I just got very lucky and found cabinets with shaker style doors ON SALE. I have an "L" shaped kitchen about 175" total and I'm putting in approx. 16 cabinets: top and bottom. White painted maple, dove tailed constructions, silent shut drawers, full overlay, for less than $5,000. The cabinets are Mid Continental. I looked them up online and they're reputable although not often heard of. It's the Hartford style doors. They have a square recessed panel with a rectangle frame although they have two other styles they consider Shaker. I didn't mind compromising to save over $2,000 which was the cost of the true shaker doors (they call one Concord). You can look them up and find a dealer and see if they also have a sale.

With all due respect to LL, I disagree that just because an island is movable, you don't need to worry about its dimensions. If it's over-sized for the space - in other words, doesn't allow comfortable aisles - you'll need to move it so often that it will be a PITA. It's not going to be a light little thing that is easy to shift, it's going to have some weight to it, especially if it has a stone top and has additional weight from the items you store on it. I would find an island that fits the size so that you only need to move it on rare occasions, not on a frequent basis. I drew up 2 variations of the U lay-out with an island and banquette seating. This allows you a 27" x 44" island, which I think is large enough to be useful. The aisle measurements are fridge (handles included, est 35" deep) to island counter, island counter to sink run counter, range run counter to island counter, peninsula counter to exterior wall, peninsula counter to table and table to wall. Oops, I forgot to adjust the above plan to show two 24" cabs to the left of the range. I do show that on Plan A-2. The plus with the banquette in this plan is that those seated on the bench can slide in and out without asking someone to slide out first. The downside is that clearances between the table and top and bottom walls is a bit tighter than recommended (44" for walk-behind aisles). You could center the banquette and have nearly 39" at each end instead of slightly off-center as I drew it. Here's a variation of the above. This plan creates an L banquette, which allows room for wider aisles at the top and room for a 30" cabinet next to the table. You can use this as your Command Central. The downside is that the person seated in the lower right corner will need to ask someone to move in order to get in and out. Some people are okay with that, others hate it. Here's an issue with both plans. It's a heck of a long hike - more than 11' - from fridge to sink in this plan. That definitely more than is recommended by the NKBA and for good reason. I'd like to see a water source between fridge and sink. However, the island just isn't long enough for a prep sink, IMO (I agree with a wise CMKBD, whose name escapes me at present, who advises against a prep sink in an island less than 60"). One option is to switch out the 36" corner Susan and make it a 36" corner sink cab for a prep sink. But ... then what purpose will the island serve? I agree that it would be nice to have a little more counter to the right of the sink, say by making that corner a 36" Susan cab, but that reduces the aisle between peninsula and exterior wall to 39". If there wasn't an in-swing door right there, that could be doable but since there is, I think a wider aisle here would be better. Which is higher on your wish list: an island or counter seating? If the former, I think Plan C is the better option for you. It has a good flow plus it leaves sufficient room for a kitchen table; no need to resort to a banquette.

Dear Rosebloom2, Having not interviewed you I have no idea what you’re trying to accomplish. I have reviewed your kitchen design with this in mind. A kitchen’s purpose is to provide food and beverage service. If you design your kitchen well it should last 50 years and remain current and valuable regardless of changes in design trends. Being a simple machine with the only moving part being whoever is working in it. It should perform its purpose as efficiently as possible and look great while doing it forever (50 years). I believe you should buy your kitchen once, use it, enjoy it, and reap the benefits of owning a kitchen that doesn’t need to be replaced in 8 to 12 years when your appliances start to fail. If it’s designed to meet the latest trendy, new, and wow, and most are. The Impact You Expect your kitchen project to have could be extremely short lived. And you’ll quickly find you own a kitchen much like the one you so desperately wanted to replace. My Review: You have no pantry (could be a huge problem). Having all the mass (weight) of the refrigerator and broom closet on the one short wall makes your kitchen composition unbalanced (lopsided). Having the broom closet doors open to the left make the sides of those cabinets, in context, look out of place adjacent to your refrigerator enclosure. The inside corner wall cabinet is a waste (in my opinion). Sure you can fill it with lots of stuff but you can’t reach the back of that cabinet from the bottom shelf of it, and as you go higher it gets even less accessible. You could install a wall lazy susan but the results aren’t great because it leaves a lot of cabinet space unusable. What is in the front you see and what is behind that consider it lost because you’ll have to take everything in front out to get to it. continued....

I would not close off the current entrance. There have been many threads on this forum from people trying to figure out what to do with their corners. If you decide to go with the 'L', I would not angle anything in the corner, as it is a huge waste of space. I think that the 'L' also makes the kitchen look smaller than it really is with the tall items crowding the range. I like the entrance there as it allows the kitchen to breathe. Functionally, I think it makes more sense to 'zone' your kitchen and put food storage together on the shorter wall to the right of your entrance. I would flank the refrigerator with pantries or pullouts and place a MW drawer across the aisle on the short end of island. Although it sounds like a great idea to have the frig near the dining space, it is not necessary. I had that in my previous kitchen, and there was just too much going on in the same space with my cooktop. Snackers can then get to the refrigerator and MW without traipsing through your cooking zone. It's also less steps when putting groceries away. I would use a range and as many drawers as possible on the long wall for all of your cooking needs. By eliminating the refrigerator and double ovens you would have a very spacious look and a tremendous amount of storage and prep space. Dirty plates will be coming from your dining space, so I like the DW on that end of the island, with dish and cutlery storage either across from or next to the DW, making it easy for someone to set the table without getting in your way at the range. I would also extend the island and make it as long as the range wall.