Get rid of the peninsula. It serves no purpose.

Can you move the door of the load bearing wall to the right side?

cpartist, I can probably move the doorway somewhere else within that wall. I know there is a duct in there somewhere but I assume that could be rerouted if necessary. I tried some layouts with the wall moved over to the right. There is a limit to how far the door can move because the area behind walls C & D is a stairwell. When I moved the doorway as far to the right as possible I couldn't figure out how to make a long enough counter for the sink & dishwasher to be straight. I had to use the corner sink that I really want to get rid of. I also couldn't fit the wall oven/micro unit. I like the flow through the dining room better that way but the kitchen layout needs some help.

Something like this?

cpartist, I like having the opening to the dining room moved to the right because it really improves the flow of walking through the house. I was trying to keep the cooktop/hood centered between the 2 windows on the top wall because I think it would make a nice focal point there (and the range is currently located there so the gas line wouldn't have to move).

Your post has prompted me to make a list of everything I find irritating about my current kitchen and a priority list of what I want to have in the new kitchen. You said you would prioritize more storage and prep space over the separate appliances. I need to do more thinking about exactly what my priorities are so I started making that list to help me figure it out.

My main reason for wanting a separate cooktop and wall oven is that I want a gas cooktop and an electric wall oven. I love the gas stovetop I have now but the gas oven is terrible for the baking I do. I really miss having an electric oven. Is it possible to put in a gas cooktop with an electric oven underneath it??? I need to do some research on that.

sena01, thanks for the idea of putting the stand alone fridge and freezer and the oven/micro on that same long wall together. I kept trying to put one of them in the corner where you put the dishwasher to utilize that wall space and it just wasn't working out!

I looked at some houzz pictures of stand alone fridge/freezers and found these inspiration photos that I like.

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So maybe I could do something like this? The microwave would go on a shelf on the wall cabinets between the fridge & freezer. This would be great if I could do a gas cooktop with a separate electric oven underneath.

Why do you want gas over induction? Induction has much better control, is safer, cooler, etc. Please do research on induction and you may be pleasantly surprised.

I'm glad you're making a list of priorities. That really should be the first step in deciding what will and will not work for your space.

BTW: I too like the opening moved as now no one will be walking through your work zones. If anything, all it will take is a small header over the door.

I was trying to keep the cooktop/hood centered between the 2 windows on the top wall because I think it would make a nice focal point there

Yes but more importantly is to have a good work flow. For example, here is what I did but switching the sink and cooktop back to between the windows. Notice how now you lose prep space between the sink and stove and now have all that dumping space to the right of the stove again?

Personally I'd rather have good work space first and a beautiful kitchen second. You can have both, but maybe not exactly how you imagined.

Regarding the pictures you just posted. You need a minimum of 3' between the table and any cabinets and ideally 4' is better. In your version above, you don't have it.

Have you looked at the dual fuel ranges? Gas top, electric oven.

Do you need a table in the kitchen? There's a dining room right there! Can it be a table for 2? Or shove a small banquette into the bay?

Why do you want gas over induction? Induction has much better control, is safer, cooler, etc.

I had induction in my last house and I actually find that it is much easier to control my gas cooktop. Now that was 15 years ago so the induction technology has probably changed and improved. I will look into it. Thanks. That would make it easier to get the induction top with the electric oven for baking.

I agree that your first layout with the sink on the top wall works much better. And if I switch to the induction top then the location of the gas line doesn't matter so it would be an easy switch.

cpartist, so that little round table in the eating area isn't an exact representation of what we have. The table and chairs recess in to the bay window area more than I was able to show with the limitations of the software I was using. So having the 25" deep cabinets there would still allow about 40" between the cabinetry and the edge of the table. I am concerned about that being too deep for a pantry and items getting lost in the back (my current issue with my 24" deep reach in pantry. I was just working on a layout with the doorway moved to the right that put 15" deep cabinets there like the layout that you posted above. I am going to run out of time to finish it now but I will post it after I am done. But it is essentially what you have already suggested :)

Fori, I fully admit that my table situation is ridiculous but it is very functional for my family. The situation is even worse than it looks with 2 tables right next to each other. If you look on the main floor layout the room below the dining room is our art room. It actually has a 60" x 60" square table and chairs in the center. So 2 huge tables right next to each other, plus the eating area table. LOL. We are a very artistic/crafty family so the kids do their homework & projects in the art room while the dining room table is my project space. We eat all our meals (family of 4) at that small eating area table. On the few occasions that we need to use the dining room, I begrudgingly put away my projects so that we can actually eat at the dining room table. I have another thread buried on here somewhere where I was considering giving up the dining room table or trying to rearrange the rooms on the main floor so that we could get a larger kitchen. Every scenario interfered with our project spaces. I definitely prioritize project space over cooking space. Not the choice everyone would make but it is what works for us.

So now I am trying to get everything I want crammed into the existing kitchen space. As cpartist pointed out I need to prioritize what I really want in the kitchen so I can figure out what to sacrifice. Because I just can't fit everything.

OK. I get that. I have to shovel all that craft stuff off of my dining room table twice a year too. :)

Is it completely open to the family room?

Yes the eating area is completely open to the family room. Please excuse the mess. The coffee table is the only table in the house left for the Legos. Lol.

Ok, here is what I came up with based on cpartist's layout. The doorway is moved over to the right and the eating area has 15" deep cabinets. The microwave would go on a shelf in cabinet 21.

You might be able to partially recess the fridge and freezer into the wall, although putting them together might make it too big a span. It's worth looking into.

Also, how do you get Legos on the coffee table? I was under the impression that they always had to be used on the floor.

As a full time artist, i definitely hear you Jennifer. Frankly art and crafts takes priority over cooking in my book. I told that to DH right from the beginning. At first he didn't believe me, but 13 years later, he knows. ;)

Fori, she can't recess the fridge and freezer because that's a load bearing wall.

Jennifer, better but you have too many narrow cabinets. Make your cabinets as wide as possible. In fact I'd lose a corner to get wider drawers for pots and pans.

I'm concerned also that you don't have enough lower storage.

I do like the pantry area

Also notice that while my sink wasn't centered it gave you 4' to the left of the sink for prepping vs the 3' you have in your last drawing.

Additionally by having 4' to the left of the sink, that would allow for a 36" three drawer stack and a corner unit. 24" drawers are not wide enough to get pots and pans in.

I think you can still do a header in a load-bearing wall to stuff a fridge. But the double unit is probably pushing it.

I agree a header can be done, but from what I understand they want to limit changes because of budget?

But we're already moving the wall anyway! :)

Not moving the wall, just the door, so it's not a full header.

Fori, you can use legos pretty much anywhere. My kids prefer to build on a table but the floor is always covered in stray pieces. Lol.

Here is the deal with that load bearing wall. Originally we were planning to take it out completely so that we could put in a big 6+ foot island. Then we realized that the room isn't wide enough to accommodate an island that big. We couldn't get the existing windows to make sense so we were looking at changing them as well. While our budget should allow us to take down the wall and move windows, my husband and I started thinking that it didn't make sense to spend that much money when we weren't going to end up with our dream kitchen. So we decided to try finding a layout that would work with the existing wall, but maybe opening up the doorway so it is slightly wider. Right now it is barely 36". A 48" opening would be great and much less expensive than removing the whole wall.

So recessing the fridge/freezer should be doable in the budget. I came up with this layout option that leaves the opening where it is, just a bit wider. The microwave would go in cabinet 25 between the fridge & freezer.

cpartist, I need to work on some adjustments to get the larger cabinets like you suggested. Is a 24" set of drawers much smaller than a 24" cabinet? Right now all of my pots & pans fit in 1 24" cabinet. I am wondering how much space is lost to the sides of the drawer and sliding mechanism. Maybe I could fit them all in a 30" set of drawers? And what do you mean by losing a corner to have wider drawers? Does that mean that you would just have the dead space in the corner that is inaccessible from any cabinet? I am using the IKEA planner to figure out the layout, but I am not planning to purchase IKEA cabinets. So I am not sure what corner cabinet options I will have or the exact dimensions of those. I was planning to figure out a rough layout to take to a kitchen designer and then the exact cabinet dimensions would get worked out at that point. Is this an ok plan?

Microwaves are almost all deeper than upper cabinets - it's just something to keep in mind. I'd be tempted towards a drawer micro, or maybe to get a lifts-up slides-in door on that entire space between the refs - Leave the space a little extra tall - like maybe allow for 24" above the counter to the upper cabinets (or even go in line with the over the refs cabinets), use 24" deep uppers, set up most of my appliances over there, leave them plugged in and just pull the door down if I had mess to hide for company.

I like this plan the best of what's been posted. I might try and see if I could squeeze just a bit more space from the pantry cabinets and make the space between the refs 42" to 48" wide. Cause I'z getting elderly, I might consider raising the dishwasher and placing an oven beside the cooktop - immediately below the counter instead of the below the cooktop. In my dreams, I'd always wish I had given up one pantry cabinet for an oven stack - but that's just another personal choice.

If you indeed have the room behind the kitchen table, I personally like the first layout you posted, perhaps with a few tweaks, such as eliminating the peninsula, and consider a banquet in the bay window to free up a few more inches.

Does the large freezer have to be in the kitchen? A large counter depth fridge/freezer with a second freezer in the basement or garage worked great for me -- I had a large garden and froze a lot of veggies and fruit.

I absolutely loathe corner cabinets so I myself would do whatever I could to have just 1 corner. I also prefer to prep to the left of the sink. Does that make a difference to you? I'd also inventory your kitchenware and think about what would go in each cabinet or drawer in your plan. That will inform you if you have enough of the right kind of storage. And drawers, especially in frameless cabs, always have better space and access than base cabinets.

Is the fridge/freezer you're looking at counter depth or standard? If they're CD, you don't need to recess anything. If they're standard, in the last plan you posted that needs a spot for the microwave between them, you could use deeper cabs between them to give the MW a proper home.

Agree with MabelD, though: the first plan ain't that bad.

I still prefer the door moved to the right so it's out of the path of the work area of the kitchen. As you have it in your original plans, if someone was coming into the kitchen from the dining room and you were trying to take hot stuff out of the ovens, it would be a bottleneck.

What about something like this? If you wanted you could instead of cabinets above the sink side, just have a "window" opening to the dining room, which would then showcase your cooktop.

This would only give you pantry space between the fridge and freezer and you'd really need for a shelf to come out to put groceries on. But you'd gain a 36" base corner between the oven and cooktop and a 36" drawer base to the left of the cooktop.

You'd gain another 36" drawer base to the right as well as a 27" cabinet there.

Then when standing at the sink, to the right could be a 24" base, a dead corner and another 24" base next to the oven stack.

Thanks for all of the suggestions everyone! I spent the long weekend debating all of these options with my husband and researching options. We came to a few conclusions and it was so helpful to have all of your suggestions to sort through.

We definitely want the counter-depth separate fridge & freezer columns. Probably the Miele or Thermador models. We don't have space in the garage for a spare fridge or freezer. Right now we have one of each in the basement but the way the house is laid out it is a really long walk down there to retrieve anything. We generally have to go down there at least once a day so more space in the kitchen would save us that annoying trip.

After much debate about moving the opening in the wall between the kitchen and dining room we decided this is our favorite layout.

This layout means we could have people walking through the workspace. We tried to pay attention as we were cooking this weekend and we noticed that doesn't really happen. Since the kitchen is in the corner of the house, people don't really walk through there to get somewhere else. So that isn't a big enough issue for us to justify the expense of moving the doorway over to the right. Plus moving the doorway left us with 2 corners. We don't want 2 lazy susans and we want to avoid leaving a dead corner.

I spent a lot of time trying to fit wider cabinet & drawer units in the space, as cpartist recommended. I was able to get 2 36" drawers on either side of the range, with a lazy susan in the corner cabinet. I am thinking the trash/recycling center would go in the 24" cabinet to the far right of the range.

We definitely want the counter-depth separate fridge & freezer columns. Probably the Miele or Thermador models. We don't have space in the garage for a spare fridge or freezer. Right now we have one of each in the basement but the way the house is laid out it is a really long walk down there to retrieve anything. We generally have to go down there at least once a day so more space in the kitchen would save us that annoying trip. Right now we have 20" of fridge space and 15" of freezer. In the layout above there is 30" of fridge and 18" of freezer.

Those fridge & freezer choices allowed us to put a 36" and a 30" drawer in between them. That should be plenty of counter space for the microwave & coffee maker and as a landing space for taking stuff in and out of the fridge.

We decided we liked the 15" pantries in the eating area. We could fit the 24" ones but I am worried about losing stuff in the back and never using it. I think the shallower cabinets will be more functional for us.

QUESTIONS:

There is about 12" of space between the dishwasher and the wall. I was thinking that I could put a vertical storage space there for cutting boards, cookie sheets, etc. Is there anything else I should consider doing with that space instead?

We decided to go with a range in this layout. Originally we wanted to separate the micro, oven & stovetop. Which is better: (1) the range pictured above or (2) a separate cooktop and under counter oven like this?

In this layout I would exchange one of the 36" drawers for a 30" under the cooktop. And the 24" cabinet on the end that I was going to use for trash/recycling could be 30". Should the trash go somewhere else? The only reason I like this option is that someone can be cooking at the stove and not be in the way of another person getting something out of the oven. If it makes a difference I really want an electric oven and I am willing to have either a gas or induction cooktop. We currently have gas.

Don't know your budget but a dual fuel range (gas on top and electric oven) will fit your requirements. If you split the cooktop & oven you will lose access to the top drawer under the cooktop

http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Profile-5-9-cu-ft-Dual-Fuel-Range-with-Self-Cleaning-Convection-Oven-in-Stainless-Steel-P2S920SEFSS/204403831

Thanks, mihelene. Our appliance budget shouldn't be a big factor in the decision. I am estimating that we will have about $15-20K for the appliances. Our dishwasher is a very new Bosch so we want to keep that. So it is just the range (or cooktop and oven), micro, fridge column, freezer column and hood.

Good point about losing the drawer under the cooktop. That configuration would give significantly less storage than a duel-fuel range so I am leaning towards the range layout. I need to research the induction range option. I like the idea of the top not being so hot. My kids are still pretty young so that would be a nice feature to have with the kids helping out. My then 4 year old caught a pot holder on fire last year while helping stir a pot. Luckily I was right there to put it out but the induction has a lot of appeal for that reason. I need to check out what the voltage is on the current outlet in that location and figure out if we would need to change that.