Ooo... I'm liking how you fixed that odd, ugly 17" cab I had at the end rebunky! That makes a huge difference, aesthetically, and I could definitely live with that.

I do usually start off with a clean prep space but on some days it's hard to. I also try to clean up as I prep/cook but some recipes generate more dirty dishes than others! ;) So, I want to give myself some wiggle room to have some messy space.

I think Option 3 is best for accommodating that.

I think the real solution is biting the bullet and switching everything you currently have that isn't dishwasher-safe to be dishwasher-safe so the dish-drying rack isn't a daily fixture. Then the left of your sink can be your dirty dishes landing spot, and the right of the sink is totally free to be whatever size makes you happiest.

I'm also not good about putting away dirty dishes (and though I'm a clean-as-you-go cook, sometimes I create them faster than I can clean in the midst of cooking and just need to get them out of my way), and piling them on the counter above the dishwasher (out of the prep zone) works well for me.

Also, why are clean dishes landing above the dishwasher? They shouldn't really need to land anywhere except in their drawers when they are being unloaded directly into the drawers on the opposite side of the aisle, like this:

That's not only an easy, one-step process, but also the clean dishes end up next to the fridge and out of the prep zone for easy snacking. (If you are having a MW, it should be on the fridge wall too with the dishes.)

If you are very concerned about the lack of a drying rack, you might consider swapping everything possible to be dishwasher safe and also installing an extra-deep window sill like this one:

That way, if you really missed the drying rack, you could put some drying mats or tea towels on the window sill and air dry the few things that you really can't stand to put in the dishwasher. They'll still be out of your way and not taking up either your dirty dish piling space (left of sink) or your prep space (right of sink).

i like Rebunky's solution except for the 3 18" cabinets. I find 18" wide wall cabinet to be not very functional for dishes. Too narrow for setting things like plates and bowls side by side. They are fine for glasses, spices and pantry items. But my personal pet peeve is wall cabs that are less than 21 " wide with the above exceptions. The narrow cab on the end is fine. Just the trio I don't like.

I don't understand why you were going to have a large sink and keep all of the dishes out of it? The dirty dishes should be going straight into the dishwasher or if you're absolutely certain they are not appropriate for the dishwasher they should go into the sink. You are devoting most of your countertop to clean or dirty dishes, mainly to dirty dishes, what's up with that? It makes no sense to bother redoing the kitchen if all you're going to do is leave crap out on the counters.

Please save your money. Or better yet invest in kitchen plates, cups, glasses, pots, pans, and gadgets that can go in the dishwasher and get rid of everything else.

I often find that people who refuse to use their dishwasher are very carefully rinsing all of their plates because the dishwasher does such a lousy job of cleaning. The dishwasher is designed to clean DIRTY dishes. If you put clean dishes in there there's nothing for the soap to hang onto or work on and the dishes come out no better than when you put them in.

Option 3 you need a big prep area and you don't want the stove grease going onto open shelving.

You have a lot of space dedicated to clean up. If you truly need seven feet for that activity and you don't foresee any changes to that, perhaps you need to rethink the whole kitchen? Dishwasher/clean up sink/dish storage on the short side and fridge/prep sink/range on the long side? It would require a change to the window.

It might be personal taste, but I do not like when upper cabs are right next to an exhaust hood. I prefer to give it some room like at least three inches on each side. Especially if you want to tile all the way up the wall behind the hood. If you haven't done so, you might look at inspiration photos to see if you prefer a hood with breathing room or not.

Let me clarify. On the 18" size doors, I put the little black "knobs" so you would see that the one cabinet that is closer to the sink is really a 36" cabinet with double doors. Only the 2 cabinets flanking the range hood are 18" single door cabinets, each opening away from the hood.

I have that set up but with 15" cabinets. The small cabs next to the hood work great for all my different oils, vinegars, large spice bottles, etc.

What style hood are you planning? Is it the chimney style? If so, as BB mentioned, that style does look better with some breathing room to cabinets.

Or if maybe you plan on having a cabinet above, more like this, then the cabinets all connect.

I feel as though I should speak in defense of dishes by the sink waiting to be cleaned. :-). For us, we have oversized pots, pans, and bowls that don't fit nicely into the DW. We also have knives and some cutting boards that we hand wash. I'm not sticking those in the sink where they would get sopping wet or be a danger to someone who reaches into the sink. Even though I try to clean as I go, there are usually a few of these items that are sitting in the wings waiting to be washed. Obviously, each of us works a little bit differently. OP, which style cook are you?

Thanks SO MUCH everyone for the very enlightening replies! I'm so bad at replying promptly to individual comments so I'll do a general reply instead.

"You are devoting most of your countertop to clean or dirty dishes, mainly to dirty dishes, what's up with that?"

"You have a lot of space dedicated to clean up. If you truly need seven feet for that activity..."

Wow - to see it spelled out like that, what the heck is wrong with me?? ;) Why AM I dedicating so much of my kitchen to crap? I'll be completely honest: I have always been a clutterbug. I really struggle to keep on top of the clutter, especially with two young children who leave a wake of messiness in their path!

Preparing for this reno has forced me to try to kick the habit. I've purged a lot of stuff and will be planning my storage to make sure everything has its place. I can see that changing my HABITS is the last piece to beating the clutter.

I do use my DW for everything I possibly can. I handwash things like pans with baked on food, very large items that are too wide or tall for the DW or items that come out of the DW still dirty (eg hardened bits of food). I can't do away with the handwashing but I like the suggestions you all had for working around it like the extra wide window sill and using a soaker pad/tea towel vs a drying rack.

As for the DW unloading landing area: the other wall of my galley is about 5' away so I won't be able to just reach over to plop the clean dishes in. So I thought it would be nice to stack a few at a time on the counter above then walk the stacks over to the dish storage drawer, batch by batch. I designated a landing area for that to ensure I don't clutter up that space so it's clear whenever I unload the DW.

I also forgot that my new sink will be bigger than my current one, so I will be able to fit dirty stuff in it AND still be able to use it as I prep. That means I no longer have to reserve such a large dirty dishes landing area, OR it can go on the counter over the DW.

You've all given me LOTS to consider! I'm excited! It's felt so great to purge and declutter the house thus far... I think my new kitchen will help me to get it under control... at least in the kitchen! ;)

Oh my new hood will look like this one:

Mt. Tabor Kitchen · More Info

SO... back to my original query, if I get my dirty and clean dishes under control and no longer need so much counter space dedicated to that... which of the four options is the best for me? Right now, it's still between Option 2 or 3. Option 3 with rebunky's tweaks appeals most to me (and I did get your tweaks rebunky - I could see the 36" cab next to the 18" one ;). I'll also be using my wall cabs as pantry storage mostly so the two 18" cabs won't be a problem. Love that long 60" stretch of counter. But will that put the sink and range too far apart?

laughablemoments: missed your post as I was typing up my "epic" long post! I'm the same as you - I ditto all that you wrote! I'm a messy kind of cook and sometimes in the mad rush of cooking, I have no choice but to dump things so I can stir or flip something before it burns! So I will need to do some "dump and wash later" space... but perhaps not 2' worth. ;)

I also don't like putting things in my sink to keep because then they are in my way when I use the sink. I like to pile the things waiting to be popped in the dishwasher (99% of everything) and waiting to be hand washed (1% of everything) on thr counter over the dishwasher where they are out if the way. It works very well.

Why is there an 8" cabinet/spacer between the sink and dishwasher rather than having the dishwasher right next to the sink?

Hi Jillius! ;) I'm liking this new system of stacking dirty stuff above the DW. I think it's really efficient and keeps my dirty stuff contained.

There's 32" between the sink and the wall and the DW takes up 24" so I didn't know what else to do with that 8"! Should I move it over to the left of the DW instead? I haven't fiddled around with or planned the base cabs yet so I'll need lots of help with that soon!

To your original query, if 48" is your ideal prep space, then make the counter between the sink and range 48" (and just get used to stacking dirty dishes to the left of the sink). I personally would prefer 60" for my prep counter, but I'm likely taller/longer-armed than you are, and you should go with what feels most comfortable for you.

The only caveat I can think of is, if your current prep space is teeny, then 48" probably feels enormous and like all the space you could ever want or need by comparison. For sure, it won't continue to feel so enormous once you are used to 48". If you install it, 48" will eventually feel normal and standard to you. I can guarantee that.

The trick is, I've seen a lot of people get used to a larger space like that and then want even more space.

For example, people used to eight foot ceilings think ten footers feel enormous and cold, but they enjoy nine foot ceilings and rave about how spacious and airy they feel and buy a house with those. Then they get used to nine. Nine is their new standard, eight footers now feel super low and cramped, and they start considering ten footers for their next house because those now feel nice and spacious and airy by comparison to the new standard.

It's not always the case that you will eventually want more, but that kind of of pattern is very common to see in home spatial decisions. Aisle widths, door widths, counter lengths, etc.

If you think that might happen to you, maybe go a touch longer than feels perfect to you now -- 54" perhaps?

Yes, put the 8" to the left of the dishwasher. There's just less dripping between the sink and dishwasher that way. Actually, if you are stacking dirty dishes to the left of the sink, I'm very glad you have 32" on that side. To me, 24" often seems a bit small to contain my stacked dirty dishes, but 30-36" seems perfect.

Jillius, thanks for your replies! I'm so happy to see that 32" space above the DW works out so nicely! About that 8": I may end up expanding the sink cab, and I think I will need to give an inch or two more for the DW frame so that 8" might end up getting eaten up by all that. I started a new thread to get help with figuring out those fine details here.

I just had a chat with DH. He's quite worried that 60" is way too far between the sink and range. My response to that was that I don't move between the sink and range very often, so it's not a huge issue.

I think I'm falling right in line with the psychology of moving up to a bigger prep space! 48" is what I'm used to and it's sufficient but I'm really liking the spaciousness of a 60" prep area! We both like how the 60" prep area will allow for more than one person to prep side by side, and how our different zones (clean up > prep > cooking, and the fridge/MW on the other wall) are nicely separated and spread out so we can have many people in the kitchen at once, and not get in each other's way.

5' for your prep space between sink and stove is nothing if you make a big sprawled out mess like I do. And it sounds like that's you way you cook too! You will not regret having that space, but I bet you would have regrets if you went any smaller. I'll check out your new thread.

Oh and I have to admit something. I totally lied up thread when I said I never prep with dirty dishes in my way. I did exactly that this morning. I had a few dirty pans and items that I was too lazy to wash or add to the dw last night sitting in my prep zone next to the sink. Like you I also have a habit of setting the dirty dishes on the wrong side, in my prep zone, not over my dw. I just ignored them and still cooked breakfast. Usually I can't stand it and have to clean up everything spotless beforehand, but I'm not feeling too great today. My cast iron pans, cutting board, and collander are still sitting there dirty. At least I did finish filling up the dw and pressed start. Haha!

rebunky, I'm finding this thread rather therapeutic! It's waking me up to different ways of being in my kitchen, to cut down on the clutter. On the other hand, it's also comforting to know I'm not the only cook here who makes a big sprawling mess or leaves dirty dishes lying around at times! ;)

I'll look for your reply on the other thread! I hope to get more replies soon - I'm itching to start measuring, laying out, planning the storage!!

I like 3 because I like to spread out - I need room for veggies ready to chop, a cutting board, and bowls of prepped things, and I can totally fill up more than the 43" I have available next to my stove! But honestly I think you will be thrilled with either of these. For us having a big sink and DW has made all of the difference in the world in how we clean. Before we cook we usually shove dirty dishes in the sink or DW so the whole prep space is available. There is so much more room due to the larger/deeper sink - it's easy to wash things over stuff in the sink - and the sink gets emptied out way quicker now that we do have a DW. We also have a lot less on the drying towel (not rack) side, so dirty dishes can also hang out there if need be. We definitely used to have piles of dishes everywhere!

Thanks for sharing lharpie! I think I'll get myself more in the habit of doing a quick clear off of the prep space. When I get that larger sink, I think it'll be much easier for me to do that.

I'm not hearing anyone saying 5' between the sink and range is too far. :) I've had the spacing marked out on my wall since yesterday and it's really grown on me! It feels really spacious yet not too extreme. I think it perfectly suits how I cook. I'll have plenty of room to spread out and not feel cramped or rushed to clean up and make space as I cook. I can see myself really enjoying cooking in my new kitchen. Super exciting!

Consider swapping the DW/sink and the range ... that makes a straight path for the incoming dirty dishes from the dining area right to the washup zone.

And, if you have the dishes stored close to the DW/sink you don't have the person setting the table moving through the range and cooking zone and interfering with the cook.

it's a cleaner traffic flow

lazy_gardens that would be such a fantastic traffic flow. I would have done exactly what you suggested were it not for the window on that wall. I can't move the range to that side of that run because of the window. Can you figure out a way that will still give me a good, long prep space??

Since I last posted, I made a change to the placement of the DW. I didn't want to move it because it was nicely tucked out of the way of the prep zone. But having it to the left of the sink meant having that very un-useful 8" filler there. Yes, I could do a narrow pull out there but it wouldn't have been the best use of space.

So here's what that wall looks like right now:

We've also discovered another annoying issue. Directly behind the vent hood is a sewage pipe coming from an upstairs toilet. ARGH! It means that I either have to

1. Shift the hood and range about 1.5' to the left or right, which means screwing up the 5' prep space by shortening it or lengthening it.
2. Add in an extra bend to get the duct to go by the next joist over, which means reducing the efficiency of the vent by a bit, and having to give up the chimney style look. I'll have to get a wider duct cover, making it look like this hood:
   

   Chewuch · More Info
   Or make it an under cabinet style like this:
   

   Interpretation of a 19th Century Farm House · More Info