Sorry, I ad to leave town for a few days and didn't get to immediately check I had a few more replies. To answer your questions, sena01, we do intend to buy a new counter depth fridge to help with space issues. I love the 3 seater layout that you posted there, although I'm not sure I can remove the entire end wall of the dining room. We were going to possibly keep a half wall there due to a thermostat and switches being on that wall. We do need at least a corner post because the portion of the wall adjacent to the living room is load bearing, so we'll need a beam and post. Below is a layout of the kitchen, DR, and LR so you get a better idea of the total space. I think we are pretty much stuck with the door where it is unless we remove it altogether. We are considering an "outward swing" door to minimize the impact, but our contractor is worried about security on that. The layout is missing that we do also have a sliding door on the back wall of the dining room that starts 20" from the kitchen entrance and takes up most of the 119.5" wall on that side.

Stan Z - thank you - wise words. Our project is actually called "ShopHouse" because of the 2 related buildings - one 40x80 and one 40x120 in identical materials, and a focus on modern industrial materials! SO - no offense taken in your names / thoughts. It's pretty spot on! And we plan to have fun with the theme. (As an aside, I lost out on a car turntable for $500 for the shop that would have been so damn cool to have a rotating car in front of the windows that you could see from the house - but even I might have considered the cost to install that "excessive"....) I am 100% going with a clean slab door - no Shaker details. I have that now - too hard to get dust out of the crevices! I will also be downplaying any hardware. The reason we're looking at IKEA is that we have no real need for custom sizes with the galley layout, and with the sizes and fitments available via IKEA (and the future changeability!) it seems like a natural fit. I have a lot of inspiration photos in my Kitchen ideabook- and it's mostly a mixture of white and wood - as we need some wood to warm up the interior with all that concrete / glass / steel. I think that the quality look you can get is a large function of symmetry / layout and the actual installation. Since we're also not into adornments of filler / moulding etc - as long as you have an anal retentive installer (us! - we've done this with my brother in his kitchen) you can get a VERY professional / high end look But - all that being said - I will take a look at the WoodMode and possibly go talk to a local cabinet company - as there is one very near to my house. It would be an interesting comparison. And there's no sense making this decision yet - and the cabinet sale hasn't happened at IKEA yet! Thank you again for the feedback.

Ok, I finally made it home. As you'll see from the sketches, we are in the early conceptual stage of house design with our architect. LOL.... It was said and agreed upon on the build forum that architects aren't great kitchen designers (and neither am I) :) :) We like this particular layout, but I wanted to make sure that we could get a functioning kitchen before we move further forward with this particular variation.Garage is in the top right corner which I cut off on the picture. I agree that a true butlers pantry opens into the DR, but we are both ok with it as it is because it is also quite like a wet-bar for us. We still can stage food and remove dirty dishes, etc to this spot. And a section through the kitchen: And finally, a more squished in version of the kitchen: Hopefully that gives everyone a better idea of what we're trying to do.

I will do an as-built drawing tomorrow! Right now the kitchen is two separate rooms, and you can only enter the laundry room from outside (house used to be a duplex). The kitchen part is 11x13, the laundry part 11x7. I'm surprised by the U suggestion - isn't 11 feet (134 inches to be precise) too wide for a U? Even with extra-wide counters there'd still be six feet in between the arms of the U - that sees awkward.