We have a round table in our kitchen that sits 4. Would that help? One thing that's nice about round is that you can put the chairs at the angle that works best for the room...In other words, if you look at it from above, they can be situated to look like a '+', or like an 'x.' This makes clearances a little more flexible. In our case, it allows me to have the table closer to the wall. If you put the chairs in a '+' to the wall, you might fit in another section of pantry equal to what you already show. If you made the pantry shallower, you might be able to make it along the whole wall and place the chairs at an 'x' to the wall. Hope that makes sense.

rhome, I like round tables but I thought it would take up more room. What is the diameter of tour table?

42"..So I'm not sure if the increased width would give you more problems than it solves... Depending on how far you could move it toward the dining room, it might make the aisle past the island too tight.

Here is a photo of ours, trying to show how it fits between wall and island. We have 42" in between the table and the island and it isn't tight at all, and we go through there all the time.

Here is how it looks on the floorplan:

rhome, thanks for the pics. WOW what a beautiful well thought out kitchen! I do think the 42' would be tight the plan I have left 45 with the 36' x 60 rect. table. I am meeting with contractor tomorrow to re-think using dining room as space.

I know you want to use that table, but I can't make it fit in that space. You need about 32" from the wall to the edge of the table just to be able to use the chair on that side.

{{!gwi}}

It depends on whether you're really going to use all of the table or not. If you have four people it will be a little crowded.

We have our kitchen table 12" from the wall, since we have the chairs at a 45 degree angle to the wall...So I was wrong about being able to use the whole wall for pantry, because you won't want to crawl behind the table to try to get into it...and it would definitely dictate how wide the pantry could be. My kitchen table is in a place that would be deemed 'too tight' by most standards, but it works fine ...because of the chair angle.

bmorepanic, are you saying attatch table to the island? Rhome, I was just thinking of going to a 36 x 48 inch rect. table instead of the 36 x 60. I thought that would give me a couple more inches maybe at least for at least a 15 inch a pantry and it would not go into walk way.

Yes. I don't think there's a good way to set a table on the other side without the table ending up pushed against the wall. Where the table ends up against a wall, where the diners face the wall, the table seems to be rarely used.

This way you get central seating for 4, 5 inna pinch, a slightly fatter island and more storage on the indented wall area.

bmorepanic, I like the idea but doesnt that table hang to much in the entry to the kitchen? Heres my current layout and house layout.

It looks like the main traffic patterns are these:

A couple of options:

* Can you steal space from the FR? You could move the table down a couple of feet to give you more room in the kitchen. (Island is 2.5' x 5') (Pantry shown is 18" deep, if 15" deep will gain 3" in aisle)

* Or, attach a table-height 3' x 6' counter to one side of the island (island is 2.5' x 6') and put a 4' wide x 15" or 18" deep pantry on the FR wall. (Pantry shown is 18" deep)

I like buehl's option 1 with the island turned vertically and the table stealing from the FR. In this position the breakfast table can play double duty for card games, etc. There's ample pantry storage and traffic should still flow around the island, up the stairs not through the main kitchen. I might slide the island down just a hair to make that aisle 42". It would encourage people to go around.

Never saw the entire house plan before - sorry.

Draw the traffic arrows back on Buelh's second and it guides passersby into the main work corridor.

How do you plan to use your island? Is anyone else worried about the real value of the island in the locations it ends up? Seems like lots of moving of stuff to work on it, that probably won't happen because it will be too much trouble. In all the plans it's so offset from the stove and sink (inconvenient to both) that it doesn't seem as any use for prep. Maybe for buffet space? I just throw this thought out, just in case saving it may be in the way of trying another option.

Re: 48" aisle on sink run...the sink, in Marybeth1's OP is pulled out what looks like 6" so the aisle is really only 42" in front of the sink.

Yes, I know about the traffic issue. B/c of the overall layout of her house though, I'm not sure there's much that can be done if she switches from the current peninsula (which does direct traffic away from the work areas) to an island. People being what they are will always go for the perceived shortest route. The main reason I showed the traffic was to demonstrate that the area b/w the Kitchen & FR really isn't a much used traffic area and you could put a table there or extend the island into it w/o an impact on traffic flow.

B/c of the traffic issue to the bedrooms, I think the aisles will all need to be at least 42".

Hopefully .... it's a riff on buehl's island.
{{!gwi}}