Here's the layout

{{!gwi}}

It feels like you've wasted the wall on the right by cramming all of the appliances on the left. With an aisle that is only 36", the DW will bang into the cooks legs if opened. The MW is really far away from the frig. The distance is magnified because the most direct route runs the gauntlet between the cook & cleanup zones. What do you have planned for the right wall? Where is your dish storage? Your dry food storage(pantry)? Imagine running through typical tasks. Will a breakfast of cereal & eggs have you running hot laps around the space? You have a great space to work with, but I think your layout could use some tweaking.

BTW (just saw your other post regarding pictures), to get the picture in the message, copy the HTML code from photobucket and paste into the message.

Oops! I read the plan wrong. I thought that was a 36" aisle, but that was the cooktop width. Ignore my confusion.
Incidentally, what are the aisle widths? and room measurements?

Marzhere - thank you for the technical assistance in posting the layout (and photos in the future. If I struggled with that today it doesn't bode well for this renovation>>>)
Laxsupermom- here are some comments re your feedback...
We'd planned to have the right wall be cabinets/counter with a desk space either toward the end near the mudroom door or toward the middle, aligned with the island. That will be a high traffic aisle (everyone uses the mudroom door). I hadn't figured out all the dish storage placement yet (tomorrow I'm meeting with the architect/kitchen designer to talk through those details). Dry food storage will be in the walk in pantry on the other side of the refrig. I wondered where I'd put the grocery bags while I'm unloading. Kitchen designer didn't think the island was that far away, but I wondered. I'll talk to them about the open door of DW/Cooktop issue. So helpful. Thanks.

laxsupermom, I think your original observation is true. It's a 36" aisle.

I am somewhat crazy, but I'd like to see the kitchen and office switch (or something). Maybe office goes to front room and dining area where kitchen is shown... I pushed some stuff around with moving the entrance from the mudroom, etc. to make a protected "L", but wasn't really happy with it.

My main gripe is the "major walkway" going through the business area of the kitchen. Minor one is the door circus at the garage/mudroom and again with the broom closet and the office door. More smaller is I have "things" about kitchens without windows and big tables in front of way to back yard - particularly when carrying tray full of stuff to grill.

I wish you all the best with your new kitchen, and am sorry I don't have nuffin' for you.

I agree that something major needs to be done with this plan. You have a big space to work with, but your whole work triangle is crammed into a small area. Also, both sides of the kitchen are major walkways. Your cooktop is going to be hard to vent from there. Is the kitchen in that spot because the plumbing is already there and you have a tight budget? If not, have you tried the kitchen where the office is? You would have to reconfigure the mudroom, etc.

Let us know how much can be moved and what is already set in stone. That way we can stop redesigning the floor plan and focus on the kitchen plan.

Bk
Congrats on your remodeling

I keep scrolling - and my 1st thought hasn't gone away - the layout just seems a bit awkward - the breakfast area seems like it was an afterthought - not planned. I agree w/some of the above comments re: clearances, major traffic areas, door jockey -
You have an expansive space to work with, but it seems like it isn't configured effectively

The "music room" is in a high traffic, high volume/noise area - just wondering if you considered having the office & music room located near each other - they seem like they need quiet space. Dinning/LR look like they may become a dead zone - ? office and music there -

Is the powder room existing? is that a entry hall closet next to it?

Where is the new space/old staircase?

Wondering do you have photos of existing space & exterior of your home? That may really help - I feel a bit confused - not sure what is existing & what is new
As Auch above noted, perhaps if we knew what was negoitable that may help with feedback

Good luck

I am feeling a bit stressed - and wishing I had posted this a few weeks ago. I'm going to attempt to post interior pictures I just took.
The Dining Room (listed as dining/living on the plan) is right off the kitchen and we use it a lot (eg, entertaining) so I'd like to leave the main kitchen area close to it. We also had not planned any work in the 'music room' -- we don't need it incredibly quiet, it's just where my son plays the piano (and I read) but somehow the architect called it the music room. The powder room and front hall closet are existing. As far as other aspects of the plan, I liked the idea of my office facing the backyard. Re the comment about carrying in hot grill items from the backyard around the kitchen table - we will still have our grill on a deck that is out the door near the pantry. However, we did plan to have our 'adult beverage' mini refrigerator along the wall in the breakfast room.
Here are some photos of what we have now.

http://s732.photobucket.com/albums/ww326/betsybags01/current%20interior/?action=view¤t=IMG_9106.jpg
http://s732.photobucket.com/albums/ww326/betsybags01/current%20interior/?action=view¤t=IMG_9107.jpg
http://s732.photobucket.com/albums/ww326/betsybags01/current%20interior/?action=view¤t=IMG_9109.jpg
http://s732.photobucket.com/albums/ww326/betsybags01/current%20interior/?action=view¤t=IMG_9110.jpg
http://s732.photobucket.com/albums/ww326/betsybags01/current%20interior/?action=view¤t=IMG_9112.jpg
http://s732.photobucket.com/albums/ww326/betsybags01/current%20interior/?action=view¤t=IMG_9113.jpg

My suggestion would be to give serious consideration to switching the family room and the kitchen. As it is, the kitchen is in the middle of your traffic flow. I think that you might find yourself a little hemmed in when you are trying to entertain.

Moving the kitchen to the back of the house into the room with the fireplace is going to give you the opportunity to build a beautiful space that people enjoy congregating in, and that has the capacity to hold everyone who wants to be there.

I guess I still don't know how to insert photos. Here is a link. THANKS

Here is a link that might be useful: interior photos of adjacent rooms

This is a sketch of an imperfect solution for the space constraints. Mudroom entrance changed, pantry changed, etc. I don't know if it fits - so its just a sketch of a concept.

The traffic is channeled to the stool side of the island. There is a bank of narrow depth, tall storage at the southern entrance. It somewhat makes up for the lack of wall cabinets. It could be decorative as well as functional - be an antique pantry cab or some such. It's nice to have a vista of something in that direction. for the same reason, I'd leave the larger opening into the music room.

The "business area" is consolidated into a corner without much walk-thru. Ideally, the ref would be on the family room side - but I can't see any way to do that and keep the open corner wrapping around to the breakfast room. So I'd suggest a drinks ref or ref drawers on the breakfast room run if money allows. If you entertain a lot, an icemaker?

If the budget allows, a small sink would be really nice in the breakfast room run - allows doubling as a bar/coffee bar. If you can do the plumbing there, consider making that your clean up zone and use the larger sink and dw there and a 24" prep sink in island. In any event, use the wall cabs on the breakfast run for dish storage.

{{!gwi}}

Nice job, bmorepanic. I think this plan solves many of the problems in the first one. You have a protected work triangle, the pantry is more accessible and there is a landing space for groceries. I might move the cooktop down a little so that it is further from the sink. Maybe center it on that run of base cabinets. Can you vent a cooktop into a garage?

Lisa, what do you think?

Nice job bmore! With the trash pullout to the left of the sink and the DW to the right, the cook can pivot and drop wrappers in the trash or flip utensils into the sink at the same time that someone from the FR puts a glass into the DW. I'm with auchmedden on sliding the CT over just a hair.

Wow - thank you for your efforts in this. (I've been without internet service, sorry I didn't express my great appreciation sooner!). I'm going to study the suggestions - thanks!

No matter what you end up with in the kitchen myself, BK, my initial strong thought was also that the mud room needs to open to the central traffic hall, not the kitchen. This way, instead of your home having 2 central traffic halls, both of them dysfunctional in important ways, it has one good one that is allowed to do its job. That is a nice plan, BMore. :)

I think bmorepanic has come up with an excellent plan. It moves things out of the traffic path without requiring any major design modifications. Well done !