Here’s a drawing with measurements. Our cabinet guy (from another city) didn’t see the kitchen yet, so I took those measurements and hope I didn’t make any grave mistakes.

Some renderings of what I think we can do.

Yellow cab is what we already have; blue and green are shallow pantry cabs facing the FR.

I shortened the peninsula and think of adding a 2nd tier so as to keep the kitchen part of the peninsula clutter free.

I have the DW under the cooktop in this rendering, but I came up with 2 more options.

I like option 3 the best. I may have a raised DW in that option (and one level peninsula), but we’re on slab and I very much doubt we’ll be able to find a good plumber here. The area is famous for its leaking pipes :)), so DH is against moving the plumbing. Next best is option 1 imo. Since I don’t have much room b/w the sink and the cooktop I prep on the left side of the sink and would prefer to keep the DW out of that area.

I’d appreciate your ideas on this layout or any other suggestions. Btw, we’re on a housing complex so I can’t change windows/doors .

I do love the seaside pink and architecture of this place! Even though the angles make for awkward layouts.

Can you shift the sink down a bit further to the left so as to increase the space between it and the cooktop enough to get an 18'' DW in between? No oven? Just the toaster oven? Why not a small range? That would get you counter space back and give you more prep room, albeit on top of the DW.

How is the peninsula used currently? Drop zone and landing zone would be my guess. I think you need a managed small drop area to keep that peninsula from clutter. Could you do a bistro table outside on the patio with a small wastebasket under it? The chair could be an exterior storage banquette where you could pull off shoes. Hooks and a small shelf behind the door on the inside.

Could the door swing be reversed? That would make having a drop zone in that odd little corner work really well and give the main prep zone more protection. Yes, I know that would lad to potential DW door interference, but with a window there to see who's coming in and the DW moved over, I think it would just work.

For additional storage a two sided glass cabinet above the peninsula for your dishes would still keep it open feeling.

Thanks Beth and Sophie.

I think I can move the sink more to the left and have DW b/w the sink and the cooktop. Or maybe I should move the sink to the left as much as possible and get a bigger sink (use a cutting board over it to give me more prep space). I can then have a wider cab under the cooktop. Something like this??

I'll loose some storage but I can keep the trash under the sink then.

I said I have a toaster oven, but I'm not sure if it's the correct term. My oven is called a midi-oven here. It's as wide as the standard range ovens we have (60 cm/23,6") and it's just 1-year-old. So I think I'll keep the midi-oven+cooktop.

The peninsula is a landing and temporary drop zone now. I hope I'll have room for all the other stuff we keep there now in the shallow pantry/storage cabs I'm planning to have.

We actually only take off our shoes (slippers really) when we're going upstairs to the bedrooms, so our hooks, shoe rack is near the stairs, but a drop zone in the patio is a great idea.

Bumping for more ideas.

Or did I find the best possible layout for this kitchen already???

Hello Sena,

I think the idea to move down the sink as much as possible is a good option. I understand the concerns wrt plumbing and finding a plumber. When my husband and I (who both know how to solder copper pipes) were re-plumbing our downstairs bath, we had a particularly troublesome joint we just could not get to solder (turned out to be a faulty house water shut off valve, but that's a different story...). Anyway, we finally used this stuff

http://www.amazon.com/Copper-JFC050-Ounce-Solderless-Bonding/dp/B000VHYRGA

Since then we have recommended it to a friend, who doesnt do any soldering, but like you needed to replumb an area in his weekend house and couldnt locate a plumber in the small community where it was located. He used it on a small area (moving a bathroom sink, as I recall) and found it worked well.

Good luck on your layout! (I have no association with whoever makes that stuff, btw)

Wow, that is a challenging set-up! Should be used on some sort of Design Challenge reality show. I have never seen the dishwasher-under-cooktop thing before, but then I've never been to Turkey. Sorry I have no brilliant insights to add. I think if you've been there for 11 years, your insights into what's working and what's not will be most helpful. Good luck and please post photos of the result!

Thanks for the good wishes and weaver, I appreciate the tip on plumbing.

Looks like DW/cooktop combo is quite popular here. We had it in our home kitchen as well, but I have more room there and was able to move the DW to the other side of the sink when we renovated.