Here's what I did and it worked very well for us. After the architect drew up our floorplan, I was not satisfied with the kitchen (it was tiny and closed off from living spaces). I communicated my thoughts to the architect and asked that he rework the laundry, dining, kitchen area of the plan for me. Still not satisfied with that area after three rounds of revisions, I took the entire floorplan to a kitchen designer. She drew up several ideas for the laundry, dining, kitchen space that were a bit more specific than a mere floorplan. I worked with the KD to come up with the perfect plan for us for that part of the space. Then, I took the KD's work back to the architect who incorporated this redesigned space into his drawings and finalized the plans for the builder to use. I am very pleased with how this space turned out. It's very different than the original plan that the architect drew up. The $500 I spent with the KD to do the redesign absolutely is the best $500 I spent in the entire build. Now, the KD I used is not one of those KDs that works for a specific cabinet line and is focused only on what cabinets you pick for a particular layout. This was a KD independent of any cabinet manufacturer and was very talented in making me think about how I wanted to use the space and then designing it for our use. I used an onsite custom cabinetmaker for all of our cabinets and our trim. None of our cabinetry or trim detail was ever reduced to CAD or other detailed drawings before he began building. That made me very nervous. I simply made him a book of pictures I had cut out of magazines (or printed off of this site) and he mimicked those pictures beautifully. Good luck in your design and in your build! It's a long process, but worth it in the end. Our build was fraught with drama, but I've forgotten most of the negative stuff by now, and I've only been in the house four months!

Hi, Charmar I only asked because that's where your mindset seemed to be based on your responses. If you have a large, tall window centered on the wall and the ceiling peak, it makes sense from an aesthetic point of view to place the sink centered on that wall. There's nothing wrong with symmetry if the overall function of the kitchen works for you. Do you have any inspiration pictures for how you want the kitchen to look and feel? The kitchen below is a mirror image of your most recent layout sketch and Lisa_A's layout from 3/6/18 at 9:38 am. This kitchen is light and airy with the absence of upper cabinets and a table instead of an island. Your kitchen will have a more traditional feel. If you're not putting a prep sink in the island, then your sink and stove are not too far apart. Imho, your stove is too far from the refrigerator, but it may not be an issue for you.

We have an odd shaped kitchen in an old house (main house built in 1966 with an extension in 1983). Structurally I have to work with the ceiling and joist placement that exists because those are structural walls that are actually the outside walls of the original house. I've tried doing a layout in the Ikea planner (attached here), but I may go with a friend who does custom cabinets so I will have the flexibility to do more customized things. My DH believes that we must have a vertical support on the wall (wall where the sink is) for the beam that supports the ceiling in the back alcove area. Right now it is a set of two closets (one used to be the hot water tank which is now moved somewhere else). He says that we can tear things mostly back but not completely back. The final answer will come when we have a structural engineer come in and give us the writeup for adding the beam you see so we can open up the living room, kitchen dining room. I'm trying to figure out how to layout the kitchen if I must have a vertical support that juts out into the room a bit. I was considering having an appliance garage back in that corner (crock pots and smoothie making stuff mostly). I'm also trying to design the kitchen so that we can age in place as long as possible. But I like to use a lot of glass bowls in cooking and I don't want to do a lot of lifting them up and down. Right now we have 4 shelves (14" deep cabs) of glass shelves and the are stacked such that they are banging on one another and cracking at times. We have no intention of moving the water/sink because we have a slab foundation and my DH absolutely refuses to cut into it. Some landmark references... on the D wall the small door goes to another panty which we will be keeping. The larger door on D goes to the back of the house (hall to garage, secondary bedrooms, public bathroom). The door/opening on the bottom wall goes to a hall with the master bedroom/bathroom, etc. Front door is at the bottom of the B wall. Wall A is an exterior wall. Here's what the structural elements look like now before we tear the wall back (and we know that the soffit above is a structural beam - not just there for looks. Here's what I mocked up in Ikea for that area that I'm looking to modify. How would you address that and what might I do otherwise for that corner area, where I may need to have a support stud coming out of the wall? Thanks in advance Mary

@Patricia Colwell@Shannon_WI I suppose 9ft is an option as well. I only say 8 and 10 because 8 is at present and I figured if raising it cost is the same for 9 or 10 so I would imagine should go to 10 but maybe I am wrong. Not sure if this picture is too confusing but the blocks are 5 feet apart for scale and I labeled rooms. Currently the great room to kitchen has .a big drop (unchangeable) from 17 feet due to existing architecture. I also had a question as to whether there should be a breakfast nook in the corner but if there is island seating maybe not necessary? The corner of the wall of windows is where ceiling height transitions up to 17 feet.