Oh, Beachem, I do hope they get the fires under control soon!

I have a few no-nos in my kitchen, but after 4 years living with it, I still love everything about it.

Our kitchen is U-shaped, with the opening facing the dining room. The sink is at the closed end, under a window. The room is only 10' wide, and while I theoretically could have squeezed the DW next to the sink, it would have greatly disrupted all the storage around the sink. Consequently, the DW is on an adjacent leg. It's far enough from the sink that there is plenty of room to stand between sink and DW to load and unload.

I have an angled base cabinet, with a full super susan and a drawer above (locally made cabinets). I have very few drawers, and I really wanted a knife insert - this was the most logical place for it.

My other corner (between sink and range) is closed off. I studied corner solutions for months, and I'm pretty sure I saw every possibility. I couldn't stand the thought of "wasting" that corner space - but since I have space elsewhere for storing seldom-used items, what I really needed in my kitchen was drawers. I have a drawer stack on each side of the corner, and I use those drawers every single day.

I did not do a tiled backsplash - instead, before the cabinets were installed, I stenciled a tree branch and falling leaves in the backsplash area.

Oh, and my cabinets are oak, with a very light stain. Not rift- or quarter-sawn, just good old open grain oak.

beachem, I'm keeping good thoughts that the fire is contained before it reaches you.

I have narrower than recommended aisles. We bought the marble table/island used, so didn't have a choice in the size, but it works fine. The PO designed a very functional kitchen (not counting the blind corners) in IWSF order, but we built an addition and put an entry where the DW should be. I prep over the DW, which is between the sink and range, but I've adapted, and I love the glorious, light-filled room we added. That entry also took most of the landing space to the right of the sink, but I solved that dilemma by adding a large cutting board, for the times I need more counter--and the cutting board blocks the view of the dirty dishes in the sink below. :)

If I were designing a new build kitchen, I'd have wider aisles, and a relocated DW (as well as a bigger fridge, a separate wall oven, a MW shelf, and ... ), but I'm very happy with the current kitchen in my old house.

Hduns, that sounds perfect for you! My youngest two would have caused an expensive disaster. They washed fruit and hands and got drinks (whole house filter) in the powder room. The wall sink in there with an overflow and all the tile made it safer. I've also only got onesink until the new kitchen goes in.

My friend's husband keeps making extra tall work tables (he is infatuated with commercial kitchens) and counters and I joke that she needs all the toekicks to be step stools since he is 6'4".

Beachem -- Where in OC are you?

I am in San Diego. My sister is in Placentia. I grew up in Garden Grove.

Toronto Veterinarian, you have the same range as I. :-)

I don't have my island yet - still in the design stage, but I will not have 42" around it. It has no seating/no sink, and will be between my main kitchen counter, and the refrigerator on the opposite wall. There will be about 37" between it and my kitchen counters, and 39.5" between it and my refrigerator. Oh yeah, it is smack in the middle of my kitchen "triangle". The way the kitchen is set up, there is no other option unless I wanted to give up my peninsula, and that ain't happnin'. :-)

My fridge is at the far end of the kitchen, against the advice of those who assumed non-cooks need access to it for snacks during meal prep.

We didn't want an island, designed the space around having a 7 ft uninterrupted peninsula counter for baking and secondary prep. It provides better separation for the kitchen, and one way in and out is plenty for the 2 of us.

Our overhang for seating is a mere 12" and is more than adequate ( we are both tall, too).

We don't keep dishes near the dishwasher for ease of unloading. They are stored in several places, depending on when they are used. Coffee cups and ice cream bowls near the coffee maker and fridge, breakfast and lunch dishes on the other side of the sink, dinner plates and drinking glasses closest to the dining table. I unload the DW every morning while the coffee drops and it takes just the right amount of time.

(I was paranoid about aisle widths based on reading here, and wish I had narrowed one by 3" to enlarge one of the corner cabs.)

Vent hood of 36" is over 36" cook top. There are uppers on both sides, and capture is excellent.

Hood is around 700 cfm max, I believe, and we have no make-up air. Never use it above setting 2 except for rare events, and we just open the kitchen window a crack (mild climate.)

I have to do the same with my fridge, ledmond. My biggest regret about not doing a much more substantial addition. It's just not worth $40k to change, though, for me.

Microwave is on countertop, a free-standing appliance.

Refrigerator has an icemaker I decided not to plumb for water/ice. You can't find fridges of the size I wanted anymore, without one.

Only one eating locale indoors, a dining area on the other side of the (yes) peninsula.

Prep area with the view out the window, not the sink.

My kitchen is square, has 4 walls (no open concept here!) with a door in each wall, which makes it a challenge in terms of layout. Early on I had the idea to bring the window to counter height and change it to a bay which was met with much disapproval here when I posted a question about doing it. I was told it would be a nightmare, always splattered and impossible to clean. I did it anyway and love it. The window is far enough from the sink that it doesn’t get splashed, and while a stretch to clean, not any worse than many other windows in my house. I also only got 3 small drawers, for silver, utensils, etc. in fact I have fewer drawers than before and am very happy with what we did. We also didnt use subway tile, instead we have back painted glass. I have one corner cabinet with the super Susan, which I didn’t think I would love but do and the other 3 corners are all easy reach with 2 doors instead of one hinged in the middle door.

we've closed kitchen off to the best of our abilities..still open to the dining area but fortunately not seen anymore from the rest of the living space. I've no idea how unconventional it is. I'm pretty sure we just went back to some original plan that was redone into this open concept thing, because open concept looked awkward as hell in this house, and the kitchen was clearly installed recently.

we also have only one dining/eating space...again, not something that I'd consider very unconventional..it's a medium sized house, u shaped kitchen no island..how many tables I can put there and what for?

What'd be great sometimes to have the dining itself a bit bigger since parties/gatherings start to present problem at some point even with random chairs squished in between..and our guests they're usually not cocktail type..they like to sit at the table..for a long time..lol

(if I think about it, the most unconventional thing personally for me was to choose painted cabinets over stained. so scary. never did it before.

Frankly if that kitchen was different, say bigger.. and if not for wood floors-I d go with stain..

DH also had to be convinced after I decided it's the best..was not an easy decision. lol

so people do that but to me was like wow, what's gonna be, what's gonna be. big step into the unknown))

(I do have(and had) color on furnitute but that was laminate..I think..)

@april Yes! A larger dining room would be a wonderful thing, even if there's only one. Our dinners are buffet style as a result of our small dining room. Except Christmas and thanksgiving, when we line up 3 6' banquet tables in our conveniently long living room.

Where I live, standard counters are 60 cm/23,6" deep and standard cooktop is 22,8 " wide, 20,1 " deep.

My counters are 68 cm/26,7" deep, so I turned the cooktop sideways to gain a few inches b/w the cooktop and the wall.

And the DW is under the cooktop.

sena01, where do you live?

We put a bar display area, and a mudroom bench in the kitchen. Our aisle widths aren't quite as generous as recommended, but work perfectly fine for us. We have four doors, two of which are pocket doors that slide in behind the bar/pantry in the pic below. We chose to not go open-concept and have zero regrets.

We ended up with a second island, because of needing the coat area, and needing a place for the refrigerator drawers (which became a thing when we decided to get the discounted floor model SubZero over-under refrigerator/freezer instead of an all-refrigerator and then needed to gain more refrigerator space, thus the refrigerator drawers) and microwave. If we hadn't gone that route I was pushing for a banquette.

Cheryl, your countertop stone is gorgeous. What is it? We never saw anything like it when shopping. Hubby would have jumped on it and protect with his life. It's what he wanted - blue and dramatic.

The blue countertop is stained granite. It was named Blue Ray. Stained granite is a lesser granite, but we took a gamble on it because 1.) my partner is all about blue, 2.) our kitchen doesn't get a lot of direct light, especially in the center where the islands are (stained granite can fade) and 3.) the stone yard received this by accident and wanted it gone, so they gave us a great deal on it.

My non-standard thing was not my choice. I have only one eating area. No counter seating, no breakfast room or breakfast nook. I wish I had a breakfast room or even nook, but there are always trade-offs and this one was worthwhile.

Cheryl Hewitt

sena01, where do you live?

If you click on the profile link, it says Istanbul.

mama-goose and others--can you please comment on the widths of your aisles?

how wide? and which ones are optimal? which are too narrow? which if any are too wide?

can you please specify based on what is in the way (oven door, dw, fridge and if fridge--french door or regular)?

there really is such a thing as an aisle that is too wide!

One big non-standard thing I did was to insist that my peninsula counter be laid NOT the same direction as the rest of the counters. I wanted the movement on that piece to follow the peninsula. The original fabricator (I had to switch mid-stream) had said that there might be a seam due to the corner/direction, and I told him no way - I had already figured out how I wanted the quartz laid and I knew I would not need a seam, so it kind of threw him when I insisted on doing it differently. As a result, I have no seams at all. I never even considered doing it the way he had suggested.

"how wide? and which ones are optimal? which are too narrow? which if any are too wide?"

What is optimal will depend on your use. For instance, even though one of the aisles around my island is only 32", it has nothing opening into it (eg. no dishwasher or oven door) and I live alone, so it won't have any type of traffic through there. Because I live alone, "optimal" for me is probably 6" wider than the widest need, since no one is going to have to walk past me when I'm emptying the dishwasher, etc. By "widest need", I mean the width of whatever is opening up into that aisle. I think anything more than that is too much of a stretch.....but if there are several people working in the kitchen at the same time, it would feel crowded.

Chess--if that's nonstandard, the standard is wrong'

Aisle widths: It's probably easiest to look at my floor plans.

According to my floor plans, between the cooktop run and prep island it is 45 1/4", but this doesn't account for the refrigerator handles, and in fact, we had the cabinets set out a bit from the wall to make the granite flush with the refrigerator (built-in), so that aisle s probably 1/2"-3/4" less. The refrigerator door when open at 90 degrees makes it pretty tight to scoot past, but it is possible - although we usually send anyone trying to do so around the island. We could open the door more, but really, who does that unless you're trying to take a bin out for cleaning.

We have 41 3/4" between the clean up sink and the end of the prep island. Not a problem. With the dishwasher door open it's possible to pass between it and the island, although most things are stored next to it and for those that aren't, they get set on the island and then distributed to their respective places.

There is 39 1/4" between the backside of the island and pantry. Not an issue as we rarely work on that side.

We have 40 1/2" between the ovens and the microwave drawer in the second island, not taking into account the handles and the fact that the MW is not a flush install. This is the only place in the kitchen that I feel is pinched. I wouldn't change the layout though as it's not really a problem.

On the seating side of that island we have 38 1'4" between the countertop and the wall/patio door. This hasn't been an issue. When we have entertained, people seem to fit. Lord knows it's hard to get them to move into other spaces in the house! LOL. We used to believe that people congregated in the smallest room in the house, but we've since modified it to people will congregate in the kitchen.

Milly Rey, I think the "non standard" piece is the small section to the right of the range, at the top of the peninsula. It is technically a 90 slab turn from the left side of the range. The fabricator felt that I would want not want to change the direction from the left side, that I should have everything on the right side of the range the same direction. I thought that just seemed so unnatural. For me, it just made sense to turn it there. It just fits how I view that space.

It's a bit against the norm right now, but not a broken rule... I didn't want the kitchen open to my living space and I did not want an island. Our home is small and I wanted the most efficient use of space possible... galley kitchen for the win!

Oooooh. I would have insisted that everything be aligned around the peninsula's orientation.

I installed two pendants instead of three over an island. I was told here that was standard to have them in threes, but I prefer having just two.

The direction of the counters to the left is how I wanted it. I just wanted it to turn at the range - which seems "normal" to me - and he did not think that it should. But it is exactly how I wanted it - and it looks perfect to me. I did think it odd that he would have assumed I wanted it all going the same way, but he said that was "standard". Maybe he is an idiot. :-)

That works fine, but it's true it's not standard! :). In other stones, it could be weird, but yours looks great.

Pipdog, that's bizarre. And incorrect.

We built our house, which has a 20' x 32' footprint. The architect designed an L kitchen with the sink under the window on the outside wall. We changed it to a galley with the sink facing one wall with the two double hung windows to its right. In last year's refresh, we added a counter cupboard for cups, glasses, and coffee on the sink counter and tiled the wall behind the sink. That wall had been plastered with an open shelf for cups, and I liked that, too.

The induction double oven range faces into the living room on a 39" deep counter with a 4" raised backsplash wrapping the counter. We used a downdraft. We both prep next to the range and wanted to do that, and use the cooktop, facing the view in the summer and the woodstove in the winter.

Milly, it's not. It's a minimalist kitchen and it doesn't follow the rule of odd number as everything is even numbered in the kitchen. We have two book ended cabinets on each side of the island and a pantry and integrated fridge (which are both 36 inches wide) on one side of the cabinets. To have three pendants would have been excessive and would have thrown the symmetry off.

I am not sure but I think she is saying that being told that is odd, and incorrect? Not that you decided on two, but that people were insisting on three?

We decided - to the shock and horror of many friends - NOT to open the kitchen to the rest of the house. We like our separate kitchen.

Like artemis_ma, the view out the windows is from the prep areas (I haven't used them yet but they seem unbelievably expansive to me compared to the previous layout!). We spend most of our time prepping or cooking anyway. We included two sinks, and both of them face walls with cabinets above them. The window wall has the range in between the two windows, so the hood vents directly outside.

We also installed vinyl tiles (LVT - which makes me chuckle: "Luxury" vinyl) not for cost reasons but because DH insisted on a soft, waterproof floor. Our countertops were free - we decided years ago we wanted upcycled black lab countertops, and when we found some, we went for it. It took our GC about 2-3 days to "fabricate" them for our kitchen.

These are the exceptions to conventional kitchens. But I followed far more guidance based on things I've read here on GW than I could ever try to enumerate.

re: Sena's arrangement.

In the 1960s, several companies came out with a combination appliance that was a nearly full sized dishwasher below counter level, a cooktop and and eye level oven.

This probably filled a niche where people wanted a dishwasher and there was no room in the current kitchen for one.

In England they make an appliance that is similar

wow, that's cool

I haven't been able to get on here for several days, and I still have the funky 'new' format everyone complained about. Oh well- I have bigger fish to fry.

In our new house, I went against the grain on a few things. We prefer a peninsula over an island. We have no uppers at all. After looking at all sorts of counter surfaces, we opted for- Formica. The runner-up was soapstone, and it was too much money and maintenance. Formica has served us well for our entire lives. I designed the kitchen with THREE inside corners. One is a prep station, with no cabinet underneath so I can sit and do prep, the second one has a diagonal set of drawers, and the third one is by the DW, and has no access on the kitchen side. But- I made a rolling bin for pet food on the DR side, so the space isn't wasted.

I designed and built our cabinets, so there's nothing standard about them.

Not done with our kitchen but here is a list

1) my main stash of lentils/ grains Will be kept on open shelves right next to my sink in the 'sprouting zone' - easy reach , easy put back.

2) there's a group of spices I use a lot - about a dozen that will also be stored in open shelves next to my range

3) a dedicated drawer lined with restaurant style pan with lid that will serve as my compost pail , once a day emptying into the compost Bin ( thanks gw for the idea)

4) my trash bin will not be in my cabinet, my 7 year old is not to be trusted to keep the surround clean, sometimes I am not either :) Stand alone trash bin opposite sink

5)I will have a counter height drawer to hold a 13 gallon bucket for my x large single stream recyclables. Yay ! no more going to the outdoor recycle bin every other day ,. Not sure why, but I hate havng to do that .or to remind my teanager to do it either .

6) open shelf built in my island to store my colander, paper towel roll and my veggie rinsing bowl,. No more having to dry those bowls every time before putting them away inside the cabinet.

god, I sound more like a lazy -cooks -guide -to -new -kitchen -design rather than an unconventional new kitchen owner don't I . Oh well....

Pipdog, I mean whoever told you that was a rule is wrong.

We are almost officially done with our remodel....finally...

In our kitchen, these were the few things that were against the norm for us:

- No upper cabinets on one of the walls

- Painted one of my walls charcoal black

- Blind corner cabinet opposed to a lazy susan (which I love)

- 26" deep cabinets on the wall with my range

- 56" inch walkway on one side of my island, 48" on the other

-- I designed the entire layout of our kitchen (I'm not a professional) Cabinet widths, depths, lighting locations, etc...

I have an open plan, U-shape kitchen. The refrig is on one of the legs. The general rule is to have it open towards the work triangle.

Instead, mine opens to the exterior of the U where you're walking in, not the interior - see my very simplified drawing (which is so very not to scale, LOL).

A contractor thought I was crazy. But the legs of the U are very short. I wanted the frig to open in the direction where I'm putting groceries away - or conversely, pulling prepared food/condiments out to take over to the DR opposite.

This way, when DH opens the frig and snitches a cheese stick and salame, he is standing at the OUTSIDE of my work triangle, rather than coming inside it!

The aisle running from the LR, past the pantry and to the stairway, is a full 4' wide for easy access from the front to the back of the house.

I have a movable cart in the middle of the kitchen which is expandable to 5' wide. Also, the corners of my "U" layout are actually Lazy Susan cabs with hinged double doors.

The double pantry unit is my "funny story". I have a lot of cookware, flatware, tableware, and variety of serving dishes. I sooooo carefully planned out the kitchen storage to make sure I had a place for everything!

I was proud of myself for about a week when I suddenly realized I had COMPLETELY forgotten about someplace to store....FOOD!

Fortunately we had not placed the cabinet order yet, so a hasty addition of two 18" wide x 8' tall twin pantries with roll-out shelves was put on the list.

Just remembered another one. We installed a wall oven under the counter and yes, use it every day. In a retirement house, no less! Guess we will have to keep doing yoga! Kidding, but not. Of course you have to bend over, but no more than for lower drawer access. And the racks glide out very smoothly with little effort. So far, so good.

I floated 19 feet of cabinets:

No open concept in my kitchen!

Distance between island cart is 32" but not a problem as there are other ways to go around and no one is on my cooking side when I am anyway.

Refrigerator is too far from the sink, according to the gurus. Maybe..not a problem and it was the best place for it.

Used blind upper cabinets in the corner for all my crystal stemware. Wish I had done the same with the sink cabinet - I could have used that space to store paper towels!

Put in stainless drawer liner with sliding lid for my dog kibble.

When one is not knocking down walls or going out the back, there are limitations as to what one can do. But the bottom line is that this kitchen WORKS! There can be 3-4 people in there at the same time and no one is playing "excuse me" and dancing. And it's only 11x15.

Wish there was room for a pantry closet. Wish there was room for a vacuum closet other than my hall closet. Wish I had a butler's pantry. Wish I had a dumb waiter. The list goes on...in my next life...