What a terrific house! You really have a lot of interesting features to work with.

The part that feels awkward to me about your proposed layout is the cooktop over in the corner by the door. It feels cramped and kind of dangerous there. I'd rather see it either on the right wall or over to the left of the sink.

The island shape also feels a bit awkward to me. How about making it larger and more triangular? I agree that it is currently too close to the railing. How many do you want to seat there?

Here are a couple of very quick, not-well-thought-out possibilities to think about...

Thank you! I feel better already even looking at your ideas. I was wondering if there was going to be enough room for the cooktop with only 18" on the right side. It felt awkward and cramped to me.

One of the past designs was to have the refrigerator in that left angular space but we did not want to lose the pantry. But having those cabinets on the side also is a pretty good idea. Moving the fridge to the current pantry area (to the left of the room near the knee wall) would be the closest point from the front door for grocery drop also.

Having four seats would be enough, usually we just have a couple of friends over at a time. No kids at home, just the college girl who will only be around on and off on weekends. :-)

Having the refrigerator and pantry near each other does make for more efficient unloading of groceries!

Is there any chance of moving that exterior door? Having an uninterrupted L shape would make so much sense in your space.

There is a possibility of closing up the door because there is a set of patio doors on the same wall in the dining room. We are trying to minimize construction costs though. So far we'll be covering in the staircase hole, maybe adjusting the wall to fit the refrig back into that closet. The first design with the frig on the sink wall I don't think will work because we are getting the Samsung FD and it's 35" with handles out. It'll stick out too far. It'll be better in the current pantry area.

The reason I asked about moving the door is because I think an L shape would give you a lot more possibilities. Something like this might work...

This puts a window where the current door is, or you could close it up completely and put the cooktop closer to the corner. The window might be nice to have there for the light and view, and if you use the patio a lot for entertaining, you could make it into a pass-through.

I'd also consider flipping the oven and fridge in this layout. It would be especially functional to have the fridge to the right of the stove if you are planning to open up that bottom wall into the dining room.

Either way, the added counter space would be a huge bonus. Just some things to think about.

Thank you holligator! The hole in my kitchen floor finally got covered up and the monstrosity that held the oven has been removed. Now I can visualize the space a little better. I've downloaded a bunch of programs to try and see a plan in 3D but none of them will work with my laptop.
I'm having a terrible time trying to visualize the layout altogether.
I still like the first design so far because I think the Fridge will work the best in that corner. I can back it through the wall and have it line up with the cabinets. If it's in the other spots it will stick out too far. I'll have a better feel for that as well when it gets delivered next week.

Here's what the space looks like right now:

Would having the L on these two walls work? I'd have to make the island smaller unless I made the L into a horseshoe with seats on one side? OMG I'm driving myself crazy.

Here's a view of the other side of the kitchen. a balcony/deck runs along side that wall. I think I'm just leery of closing the door up.

Everyone keeps telling me to open the wall or take it down. Then I'd have nothing but open space and no where to put any artwork. It feels like a fishbowl with all these windows. I guess I'm just having a hard time getting used to the place.

If you put your refrigerator over in that corner, you really need to move your stove closer to it. That's why, in the layout I posted with the fridge there, the stove was on the sink run. In the layout you posted with the L, the island becomes what is known around here as a "barrier island". That is, it sits between two of the major parts of your kitchen--your stove and your fridge--and creates a hike around it to take things back and forth. The problem is compounded by the size of your kitchen. Cooking a meal would be exhausting and frustrating with things that spread out.

In the last layout I posted (Apr 19, 09 at 0:01), I suggested switching the fridge and ovens. If you are worried about the fridge sticking out, you could put the fridge down near the bottom wall and have deeper than normal base cabinets along the right wall to compensate for the fridge depth so it wouldn't stick out.

holligator - Thank you for your help! The cabinet guy is coming today and now I have some great ideas to work with.

Please *please* consider using a slab door in the new kitchen rather than a paneled door (or at least the shaker, rather than a raised panel)

Since it seems to be a pure contemporary with an open plan, I would recommend not veering too far into a traditional look, because it will be anachronistic with the rest of the house.

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