Also, forgot to add, I am struggling with the location of the powder bath. I have had it placed in the corner where the wine fridge was, but got feedback on this as not ideal given the location of the dining room. Another option would be to steal a foot from the hall closet and place it agacent to the hall closet and open into the hallway or put it where the hall closet is and push a hall closet where the RF is opening into the hall and create a serperation between hallway space and kitchen by framing it out a little. Then not sure where I would put RF.

Also, it is a 1926 Center Hall Dutch Colonial.Thanks!

7' is way too deep for an island. You can't reach the middle to clean. 42" is about perfect for an island's depth. So, what I'd do here is change the orientation of the island. Make it the 7'wide x 42" deep. Then you have room for a small kitchen table. You could push it up to the island so that it was an "extension" of it, or just leave a walking space.

Just a couple of quick points - this may be a regional thing but toilets are not put on outside walls because of plumbing and freezing issues. Sinks - yes, toilets no.

Your island is 7' wide - are you tall enough to reach and clean into 3 1/2' - 4' to get the middle of that thing clean.?

I can't comment on the kitchen itself because it is so ginmorous and appears to be quite spread out that as it currently stands you'll be doing a lot of walking. For me, it's just too big and unwieldy of a space. But, maybe your doing banquets in your kitchen.

It's going to be gorgeous but is kinda large, Madison. :) You have 3 choices:

1. Spread your work areas over the whole thing and just consider it built-in exercise.

2. Bring in walls to create a smaller, more efficient space.

3. Leave the walls where they are, run cabinets, counter and tile all over the place for a visually large-scale kitchen, BUT compact all your real work counter and appliances that you routinely use into a roughly 8-10 x 12ish area. Cleanup'd be nice in another zone, but much, much closer.

This's actually a fairly routine approach taken by clever people working with typically large spaces these days, as you'll see if you look at kitchens on the Finished Kitchens Blog and other sites with an analytic eye. While you're at it, visually measure the ones you really like and compare them with your space.

I see the rationale in putting a coffee/serving area over on the dining room side, but if the walls stayed where they are now I'd put cleanup there, mostly hidden from the rest of the room (nice!) and strategically located right between the messes gathering from both the stove/prep area and dining room, and, of course, the island meals.

Regarding where cleanup's shown now, even with a goal of building exercise in, you really don't want to be constantly running all that stuff all the way across the room. And I'm thinking you might end up dissatisfied to have all your dirty pots and dishes piling up in a location that's so close to the living room and so on close, full view of it.

That back wall's also obviously on view as people walk in from the living room, so maybe put a beautiful but less frequently used counter and some gorgeous cabinetry and decorative items over there. That's a good wall for some mood-setting piece, like a built-in sideboard and hutch, bookcases, whatever, while the cleanup mess that accrues several times a day hides discretely in that treasure of a little corner.

The windows on the back wall probably have a nice view out, but you'll have that same view while working at the island. If your view out the side is suboptimal, like across a driveway to a neighbor's fence, maybe develop a better one? An ivy-covered wall with a little fountain mounted on it?

When you come into the house with groceries do you come in through the mudroom or the lower entry?

I would consider reconfiguring your hall closet area as the powder room for a more central location. You can use the pantry space on the other side of that wall and perhaps move the opening to the DR over to the right so you have cabinetry on both sides of the walk through to the dining (like a butlers pantry). I would think about the traffic through the kitchen to the mudroom - is your garage a detached garage and that is your main family entrance to and from school/work every day? I'm just wondering if flow-wise that will make for a lot of confusion in the kitchen space especially as your kids get older... How do you use that space now?

The island is as big as the mudroom + powder room combined. I think some space needs to be take Out of the kitchen as a whole and added to the mudroom/entry/powder room complex and then you may end up with a space for a more reasonably sized island and aisles.

I have many of the same "large kitchen" issues as you so I can empathize with you.

I definitely think your island is too large to be truly functional. I would consider putting two islands in the space instead of one large one. Basically, just split your island into two 7'x 42" islands. This will give you an easier path from the RF to the cleanup sink.

I played around with your layout in photoshop and am attaching a modified version showing the two islands and also creating a pass thru between the kitchen and dining room that houses a wine fridge, bar sink, and coffee center.

Good luck!

Awesome feedback...I had to giggle when I thought about the size of the island in reality......there is NO way I could clean it unless I put sponges on my feet and jumped up on it as I am only 5 feet tall.

I will noodle over the feedback, revise plans and resubmit. Great points.

Blfenton and aokat15, we have a detached garage in the back of the house. Basically to the left of the patio. We use the front door sometimes and the back door (would be mudroom now) the other part of time....just depends on how many cars are in the driveway. We do not live in an area with a large lot sizes.....But it is necessary to have a mudroom as kids get older to dump their stuff.....

As for taking space from kitchen to mudroom, would be open to that, just not sure how to do it.

Right now we have a breakfast nook where the wine fridge is located which we use for dinners with kids. The dinning room is used less often. Would love if anyone had ideas how to incorporate a breakfast nook. I know it seems excessive to have a dining room, seating at an island and a breakfast nook, but this is the area we hang out in and I envision homework, etc.

Thanks again and would welcome any additional ideas, So exciting!!!

Would your family feel comfortable relocating it's current "breakfast nook" to having seating at the island and not necessarily having a "nook", per se?

Personally, I'd rather have seating at my island than devoting more floor space to another eating area that could be used for something else. If the kids sit at the island counter, at least they can feel a little more connected to the activities taking place in the kitchen (and hopefully help out!)

Thank you all for all of the comments to date - I have taken most to heart and revised the plan significantly. I have tried to consolidate the work zones, reduced size of the island, moved the powder bath to open into the hallway by placing it where the hall close was. I also changed the RF to 2 30" towers so I could separate them.

Again, would love your honest feedback and thoughts. Thanks!

Where you now have the range, warming drawer and books - is that a window or a wall or can it be either?

Try to imagine the elevation of your 23' wall -

pantry to the ceiling
fridge to the ceiling
18" trash/counter
36" sink
24" DW/counter
fridge to the ceiling
pantry to the ceiling

wouldn't be for me.

This is just an opinion because I'm really out of my element on a space this size.

madison3701 -

Just for a laugh - your original island plan (7' x 10') is bigger than my ENTIRE kitchen!

Enjoy your renovation!

The range wall could be either. The window placements on the kitchen walls are all flexible. I am trying to optimize the space into "workable zones" while maintaining an open feeling with a lot of light.

As for the long run, I am trying to balance the space. I would center the sink and the space on either side for the counter would be equal counter space. one side would have the trash pull out the other the dishwasher but the counter would be equal. I looked at the attached for inspiration....window balanced but full floor to ceiling....

The space is large, but there has to be some answers.....please I am open to ideas.

How long is the wall with the range on it according to your last floor plan? Not the 23' one but the one between the mudroom pocket door and the french door to the outside?

That wall is 13 feet from end of bookcase to beginning of pocket door.

OK so here is another idea. Keep in mind that it's just an idea - you may not like it but it could be a jumping off point to other plans that you hadn't considered.

Make that 13' wall a 'tall wall'. From the french door:

2'-3' bookcase (either floor to ceiling or with a counter or maybe beverage fridge under counter and cookbooks above)

4'pantry
4'RF
2'-3'counter (with upper cabinets and lower drawers to act
as a drop zone/message center by the mudroom)

By putting your fridge and pantry (with the beverage fridge if you want) together on that wall you do a number of things. When you do your grocery shopping, regardless of which door you come in, your bags go on the island and you just start emptying without walking all over your kitchen. Also, for snacking and getting drinks from the family room or the patio in the summer everything is easily reached without going into the kitchen proper. You don't have to use the configuration that I used but it's a good spot for that stuff.

The 23' wall from the mudroom:

4' counter (under the counter you could do an 18" drawer
stack and then a 30" drawer stack for pots and pans )

4'range
4'counter with trash underneath and drawer stack
3'sink
2'DW
4' counter with drawers for cutlery and dishes - again
could be 2 stacks of 18" and 30"
2'wine fridge

Please don't do the counter bend at the DR end of this run. Just leave the 23' of counter run a straight run. It's more pleasing and it allows you to widen the entrance into the DR a little.

Your island could almost remain how you drew it in your last drawing except put your warming drawer where you drew your dish drawer.

What you now have is a viable work triangle between the tall wall, your range on the 23' wall and the prep sink in the island. Baking could either be done on the island or on the counter between the range and the sink. (I am a very messy baker so I do like to bake near my clean-up sink and DW)

Your clean-up area is closer to the DR and is in-line with your eating area on the island.

I don't know what ideas you have for upper cabinets and storage but a couple of suggestions are-

-baking trays etc above the fridge and so close to the bake area

-dishes in the dishdrawers by the DW and cutlery. Food wraps in the same stack as the cutlery when cleaning up food.

-cooking cutlery in the stack to the left of the range.

To follow your inspiration picture, you could above your wine fridge at the end of the 23' run, but a similar cupboard for wine glasses, etc. At the other end you could do a similar cupboard to store your cooking oils and vinegars, etc.

Anyway, this is just a thought. Unfortunately being tech challenged I can't draw this out but hopefully it makes sense.

BLFenton - thanks for your detailed insights. They make sense, however I have a hard time losing the symmetry of having the range centered on the island and the prep sink across from it. My mind also seems to gravitate towards centering the cleanup sink under a bank of windows which is centered to the island.

Your suggestions for storage are excellent. I will continue to draw and get some more ideas up for comments.

Any other suggestions before I sharpen my pencil. Happy Monday!

I really like most of your changes with the revised layout. I think the mudroom will work much better and having the half bath in that location will work well for access from your different rooms. I don't love the RF locations... have you thought about putting the RF on the other side of the island down by the closet/coffee section and then having RF drawers in the island? You could have the microwave and coffee station in between the two RF columns and it could work really nice (I think kateskouros and niffy have similar setups). In doing that I would use more of the space towards the sink wall and not have the 60" you note as aisle space near the pantry.

Also, a small point you may have thought of - are you OK having a seam in your counterop on the island? You could get away with no seams if you went to 5x9 but I believe 5x10 means you have to have a seam...

Happy planning - look forward to seeing your next iteration!

aokat15 - I totally agree with you that the ideal location for the RF would be the wall adjacent to the closet. My only issue with that is that I am not sure their is room to accommodate that with the necessary aisle widths. Thoughts?

A couple of people have suggested moving the entrance to the dining room, but I am unable to do that bc there is plumbing in that wall and it is a centered entrance.

I did not realize a 10 foot island would require a seam, but agree that I would want to avoid it at all cost.

Anyone have ideas how to get RF to the ideal wall?