I cook a lot of different ways - but all from scratch. That is the reason I don't have a microwave (plus I didn't want to clutter the counters OR give up any cabinet space). But I disgress . . . In winter I cook soups, stews and roasts as well as heartier pasta dishes. When doing stews I usually start on the stove top and move it to the wall ovens. What I like about having the wall ovens is the convenient height and the flexibility you get (plus they hold quite a bit). Just having adequate counter space for prep work has had the greatest impact on the ease of cooking for me - more than the ovens, cooktop etc . I am happy with my general layout. With the exception of the fridge everything is within a few steps so it is easy enough. As of now I wouldn't really change anything although a second prep sink would have been nice!

I rarely move anything from the stovetop to the oven, and we do a lot of baking, so separate wall ovens work great for us. It also makes better sense since we almost always have multiple workers in the kitchen at once (and I LOVE having my pots and pans right underneath the rangetop). Someone can bake while others or another uses the stove without getting in each other's way. That was the main focus for our kitchen layout...Room for everyone to have good work areas without competing with or walking over others, because as soon as I want to do something in the kitchen, the kids seem to be motivated to do a project, too, and I didn't want any of us to feel short of room. We even got a 48" rangetop so more than one could cook at a time (I thought it'd be room for 2, but I've happily seen 3 at work there).

In our last house we had one good prep space and everyone needed it at once...the cook, the baker, and the salad maker all competed for a one-person-sized spot on one side of the island.

Having the dish area separate from the prep area is great, too, so the kids can load/unload the dishwasher, set the table, etc. without crossing through the cooking zone and without competition for the sink area. I'm no longer banging my shins on the open dishwasher door...and cooking and/or afternoon snack mess can be taken care of before dinner, so the only cleanup after is table stuff.

Everything rhome said !! She put it perfectly. My "kids"are big but they are still a presence in the kitchen as are all of our friends. I had a call Friday asking when the next pizza party was going to be !!

Almost never go from cooktop to oven either so having them far apart works great for me. Wonderful thread mama...I bet this helps a lot of folks solidify their thinking on workstations as well as general appliance purchases and need for more than one sink etc. c

I had to stay with my old layout so I'm wishing I had the more task oriented work stations like rhome mentioned. I can't emphasize enough to someone just starting out how important is would be to pay attention to how you cook before you start the remodel porcess. The biggest thing I would change would be to separate the clean up area from the prep area. Even having the sink reversed would have been a great help (I put the small bowl next to the dishwasher instead of the large bowl...what was I thinking!)

This isn't OT at all!

My (unredone) kitchen works really well for us so I'm keeping the layout of major appliances (with small modifications). I do lack space to spread things out when I need to, but I will add some counter space. OK, we do have a bottleneck in our galley because the full depth fridge lines up directly opposite the 12" protrusion that could be called a peninsula (in the 50s, the fridge would have been inside the rectangle outlined by the shallow U.)

If I'd never taken the time to work in my existing kitchen and remodeled it before moving in like many folks get to do, I probably would have thought I needed a bigger space. Turns out, I like working in a small kitchen, as long as it holds all my stuff. I don't like "zones". I like Zone. If extra people want to be working in there, they'll have to adapt. Extra prep space, yes. But that's really all we need.

Nothing wrong with a big kitchen with zones for everything if that suits your family's style. Mine doesn't really work like that. I guess with us it's more how we clean rather than how we cook that guides our decisions.

There's nothing unique about the way I cook but I was going to say exactly what afr66 said - having adequate prep space is going to be the single most useful and enjoyable factor in cooking in my new kitchen. In our old kitchen I had the 24" of countertop over the dishwasher, and that was it for prep space (I'm not kidding.) The 30" range was sandwiched between the dishwasher and the fridge, which was up against a wall on its left side (and, believe it or not, the fridge opened on the left!!!!) It was a disaster. In our new kitchen I'll have 27" of counter on either side of the range plus an entire island directly across from the range. It will be heaven. Also I expect the two sinks (prep vs clean-up) will be appreciated. But mostly the counter space.

My kitchen is a galley so things are sort of divided up. The prep sink and the cooktop are on one side, and the space between them has sort of evolved into being my favorite food prep area. The trash can is there, my spices are there, my espresso machine is there. The other side of the kichen is mostly used for clean-up. I have only been in for a little over a month so I am still deciding where things go for easiest use but so far, I love it.

I miss my tiny old kitchen. I did mostly stove-top cooking, and the layout worked very well for it. It was a one-sided galley. The flow went fridge to landing counter, sink, prep, stove, spices and dry goods. On the other side of the fridge was another counter with toaster, coffee, and micro. It worked SO well. The casual user could get something from the fridge, toast or nuke it, and never run into the cook, even though it was a narrow alley.

I want to find a way to replicate this in my remodel, but the latest plan feels like the fridge is too far away from the stove. The only way to get it closer would be to mess up my "casual user" model. So, some sort of compromise is in order, but I still like the concept of having concentric spheres of usage, from someone grabbing a drink, to fixing a snack, to helping with prep or cleanup (or bussing), to the actual cook at the stove. Each level is a more involved sort of work, and the layout ideally has the most involved (complex) tasks interrupted the least by others crossing their path. Not advocating this for others, just something I'm trying to work out for my own kit.

This has definitely driven my kitchen design. I bake but not usually when I'm making dinner. More cakes/cookies/muffins. I do live in a warm climate and use a gas cooktop. I often end up sweating after cooking even in the winter! So, it was a priority for me to keep the cooktop and oven separate. Though doing a range would have given me a little more counter space.

Instead of giving up counter space, I got rid of my 36" wide x24" deep pantry. I turned that into a MW/Coffee center which can double as a landing area for the ovens, and a serving area for the formal dinning room.

I also moved the dishes and snack foods out of the cooktop area, so that snackers/salad makers/dishwashers did need to be in the cooktop area.

I'm hoping it works as well as I anticipate.

Yes, this thread should spark some thought and isn't off topic at all. Cleaning also guided my layout almost as much as cooking since my husband cleans the dishes and is captain of his sink, AND since I'm a messy cook and don't clean up much as I go.

I do:
Most meals from scratch.
Cook enough for leftovers and freezing.
Lots of chop and prep of fresh veggies and herbs.
Soups, skillets, sauces, braises, roasts, dips, munchies.
Very little dessert or bread baking.

Although I enjoy trying a variety of recipes, cooking's not my hobby and I just don't need or want a lot of specialized equipment, so my layout didn't need to accommodate more than the basic set of appliances.

I wanted:
Separate cooking and cleaning zones.
For all those veggies and from-scratches, generous prep space (where I'm the captain) with its own sink by stove/handy to fridge. Spices, vinegars, etc, right there.
Additional separate work counter for husband's assistance, Christmas dinner overflow, inoccasional canning/baking, doing flowers, potting up seedlings, etc.
36" cooktop minimum--enough room for big pots and pans.
One big oven right at cooking area for basting and turning, etc, and one microwave elsewhere are enough (though I wouldn't have turned down two ovens if the space had fallen into my lap).
Good but not extravagant food and gear storage. Like to keep a generous larder but otherwise prefer it simple.
Coffeepot and toaster over by fridge and out of cook's way.
Place to sit and browse the laptop for recipes or get back to my novel while waiting for the pasta to finish...

I do a lot of one pot dishes, meat and potatoes, stroganof, bean soup with ham, spagetti, etc., then after working to make lovely (and very high calorie food) I grind it all up in a food processor. No matter what the food, it always appears to be something gray with butter in the end (or red if it's spagetti). So I wanted lots of counter space for prep, a huge range to cook in and on, and somewhere to keep the food processor busy while grinding and cooking. Then I package it all up in 6oz packages and freeze it. This is all for DS...I don't normally cook our family meals (DH is a fabulous cook). I never envisioned myself grinding and freezing food LOL if anyone knew I'd lose my "Amatuer chef of the year" award from the mid 80's...I wonder if I could grind up a cheesecake...heh heh

DH does all of the cooking when we entertain and for our family dinners. We planned the kitchen so that he could work efficiently, with a stainless counter run between the main sink and stove. That huge stove, with appropriate hood so he can stirfry, and prep space behind him to work on vegis while meat is happening on the stainless side.

On the other side of the island we have a sink, and two counters. They're sort of "my" zone when we entertain, for appetizer prep, salad prep, and landing zones for dishes between courses. Our sink and DW are lined up with the main dish/silver storage, so that some day, when DS becomes useful, he can put away dishes or set the table without being in DH's way. The fridge is between the two zones so that we can both access it easily.

So far it flows very well. We made our isles bigger than they were (they were about 29" wide prior) and planned appliances that don't fill the isles when open. Dish and food storage is planned based on when it's used and how, so that they're close to the functions that make sense (ie wine glasses and decanters are close to the dining room door since we tend to use a lot of them during parties). But no matter how well we planned...we couldn't increase the size of the kitchen, so after a dinner party for six...it all looks pretty much like this LOL:
{{!gwi}}

I was half way through cleaning up when I took those pics LOL we really do make a mess, and having lots of counters to toss it on between courses was a big deal to us.

mamadadapaige, like you, I like to start things on the top of the range and finish them in the oven(chicken french, coq au vin, etc.) I'm also a fan of soups & stews particularly in the cold, cold winters of upstate NY. How I cook definitely impacted my kitchen setup. I like a range vs separate cooktop & wall ovens and needed step and swivel prep space between the range and sink. I do bake frequently, but not usually while I cook. Baking is usually a daytime(school hours) activity 2 or 3 long sessions a week. I bake breads, cookies, etc. from scratch because we eat gluten free and prepared gf foods are so expensive. My baking prep area is actually on the other side of the room from my range. This works out because when the oven is on for 5-6hrs at a time, I don't want to be standing anywhere near it while rolling out cookies, etc. Cool trays ready to go in the oven can be walked across the room easily from the gigantic peninsula baking area and hot trays coming out of the oven can go directly onto the soapstone counters surrounding the range w/out any walking.

Great idea for a thread, btw.

GREAT responses. I thought if I ever move from here and have a chance to work on another kitchen and if it had more space, I would definitely plan for a second sink and a walk in pantry. I think wall ovens might be nice too. Sounds like a lot of other cooks start on the stove top and move to an oven even if that oven is separated from the cooktop. I sort of worried about sloshing around a big heavy hot pan, but I guess the advantages of being able to use the oven and stove at the same time by two different people along with storage below the cooktop sort of trumps the sloshing around (unless you have a Lacanche - then that trumps all imo!! - just love those things of beauty).

I agree that this is not so OT after all. I also agree with you all about adequate prep space... this is where I gained the most in our remodel and it has been a dream.

It is fun to hear (and see Igloo) about all of your cooking adventures.

Oh my! If someone else ever wanted to help me cook in my kitchen, I'm sure I'd faint right away! Oh well, if it can happen for any of you, perhaps one day, my sous chef will come...

While I don't have a teeny tiny kitchen, it isn't big enough to mess around with much in the way of alternate layouts. My new appliances are pretty much where the old ones were, except the microwave is off the contertop onto its own shelf, and the toaster, kettle, and coffee stuff are moved to where the old microwave was, freeing up prep space between the sink and range. As others have attested, Prep Space, and lots of it, is very nice to have, especially if you cook or bake a lot from scratch. I'm not using my small island as much as I thought I would as a baking centre, but it has proved a very convenient staging area for ingredients, utensils, and serving pieces, leaving the Prep Spaces dedicated to prepping.