It's hard to tell because we don't see enough of the plan to know where all the entrances and exits go and we don't know enough about you, the way you cook and your family to make worthwhile suggestions ... consider yourself warned, because I obviously am going to go ahead make suggestions without knowing anything. The zone idea is that from a cooking zone, you would be able to access everything you needed to cook - the prepped veg, meat, egg, bean curd, water, drain, strainer, pots, pans, baking dishes, the broiler, the wok and a chan. Or imagining pancakes is a good exercise. Where are the eggs, the flour, the wisk, the baking powder, or perhaps the package that says "pancake mix", the bowls, the spatula? Where will you keep the griddle or whatever you make pancakes in? If its electric, where will it sit? Sausage with that? Want to add a few berries and a dip of whipped cream? Look at the plan and make pancakes, how many steps will it be? You have an interesting problem because all of your food storage(pantry and ref) is around the bend and across the room. It says to me that the kitchen is laid out wrong UNLESS you are a very organized person who will take a "shopping trip" to the food and pick everything up in very few trips. I'd start looking at ways to move the ref and move the prep and move the cleanup or perhaps even think of a completely different layout. Possibly observations with reservations for the unknows: ---- I'd hate a kitchen without a direct exit to an outdoor cooking/entertainment area. ---- Your dishes and clean up area might be not in the best location. People need dishes and silverware all the time and need to return dirty ones and place in dw. It looks inconvenient where it is right now. Part of placing a clean up zone is figuring that out and how much access to the clean up zone you need from the cooking zone for getting dishes or pot drop off. ---- I am not seeing a coffee bar, alcohol bar, or wine stuff. If none of these are of interest to you, that's fine, I'm just mentioning it. ---- Tell dude that's a four seater island as the corner space can only be used by a diner on one side. ---- I know this will sound awful, but you need a five to six foot aisle between the island edge and the ref if the stools remain as drawn and it may still be kind of a pita to get some milk once the stools are filled. ---- I would hate the relationship between the stools and the cooking surface. From that cooking surface, you have a little north-south view, but unless you have eyes in the back of your head...

Sounds like a very promising project, and I love your 2 little verandas. Depending on the views out those windows/need for privacy, it might be really nice for the view from one side to the other to specifically be wide open there (blast the usual apartment expectations). But, you need to offer a to-scale drawing of what you are thinking, plus some details about how you live, how many of you, and how you will use the kitchen (usually microwave frozen food, passionate bread baker, etc.) etc. Without that, some people just don't post, others post a lot of stuff that's just plain impossible or undesirable.

I always thought of zones as a collection of smaller triangles, too (maybe more of an open pyramid of sorts, with sides being shared by the different triangles). I think my basic triangle is still fridge-sink-stove, but *prep sink* now instead of one main sink that has to be available to everything and everyone. In a one-person and/or small kitchen where one sink is the only feasible option, I think there still has to be a 'triangle' for efficiency's sake, but, in that case, with little zones inside, if at all possible. I like a place-for-everything, and a place-to-do-everything. I don't want to bake where I do my veggie prep or deal with dirty dishes. (There grows my carbon footprint, I suppose!) I've had medium galley and smallish L with island kitchens...Both had distinct triangles, but also, I think, had zones along each side of the triangle. --I think triangles and zones can co-exist. As one of the people who commented on the article, there are too many variables to make a general rule, and that, I suppose, was the problem with adherence to the old, measured triangle guidelines.

With how little you use a microwave, I think you should do as Mama G suggested and put it in those cabinets next to the fridge. I don't know if it's still being made but there used to be a style called Spacemaker that would fit in a 12" deep upper cabinet. It sounds like something like that would work well for you with your limited use. Another plus for putting your microwave next to the fridge is that this frees up that lower micro-drawer space for your every day dishes. Mama G is right about the hutch above the peninsula creating a two-step process for putting your dishes away. Drawers in the peninsula sized so they can be open when the DW door is open eliminates that problem and would make putting dishes away super-quick and easy. You really don't want the dish storage in drawers on the other side of the sink as that puts them in the prep area making it difficult to do clean-up while DH is doing his prep in that area. Also, the drawers in the prep area should be used for things DH will need while prepping like colanders, bowls, knives, and other gadgets he uses regularly. Don't plan a traffic jam into your kitchen. If you want to put your mixer in the appliance garage on the peninsula, and I think that's a good location since you want that for your baking area, I think you should consider putting the toaster and coffee on the shelves to the right of the fridge. You really don't want them to the right of the sink in the prep area either. Imagine DH making breakfast for the family and the grandkids want toast, everybody else wants coffee, and DH has to interrupt his prep or move everything he's working on elsewhere to allow folks access to toaster and coffee. This is another traffic jam you're planning. The bookcase idea looks great to the right of the fridge. If you can't bear the idea of putting the microwave, coffee and toaster there, you could put it all to the left of the fridge. To be clear, I think it's more functional to the right of the fridge so someone can grab a cuppa coffee, make toast, and use the micro without having to come into the kitchen while DH is cooking. Or while you are cleaning up. It's just really nice to keep these things out of the kitchen proper while people are working in the kitchen. In your space, the second place for function, imho, is to the left of the fridge. It's not a close second. But it's a heckuva lot better than putting it all to the right of the sink. Regarding your two bookshelf designs, I do visually prefer the one with the shallow lower. However, I think the full-depth lower with the coffee and toaster on the counter with a micro-drawer makes the most sense for how you live, especially when family is visiting. Do you know what the width of the aisle is between bookcase and peninsula with the full-depth lower? You don't want to create a bottle-neck there where someone can't leave the kitchen while someone else is coming in. 42-44" is a decent width to provide egress/ingress at the same time although some folks prefer wider. But then you don't want the peninsula so short it's not usable. It IS a bit like putting a puzzle together, isn't it?