"I work for a high-end, custom door company " And it sounds like they are not well executed, no matter what may be charged for them. The jambs are still 1x lumber, but stop beads make for a much better executed door. For better noise performance double stop beads can be used on pocket doors. Are you using flat doors? So much for higher end. Panel doors used in pockets need to have the pocket edge padded so that a couple inches remains in the pocket when the door is closed. It also allows a stopped groove to be used on the bottom of the pocket door to capture a short piece of aluminum angle on the pocket floor to prevent sway. The typical plastic guides (even from Johnson) can scratch the face of the door. There are a few kits around for 'double acting' pocket doors, but they are not all that good. Some 3/32 inch 'aircraft' (woven) steel cable and some 1/4 inch steel pulleys mounted in the track work better.

Hi Marcolo Thank you. It did not occur to me to simply eliminate that box and replace it with storage. I just figured we were stuck with it. And you are right: it is just an empty box sitting there taking up space. And, since it is made of uninsulated 3/4" wood, it probably makes the kitchen cold. So either of your ideas -- the bench or the cabinet -- would make that space more useful, and warm it up at the same time. Fiberglass for the door. I will investigate that material. I had asked one carpenter if the door could be remade in Azek, but he thought it would not be rigid enough. So I started thinking about Azek with a backing of plywood, but then I imagined that double layer would again make the door very heavy and difficult for me to open and close which is why I haven't taken pictures of of the headroom yet. I need DH's help for that project, and he has been tied up with a tennis tournament this week. I think we can do it on Sunday. Hi rmtdoug, Good points, all. Although it would squeeze the sink closer to the cooktop, I will ask the carpenter when he next stops by about shortening that wall from the mudroom to the kitchen, I would very much like to do that if it is not too costly, especially after seeing lisa_a's latest design with an expanded mudroom just off that space. When I saw her good idea I realized we would not have to preserve much of that mudroom/kitchen wall at all to maintain the current size of the mudroom since we could just open up the other wall and, until we get a shed built, store a whole lot of necessary gear close to the back door, including a snow shovel in winter and a rake in summer. Hi lisa_a, What an incredible design idea. I absolutely love it and it solves so many of our problems simultaneously. The pocket door between the bath and the shower is a clever solution. The only sticking point is that the maximum opening on that wall (where you have shown the entry to the new mudroom) is only 28" because there is an old chimney on one side. The chimney is shown on the architectural drawing as a funny shaped rectangle protruding into the "shower" area on the plan. That unused chimney is actually a square that sits outside the kitchen on the mudroom-side of the wall. However, I so love your design that I want to use it anyway. If we ripped through some of the trim on that bathroom we could widen the opening to a suitable sized doorway. I realize I need to upload all the dimensions of the mudroom, the BP and the dining room. My design software has arrived and I have used it to outline the kitchen with some gross dimensions, but I need to get all the dimensions on it because you and Jillius have had to guess the measurements of areas outside the kitchen. I see you drew the stairs opening to the living room. Thank you. Now that you have imagined how that will look, do you think the opening to the kitchen from the living room should be closed up and the sink sited there? I ask this in case we can afford to widen the kitchen opening from the mudroom as rmtdoug suggests since doing that would cut down on the length of the sink/cooktop wall. The distance from the inside wall of the kitchen (the one with the mudroom on the other side) to the furthest wall of the BP (with the dining room on the other side) is 181". The distance from that same kitchen wall to the closest-to-the-BP dining room wall is 185.5". Let me know if those measurements are not what you were looking for.

Is this new construction? Have you thought about moving the window to the right, centering it more on the wall? Then, you could have double upper cabinets on each side. I think an island will work well, but if you're worried about the space, what about a mobile island? There are many nice islands that you can move, when you need more room. You could even put a stone or butcher block top on the island, depending on how you plan to use it. Fridge with pantry units one either side, sounds like a good idea, as long as you have the island for a landing space. Otherwise, you might want to keep a little counterspace, next to the fridge, to set things down. Your garage exit looks a little tight. If you're getting rid of the pantry, you might want to make a little wider opening into the garage. Overall, it's a very nice plan! :)

I'm pretty sure there isn't any CA code regarding cabinets in this sense. We have cabinets that come within 26" diagonal passageway for one of our (4!) kitchen doors. I asked around and no one seemed to think it was a problem, and we passed inspections fine. Code does vary by municipality though. 30" is definitely the largest entry into our kitchen too as the other doors are a little less (I really don't understand how EVERY door is different in my house to arbitrary sizes). For moving the fridge and such it really would be nicer to have a slightly larger doorway, but changing the cabinets doesn't really affect this - I'll defer to the designers here for what makes sense design-wise!