lisa_a... I am flabbergast! The ideas originating from this forum never cease to amaze me. That folks are able to take layouts and turn it around in a matter of hours, or less, and churn out something completely different simply amazes and delights me. Alright, DH loves your layout. He likes having a dedicated area for our kids near us, and especially one that is directly across and in line of sight of kitchen. We will likely still make our guest bedroom upstairs our office so kids aren't mucking in our stuff (missed bills are not a good thing!). While we'll keep the main floor office for our kids. It just makes sense to give them a space for arts & crafting/reading/playing while we cook. It'll also be easier to help them with homework later on, and yes, definitely easier to keep an eye on them surfing the internet. Concerns... We do entertain and have BBQs often in our backyard during the summer months. The most used path to our backyard is via the kitchen. Will the 42" entryway be sufficient space for people to go in and out of? Also, I'm not sure about putting a down-to-counter dish hutch by that backdoor. Post-BBQ, it's often a steady stream of dishes back into the kitchen for clean up. Would maximizing counter space here be more practical for post-party clean up? Did you perhaps mean an upper cabinetry-only dish hutch? That would afford me both cabinets and counter space. I really like the fridge location in your layout. Makes for an easy path to unload and store groceries when we get home from shopping. Should prep sink be relocated to fridge end of island instead? The current layout has both sinks so close to each other that I wonder if it's worth the extra money to put in two sinks. Also, assuming my dishes are stored in cabinets/drawers near the sink. Is that too far from the dining area? If I store them in buffet counter area, then I'd be carrying them across the kitchen from dishwasher to dining area. No matter what, a trek seems unavoidable. Any tips on how to get around/minimize this? Note, one of my kids' task when they feel up to helping is to put away dishes in dishwasher. So I've spent the past few hours trying to rework the layout to see if I can keep the existing wall between dining room and kitchen. This would save us a good chunk of money since that is a load bearing wall, whose removal would require us to put in a recessed steel beam. I've tried making our current dining room into kids' office/play area with pocket doors (we're loving the pocket doors!) and our office the dining area with perimeter counter space, but just haven't been able to make it work. Sigh! So it looks like the money will have to be spent. One improvement though (I think). I loathe the narrow hallway we currently have. It just seems like dead space to me. So rather than keep it, I've modified your layout to put our coat closet and duct work in the existing hallway space instead. This allows for a wider entry to the dining/kitchen area. This new closet would also be deeper that what we currently have, so I'd be willing to forgo the closet nook as I can stuff things into the deeper closet and also in the main floor office. I'm also tempted to extend the powderoom to 72" so the sink can go across the toilet, thus making the powder room foot print narrower and opening up the entry to the dining room even more. If I do this, I can then reposition the door as debrak2008 suggested to prevent toilet views.

You are right to be concerned, in my opinion. I would try this if it were my plan: - Put the fridge on the living room end of the stove run. - I'd put the oven on the pantry end of the stove run. - Then I'd move the sink and dw to the side wall, and put a prep sink on the corner of the island that is closest to the stove and fridge (Bottom left). I wouldn't want my dirty dishes gathering in the middle of the room, plus having to do prep and breakfast over and around them. Additionally, you have a drop off on one side of the sink, which will mean dropping things and splashes on the floor where the cook can slip. 9 ft will likely be pretty tight for a dining room. Most dining room tables are 42" and that leaves only 33" around the table. With people seated, it'll be difficult to get around the table at all. You are not over-thinking. NOW is the time to be critical and really think and think and redraw and redraw until you are comfortable that your plan is the best it can be and will work as you envision.

Columbus, we are at the end of our design process but have yet to break ground on construction. Figuring out the location of the kitchen appliances is holding us up, thus reaching out on Houzz. Daily we will have 2 adults and 1 child (hopefully soon to be 2 children) utilizing dining spaces. We imagined using the bar stools at the peninsula or island for daily breakfast and maybe dinner dining (as we do in our current home). On Sundays we host family for Sunday brunch and we usually have 6-10 adults and 4 kiddos under age 5. One of the grandparents is elderly and wheelchair bound. We hoped to buy an 8-10' extendable dining table for the dining room to accommodate the large family gatherings.

Hi Patricia, Thanks for your feedback. Yes, sounds like a real kitchen designer may be helpful, perhaps more than the free Traemand/IKEA kitchen designer. Do you have advice about how to find a kitchen designer who specializes in IKEA components? Most KDs I found are generalists who are more used to working with custom cabinet makers than IKEA. Inspired Kitchen Design is the main one that pops up time and time again when I search for IKEA kitchen design but I can't tell if they are going to be about the same as the IKEA KD. Also, what's the expected price range of a KD that specializes in IKEA kitchens? I found some designers who charge more than what I expect the IKEA cabinets would cost and I wondered if that's normal and expected.