Where is the hang out space for the family? (Or where are you hoping they will all hang out?) I ask this for fridge placement, and also for island stool situating. Kids (and guests) will invariably need to get drinks and stuff out of a fridge, and if you site it where they can access without going thorugh workspace so much the better. Do you use the dining room frequently? What about moving hte doorway from the kitchen into the dining room so it's more on an edge? And your pantry is HUGE (maybe I am envious) - do you need all that space in the kitchen devoted to it, or can some of the pantry "stuff" find a home in the mudroom? Somwhere I have seen the idea of putting down flour or cornmeal or something and seeing the way people actually move in the space throughout a day. I know our old kitchen design had just 2 feet of aisle space between cabinet and "island" - the 3.5 feet we have now is incredible. I can unload a dishwasher AND have someone walking behind it. I am in heaven. Good luck with all this! Nica

Are you not doing the wood wrapped inside the window alcove now? How high are you taking the backsplash everywhere else? Up to the cabinets? Does your tile have a bullnose or a decent egde? I would run the backsplash straight across from under the cabinets until the edge of the window alcove, or to the wood trim if you put it in there. In the first paragraph, you said 'not' in the window knock out area, and the last sentence asked about the window knock out area, so I'm a little confused...But I'd leave the sides of the window knock out area in the wood or painted sheetrock...no tile. HTH

We definitely need a plan with dimensions. My first thought is to put the fridge & freezer on opposite ends of that back wall with the range centered between them. You'll want a pot filler, but it shouldn't be a problem as there's already water there for the fridge. Put the microwave and warming drawer in the island, and leave the sink where it is. This way you don't need to move any walls, or mess with the floors if you don't want to. And I would definitely remove that crazy soffit over the island! :-)

If you give up the wall oven and use a range, you can easily move the fridge into the new section. Then make the area where the fridge was drawn into a snack/coffee center with the MW, and a small sink. It would be perfect for making a quick breakfast or a sandwich. If you don't want to look at the MW from the DR, you could hide it with doors, which is what I did in my vintage style kitchen. Deep drawers below could store small appliances. You could also put a wall oven beside the fridge in the following drawing (as in sena's illustration), with dish drawers below. You would have landing space for both the oven and fridge. I realized that the sink in your inspiration pic is off-center, so I increased the sink to 33", and decreased the trash pull-out to 12". The faucet can be centered with the window, to help disguise the fact that the sink is a few inches off. I have a 33" apron sink and 12" trash. Love both! The sink hides a lot of dirty dishes, and the trash pull-out is sufficient for our family of 5. I keep a large metal trash can in the mudroom, where I empty the kitchen trash as needed, and we compost, so YMMV. The corner by the DW could be voided, or you could have one of the pull-out storage units. You can check deedles' and arlosmom's kitchens for their corner cabinet solutions. Both are vintage style kitchens in older homes, and are two of my favorites. arlosmom's kitchen reveal and link--still makes my heart skip a beat :) deedles' kitchen reveal images--hidden MWs images--corner cabinet pull-outs