measurements of appliances would help. It's difficult to know how they would fit into the space w/o them. is the m/w used a lot? in cooking process or just for snacks? the first thing I'd do is draw up a layout of a galley type kitchen/work area with a 3.5 - 4' doorway to the DR/FR centered on that wall. That gives you about 4' on either side of the work area. I'd put the fridge about where it is (w/o cab to it's left), move the sink a bit (a foot?) to the the right of where it is. that's gives you several ft of work space between fridge and sink. fridge is close to prep/cook area and to DR/FR. On the stove side I'd move the stove a bit to it's left (hard to tell how much w/o knowing size of the stove). put a 'wing' on the corner to the right of the stove w/ a prep sink on the end that turns (so is 'backed' to the DR wall). if mw is needed for cooking process, possibly it could be smaller and put on an 'under an upper cabinet' shelf - be it to the left or right of the stove. My choice would be putting it in the corner area. I'd consider another short cab/counter 'wing' on the right end of the sink run. That gives a bit more counter space at the end of that run and a slight barrier to a table put in front of the window. I wouldn't put a bench up against a peninsula there - that places the heads of people (and their hair) too close to counter range for me. The other end and opposite the table area could be a baking/other work space with pantry area. Possible 2nd oven/wall oven. on the end wall (in front of ext door - that goes where? garage? backyard?) I'd put a halltree/bench w/hooks over it for my sweater, sun hat, dog leash. open space under bench for incoming dirty/muddy shoes/boots. what I call an end 'wing' - I think this is from buehl's kitchen. it's at the end of a run. it's just a short 'turned' section of cab and counter. The corner area of it can open (doors or drawers) into the space behind it, be it the DR or the kitchen table area. this is another sample - from a gw'er whose name i don't remember. to the left of the dw (if I remember correctly) the cab/counter angles off to the back door. it's just a bit of a triangular cab (you can see the knob on it). i wouldn't use a diagonal across the corner area tho - it cuts into the space too much.

My thoughts... the two reasons why you are having such a hard time laying out your kitchen is because, you are ignoring the process of cooking. You start in the Food Storage area, go to prep aka sink then the stove/oven/MW, out the door to your dining room and then back to the sink. Once in awhile, you need to go from the stove, back to the frig for something as was previously mentioned. Walk your latest design and you will see why this and your previous designs aren't working. Decide what spot cannot be adjusted or moved and start walking the process from there and see where things fit. You also need to consider that traffic corridor going thru your kitchen isolates something and brings in the potential to bring chaos and congestion into your kitchen. A good design keeps that out of your work area but will still give you the visual lines you want for the hanging out area. My second reason, is your insistence on having an island. Your space and your expressed wants, scream U shape kitchen with breakfast bar to me. Maybe you could move the leg of the U a bit more into the nook area than you might have previously thought which would give you more of an open feeling. Here are the advantages of doing a U shape... Traffic is minimized in work areas the cooktop could be facing into the nook area similar to your first drawing the sink and dishwasher could be underneath the sink with minimal redo of water lines and keeping the window view Placing the oven/mw stack on the end of the U leg opposite the cooktop, keeps the MW near the frig and easy access for popcorn making Leaving the frig in its spot makes it easy to access from all three areas and near the cooktop while cooking I would break up the pantry next to it with a counter height shelf for frig landing and a spot for gathering of the pantry items from Put up a pony wall to bar height between the cooktop and the tv area and make it wide enough to eat a quick breakfast or do homework at. It also would give you space for the necessary downdraft for venting the cooktop.

Just some little things... The narrow pullout bases can be very pricey - check with the cabinet maker. Remember that with framed cabinets, the pullout itself will be at least 3" less wide than the cabinet. With frameless, it will be 1.25 to 1.5" less wide. So if you want to stretch dollar bills, simply do larger cabinets. As an example, the 9" cabinet by the range can be married to the 22" drawer cabinet and produce a 30" cabinet with a 1.5" filler. It sounds ridiculous, but that alone can save a couple of hundred dollars. Having a filler is important when both sides of a cabinet run are up against a wall. Walls are rarely completely level, or square and the filler "takes up" those small differences. You need to allow some air space on both sides and the back of the ref - generally, its an inch or two. Corner pantries right beside a ref are difficult (not impossible) to do correctly. Unless you are getting a fancy ref, the doors of the ref need to be in front of the side wall of the pantry. If they aren't in front, the doors won't open at all. Also, if you need to pull the doors open past 90 degrees to clean, you need to insure the entire door depth can fit in front of the pantry and its door trim. Another small issue with corner pantries and ref huts - The counter should die into the side panel. The counter will be roughly 1.5" deeper than the base cabinets. But the over the ref cabinet needs to be mounted flush with the front of the side panel (or so the cabinet doors are flush to the front of the side panel). I'm not saying "don't do it". I'm saying be very careful and thoughtful about it because its very easy to get wrong - even when done by professionals. As drawn, you wouldn't be able to open the ref door all the way and the ref door and the pantry door have high probabilities of running into each other. There is no possibility of having the side panel turn out in the correct place or be the correct depth for the counter. Personally, I would make the cabinets the same heights - either 42" or 48". The every-other-one pattern looks cluttered. I'm a little bit wondering where you're going to keep the ladder.

Thank you all for the input. Remodelfla: It seem like every house here has angled counters. Part of the reason is that we have a great view of the mountains that direction. I currently have stacked ovens but hate leaning over the hot oven door as I am only 5'2". But the new kitchen will have a steam oven with a side opening door so that will not be an issue. My favorite part of the stacked oven is the drawer right under the cooktop for pots and pans. About the freezer in the pantry, we currently have a subzero fridge in the kitchen and freezer in the adjacent mudroom which is only made tolerable because we have an icemaker next to the fridge. Lisa A: the island will probably be a little bit bigger. Our builder just dropped that in. We have yet to meet with the cabinet people. The prep sink was oriented wrong. I want to access it from inside the corner. The plan was it to be DH's space. A place to make coffee in the morning, wash and prep veggies(next to fridge, sink and butcher block top.) Also, it could serve as bar area while entertaining. I plan to have glasses in that area and keep the liquor cabinet there as well (but not accessed from the outside as show.) As far as the desk, I totally agree. We currently have a kitchen desk and it is a clutter magnet and is rarely used as a desk. I do use the printer there and a laptop which is most often on the table or counter. I mainly want a place to keep the printer, a place for pens and paper, and to hide the laptop when company comes. I was thinking of secretary desk, armoire, or hutch with hidden desk. More of a furniture piece rather than integrated into the cabinet desk, like we have now. We will have a study off the master that will serve as the main desk area. I also plan to eventually put a desk in the mudroom to serve as either/or a crafting area or homework desk area. Marcolo: I have thought about what I do when I cook. I am currently in a kitchen that is a dream for a single cook, but add a second person just getting a glass of water and it is a nightmare. My plan was to have 2 functional areas. DH's zone (and I may even mark the floor with tape haha) would be by the fridge while I am by the cooktop, near the other end of the butcher block for extra chopping, by the sink to wash as I go, load the dishwasher etc. I also placed the sink and dw close to the main eating table and close to plate, glass and flatware storage. Bmorepanic. It is a nice design, but we have a great view off the back deck and anticipate spending lots of time outside and thus want a bathroom close by. Also a desk isn't a must have. We also placed the FP more centrally for heat. We now have a woodburning stove in our kitchen and I love using it to heat just the space where are most. We are a family of 3, 2 adults who like to cook and a 9 month old. I entertain for bigger groups 12-16 once maybe twice a year. We have family and smaller groups over (4-6) maybe 2x/month. Our formal dining room rarely gets used (3-4x/year). As with most, everyone ends up hanging out in the kitchen. We will eventually have outdoor kitchen as well on the covered patio. DH (and ex�s) house is currently on the market so we are doing a 2 (or more) stage construction. We are building the basics and planning for upgrades (the outdoor kitchen where we will plumb for water, gas, sewer and leave it with just our basic gas grill for now; an unfinished basement, hold on the mudroom and laundry built-ins, etc). Once the house sells, we will complete those. Here are the plans with a little more info on how we plan to use the space. Overall kitchen placement Zoom of kitchen