3' between counters and island is not enough space. I honestly don't see the island doing anything except crowding your space. What is the reasoning for wanting the island? What kind of cooking do you do? Do you cook together? Clean up together?

I agree with cpartist. It looks like the island would extend right to the dining room - where presumably there would be a table already.

You can gain storage and counter space by making the cabinets deeper on each side of the U.

I agree about the island - it isn't really in the kitchen, so what purpose does it serve?

Could you bump the fridge side into that 'closet' by the stairs?

I also agree 3 ft is not enough. I wonder if a peninsula would work instead, at the end of the U. Would not sit 4, but could give you the island look. Might be worth it to sketch it, and see if there is enough room for one.

I agree about the island. What happened to the FP? do away with it?

I would not do the diagonal corners. in the left upper corner an easy reach cab. put dw on other side of the sink. gives more space to prep between sink and stove. can you open up the doorway to FR more? or do you want it partially closed off?

I agree, three feet between things is not good. And if people are sitting in those chairs, they'd be impossible to get around directly. The peninsula idea might work, or lop off the island at the bottom of the image (making it a four foot or so length peninsula) and shift it a bit up to the top and to the right, depending on what else is in the floor plan. The lower chair would shift to the bottom and face "north".

Good advice given by all, especially deeper counters for more storage and counter space. It also provides more work space if you leave appliances out on the counters.

If possible, switch the sink and DW, so that you are not prepping over the DW, between the sink and range. Adding: I prep over my DW, and it's not usually a problem. If you won't have someone loading the DW while you are prepping for a meal, and you won't be working above the DW when it's finishing a cycle (steam), then the trouble of switching might not be worth it. And in your plan, having the DW in the prep space actually increases the counter prep area.

By keeping the seats pushed in when not in use, you might get away with seating for four at a peninsula, and you could keep the shallow base cabinet under it for things that aren't used frequently.

Another version, with more storage, as you've drawn in the island. The cabinet next to the doorway can be accessed from the back. I increased the overhang on the back (looks as if it's 12" as drawn), but increasing it on the end would make more of a pinch point between the peninsula and end cabinet, which might be too narrow already.

It would be interesting to see if the closet between the stairs and kitchen could be part of the kitchen instead.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, keep them coming!

We originally wanted the island to help with a landing spot for the fridge, plus we are so used to the old cozy little round table snuggled into the "U" that it otherwise felt too far away with other seating options to keep each other company.

Bumping the fridge wall into the closet is unfortunately not an option. The closet ceiling is framed dust-trap at a lower height than the kitchen due to the spilt-foyer design, and there is an 8' window above it on the exterior wall above the main entrance.

The FP stays, just didn't fit on the drawing. The opening to FR can be in the old position or the new one as drawn but no variation is possible on that due to posts in the wall that support overhead beams. We felt moving it down to the new position improves traffic flow once a dining room table is moved into the upper area.

The peninsula idea definitely intrigues me, but it adds significantly to the trip distance to the other deck slider to let the animals in/out. We would really like to be able to seat four...I will play with that.

Can you think of any design that retains the kitchen slider to the deck?

Thanks!

A picture of the closet situation you just described would likely be a lot more clear.

So the stairs are also the entrance to this house?

Then it seems to me that the office and kitchen should swap locations. This makes sense for a few reasons:

1) People generally prefer not to have the kitchen right off the main entrance to the house.

2) Generally, people prefer the kitchen to be larger than the office. Your existing kitchen location has nowhere really to expand. The existing office location has a lot of random space next to it that could be useful in a kitchen.

3) Generally, people like the kitchen to have good connect to the family room or other living spaces. Generally people prefer the office to be off a little bit by itself, not bothered by the noise of living spaces. Your existing kitchen location is off a little bit, and your existing office is basically inside the family room.

Also, I am not entirely understanding the restrictions on moving plumbing. If your posts can't be drilled, why wouldn't you run the plumbing through the very many 8' gaps between posts?

"Can you think of any design that retains the kitchen slider to the deck?"

I'm not sure this is exactly to scale--I tried to compare your pics to the drawn plans. It's tight between the fridge and island, and you'd need a CD fridge for this to work (27" depth with doors). I have similar aisle space in my small kitchen--it's not ideal, but it works.

Can you center the window on that wall?

I rarely disagree with Mama Goose but I sure do when it comes to a DW in the prep area. This is one of the biggest annoyances in my kitchen and I'm getting really anxious for DH to get to the point on our DIY remodel where the DW will be moved from the prep area. Really anxious!! It is a constant congestion point totally disallowing anyone to be loading/emptying the DW while someone else is prepping. I would NEVER plan a kitchen with that kind of annoyance in it.

I spent some time pretend working in your kitchen plan and I really don't see how an island or peninsula can work in the space you have. Again, a rare instance where I don't care for Mama Goose's renditions either. I know that I'm a person that requires a feeling of spaciousness without obstructions so the island/peninsulas just seem like big obstructive choke points to me. I really don't see that the kitchen is so far removed from the dining area where people can't sit at the dining table and visit with cook. If they want to sit closer, they could move their chair and visit closer, imho.

Edited to add: I agree with Jillius about moving the kitchen, possibly switching with the office. It opens up a lot of wonderful possibilities. And I do like Mama Goose's last idea as the island doesn't seem like an obstruction in that case. I think I would move the counter down where the slider is and stay with a single door at the end instead. Or, another possibility I didn't think of or put in my plans below is to eliminate the door but have a window that opens so you could serve out the window and then just walk around to the family room slider when going outside.

A couple ideas:

First idea: I think I would leave the closet and current entrance to the family room and bring the kitchen out farther into the dining area. I'd put the wine fridge in a bar along the wall backing the closet and bring out the wall next to the fridge a few feet farther. I may have made the walkway opening on the kitchen side of the fireplace too narrow as I'm not sure how many inches each of those squares represents but this is just to give an idea. Of course, not sure how that wall change by the fireplace impacts traffic or aesthetics in the living/staircase areas. I didn't draw it in but I would make your lower cabinets 30" deep and your uppers 15" deep. This would allow for more storage in all your cabinets and drawers.

Second idea: Here I've drawn in the cabinets pulled out 6" for deeper lowers and uppers indicated by the gray line around the room. This still leaves you with 7 feet of floor between each side of kitchen. I actually don't think a bistro top over a wine fridge would work as you won't have enough overhang for people's feet but I just don't see how you can go bigger than 36" and still have room to walk around a table or island there. Even 36" is in the way, imho.

I moved the range closer to the single glass door just a tad. This gives you 54" of prep counter if you include the bit around the corner next to the sink, 36" just on the range wall. While more is also better, this is still decent space.

What a serving window could look like instead of the door in the kitchen:

Coeur D’Alene Residence on Lake Coeur D’Alene · More Info

Funkycamper, no problem--I agree that if you can gut and completely redo a kitchen, you might as well get the biggest bang for your buck. And my new(ish) kitchen looks like most GW member's before kitchens. ;)

Tim, if you just need the slider for pet access, you could make one of the lower cabinets a 'dummy' with this product installed in the outside wall. You control the cabinet door, and the access. Of course, if you have to go out with the pets each time, that wouldn't work ... unless you're really short.

PetSafe Smart Door

If you really want the island, can you eliminate the window to the deck?

You could have a prep sink on island (with seating) and move the fridge and pantry closer to the family room. Just an idea :)

Some really great ideas here! This is why I love this site, you people are very creative!

Sorry, but we definitely don't have the budget to swap the Kitchen and Office.

I'll be spending tonight wandering around the kitchen in "imagination mode" !

Here's the entry closet. The right hand side of it also houses an air conditioning unit. More reason not to claim its space.

Thanks for the picture! If you wanted to, you could take down part of the wall and have a half wall with view to the stairway. Might be nice....

I actually really like Lavender's last plan. As soon as I saw your photo, I wondered about taking down the top portion of that wall. It would make your kitchen feel so open and bring light in.

As for not having a window looking out over your deck, I recently found this picture here on Houzz. A working window backsplash might be perfect for you, allowing both visual connection and work as a passthrough if you added a little bar on the other side, like in funky's picture above.

My Houzz: Artistry and Craftsmanship Create a Heartfelt Home · More Info

Oh, I really like Lavendar's latest plan, too. With the working window backsplash. Functional and would look awesome!

A lot of your plans above have the island and peninsulas too far from the kitchen to truly be as useful as you'll want them to be.

How about this plan below? We stayed at a cottage for a week (9 of us plus 4 grandparents) and prepped all our meals in a kitchen very similar to this. It was so easy to use and it cleaned up like a dream. The peninsula pretty much kept non workers outside the kitchen, yet they could hang out at the peninsula and still be part of the action. You might be able to squeeze in 1 or 2 more stools on occasion, but I'm not sure. If you sunk the fridge into the exterior wall with a bump-out, then you could make the peninsula longer and fit the stools there no problem. Also, it would help to put the dw on the other side of the sink, if possible. That way the door won't be open and tripping someone working between the stove and sink.

I also thought of extending the kitchen so that the peninsula blocked the walkway just below the post, but wasn't sure if you were trying to keep that walkway open or not.

Laughable- Hi! I don't know if the range has to vent on the outside wall....but that's an interesting idea, too :)

(Not to derail this thread...but Laughable, did you finish you new kitchen? Did I miss pictures?)

Twitch- This isn't exactly like Laughable's drawing, but similar. Picture sink and range swapped and island all one level...but I've always thought it was a pretty kitchen.

Wow, now there at least 3 ideas here that I like very much! These are all great! Difficult decisions...

We plan on hardwood floors with cream colored cabinets to bring in some brightness. With the wood ceilings and wood floors we feel natural wood cabs is too much wood (as in the previous pic - my opinion only).

Just curious, is there a functional reason to scrap the angled corner cabs? They don't take up THAT much room - we like them very much and would need a compelling reason to change them.

Tim

Angled corner cabinets are usually not especially functional for a variety of reasons (bulky, bad storage options, etc.), so they are almost nobody's go-to choice when suggesting layouts. At very rare times in certain spaces, either a sink or a stove in the corner does wonders for the layout, but I've never seen a layout with just cabinets and counter on an angled corner that I thought was improved by being angled.

In your situation, the angled cabinets are pretty inoffensive, although I am not sure what they add other than a bit of crowding.

What is it about them that you find so appealing?

I guess it's that they add an element of interest by breaking up all the 90 degree angles everywhere. We'll discuss it and try to be open to considering other options.

Now I have a few minutes to work on this some more. (I was taking a little break from canning strawberry jam in our unfinished kitchen earlier and couldn't give it much time then--pssst...there's your answer, Lavender. ; ))

So, I drew up an expanded kitchen that makes the one walkway by the 6x6 post into an interior window opening. This loses some of the everything within-reachness of the plan I drew earlier, but it could gain you more seating at the peninsula, more room for multiple cooks (and future dear grandchildren??), and even a prep sink. It also gives the peninsula sitters a nice view out 2 windows, both the deck slider and the sink window. It gives the cook at the peninsula good natural light from the slider, as well as a diagonal view through the interior window opening. It slides the stove down (up?) farther away from the dishwasher, and with the prep sink, the current dw location should be much less of an issue.

Here's a thread on corner prep sinks.

The thing I enjoyed most about the stove perpendicular to the peninsula at the cottage kitchen I mentioned earlier, was that I never felt like I had my back to others while I was prepping and cooking. I could stir items on the stove and look over my shoulder at folks at the peninsula or in the dining area. The counter was right there for setting items directly from the oven. I didn't have to spin completely around from an island to the stove. Instead, the peninsula and stove were just a 1/2 turn away from each other. It also had a little more space in the middle of the kitchen than an island configuration usually has, so even if others were in there, we weren't really bumping into each other. (I tried for months to figure out how to replicate this kitchen in our house and couldn't. make. it. happen. I ended up with an island instead.)

Laughable: My previous rental house had that exact layout. (Btw, nice to hear the little update. Did the subway bs get installed yet?)

Although, ours was a slightly smaller footprint and the DW was on the other side of sink, it was very functional. But, I must add, what made it great was to the left of the range was an 'interior window' with the post on the end connecting to the pennisula, just like you and lavender suggested with the half wall!!!

The living room was on that side as well as a wall of windows looking out to the view. I could watch tv and the sunset while prepping and cooking. I like that plan as well as the one lavender did with the island. Oooohhh, tough decisions Twitch!

A lot of interesting ideas, but I think Lavender's plan is the best. It gives Twitch her 4 seats at the island w/o anyone getting in the way of those working in the kitchen. There's also no wasted counterspace - it's all useful.

However, I'm not sure it will fit. Twitch's kitchen is only 12' wide (144") - and that's not deep enough for an island with seating - at least not one with decent aisles. (6" of the 12'6" is the outside wall - the interior is only 12' across. Note that the new DR/old Library is only 12' across as well - and they have walls in the same place as the kitchen.)

An island with seating should be at least 41.5" deep.

• 1.5" counter overhang + 24" D cabinets + 1" decorative door/end panel + 15" seating overhang

Skimping on the overhang will not really help - it may look like it does, but in reality, it does not. People take the same amount of room even when you don't provide adequate depth to the overhang - people just have to lean farther forward to reach the counter - which isn't comfortable for more than a few short minutes. (The older you get, the more uncomfortable it will be.) People might sit sideways and then twist to face the counter, but again, not comfortable (and, they take up more linear space when they do that, so you can't fit as many people at the counter.)

So, a kitchen with one run of counters + an island with seating needs to be at least 12'9" deep

• 25.5" perimeter counters +
• 42" aisle +
• 41.5" deep island +
• 44" aisle behind the seats [Edited to add: Only 44" is needed behind the seats b/c that aisle is not a "through" aisle, only kitchen-specific traffic will be passing behind the visitors. If it were a path through the kitchen to another, frequently used room, the aisle should more like 54" to 60" wide. If there was a counter and/or appliance, then 60" or more would be the appropriate aisle width.]

= 153" (12'9")

You could eliminate the decorative door/end panel to gain 1 inch

You could reduce the aisle behind the island to to 36" to gain 8 inches

That would give you the 9" you need

.

BUT - it will be a very tight squeeze to get around the back of the island if anyone is sitting there AND will most likely force all traffic in the kitchen to go through the prep and cooking areas of the kitchen - the areas you want to steer people out of!

When would that happen? Anytime someone is trying to...

• Set the table
• Get to the main/cleanup sink (for whatever reason)
• Get to the DW (load/unload the DW)

...while someone else is prepping and/or cooking.

There is one thing that might make it livable (as a major compromise) and that's the fact that the wall is not the entire length of the island so people may be willing to go around the back if you strongly encourage them! There would only be two seats to squeeze by. You could also strongly encourage people to sit at the seat on the short end and the seat adjacent to it so the space behind the island is empty of seating as much as possible.

.

If you really want an island with seating, Lavender's idea is your best bet, IMHO.

Regarding the original layout proposed by Twitch,

• The aisles appear to be measured cabinet-to-cabinet, not counter-to-counter - so that means the aisles are 3" narrower than she thinks she has

• The sink & DW really need to be switched b/c the most useful prep space is b/w the range and sink

• The corner should be a 90-degree cutout b/c the angle is seriously reducing the counter frontage for prepping.

Some of these things have been pointed out by others, but I thought I'd add additional reasons why they should be changed.

If you want the peninsula like Laughable shows, I would still keep the DW out of the space b/w the sink and range so you have a second Prep Zone and so someone cleaning up isn't in the way of someone cooking. It would keep the whole area open on the right.

Regarding the length of the peninsula, with 12' to work with, you could have a 6' long peninsula for 3 seats and still have a 6' aisle b/w the end of the peninsula and the wall - as long as the refrigerator is deep enough into the kitchen as to not get in the way of the peninsula end - you should have around 42" b/w the corner of the refrigerator and the corner of the peninsula - at whatever angle it is.

Just don't crowd the DR - make sure you leave plenty of space b/w the DR table and the peninsula. Since it's a major aisle, you should have at least 5' - and 6' would be much, much better!

Oh, and you should have at least 4' b/w the sliding door to the deck and the DR table so someone trying to go outside can get around someone sitting at the DR table.

I think that means the peninsula will need to be moved farther into the kitchen than is shown in the plans above. Which, in turn, may reduce the length of the peninsula to the point where it will only seat 2 people.

I love Buehl's almost-scientific breakdowns of what does/doesn't work in plans. Wow. I would heed her advice and go with Lavendar's plan with the tweaks Buehl has suggested. However, I would love to see you incorporate Laughable's amazing idea of the interior window at the end of that wall with a bit of a tweak.

Once a year we go to an event at the home of one of the wealthiest folks in our rural area and one of the features I love the most in their kitchen is a display column. Instead of a window, it's a column about 36" by 24". At about 36-40" in height there is a section of glass on all four sides of the column. Within the glass is the most amazing, gigantic Chihuly glass vase under spotlights. It is a breath-taking feature.. Of course, you would need something narrower to fit in that space and I know we all can't afford a Chihuly but making that window into a 3-sided glass display case with some art glass or other unique item spotlighted in it would be amazing.

I really like lavender's plan (although I'd hate giving up any amount of storage). There was another kitchen, posted a year or so ago, where a half wall was against the stairs. I can't remember the owner's username, but I really liked that kitchen, too. (Not home4all6.) It was narrower, without an island, and the range might have been on the half wall. Anyone remember that kitchen? Seeing the pics might help Tim decide. And, Tim, with lavender's plan you can still have the doggie door. ;)

For just a couple of hang-out seats, and retained access to the deck, I like laughable's first plan, too, and it would work with the half wall idea. I detest a peninsula (even though I posted plans with one), but in some spaces they work. But, as suggested, put the DW on the other side of the sink, out of the prep space.

Ha, that's funny that your rental peninsula had an interior window with a post, Rebunky. I think I'd like working at that peninsula. There's so much to look at while working.

With the island plan, you'd mostly be staring at a wall when prepping. Bo-ring. But some people aren't bothered by that so much, so that's ok. (They probably cut themselves less than I do. ; )) Some good artwork or a photo gallery on the wall would help, too.

I forgot to mention last night that the 4th seat on the working side of the peninsula kitchen needs to be backless so that it can slide completely under the counter and out of the way. The person that gets that seat is the person cooking, imo, so it shouldn't be used as much as the other seats.

Twitch, what are your plans for your cabinets? Are you going to do stock or custom? Custom island cabinets could be made a little shallower than 24" to help increase your aisle widths in the island plan. You'd lose a little storage, but you'd be able to move around easier.

Excellent explanation of the measurements and reasonings, Beuhl!

Chihuly glass is amazing Funky, I had to look it up.

No BS yet, Rebunky. Well...the square tiles are sitting in boxes in our entry (You know your renoing a kitchen when you....find kitchen paraphernalia all over the house!)

One more idea for the island plan: In wall pantry on the sitting side wall. If you are able to use the space between the studs, on the back of the closet, you can fit a lot in there. Here's a sideways shot of our pantry to show how much you can fit in a shallow space. These shelves are about the same depth as ones that would fit in the wall between studs, you'd just have the vertical studs every little bit breaking up the horizontals.

I hear so many complaints about prepping facing a wall - in reality, that's not what really happens in an island (or really, in any situation that has an open end). With the island, you will be prepping facing visitors and it's a slight turn of the head to see what's going on in the DR or even out the sliding doors.

I'm not against peninsulas - in fact, I have two! I love them, but there is plenty of space - I have 10' b/w the two shallow legs of the "U" and the legs are no more than 62" long - which doesn't trap anyone and keeps the work areas open and spacious-feeling. It's also open on both ends (DR on one end, FR on the other.), which also adds to the openness.

With this kitchen, I'm afraid the "U" may not be wide enough b/c I think the peninsula will have to be brought into the kitchen another couple of feet.

Let me work the peninsula plan up - with the DR and a typical table - 42" wide x 72" long - which seats 6. The table might be smaller (maybe 39" wide x 48" long for seating only 4), but I think you should plan for a "typical" table - which will be needed in the future when your kids bring home spouses and/or children! (My kids are the same age - and I'm hoping for grandchildren in the next few years - after they graduate from college & get established, though!)

First, thanks to all for putting the time and effort into helping us with our kitchen design. It has truly been a great help.

We took all suggestions seriously and went through all of my supply of blue tape and cardboard this weekend trying out the various suggestions. In the end we picked what was probably a combination of many ideas. The peninsula shown below is what we came away with.

Reasons:

-An island just didn't really fit the space right no matter how we oriented it.

-Adding a prep sink would be very difficult because of the drain. Our Post and Beam house has a solid 3" thick floor and the ceiling of the room below is exposed cedar wood. A drain installation would ruin it.

-We realized that we really can't live without a door to the deck. It became obvious very quickly when it was blocked off and we were forced to walk around. We'll use a 3' exterior door (do they make pocket exterior doors?)

-It's true that a peninsula anchored on the opposite wall allows other options, (including the brilliant idea of removing the half wall!) but we came to realize that most of the time that we approach the kitchen is from the left side. Walking all the way around the peninsula to get to the refrigerator seemed inefficient.

The only thing that we find lacking with this design is that we wish we could have a landing zone for fridge items closer to the interior of the kitchen, but there's just not enough width in there to squeeze in anything without it seeming just 'wrong'.

Cheers!

Tim

I really like your plan!

By trying different ideas IN your space, you've found a plan that works for you....and keeps the door to the deck! Well done :)

I think that's a workable solution while still keeping the door you desperately want. Since they make exterior double-door sliders, it seems like one should be able to have a single exterior slider.

Something to consider is your sink. I'm sure you are planning bigger than the 15" wide one you've pictured. Since you'll only have one sink, I suggest you get the biggest you can fit into that space so someone can do a bit of DW on one side while someone uses the other side to wash veggies and such for prepping. Yes, you can do all that in a single sink without a barrier in the middle. You'll find that most of us here at GW prefer single sinks. I think you should be able to fit a 30" one there. If possible, consider going for a 32".

A couple of things I'm concerned about:

Walkway into kitchen: 38" is narrow. I have roughly the same situation with walkway between a peninsula and a perimeter counter. I would actually like it to be a tad bigger. 42" is more than enough for one person at a time but tight for when one person is exiting while another is entering. Both have to turn a bit sideways. I'm toying with the idea of removing a 9" cabinet at the end of the peninsula for a wider opening but then I would lose my cabinet for storing cutting boards. It's a trade-off. However, if my opening was only 38", I would lose that extra cabinet in a heartbeat to gain a wider space into the kitchen.

Peninsula seating: If someone is sitting at the stool at the end, it will really be crowded there. Anyone entering/exiting the kitchen will be blocked by the person seated there. I think the only way a seat there works if it's a space that is rarely sat at and if the stool used is backless so it can be slid all the way under the counter when not in use. Also with legs that go fairly straight down instead of widely-splayed so the legs don't cause a tripping hazard.

You also only have a 12" overhang. Very frequently here at GW, people point out that 12" is very uncomfortable for most people as it really doesn't allow enough space for knees and feet to fit under the counter with the seat at a comfortable distance. Most people report that people need to slide the seat farther from the counter to make room for knees/feet which means they have to lean uncomfortably to reach the counter. 15" seems to be the minimum counter overhang that is comfortable.

You don't have room for a 15" overhang on the walkway side. This would make a maximum 35" walkway. I think this would feel congested and make your kitchen look crowded. A more spacious opening there will make your entire kitchen feel more spacious. I think you need to either (1) reduce the cabinet to the right of the wine fridge to 12" which would allow you to add the 3" for better counter-depth for the seated person while still maintaining a decent width walkway, or (2) eliminate the seat at the end. I just think it's too much to try to have both.

once you give the other three seats their 15" overhang, when seated they'll be in the doorway to the family room. Actually, they already will be even with the narrow 12" overhang. This would really bother me. I think you need to move that doorway down at least a foot although I think about 18" would be better. This would allow people to be seated there without feeling like they're blocking the doorway.

Hi twitch, glad you are narrowing the LO down. Looking good, but wanted to mention a couple things.

1. I don't like the cabinet run (fridge wall) dying short with the angled cab before the sink wall. I see that you have an existing second small window between the post and the corner is why. But, I think it won't really make that much of a difference with the natural light to lose the small window. You have a curtain over it now anyways. I'd remove it and continue the cabinet run to the end of that wall.

2) I know you said that the one post has to stay, so I do hesitate to say anything....(forgive me and ignore if this is a stupid idea)

It is just that post dead center to the opening between kitchen wall and fireplace is really bugging me! I know you have space to get by on either side, but it just feels strange in the middle of an opening like that.

I understand if you flat out cannot remove it due to structural reasons or expense. I am just thinking if there was some way you could tie it in with the kitchen/stair wall?

I am not as creative as some here, but maybe continue the wall from the stairs at an angle to the post and then continue the fridge wall to the post? Corner closet pantry? Corner bookshelf or hutch?

As funky mentioned you would have to shorten the pennisula with no stool on the end. I think it does feel too tight in your plan anyways.

Or, I guess if you wanted the natural light and view from kitchen still, you could do the half wall idea still. You could use shallow cabs on that end or even have the cabinets bumping back? Post would tie into the half wall countertop with a 'window' opening. A beverage area? Could maybe put the wine fridge there?

Sorry, I know those are not great ideas. I'm really brain dead today. I just wish that post wouldn't feel like you are going to bang into it being in the center of the opening to the kitchen/dining? Kwim?