We are also in Fairfield County and with custom cabinents and soapstone it was more than your quote although we did move an outside wall and upgraded electrical. I would highly recommend M.Teixeira in NJ for your counters. They fabricate in this area and were phenomenal. Our contractor and his fabricator kept pushing us towards granite because they were not familiar with soapstone and having it fabricated by an expert in the stone is critical. I also found the local stone yards had a limited selection and couldn't name varieties. It caused conflict but when the local fabricator said he would seal it after polishing to a fine grit I insisted on M. Teixeira. We chose Stormy Black for its hardness and also how it looked in one of their kitchen displays. I love our counters! Good luck- it is an arduous process but worth it!

Thanks for the feedback! I'll have a look at the M. Teixeira products.

Did you use a local cabinet maker for your cabinets or one of the custom brands? I think I was a little surprised at the cabinet price because my understanding is that the Centra line is less expensive than the regular Mouser and Plain and Fancy.

Congratulations on your new home!

I think your island restricts flow in all directions. Your prep sink is a long way from the range; the island blocks the cleanup sink from every direction.

I'm really confused about the long counter to the right of the fridge. It appears to be open to the next room, but extend from the fridge to the wall, so you can't walk through that way. It looks like that is a seating area - but how do you get there?

What is the purpose of the counter at the bottom of your drawing? Again, it appears open to the next room, but blocks the path.

I would like to see a rough sketch of how the kitchen relates to the rest of the house - where do all the doors lead? Since you're not in the house yet, you may not have photos, but I'm curious what it looks like now, and what you don't like about the current layout, and what you are trying to achieve with the remodel.

Folks here often recommend living in a house for a while, to see what works and what doesn't. You have given a lot of thought to how you want the kitchen to look, but I'm not convinced you know yet how it will function for you.

Our local cabinet maker was also fantastic. The workmanship on our unique space is really great. KitchenMax in Bridgeport.

Find a Shiloh dealer - they are less expensive than the less expensive line done by Mouser but are still high quality.

You're in Fairfield County (where my son lives). EVERYTHING is more expensive there!

Thanks for the additional comments...

-AnnKH: I am just getting to back to this thread now but spent some time with another KD this afternoon and he actually raised some of the same points as you so I am going to be making some modifications to the rough plans and can re-post. Some of the ideas in the current version of the plan seem illogical after talking them out so I'll update after I make some changes and can give some additional thought.

-brdrl: Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check them out!

-Anglophilia: You are absolutely right about the expense of things in this area so I am very open to using dealers/cabinetmakers/KDs from outside my immediate area since they don't always automatically expect to charge more.

U.S Granite in Danbury has great prices. They probably have soapstone (not sure because I got granite).

If you order Conestoga cabinets, they don't charge extra for Fairfield County ;)

I'll have to give them a call also and maybe take a ride up there but Super 7 isn't always so super...

I've reworked the plan a bit after a few additional conversations with professionals and my girlfriend regarding the functionality of the space. I am including the reworked plans below with a few notes as well as a larger view to give a better sense of the overall space.

A few notes:

The counters and seating along the bottom of the kitchen is designed as a breakfast bar at counter height.

We are trying to open up the floor plans around the kitchen a bit more and the open wall above the counters below the refrigerator allow us to achieve that and maintain some additional cabinet space.

We don't have a lot of wall cabinets because we don't really need more than what is in the plan here (we don't currently use all of our wall cabinets and there are about the same amount).

Flow is maintained around the kitchen without anyone having to come directly into the workspace for anything other than working. We will likely include refrigerated drawers in at least one 24" base and are considering 1 near the range and one towards the dining/family room for kids to get juices etc without getting in the way.

Thanks again for all your feedback! I'll try and get some actual pictures up this weekend of the current kitchen.

If you are trying to open up the kitchen, then put a tall pantry in for storage instead of the base cabinets that block anyone from entering the kitchen. They are really weird and will cost $$$$ for counter space that isn't useful.

The fridge needs to be on the working side of the kitchen and form a triangle with the stove and prep sink, without the island blocking the path from one to the other. Maybe make the sink under the window a prep sink with fridge to the left and have your cleanup sink on theother wall.

Don't rush this. Your plan needs a lot of work to be functional and make the best use of your money.

Definitely not in a rush and in the very early stages of putting all this together. We won't be moving in until around the end of July and aren't even closing for a few more weeks. Right now I am just trying to start the process so we don't fall behind after we close. I am mostly looking at different cabinet options and speaking with KDs and GCs to get a sense of what is possible while also getting the good feedback from the knowledgeable folks here.

I think a tall pantry cabinet alongside the current fridge would be a good option instead of that run of base cabs but was also trying to keep some counter space adjacent to the fridge based on the post in the FAQs that discusses aisle widths, overhangs, etc. I suppose the island space opposite the fridge would match up with that criteria as well...

The sink, range and fridge in the current kitchen are all in the same places as in the draft I am working with, the only addition being the island. I am basing much of this design on the kitchen I grew up with that had a very similar layout. That kitchen's layout was very similar to my initial draft except that it had a rangetop on the island on the same side as the window-sink. We always did the prep work on the fridge/sink side then moved around to the other side of the island to cook and used the island space to each side of the rangetop as needed then did cleanup where the window/sink would be.

It looks like I'll be spending some time this weekend reviewing more literature and posts and speaking with a few more KDs.

Thanks and keep the thoughts coming!

if the room is just over 15 ft wide those aisles around that 4' deep island will be tight. The plan has 2'+4'+2'=8' of cabinets. Then add drawer and door fronts and countertop overhang to all of these areas which will be around 6". Your open space then is 15'-8.5' (total cab and counter depth in proposed plan) 6.5' or thereabouts. Then split that for 2 aisles which, if evenly spaced, gives you less than 42" aisles. With aisles of only about 39" that a big room will feel cramped. That math assumes the frig doesn't stick out more than 25.5".

Good points. The 42 3/4" inches I had for the island aisles didn't include the overhangs so it would be reduced 6". I think a narrower island is going to be the way to go so I'll have to work on the depth of the fridge side island cabs. I'd prefer that side to be at 18" depth which should give me: 43" aisles (182" total width - 90" counters - 6" inches overhang = 86" total aisle / 2 = 43"). That still may be tight so maybe I go with 12" depth cabs to get up to 46" aisles and only a 3' island...

New Plan with 18" fridge side island cabs. Wide and narrower view