing quartz as a backsplash and a high powered gas range in front of it, you may want to reconsider. See scorched quartz threads (also, consider the depth of the quartz as you need to have appopriate range clearances from the backwall, so that may push everything out 1-1.5 inches).

@John Liu Thank you very much for the insightful feedback. Truly appreciated. Can you elaborate on "I don't know about using a 48" insert for a 63" capture area"?

- yes, my intent was to have the underside of the hood with stainless steel. The min recommended extraction for each range is listed at 450 (x2 = 900cfm). I cannot see any scenario where I'd be using all burners or induction elements simultaneously. @anj_p

-"Honestly at that point you might simply have a custom 68” wide hood made. It can still be concealed behind wood panels, doesn’t have to look like a restaurant. " - any chance you have a visual aid that conveys this idea?

- great explanation regarding bifold vs pocket doors. Perfectly described. Happy to report neither my wife nor I have any gorilla tendencies, and there are no little gorillas in the house. How much interior space should be dedicated to the space for pocket doors (on each side)? Also, if choosing 'traditional' pocket doors (vs jerry-rigged bifold doors on pocket door hardware) what's the widest single panel door width you'd recommend? (since the span for the unit is 70"). I saw one iteration of bifold doors at a cabinet shop and as you perfectly summed up, it was clumsy and awkward - I think largely due to the way it was constructed.

- the wall clearance noted for the built in fridge stipulates 6 1/2"...which was incorporated into the design but not noted on the drawing. Therefore, late night cookies and milk shouldn't result in a smashed door fridge. @chispa

@anj_p great insightful points, thank you very much for commenting.

1. how much wider than 42" do you suggest?

2. 15" overhang duly noted. Yes, we need the storage as we've cannibalized alot of wall cabinets.

4. We're a family of two. Don't generate much trash. Organic waste and some garbage. The idea was for some small pull out bins nestled in the sink cabinet.

5. I most often spice food during the cooking process. The hidden pullout was conceived to have spices, oils, vinegars close to the left range.

6. We thought the top cabinets above the appliance cabinet should pull up to open. They're larger cabinets that the top ones on the pantry tower and wanted to maximize space for larger storage. Is it visually unappealing or does the inconsistency constitute a design faux-pas?

7. Through the pocket door is entry to the dining room.

8. I've read mixed reviews of the large (tub) sink. Your thoughts?

9. By hood, are you referring to the insert itself (wider than 48") and more CFM?

10. excellent points. thank you.

If pocket doors are wider than the cabinet interior depth, then they cannot fully recess. If the cabinet is 70” wide, two doors means each door is too wide to fully recess. Four doors means each door is narrow enough to fully recess.

If the cabinet is going to have one full width opening with no center divider, and you want the doors to fully recess, then I think you have to have bifold pocket doors.

Thinking about this harder, I realize you *can* combine a track with the pocket feature. The track can terminate early so that, when the second door is fully folded, it disengages from the track and can be slid into the cabinet. Until it reaches that point, the second door remains engaged in the track and thus there is no floppy action. Presumably you want the upper track to be recessed into the upper part of the cabinet opening, rather than obtrusively visible. I’m not sure if you want a lower track set into the counter - seems like a crumb-catcher - but you might want some sort of “stop” so that the bottom of the second door can’t be pushed in. Or maybe not, since your home is blessedly gorilla-free.

I don’t know of any “off the shelf” hardware to do this (“this” meaning to combine pocket with bifold on track). Maybe someone else has better search skillz. Is your cabinet maker inventive and willing to try new things? Mine is - they make custom furniture, are used to figuring out clever hidden stuff - but a run of the mill so-called ”custom cabinet” shop might not be.

If you split the one space up into two, then the need for bifold doors goes away. You need four pockets not two, but the pockets are narrower since they don’t have to contain bifolded doors.

Looking more closely at your rendering, it shows that cabinet as “full overlay“. I am not sure how that will work with pocket doors. You probably need a visible side panel to contain the pocket. You show such a panel on the full height cabinet to the left of the ranges. The doors/drawer faces above/below the pocket doors may need to be extended.

The problem with using a narrow capture area is that you won't capture everything you're cooking unless you only use the inside burners. If you want to capture the entire area of your cooking space you need a hood that is AT LEAST as wide as your cooking space. Preferably wider. This also requires makeup air to function appropriately. There are a ton of threads on this on houzz. One contributor used a commercial set up in his home. Here is his blog. https://bamasotan.us/range-exhaust-hood-faq/

I suppose you could do two 30" hoods side by side but then you have to duct both of them. Assuming you are able to duct as your range currently is on an inside wall.

1. 48" aisles are typically the minimum.

3. My cabinets with pocket doors were maybe 15" deep and the door stuck out 6" or so when it was tucked away. The space required for the hardware was maybe 3", so we lost 3" + side panel in storage. They also only work well for inset cabinets - if you have framed, the frame needs to be cut to allow the door to enter. It won't work for frameless. It looks like you have full overlay currently, which might be challenging. If your cabinets are frameless as well, a pocket door won't work. (ours were framed partial overlay and you could see the cut out when the doors were closed).

4. Make sure you have enough height in that cabinet for what you envision. I feel like only a bathroom-sized trash can would fit under my sink but it all depends on the size of your sink and cabinet.

5 If you spice at the range, imagine this in the top drawer adjacent to your range. Honestly it's the best (and easiest to use) spice storage I have ever had (and I have had everything).

6. The open up direction is not indicated on your plan - side open is (hence my comment). See if you can get hinges that stay open, otherwise those doors will become annoying very fast. Pinched fingers/smacked heads.

7. Hmm. I might think of switching your appliance garage with the fridge in that case, as the fridge door, and the person standing in front of it, will block the dining room pathway, and the fridge tends to be a busy place when people are sitting down to dinner. Maybe you don't use your DR often but it would definitely cause a traffic jam.

8. Not sure where you're reading! I would say the ratio of people who like double bowl sinks vs. single bowl is maybe 20%/80%, and I think that's generous toward double bowl sinks. There is a small but vocal minority who swear by double bowl sinks. The rest of us have quietly changed to single bowl and love it. If you use your dishwasher correctly, there is no need for a double bowl sink (not everyone uses their double bowl sink this way anymore but the original idea was both sides filled with water, one side was wash, one rinse, drying rack or drainboard on the counter). Most things these days can go directly in the dishwasher. Things that can't are usually larger items that don't fit in a double bowl sink, at least not with a full divide. It all boils down to how you want to use your sink. If you like the traditional wash/rinse/drying rack, then go for it. If you use your dishwasher and only have a few items (stock pots, knives, sheet pans) for hand wash, the large single bowl is better.

For hood and insert, are you thinking this? Flat surface above ranges, with hood insert at center.

Or are you thinking this? Recessed surface above ranges, with hood insert at center.

With the former, there is no "capture volume". The plume of hot greasy air and smoke rises from the pot, spreading out like a cone, reaches the flat surface, then some of it can spill out into the room. Yes the insert will be pulling air, but if the plume is big enough the insert may not pull the farther-away part of the plume into its baffles before the plume spills out.

With the latter, there is a capture volume. The plume is caught in the recessed space, can't immediately spill out, and the insert has more time to pull the plume into its baffles.

Depends how you cook. If you just simmer, braise, use low heat, etc then you may not need a very effective hood. If you use higher heat, fry, sear, etc then you probably will. If you only use the burners/hobs directly under the insert for higher heat, that will help.

In the end, that is a lot of burners/hobs and BTU equivalents you are planning, unless it is just for looks you must expect to do serious cooking, and it would be a shame to spend all this money/effort and end up with a smelly greasy kitchen.

Good suggestion to search for threads on hoods, CFM, MUA, capture volume. Especially MUA (make up air).

@John Liu - Sorry for the delay in replying - appreciated your insight on this John. I had already done plenty of research regarding MUA, but the capture area/volume point you brought up was very insightful. So much so, that I made some changes to the design. When you state: "you might simply have a custom 68" wide hood made....can still be concealed behind wood panels", I'm assuming the implication is a stainless steel hood (restaurant style, but covered in wood panels to not look it)? I've been searching online for this and am not sure where to start - if you have any tips/recommendations you can share, I'd be really grateful. Between the two ranges and the fridge, I'd prefer not to have any more stainless in the design.

@anj_p - thank you too for the link you included (bamasotan.us) - a wealth of information and truly in depth. Also, for the detail on quartz backsplashes. I'm leaning towards a high quality ceramic tile in large format to minimize grout lines (potentially 4' x 4'). Do you have any recommendations / suggestions or preferences? The original plan for the hood ducting was to go straight up, through the attic and vent out the roof but seeing that significant snow accumulations are common in my neck of the woods, a 90 degree bend would be needed to facilitate a side wall egress. Thoughts?

I've attached some updated images that demonstrate the new hood configuration, with the addition of two narrow wall cabinets. The hood measures 72" wide (+6" on either side of the two ranges) and at the bottom, it's 32" out from the wall. The idea is to incorporate a capture area, where the fan insert will be closer back towards the wall. Your opinions and thoughts are certainly welcomed.

why do you need two ranges? I have gas in one home, induction in another. for all the praises induction gets, gas is better for for cooking - i feel i have way more control. both is a lot

For the volume of cooking you do, I would want a lot more prep space and counter space than you have. (I have a small-ish NYC galley kitchen with more counter space than you have.) I'd skip the bifold doors and make that run of cabinets uppers and lowers to get more counter space. I'd store the appliances in the deep drawers beneath.

Do you intend to store pots and pans in the cabinets to the left and right of the sink? I like my pots and pans drawers to be wider.