Well, the ikea fan cabinet is no problem--you just use a 3" filler on each side. It would be easier to see what you have to work with if you could do a quick sketch of the dimensions of the kitchen with the sizes of the openings marked. Is that window going to stay the same? Does it open? I take it you live in a place where there's no code problem with a range in front of a window?

If you use a fully under cabinet hood with some kind of metal liner, you may be able to get away with the fan part of the vent being fully centered over the range hood. I have done this once or twice when trying to completely center something that showed would have been problematic both function and design wise. It is a few inches off above the range so we didn't have to use a strange cabinet size and filler.

writesblock I don't have a drawing...I will try to sketch something super quick. The window with the blinds isn't an external one. It goes through to the dining room. The window will stay the same. the external wall is the one with the glass blocks.

palimpses that is an interesting idea, I'd never even seen one like that before. I was envisioning something visible...I'm looking at VAH specifically.

ok my very high tech drawings

this is from above as though you were floating on the ceiling looking down. :o)

this is standing on the current range/'window' wall looking at where the new range is to go.

btw the 24"x24" space is enclosed, and houses plumbing.

whatever measurements are missing I'm not sure about.

writersblock, does ikea have fillers? or is that third party? Also, would ikea have cabinets that are 36" w, 12" deep, and only 8.5" tall? How custom are their sizes?

I really thought I had things figured out and could start planning and now I'm full of doubt and want to quit and do nothing. Obviously I've done a crappy job planning, so please help!

Here is a link that might be useful: HELP

No, actually, things are not that bad--you're not doing a bad job of planning, just of describing. You actually have 30" to one side of the stove when you consider the countertop for the sink run, don't you? So that's much better than the way you described it, which made it sound like you had some kind of wall 6" on each side of the range.

Hm, I'm not sure I understand now. if you look to the left of the stove, there is only 6" to the 24" square enclosure, which is a wall on either side. so there is counter on the sink side and the 'peninsula' side, but those two 24" are walls.

What about putting the fridge where the pantry is. Then you have 72" of space. 30" for a stove and 42" for counter and cupboards. If you get drawers below and uppers with a hood like palimpsest suggested, you might have enough storage space to compensate for the lost pantry.

you know....that's a thought, edie_g. it's kind of awkward because there is a wall between the pantry and the existing fridge, and the pantry is all sort of walled in...but it might be possible.

Do you need a full-sized dishwasher? How big of a microwave do you need? Can the chase with the pipes in the corner be made smaller?

we were going to eventually put dish drawers opposite where the dw is now. so kind of where the range is right now. I don't think the pipe thing can be made smaller because it goes all through all three of our floors. I don't think the floor extends into it if you know what I mean. It's like a big open elevator shaft. :o\

Also, I don't know if moving the fridge to where the pantry will work as we were planning on getting a microwave or wall oven there...ack!

I think it is going to be very difficult to do a kitchen like this incrementally unless you know exactly what the final layout is from the get-go. There is no wiggle room at all. I think in a kitchen this small, I would not do a cooktop with a separate wall oven. Separating the functions will eat up too much space.

With all the restrictions that you may have, are you even sure you can move the DW to the opposite wall?

we talked about it and I think we might do what you suggested, moving the fridge to the pantry and having more space on either side of the range. I'm sure we can move the dw. I think you're absolutely right, we need to nail down the layout prior to getting any of the work done. Couldn't agree with you more on that. we were thinking of getting a wall oven but the range we're getting is a full range, it isn't seperate. But I think we're scrapping that idea and sticking with one oven.

thanks for all your advice and help, it's really appreciated.

So, maybe this is a crazy idea and really, it's pretty crazy I'd even make a suggestion since I don't have any experience designing in small spaces, unlike palimpsest. But here goes anyway.

What if you shifted the fridge and pantry around the corner so that they were facing the sink? You might need to split the pantry into two cabinets, flanking the fridge to make this work but this would put the fridge closer to the kitchen entrance - traffic to the fridge would be less likely to be in the thick of kitchen activity. You could also put cabinets down to the counter in the corner against the wall, avoiding a dark hole or put your microwave here (don't see this in your plan).

You'll need to shorten the peninsula, of course but you gain more counter space on each side of your range. You might also want to consider shifting your sink to the corner with the DW about 12" away (so that you have leg room at the sink when the DW is open).

Take this idea with a grain of salt since it's based on how much space I assume you have from the drawing. My idea may not work once the actual dimensions are plugged in. Anyway, what I think you'll want to watch is whether the range door and DW door will interfere with each other when open.

btw, my idea also assumes that you can remove the "window" to the DR and open that wall up.