Sorry. here's the layout! Not sure why it didn't post.

bump!

I'd sure rather see you draw a plan using graph paper, so the dimensions are more obvious and the cabinets are to scale. For instance, that 2'11" cabinet to the right of the sink does not really represent a real cabinet. As near as I can tell, it would be a blind corner unit?

Sorry to be negative, but these are things that would bother me a lot:

- 30" opening from kitchen to eating area and family room at the end of the peninsula. Too tight.

- Dish storage too far away from the dishwasher

- Fridge at far end of kitchen from the dining area and where the family hangs out means traffic traipsing through the kitchen. If they're getting snacks and dishes from that end by the fridge, where are they eating, that they don't have to go through the cooking area, as you specified above?

- Fridge to sink to prep to stove is a LOOOOONG path

Have you considered relocating the living room doorway so that you can do an L-shaped configuration at the right end?

Or maybe the main sink where the fridge is now with the fridge to the left of the future sun room door and the baking area and coffee station with a bar sink under the window where you now show the main sink?

Not sure. Just throwing out possible alternatives.

I am not an expert. I am just in the middle of figuring my own kitchen out. But I see some difficulties - dishes and fridge are too far away is my big concern. Can you switch the eating area down to the other end of the kitchen? then use the left corner area for your cooking area. I think the range is too far away from the rest of the kitchen as well. The window wall could have your cupboards, the bump perhaps could be made into a small peninsula, and the table could be down to the right. Pantry could go where the range is, with maybe a desk so that all the walls aren't filled with cabinets. Of course there is the issue of the window in the left which is quite low. Perhaps some more creative people could think of what to do with it. My only thought is a small banquette. Or could you have it raised to counter height?

I am not an expert. I am just in the middle of figuring my own kitchen out. But I see some difficulties - dishes and fridge are too far away is my big concern. Can you switch the eating area down to the other end of the kitchen? then use the left corner area for your cooking area. I think the range is too far away from the rest of the kitchen as well. The window wall could have your cupboards, the bump perhaps could be made into a small peninsula, and the table could be down to the right. Pantry could go where the range is, with maybe a desk so that all the walls aren't filled with cabinets. Of course there is the issue of the window in the left which is quite low. Perhaps some more creative people could think of what to do with it. My only thought is a small banquette. Or could you have it raised to counter height?

It may just be my anal retentiveness, but I'm not a big fan of the irregular, long shape of the kitchen with too many protrusions. I also think the long view from the entry to your off-center peninsula is not flattering. A much more inviting and warm, homey feel would be to have a window and your cleanup sink centered on the hallway. I know it's not cheap to move the window and do a stucco patch.

Let me think about this some more. :)

I'm not sure how much your budget is, but how about flipping the family room and kitchen so that you'd have a more rectangular space to work with?

I think that breakfast nook is a little small and will give you trouble with clearances. I also think the clearances in general are a little tight.

I redrew your layout to scale based on the dimensions provided above. Each light grey square is a foot. Base cabinets are 2 feet deep + 1" or 1.5" counter overhang, so, for example, your sink will come out just a bit beyond the jog wall to your last window on the right.

I wanted to have a look at the main placements of your appliances before getting into the fancy stuff (e.g. coffee bar).

To me in this layout the range feels isolated and I don't like how you have to cross a very major traffic pattern to get to the range. Almost feels like it's in a hallway.

Also your breakfast nook seems quite squeezed to me unless you want to do a banquette.

It's hard to know where to put the dishes in this layout as your eating areas (nook and dining room) are far from each other.

What about something like the below? I have reversed your kitchen.

The range is still a little isolated. As a consolation prize, I got rid of your low window and replaced it with tempered glass so you can look out while you're cooking. To note: you could bump the range out an extra 6" to a foot to keep spatter off the glass, lots of room behind the cook here.

I put your breakfast nook over by your future doors. This just feels right to me. More clearance for chairs and I think the future door living behind the nook would work very well. The nook is near the dining so all the dishes can live together. I gave you 12" built ins along the right side of the nook.

I put your peninsula coming out of the jog wall. You could probably fit two stools there if you really wanted, especially if they were backless and could rest under the counter.

Fridge is now in the hallway area which I think works better than stove although clearances are still tight.

What I don't like about this design is dishwasher in between sink and stove. To me it's most convenient to have DW right beside sink, I hate around the corner, but I'm not sure how to accomplish that without sticking it where it is, unless you put the sink on the peninsula but kind of protruding into the corner and DW at end of peninsula.

If you did that, you could move your range over to the right, away from window, do something funky around the window instead of replacing (window seat? dropped counter?) and add full size, full height, pantry cabs on the wall by the family room. This would free up your area beside the fridge for coffee bar with bar sink, keeping all the plumbing in the same general area.

But your main sink placement would be a little stinky as you'd be a bit trapped in the corner with it. To consider: drainboard sink with drainboard to left, offset sink with small bowl to left.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Thu, Feb 7, 13 at 10:22

Edited to take out bad idea.

But I kind of like this idea! I think you'd probably still want to raise the big window, just to keep enough counterspace in the kitchen. Or you could plop an unfitted (but nice) butcher block island in front of it. You could probably also get another 8 or 10 inches on the peninsula if you can commit to a counter depth fridge, although $$$.

This post was edited by robotropolis on Thu, Feb 7, 13 at 10:36

Wow, I am overwhelmed by these responses. Thank you, thank you, thank you all so much for the time and thought you have put into my crappy little kitchen! Especially robotropolis... I am really thinking about that other possibility you posted. I just have to think about the possibility of the extra expense involved with the replacement of the window.

I was also concerned about the tightness of the peninsula in my contractor's original design... one of the reasons I needed this board's eyes to critique it.

Stacylh: I would love to do flip the family room and kitchen/DR, but it would be way out of our budget to do so, I'm afraid.

Davidahn, the exterior of our house is an ugly gray brick that we hope to have painted eventually. So, if we had to move a window (or get a shorter window, depending on what we decide to do), we could at least use whatever color of brick was cheapest! I do see what you mean about the peninsula being a weird view from the entry way (and I had wondered about that too). Additionally, I certainly agree that the shape of the space is a major problem. I wish we could afford to bump out the current DR area to match the rest of the kitchen... HATE. I don't know why the builder did that.

Please, no one think that my feelings will be hurt by criticisms of the layout we tried to figure out in my original post. I NEED the feedback. I really don't know what I'm doing, even in a regular rectangular space, but this is a really tricky layout.

I greatly appreciate all of the help that's been offered so far.

Sorry this took so long. I've been putting it off because the irregular shape is hard for my anal retentiveness to deal with. :)

I think Robotropolis is on the right track, and I'm not saying my layout is necessarily better. It's just my attempt at cleaning up the irregularities with as clean a layout as possible:

I tried to squeeze an island in to maximize counter space and storage, but the shallow depth of the kitchen (front to back) doesn't allow a decent island with sufficient clearances. It also makes the range a little awkward (squeezed into too short a peninsula). I believe there is sufficient storage space with 20 lineal feet of cabinets on the long wall, 8 ft of peninsulas and the 9.75 ft of fridge/pantry space.

I still stand by my advice to have the sink and window centered with the entry doors. The range, while a great kitchen focal point, is a bit too obviously "kitcheny" for guests to see as soon as they walk in the house, whereas a window is welcoming at the end of a long view.

Is there some seating capacity at the left side near family room?.Either extend the depth with an overhang or omit some drawers on kitchen side and place stools under the counter.One drawback is the distance between family room and any real seating, so some capacity on the left side would be beneficial,and seems easily do-able. I know you had a table there previously,but flanking stools around counter/expanding the counter depth would be a different dynamic-more casual/social with the cook/shorter interludes but nonetheless valuable for making the family room and kitchen work together.The breakfast nook is too far to be the only seating...I think you'd desire more options.

Hi everybody.

Super busy week at work and so I am just now getting back to the kitchen issue.
Davidahn. I like your idea. The thing is we have a new standalone range (well, 2 years old) that we like. I think my husband might flip out if I suggested selling it :) but, I hate to design a kitchen around something like that. (We got it because our 50-year-old cooktop died and we couldn't go without for several years while waiting for a new kitchen, obviously.) Also, we would definitely need to remove two windows and replace with another, shorter window, which really raises the budget. I have to think about this. I really do like your design though and I can truly see it working.

Herbflavor, I totally agree that I'd miss having some casual seating on that side of the kitchen. The family room is a step down sort (you know, popular in the 1960s/70s...), and there's a door leading to the outside right behind that half wall, so there isn't much clearance for barstools in that particular location, but it's something to think about.