I like the uppers. Without them, I think it looks like you ran out of money. At least put an upper on the other side of the sink to balance it out.

But your fridge really should be to the left of the sink. Looks like there’s room. And you should maximize counter space between the sink and stove. Ice - water - stone - fire is the workflow in a kitchen.

Have you considered putting together a better layout?

If you are, may I suggest you read through some of the threads in New to Kitchens.

Ok, my cabinets were installed in 1995 and the layout is almost identical to yours....which is why the 1st option looks dated to me and very crowded. I would go somewhere between the options, and have the cabinets not touch your hood vent. Leave some room on both sides of your window, and your kitchen will be brighter and appear larger. Let the left side (back wall) uppers run into the wall, no corner cabinet. I would have an upper on the right side also, and definitely have your fridge side paneled. Good luck!

do away with the corner cab...and agree to pull cabinets away from window sides. does the partition wall have to remain as shown behind your stool?

Area looks very blank to me. yes, looks like you ran out of money

How about open shelving to fill the area in?

@emilyam819 Thanks for your input! I toyed with the idea of switching where the fridge is (to where you suggested) however it would be at the edge of the kitchen - which then transitions into the dining room. Would it look okay like this?

@cpartist Thank you for the link! I'm open to to improving the layout any way I can however I can't change around the plumbing.. Currently there is back door in the kitchen, to the left of where the dishwasher is, and a wall between my kitchen and dining room, and the major "change" we're making is taking that wall down and closing up that door.. So in doing so we're able to add an island and extend our counters. Do you see any major design "faux-pas" with this layout?

@luckyblueeye I really like your suggestions! If I understood you correctly I can take my "uppers everywhere" design, and remove the cabinets that flank the window directly, and also remove a cabinet from the left and right of the hood. I will remake a design and see how this looks, but it sounds like the best compromise.

@herbflavor Thanks, I will most likely be following these suggestions! And yes, the wall will have to stay as it's load bearing. We are removing a section of wall that divides the kitchen and dining room which will give us the space to put in the island. But unfortunately that little partition wall does make it tight near the island chairs.

@indolite4 It does look blank doesn't it.. I used the ikea kitchen planner and there's no option to just put shelving in the design. I wasn't sure if I'd put shelves or some kind of rail to hang items from.. But I'm being dissuaded from the shelving idea since it seems it collects a lot of dust and dirt.

I like lucky's suggestions. Can the window be moved to the left? I'd like to see a little more prep space between the sink and range. ETA, other than not enough space between sink and range, I think it's a nice layout. cooking and prep in the corner triangle, with clean-up/dish storage on the other side of the sink, making it easy for two people to work at the same time.

I'd have the uppers on the range wall die into the corner. I hate those
diagonal corner boxes, especially when there's no cabinet on one side. Here's a discussion about leaving space around chimney hoods, with mock-ups of a similar kitchen. It would be nice if your sink could move to the left as mamagoose suggested. Note the large window in the linked kitchen.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3604154/wall-cabinets-flush-with-range-hood-or-leave-a-gap

Is it possible to use a smaller pantry cabinet so the fridge can move down more? What is the width of that cabinet? I went from a 24" wide door cabinet to a 12" pull-out. I got tired of having to move everything out of the front to reach what was in the back. I kept baking dishes in the old pantry cabinet because of the depth but now I only keep food in the pull-out. My baking dishes are now in drawers.

The fridge would be great next to the dining room- you would see the paneled side rather than the whole fridge, it would be easily accessible for drinks without people coming into your work space, and the layout would function better.

I had no uppers on the range wall in my previous home. I have no uppers on the range wall in my current home.

I need lots of light while cooking, so if I can get by without upper cabinets, I do. Even with under cabinet lighting, I feel like I'm stooping to see what I'm doing and I'm only 5'7" plus.

In both kitchens, I had two hutches built to store more goods, to account for lack of other upper cabinets. Hutches seem to hold so much more!

Typically a fridge doesn't go there in this type of layout because it acts as a large obstacle both visually and functionally. I'm not sure there's even room with the island. In a large, wide kitchen, fridges look nice starting the run of cabinets, and their looks can be improved by adding a pantry cabinet along the side of the fridge instead of a plain panel. You don't need much depth either. You can fit a lot of groceries on an 8" deep shelf that is the full height and width of the fridge. The top of the cabinet can be open shelving for cookbooks or decorative baking dishes/bowls, which would be a nice view from the dining room.

Penny, can you post a 2d floor plan with dimensions as they are now?

What I don't like is that you have to cross past the stove with food from the fridge to get to the sink and most prep work is done between sink and stove and yours is workable, but I'd love to see you have more space between the two.

I added a cabinet to the far left of the hood and removed a cabinet to the left of the window. Is this looking better? (This rendering was done with an Ikea associate, so it looks a bit different.. also sorry there's no counters included..)

@mama goose_gw zn6OH I wish I could move the window over, and even enlarge it but unfortunately that would have us go over budget.. And yes, currently cooking in that area does feel cramped but I'm hoping that with the addition of the kitchen island I will have more prep area. Thank you for instilling hope that this layout can be functional!

@mayflowers The thread you linked was very helpful and his kitchen layout was pretty similar to mine. If I moved the sink, it wouldn't be center with the window (which I unfortunately can't really change). In the rendering in my original post, the cabinets were 24", and the cabinets in the latest rendering are 30" (with pullout drawers) since I thought I'd need more room with less uppers. Now I'm wondering if 24" is doable if you can do 12"! We don't generally store that much bulk food.. And regarding your comment about the fridge, did you mean the fridge doesn't typically go to the right of the kitchen, where it is in my design? Or to the left of the kitchen, where another poster suggested?

@emilyam819 I thought about moving the fridge more and realized that it would be kind of a pain to get to the fridge if it's behind the island since it's quite tight there already.. If we were not adding the island than I think it would work though. Thanks for the suggestion :)

@dyhgarden I'm 5'10" and my husband is 6'1" so I feel you on the cabinets getting in the way! Did you put anything else up to take the place of uppers?

@cpartist here's a 2D rendering... I agree it isn't ideal. I think I would have more options if I didn't have add the kitchen island and if I could play around with plumbing and the window..

The 11'1" wall is all open to the dining?

Where do the two doors on the 10'6" wall go?

And what's behind the 3'5" wall that bumps into the kitchen?

Are you able to rotate the island so it faces your appliances? I can’t read the dimensions so I don’t know if there’s room. But then the island would be more useful for prep.

I'd use a smaller pantry pullout and move the fridge and stove to the right, giving you more prep space in the corner. That will be your primary prep even with an island. I don't buy in bulk either so I store all my canned and bagged food in the pullout and use one upper cabinet for baking supplies and one base drawer for bread, snacks, and cereal.

I like the island turned as emilyam suggested.

A standard island with seating requires a minimum of 12'7". With that bump into the space from the dining room side, you don't have adequate room. You're creating a PITA pinch point.

In the Ikea planner--if you haven't discovered it already--there is a ruler. I use it a lot to check pinch points and distances between work centers. Of course, to be most helpful you'll need to add overhand countertop to the plan.

Is that bump-in something that can be removed? eta: I see you can't remove it because it's load bearing

@benjesbride Yes, the 11'1" will be open to the dining room area(once we knock down that portion of the wall). On the other side of that 3'5" wall is just space that belongs to the living room.. And the the door on the 10'6" wall near the bump is the entrance to the kitchen from the hallway.. The second door should have been removed, sorry for the confusion. It's really a shallow pantry (12") with bifold doors that we're going to close off in order to place cabinets besides the fridge.

You're right in that it is tight.. It's not showing on the rendering, but I wanted the island counter to be 3'X6' including the one foot overhang. The space between the island to the bump will be 3'7"... the space between the island and dishwasher is 3'3" and, island to oven is 3'1. I read that minimum passageways through a kitchen is 3' so I was hoping it would work?

@mayflowers I'll have to check if it's feasible to move the stove over, since the hood vent will also have to move. That would be ideal though.. If I couldn't move the stove over, would it still be better to still reduce pantry width to at least have longer counter space between the stove and fridge?

@emilyam819 here is a drawing with the island rotated.. I left about 3' between island and counters.. and you can see it's quite tight with that bump in the wall. Foregoing seating would make it work, but I really wanted to have seating.

@dyhgarden Your kitchen is gorgeous! I love the clean, white look you have going on (this is what I also hope to achieve); it looks so roomy with your high ceilings not to mention that entire wall of built-ins! The patisserie stand is a really nice touch as well. I really like that it's free standing and so I wouldn't have to make holes in my backsplash :) Is your backsplash a hexagon pattern? Thank you so much for sharing!

The overhang needs to be a minimum of 15" deep for counter height seating. I think you mentioned up thread that you're tall? You and your husband probably can't sit comfortably at a 12" overhang.

Plus, it doesn't necessarily matter because you're unlikely to find stools that have a small footprint and don't stick out even when pushed all the way in.

Recommended minimum aisle width is actually 42", not 36. Kitchens with more than one cook are recommended to have at least 48" aisles.

Is in-kitchen seating non-negotiable?

Can you sketch out the layout of the whole floor so we can see how the other spaces relate to your kitchen?

Instead of removing the back door would you be open to changing your window instead?

Are you moving the back door or eliminating it?

I love an island but in this case I don't think you have the room. Turn it into a peninsula and look at all that wonderful prep space you'll have right under the window!

I didn't indicate cabinets but there's a lot more you can do now.

The entry into the kitchen is 42" wide.

The space between sink and oven is 6'.

I like open shelving on either side of the hood fan.

I like the peninsula design, but I would not like to be that far away from the stove. In my U shaped kitchen, my sink is on the peninsula near the inside corner. The stove is at the bottom of the U with a 30" counter between them. That's where I find myself prepping all the time. I could prep on the peninsula on the other side of the sink where there's a 4' counter, but it feels too far from the stove. I mostly roll pizza dough on it.

To move the sink back to the window and keep the peninsula, your DW would have to go in the corner.

Penny -- you'll love this -- my backsplash is round penny tiles! It goes counter to ceiling on the range wall and the sink wall.

There is a reason for the small, round tiles. While the 12x12 kitchen is new, I knocked out the exterior wall (where the peninsula is located, you can see the original ceiling is 8" and the support opening) of the old kitchen.

My house, built in 1939 doesn't have level floors. So, my backsplash couldn't have visible lines for my level room to tie into the one that isn't. The peninsula supports conceal the leveling needed for the countertops. The peninsula countertop, from the floor, is 37" high while my kitchen, on the "new" side are 36" high. We had to fool the eye to connect old and new.

I came up with the idea of penny round tiles, for the era, and from having seen those on a Paris bistro wall.

I love the penny tiles, but it takes a lot of grout!