And to rhome410: You suggested I might be able to do an island, over in my last posting. Any suggestions as to placement? Thanks!

Isn't that an island in your current layout? I would opt to have an island instead of peninsula and place it similarly. But you'd want to line up the fridge with the stove aisle, as in your current layout so you have enough clearance in front to open the fridge.

Basically, I think you have a good layout currently, just tight. So I would elongate it, with room on the dinette end of the dw for dish storage and probably more room between sink and stove. I would elongate the island to match, and line up the fridge as mentioned. Is there a reason you want to change things, other than enlarging the room?

Do you need such a large pantry? It's 55 sq. feet.

You can never have too large of a pantry! That's where all the "stuff" ends up. I'd give my eye teeth for a walk in pantry.

I'm a little confused...while you can't change the windows in the eating area, you can take out the windows in the dining room, to expand the kitchen and add a pantry?

Eight feet seems kind of small for your only eating area. Are you sure you can't expand the kitchen into the eating area, maybe open up a half wall to the dining room, and bring more light in that way? What if you took out the big windows in the dining area of the kitchen and moved them to the side wall of the dining room (which is a larger space? Even if it's not a great view, it would be a wonderful place for a window seat, with the table and chairs pulled up to it.

One other question, are you sure the wall between the kitchen and dining room is not load bearing? It's hard to tell from the plan, but it looks like it might be. This would mean you'd have to leave a post or half wall between the two rooms...making it difficult to open up the space, completely. Of course, it could be a non-load bearing wall, which means you could tear it out. Have you talked to any contractors or architects yet?

Now, all my "negative nellie" comments aside, I really do love a big pantry and I think the larger kitchen would be great. Just be sure the remaining space in the dining area (8' wide) is going to be big enough for all your dining/entertaining needs...and talk to some professionals about the wall.

No matter what you decide, I think you'll end up with a beautiful kitchen! :)

Drummer- Did not mean to sound so negative last night. After thinking about your plan (see what happens when I look at it right before I go to bed...I was thinking about it when I woke up LOL) I think it would be fine, if you used an island, instead of a U shape.

The eating area in the kitchen is only 8' wide and that's really tiny, especially when the kitchen U is keeping the space 8' wide, all the way down. If you open up the space to the dining room, add the beautiful, big pantry and expand the kitchen, you have 13'5" from sink wall, to fridge, right? That should be enough room for an island...maybe even some seating.

The back/fridge wall should also gain a foot or two, with the area added in from the dining room...5' pantry...3'6" to 4' doorway to the living room, maybe less...and that would leave a couple of feet for the kitchen space.

Rhome makes a good point about placement of the island. If you plan to have seating, you probably want some landing area next to the ovens or oven/microwave, to set down hot dishes. Nothing worse, than turning around with a hot tray and having no access to an open countertop. Maybe a space, between the fridge and the ovens, so it could be a landing area for both.

I would make the island, so that it didn't come out as far as the cabinets next to the sink. I think you still need a little extra space for your dining area. 8' is great for a window seat, but I'd want 10' of dining space, for chairs to back away from the table.

What style is your kitchen? Do you have any pictures of your "dream" kitchen? I'd love to see them :)

We have a very similar layout so I feel your pain. We also thought about going into the dining room but decided against it for your same reasons and hesitation about giving up our dining room. How about adding an L shaped island that extends into to your current eating area and doing a half wall to the dining room? Hopefully you'll get some more responses. Good luck!

If the windows are a big problem, I remember an ingenious solution in someone's kitchen many years ago. The poster (I think she was in Massachusetts) brought her counter right up to the windows and had her fabricator create soapstone window wells. IIRC, she was able to have plants right there behind the soapstone counter. This enabled her to have the counter right where she wanted it, despite the windows being rather low to the ground.

I don't remember all the details, but this solution stuck in my mind because I learned through her post that my neighbor (Tom Holden, of Weststone in Northampton, MA) was an expert soapstone fabricator!

Sorry I've taken so long to get back here. Thanks for your responses! There's so much good info that I want to respond to, but it's taking me a while to sort it all out.

First, I should address one big concern. If we do make the eating area our only dining space, we still have the living room up front that could become a dining room if we ever felt we needed it for us or resale. I am concerned about the eating area being narrow, and if we go that direction, I'm pulling the peninsula in by several inches to gain at least a little more room.

rhome - you're correct, we do have an island now, but it's kind of small to me (2.5 x 3.5). I don't know if we can make it much wider, so if we made it longer, would it seem ... spindly? Anyone know how much space I should have around an island?

One of my annoyances with my current kitchen is being unable to open the cabinets opposite the dishwasher while the dishwasher is open. I guess, with the new storage I'll be adding, I could try to store things there that don't tend to go through the dishwasher. :)

lavender_lass - I appreciate your worries, but I didn't find your first response negative; you brought up valid points that do need to be thought about, and we have. Also, I love that you woke up thinking about my kitchen! I wake up around 3 a.m. every night/morning with thoughts about the kitchen circling relentlessly through my brain. That's a new thing for me, and I am not loving it.

The dining room wall isn't load-bearing, and doesn't contain any ductwork, or anything else that can't be moved (The benefit of an unfinished basement), so that can definitely be moved. The reason we can't change the windows in the eating area is because we somewhat recently put money into replacement windows there, and that means the foot, it is down, on reworking that area. But the dining room has the old windows.

I'm glad most don't think the pantry is a crazy idea. I like that I'll be able to bring some things up from the basement (and then maybe we'll finish that space if we ever get through the kitchen.)

More thoughts to come, and I'll take a stab at drawing up an island layout.

LOL! I know...usually I wake up thinking about my own "dream" kitchen :)

Since you don't have any worries about the wall...and the living room could be future dining space, if necessary, I think your plan will work out really well!

As for the layout...you have 14', with the 5' pantry, right? That gives you 12' of cabinetry under the kitchen window (with the island plan). If you put the dishwasher at the end of those cabinets, it wouldn't be bumping into the island. If you left 3'6" between the stove and the island, that would still give you 5' to 6' by 2'6" to 3' for the island. That's a good size, especially for a work area.

If you put the fridge on the end of the back wall, closest to the foyer entry, that would give you more room for the fridge to open, without crowding the island. Maybe an oven/microwave on the other end (closer to the new walk-in pantry) and a small counter area in between?

I think the banquette in the eating space is going to look wonderful. I love cozy banquettes :)