We have both an architect (FAIA) and an interior designer to whom we have paid a VERY sizable chunk of money. I am delighted with their work on the main portion of the house, but I'm hoping to work this out without needing to involve them, since I hate to spend more design money on an architecturally uninteresting space that will rarely if ever be seen by anyone outside of our family. There are a couple changes I've made since the architect finalized the plans (e.g. after getting fantastic advice here about my kitchen layout), and he's happy to look over proposed changes and give them his blessing or shoot them down. I'm hoping to come up with an idea for this space to run by him, which he will happily do for free. If I just get a thread of people telling me I'm being cheap, that's fine, I am! But on the off chance that someone has a great idea about how to handle this - and in particular, about how to put in an area that works as a guest room without actually being a dedicated guest room - I figured it couldn't hurt to post.

I grew up in a house with yellow kitchen cabinets, and brown wallpaper with flowers on it. It was the 1950's and my mother was heavily into the "early American" look. The yellow was a mid-range one. I have a good friend on Martha's Vineyard who has light buttery yellow cabinets like your sample. She has used them with soft greens. That color does NOT work well with gray marble or a bright blue range. Yes, you could paint your cabinets a bright provencal yellow, but does that really go with the rest of your house? I don't think so. I have a friend in Chicago who bought a blue range and she painted her old cabinets a Farrow & Ball color that is sort of a gray - Cornforth White - and she put in soapstone countertops and integrated sink. It looks terrific. Her house is an old Victorian in an old suburb - very in keeping with the age of the house.

Thoughts on this drawing: - Is that half-bath 4 1/2 x 4 1/2? If so, it's too small. I strongly suggest you drop a tape measure in your purse, and every time you use a bathroom -- at the dentist's office, in your friend's house, where ever -- measure it. Develop a sense of "just right". I promise you, it won't be 4 1/2 x 4 1/2. Consider grandma using this space with a walker. If you go with a pedestal sink, it'll be a space-saver (and you don't need to store much in a half bath), but it'll still be too small. - Still on the half-bath ... go with an in-swing here. This door, as shown, can block your hall traffic. - While we're talking about doors, the pantry door will stay open most of the time, so I suggest a pocket door here ... if you're able to "park it" in the wall by the fridge. Why? Same reason as the half-bath: as shown, it's a traffic blocker, and with only a 3' walkway into the pantry, you don't really have room to comfortably "park the door" in that pantry entry. - I'd like to see a pass-through door between the pantry and the kitchen. Imagine how convenient it'd be to walk into the pantry, pick out your cans and "set them through" to the kitchen countertop rather than carrying them. - Beware of placing the freezer against a wall. Be sure you'll be able to open the door all the way. - Will you have a cabinet near the fridge in which you can store glassware? You know you want these things close together. - You have 4' between your island and your cabinet runs. I know this is what most people consider "just right", but I find it a little wide (then, again, I am small). Go down to Lowes with the aforementioned tape measure, and you'll see that most of their stuff is 3 1/2' apart. Decide for yourself whether you find this comfortable. - What's the cabinet between the sink and the dishwasher? - Your "serious cooking zone" seems to be angled towards the crook of the "L" ... as such, I'd be tempted to bump the dishwasher to the other side of the sink ... or to flip-flop the dishwasher and the sink. This would give you more storage /drawers in the spot where you'll cook most. - In a dream kitchen, in a kitchen this big, I'd want a bigger sink. Seriously, it's the most used appliance. Go big. - Where's your microwave? coffee pot? trash can? - I see you have a second reach-in pantry. Unless you have some very unusual needs, I don't see the point in BOTH large pantries. - I'd extend the mudroom wall so it "touches" the refrigerator space. This would hide the exterior door, and it would place the half bath and pantry door IN the mudroom. Can you swap the mudroom and the pantry? A mudroom would benefit from windows - and maybe you could even put a door to the back yard in there. Of course without seeing the rest of the plan, I have no idea if that would make sense. Yes! Mudroom on the corner would be nicer ... and windows in a pantry are a negative (light is the enemy of food storage). I spend A LOT of time in the kitchen ... So this is going to be a huge upgrade to me in terms of space. Since I do spend so much time there, I’d love to bring some beauty to the space too....namely the windows. Red flags ... a bigger kitchen is not automatically a better kitchen. What you want is an efficient, well-designed space. Who says this? A person with a very large but poorly laid-out kitchen. No one ever says, "This room has too much natural light." Love big windows in a kitchen. As far as appliances, I’ve never cooked with gas ... but I was leaning towards an induction range, 30 inches. I have only limited experience with gas, but I'm not overly impressed. I would also consider a cooktop with separate double wall ovens (we host large family dinners so an extra oven would be appreciated). I also considered a regular range with a separate wall oven on the wall with the reach-in-pantry. Just don’t know if that would look weird. I’ve never considered two dishwashers but I don’t hate the idea. Before you start adding in extra this and oversized that, consider that all these extra appliances drive up your space requirements ... especially since you've already said you want the large windows /thus will be giving up some upper cabinets. How often will these things really be used? Will they "earn their keep"? I doubt it. but maybe a 5 ft window is still good enough? A 5' window is nice, but it isn't going to give you the sweeping views /light that I think you were pining for earlier. Are all meals at the island? No love for your island seating. Take the family down to Waffle House for a meal and sit at the bar. Did you interact much? Did you enjoy this seating pattern? An island is a great place to sit while you work, and it's a great place for a child to sit ... but it's NOT a great place for family meals. I like this pantry /half bath layout better than the OP's original. I'd put a pegboard for storing cast iron pans and utensils on that blank pantry wall.

Thank you all for your comments and feedback! I will add some more details here to better define my project. DETAILS: 1. Yes, getting new appliances. A big, french door fridge (35.5 inches wide, SS) Keeping current dishwasher (standard 24", SS) Adding a drawer microwave (27" Sharp SS) Still trying to decide about range or cooktop / oven. If I get a range, it will be 30" with a double oven configuration. If I select a professional range, it will be 36". If I do a cooktop / oven, the cooktop will be 36" and under-counter oven. All SS. Big, deep single bowl SS sink 33" (requires a 36" cabinet) 2. Yes, I definitely want an island that we can have at least 3 stools at for teens to eat, etc. 3. No table. In the lower left corner, we already have a table and eating area. (It's located off the design drawing) 4. Yes, we can move the pantry opening to the left. 5. No, sadly, I am not getting a prep sink . . . darn it . .. hubby won't allow plumbing changes. 6. From the bottom right corner, on the right side wall, the first 9 ft. have been removed to open up the kitchen. The remainder of the right side wall is still there though. DIMENSIONS: * 9 ft ceilings * Top wall is 210" total with 132" of continuous wall space (assuming I shift the pantry opening to the left more. * Right wall is 252" total with the first 108" now gone. (at the bottom of the wall). The upper portion of the right wall has 120" of continuous wall space. * The bottom wall is 140" total. It has a big window on it, so only lower cabinets can fit here. I have two sink hookup options that do not require plumbing changes. I can keep the sink under the window, where it is currently on my drawing. Or, I can put it off of the top wall, about middle of that wall. I don't really like the idea of my sink facing a wall, so I would prefer it stay on the bottom wall, under the window. Things I would like: * A pullout base cabinet that will hold 3 trash cans (21" cabinet) * I would prefer that most or all of my base cabinets be drawers. Is that a good idea? Or, will it look odd? If I have lower cabinets, then I want pull out shelves. * I'd like a big island, and I think I could accommodate that. * I would like to have a hood in my kitchen to help get rid of cooking smells. I like the hoods are are hidden inside cabinetry. (See pictures.) * Off white traditional style cabinet doors. PICTURES: A. . An example of the kind of hood that I would like to have. B. This is a picture of my old kitchen. You are looking at the bottom left wall area (on my drawing, for reference.) This is our eating area. So, no need to make any table fit into my drawing b/c we have this other area. C. We remodeled that dining wall area in Picture B, and it now looks like this. My new kitchen will have the same brick for backsplash to tie it all together. D. This is an old picture of my kitchen. You are looking at the wall that we knocked down (I drew a blue line over the portion of the wall that is missing now.) That window has been replaced with a 3 section window with upper mullions. Again, thank you for taking the time to read all of this and thanks for offering opinions and advice. I really appreciate it!