Few questions:

- are the baby gates for babies or pets?

- what’s the dimension of the left wall of the kitchen?

- what’s thru the doorway at the bottom of the kitchen?

- how many people live & cook in the house?

Initial thoughts are that some of your studies are too narrow - especially the one between the sink & the island. Plus the location of the DW means that entire corner area can not be used for prep & clean up simultaneously

Is fridge right against a wall? You won't be able to open the doors all the way. A frequent mistake you will read about on the board.

I don't have a great suggestion how to improve the layout. So, unfortunately I won't be able to provide much constructive criticism. But my general impression overall is that you try to squeeze too much into a limited space. The space just feels really crowded to me.

Dishwasher placement is irrelevant to dominant hand. (I have two dishwashers, one on each side of my sink, and they both work exactly the same.)

I am right handed, and my dishwasher is on the right and all dirty dishes are placed on the counter right above the dishwasher. It works just fine! If I'm hand washing, the clean dishes are put on drying mats on the LEFT of the sink. After living with this arrangement for nearly 34 years, I can promise you it works!

Thank you for all the comments.

To answer some questions....

The wall on the left is 163".

The baby gates are for babies (but there is a possibility of getting a dog in the future).

The doorway at the bottom of the kitchen leads to the living room.

There are currently two adults who both cook, although generally not at the same time, plus one toddler, and second baby on the way in this growing family.

The fridge isn't against a wall - it has an 30" pantry and mini oven on it's left, which this angle shows a little more clearly.

I agree that the space at the sides of the counter are too narrow - especially the side with the sink. Perhaps this is why the space feels so crowded?

We have opted for no upper cabinets - just a small shelf for some greenery, and to fit the task lighting (led strips) to the underside of. We are hoping this keeps the kitchen feeling open and un-cluttered.

So, once I switch the dishwasher to the right of the sink, and slide the sink closer to the corner, it opens up the space around the sink more, and allows space for a kitchen door to the outside. This seems to improve the issues of the narrow space around the sink, and the usability of the corner (prep and cleanup at the same time).

Thank you artistharonova - do you have a higher quality version of the first image, it's difficult to make out the details?

Locating the DW directly under the upper cabinet where the majority of the daily dishes are stored is very convenient. Helps if the silverware drawer if close by too. Placing the fridge and sink within just a few steps of each other eliminates schlepping food all the way across the room to be prepped. What is the purpose of the cabinets in the upper NE corner of the room? The plan seems crowded and not very realistic. What climate do you live in that justifies the open wall?

Decoenthusiaste,

We weren't planning on having any upper cabinets. We plan to store tableware in draws - probably in the island. Silverware on top, plates in the 2nd draw.

I agree about the fridge being close to the sink being good. The only way I can see of doing that would be in the NE corner, which is currently planned to be a cupboard for broom, vacuum etc.

The justification for the open wall is that we like it. We regularly have the windows open particularly in spring and fall (summer is too hot and humid, so windows stay closed with the aircon running, and having a door with direct access to the outdoors would be great for BBQs, or alfresco dining, so we don't have to schlep food through the dining room.

What part do you think is unrealistic - what would you suggest we change to improve it?

Thanks

Well, we're just looking at an illustration, so that may be the issue. It looks very "bottom heavy" to me, but that is probably because there are no uppers. We have no uppers in the cabin I manage and it can work, but we have no DW either. We chose to keep the view, much like you, and cabs could not be fitted over the logs and look right.

www.cavecreekcabin.com

You need more space in the walkway/seating aisle.. your options are to shrink the depth of the 18” and make the island less deep or eliminate the 18” deep cabs.

Try physically mocking up the proposed counter seating aisle width, sit at the imaginary island counter, and walk through the remaining inches (use something tall like a bookcase for the wall area with 18” cabs).

You are going to all the expense of renovating which usually means eliminating problems in an existing layout....yet this proposed new layout purposefully incorporates new layout problems with inadequate aisles which will become traffic chokepoints.

Thanks all for the feedback. To make the dimensions work, I've come up with two alternatives.

This island gives us the space we need to move around, with the bonus of an extra seat, although sharing a corner isn't ideal.

If we give up on the door, we can do something like this... It lets 3 sit comfortably, plus the fridge can be moved closer to the sink, and that leaves us more space for a bigger pantry. However, the milk and cereal would then be in opposite corners (as would be the case for ingredients of most meals).

Which do you think is better option? Or, if you have a 3rd option, it would be welcome.