I haven't found a dinette set That Ive liked that I thought would fit the space. And my dining set is the problem. Its a larger, 8 seated mahogany square table. Beautiful- seats all 4 children and adults (and if we want to have grandma and grandpa!)- but BIG. And in the dining room that is 9*10- tight squeeze. That's why I had wanted to knock down my wall. But I really am intrigued by the idea of getting rid of the built in desk/pantry. I wont be able to fit my table in there, but if I could get a dinette in there- I could take out a leaf of the dining room table, making it a bit more manageable. Before we purchased this house, we rented a beautiful home that had a very large dining room that allowed us to have both the table and the buffet. I put the buffet in the kitchen (as you see pictured) and use it as a coffee nook for now. And the mudroom/laundry room which is nicely finished could always use some cabinets! I could turn that pantry into a coat closet... Hhmmmmmmm. I am really loving the idea of cream cabinets and a chocolate subway tile backsplash. The attached picture is where I think I am going to go with this. I got it from a local cabinet refinisher (after 2 contractors turned me down- boo!) who is giving me a quote- they are initially estimating 5k for a complete refinish (including changing out the hinges to European hinges and hardware). I cant tell if its worth doing myself for less (if even possible) or giving them the money and you know, having a momentary break. Thank you so much for the ideas. Between full time mommy of a small army and still unpacking- this has been so helpful!

Some functional comments. Yes, I understand an aesthetically pleasing kitchen is more important to you than a functional one, but you said "slightly more important", so I thought I would at least point out some issues...then you can decide on a case-by-case basis which ones are important enough to you that you might consider fixing them. First, your refrigerator question...To surround the refrigerator by a wall, you will need 3" to 4.5" for the right wall (4.5" for a "normal" wall or approx 3" if you turn the studs 90 degrees). You can probably use the pantry wall for the left wall, although to be aesthetically pleasing you may want to have a 4.5" (or 3") wall on the left as well. Personally, I find finished end panels with either a cabinet or shelf like MyDreamHome has above the refrigerator to be more aesthetically pleasing than walls. Walls seem to be more confining, plain, and jarring (the interruption of the nice flow/look of pleasing cabinetry with a wall)...my personal opinion. Prep Zone on island & DW...The current configuration of the DW & island has someone working in the Prep Zone potentially backing into an open DW door (ouch!). A better arrangement would be to move the cleanup sink and DW to the right until the DW is opening at the right end of the island where no one will likely be working. Even if you don't move it all the way to the right, the farther to the right you move it, the better it will be. Can the window be moved to the right? If not, would you consider lining the sink up with the right side of the window? It would give you a nice view if you prep next to that sink (as a secondary Prep Zone) in addition to a view while cleaning up. Aisles...How wide are your aisles? With the DW opening into the Prep Zone, you should plan for at least a 42" aisle. If you don't move the DW at all, I would strive for 48" so there is enough room for someone working at the island while someone else has the DW open to load or unload dishes. I think you have enough room for adequate aisles on both sides of the island. [25.5" perimeter cabs/counter + 48" aisle + 41.5" deep island + 52.5" aisle + 30" deep refrigerator (counting doors & handles) = 197.5" = 16'5.5"] Island seating...How important is comfort when sitting at the island? The recommendation for "clear knee space" for seating is at least 15" for counter-height (36"). You may have that on the short end, but you do not on the long side where most of the seating is. Keep in mind, as well, that you need 24" per person linear space and that you should not have an overlap of "knee space" with the seats at the corner on each side (short & long). (You do not show stools, so I do not know how many seats are planned nor do I know how they are placed.) This would give you a 40.5" deep island: 25.5" on the cabinet side (24" deep cabinet + 1.5" overhang) + 1" for a decorative door or end panel on the back of the island cabinets + 15" overhang = 41.5" Barrier Island...The island is a barrier b/w the Prep Zone on the island and the refrigerator. However, short of doing a major redesign, I don't think there's much you can do about it. The saving grace you have is that you can go to the refrigerator and put all your ingredients on the island and then go back around to the Prep Zone side and have everything you just put on the island right at-hand. In addition, there is a bit of access to the refrigerator from the aisle b/w the range/cooktop and island. For these two reasons, I think this is one of those times that form can trump function without too much adverse consequence. Good luck!

Hi, Charmar I only asked because that's where your mindset seemed to be based on your responses. If you have a large, tall window centered on the wall and the ceiling peak, it makes sense from an aesthetic point of view to place the sink centered on that wall. There's nothing wrong with symmetry if the overall function of the kitchen works for you. Do you have any inspiration pictures for how you want the kitchen to look and feel? The kitchen below is a mirror image of your most recent layout sketch and Lisa_A's layout from 3/6/18 at 9:38 am. This kitchen is light and airy with the absence of upper cabinets and a table instead of an island. Your kitchen will have a more traditional feel. If you're not putting a prep sink in the island, then your sink and stove are not too far apart. Imho, your stove is too far from the refrigerator, but it may not be an issue for you.

We have an odd shaped kitchen in an old house (main house built in 1966 with an extension in 1983). Structurally I have to work with the ceiling and joist placement that exists because those are structural walls that are actually the outside walls of the original house. I've tried doing a layout in the Ikea planner (attached here), but I may go with a friend who does custom cabinets so I will have the flexibility to do more customized things. My DH believes that we must have a vertical support on the wall (wall where the sink is) for the beam that supports the ceiling in the back alcove area. Right now it is a set of two closets (one used to be the hot water tank which is now moved somewhere else). He says that we can tear things mostly back but not completely back. The final answer will come when we have a structural engineer come in and give us the writeup for adding the beam you see so we can open up the living room, kitchen dining room. I'm trying to figure out how to layout the kitchen if I must have a vertical support that juts out into the room a bit. I was considering having an appliance garage back in that corner (crock pots and smoothie making stuff mostly). I'm also trying to design the kitchen so that we can age in place as long as possible. But I like to use a lot of glass bowls in cooking and I don't want to do a lot of lifting them up and down. Right now we have 4 shelves (14" deep cabs) of glass shelves and the are stacked such that they are banging on one another and cracking at times. We have no intention of moving the water/sink because we have a slab foundation and my DH absolutely refuses to cut into it. Some landmark references... on the D wall the small door goes to another panty which we will be keeping. The larger door on D goes to the back of the house (hall to garage, secondary bedrooms, public bathroom). The door/opening on the bottom wall goes to a hall with the master bedroom/bathroom, etc. Front door is at the bottom of the B wall. Wall A is an exterior wall. Here's what the structural elements look like now before we tear the wall back (and we know that the soffit above is a structural beam - not just there for looks. Here's what I mocked up in Ikea for that area that I'm looking to modify. How would you address that and what might I do otherwise for that corner area, where I may need to have a support stud coming out of the wall? Thanks in advance Mary