I have a house very similiar to yours. What's on the other side of that fridge wall? Can it be opened up?

The living room is on the other side of that wall. I think it's a support wall. I know that someone else in the neighborhood with our model took down the wall between the kitchen and dining room but we would lose the formal dining room.

Hi - wow, your kitchen is VERY similar to mine - except mine is even smaller, only 8' on one wall and 10'6" wide. We did some modifications 14 years ago where we built a peninsula where your refrigerator is (we used to have our big pantry closet there). It created a bottleneck where our stairs are leading UP to our second level (where yours are down to sunken FR). Where your window is, we have double sliding patio doors to deck.

I have gone around and around with what to do with our floor plan. I also thought about going into DR, but we use our DR A LOT, so I didn't want to lose it. We don't use our LR that much, so I thought about moving DR to LR, but I didn't want to completely lose LR. LR is too big for just DR (12x20), but I couldn't fit both DR and LR is without it looking weird (I have a huge picture window in LR that made the space akward to split in half). Out dining room isn't very big (10'6"x10), so it was never a really formal DR. We are actually going to lose 3" in there, but gain the look of it being much larger.

What I finally decided on is what I call the 3-way compromise. I'm opening up the kitchen to the DR and the DR and half of the kitchen wall to the LR. I'm building a "buffet" area for more storage where you have your high-chair. (You are fortunate because you only have a window where we have a door, I had to reduce the patio door to one small door.)

We will use the living room a lot more with this design, and I think that's a good thing. I'm giving up my little "nook" in the kitchen where people used to hang, but I am hoping that the LR will now be the nook, and people will be much more comfortable, and more people can be in the space. In addition, with it open to the DR now, we have that space as an extension of the kitchen. Everyone tells me that it is going to feel much bigger.

I'm including a picture of our kitchen today (from what our "office" above - what would be your FR):

And a bird's-eye view of the new plan. Sorry for the not so great picture, but you get the idea:

I've attached a link to my shutterfly site - click on the "kitchen pictures" album to see more pictures of "before".

Also, here is more drawings of my new kitchen design:
http://tinypic.com/useralbum.php?ua=HAfZcvK44E6ej0Vevr5stA%3D%3D

It may not be for you, but I figured I would share what I decided.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lynne's Photo Site - click on kitchen pictures

At first glance I would get rid of those spindles and do some kind of counter/storage or banquette seating in that location and leave the top open.

I would also get a shallower depth refrigerator, because the depth you have now is intruding into the space a lot an many new conventional fridges are even deeper

Oh yes, the spindles are definitely coming out. I like the idea of a counter along the half wall or a banquette. If we do that, do you think the peninsula should come out all together and just extend the counter/put the diswasher to the left of the sink? I would prefer to keep room for a table & chairs. My other thought is to go to a freestanding range shifted to the right a little from where the cooktop is and make that all countertop to the left of the fridge.

Lynne, thanks for the pictures. Our kitchens are very similar. I love your design. I think we are looking to do something simpler as this is going to be DIY & we are trying to keep costs as low as possible.

My 70s kitchen is 12 feet wide. I moved the fridge to the left end of the wall. There used to be a pantry there and it was a little deeper for the fridge. Is that what you have on the left end?

janwad - nice kitchen! How big is your island and do you feel you have enough clearance? From what the designer at HD said our kitchen isn't wide enough for an island. Yes, the left end is a pantry. That doorway goes to the dining room though so I don't think I'd want to block that flow from the dining room. Thanks for all your comments! Please keep them coming.

Could you post a floor plan with dimensions? If you want room for table and chairs that will affect how far the peninsula can be moved. I would imagine if it went too far toward the family room you would not be able to have a table and all chairs although the table banquette idea might work.

With an 11 1/2 ft. wide kitchen you do not have room for an island. The only way would be to create a galley but having a straight run over by the window and then a run mirroring it about 4' away. That though would leave a 42" aisle on the other side which I don't believe would be a very efficient use of space. I second Palimpsest request of a floor plan with dimensions. It can even be hand drawn on graph paper. Then we'll really be able to give our input.

Ok, here goes my attempt at a floor plan. These are my measurements using the ikea kitchen designer so these may not be completely accurate but you get the idea. All the doorways are open doorways with the exception of the basement (door in lower corner). Thanks so much!

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

It appears that you dont have room to both extend the peninsula further toward the family room AND have a useable space between the new peninsula and the family room.

I would consider doing an extended L shaped kitchen on that side, and integrating the eating space into the kitchen without a peninsula intervening.--Or it could almost be an extended U shape if you had a banquette type arrangement around the table.

if you really wanted a center work space you could probably have a small butcher block or rolling island type thing. but I would make sure you have a place to PARK it in the perimeter somewhere because sometimes it would be in the way.

Palimpsest, I like that idea but am having a hard time picturing the counters extending beyond that window. Do you know of any pictures where something similar has done? From the floor to the bottom of the window trim is 36" so i guess there would be enough clearance. There is a heating duct in the middle of that window. Is that easily moved?

Sorry, bumping this up in hopes of more responses.

There are a number of people who have windows at counter height in here...maybe someone will like to their pictures. It takes more planning than when you have plenty of space under the sill but it is not impossible:)

The duct can be extended under the toe kick so it is vented out the front of the toe kick.

I thought that you needed to extend the workspace placing counter toward the other window, did I misunderstand that?

OK, this is very, very rough, not very carefully measured, and has some obvious problems, but maybe it will get some ideas flowing for you...

I think an L-shaped banquette at the half wall (sans spindles) is a great idea. I would keep a small peninsula just to have some division b/w kitchen and eating area, but maybe push it toward the window, depending on how much space you have(not clear on that). I think even a small peninsula would function like an island or center workspace.

If you move the DW to the other side of the sink that will make a lot more sense--get it out of the cooking zone. Don't worry about whether or not the sink is centered under the window. Use the space as efficiently as you can...you won't notice tht it's not centered (IMO).

If you got a shallower fridge, that would make a huge difference. Also, if you had a range instead of the wall oven, you wouldn't have the oven opening into the main pathway, and that whole wall could be storage--if you think you need that. You might even get enough storage to eliminate some upper cabinets, if that sounds attractive.

I don't know how much work it is to demo soffits, but if you are replacing the cabs anyway, I wouldn't dismiss the idea out of hand. You would gain a lot of storage that way and open up the space.

HTH! Good luck!

Thanks for all the ideas! There is only about 10 inches between the peninsula and the left window. The dishwasher needs to move somewhere to the left of the sink. What do you think about the diswasher being placed at the end of the peninsula? That is where we left off with the plans at HD.