I vote c. And I think it’s a really good floor plan. I know, I wanted wall ovens, too, but they really take up valuable space.

I like the refrigerator near the banquet cuz the kids can grab ,more milk or cheese without coming into the work area.

I like the island all surface. My grandkids play board games on mine. And it makes a great buffet. Think of spreading out thanksgiving dinner there. Or those huge, obnoxious pizza boxes.

Definitely C. The island is not a good spot for the cooktop especially with seats behind it and you barely have any room on either side of the cooktop. Downdraft venting is not as effective as an overhead vent. It is much easier to vent on an outside wall. Our cooktop used to be on a much larger island and we remodeled to get it off of the island like so many do. The majority of your prep will be done between the sink and range and C gives you the counter space that is needed. Workflow generally goes from the refrigerator to sink to cooktop. Although double ovens are nice, I would definitely use a range in this layout.

I vote C. I would make your pantry wider. Also, what is the rectangular block over by the bench / windows? Is that a table? If so, I don't think you have enough room for that.

A cooktop/range on an island is not ideal. Ventilation needs to come down from the ceiling if that's the case and island lighting is limited as well. Instead I would:

• put ovens where pantry is
• leave 24-30" to left of ovens and place cooktop
• put pantry in the corner on sink wall (where fridge is in B and C)
• put fridge next to pantry
• Move island in 4" toward sink
• turn your island so that it's 4' 4" X 5' to possibly make room for your table...and put an overhang on that 5' side of island that can have some additional bench-stools tucked under. Island now can seat 4.
• leave island with one large countertop/nothing on it

I think the table fits fine. Also, you can get a range with two ovens. We have one and I love it.

“C” because it does not have the cooktop on the island. If you do ”C”, will you be installing a duct to the outside to exhaust the cooktop? If that is an outside wall it’s on, it won’t be difficult. It would be a shame to spend the money on an entire kitchen reno, and not install an exhaust for a hood.

C!! By far. And move island closer to sink, maybe 3'6" to 4' is good. What is the rest of the house layout? Can any walls be changed?

Re: moving the island, I see you lined up the island with the outer wall of the kitchen. Looks good on paper, but consider the stools, they are now out in the hallway if anyone sits on them. Agree with moving in a bit so your guests on stools are inside the kitchen area.

If you need the bench storage, I would use chairs on the short ends of the table. It will be much easier to get off and on the bench without having to slide to the back of the table. If you don't need the storage, I would use chairs all the way around.

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C is by far the best. Any layout that doesn't have a cooktop on the island usually gets my vote. Really think about the banquet table though. They're one of those ideas that looks great and sounds cool, but actually using them on a day to day basis is such as pain.

Another vote for C. It's really the only one that truly works.

Thanks all for the feedback. Below is a revised plan from the architect to show the entire floor layout. Based on the comments we decided to forgo the island cooktop and play around with the layout so that the final product is a derivative of “C”.

I would move the garage entrance door over to the far right to save a few steps getting to the kitchen and change the swing on the covered entrance door so that it opens against the wall and not into the closet.

C sort of... certainly for the reasons others mentioned about the cook top on the island - however - if that table is pulled out a little for people to get in there and sit then the walkway is much smaller on that side - as it shows right now it looks to be only about 30" and you will be putting the ref there - it seems pretty tight.... Do you really need the island?? I would change it to make for a better flow....

Good luck!

The revision is good, but I would still turn the island dimensions so that the shorter side (4'4") is where you currently have the two seats. I would make the long side (5') running parallel to the kitchen table.

Doing this gives you 8 extra inches of clearance on the kitchen table side of island.

Final revision. Any thoughts?

Is this a new build or a renovation?

Renovation.

I think your final revision is the best of all of them. You have much, much better aisles and decent, if not ideal workspace b/w the range and sink. The peninsula is there for overflow prepping or when you need more space for prepping.

I'm guessing you are someone who must have the sink under the window...so that severely limits your workspace on the range side.

Another option might be to have a peninsula without cabinets, just space for seating, so it would only need 15" to 18" in depth. The rest of the depth could be used to move the range down a bit to increase the workspace b/w it and the sink.

Regarding the seating, is there at least 15" of clear leg/knee overhang space behind the peninsula cabinets? That's the minimum recommended for counter-height seating.

Can the window be moved?

@Buehl
Peninsula clearance is at minimum 15 inch. We were very specific with architect about that. We do need the cabinets under the peninsula for storage.
Window over sink can not be moved, unfortunately.

Have you considered making the "built-in shelving" next to the Kitchen a shallow pantry instead? Even 9" would be a good depth for food storage. Ideal is 12", but 9" is pretty good and better than shelves deeper than 12". This is a quickie with the peninsula change I mentioned. If you add the pantry storage, would you then have enough storage since most of you food could be stored in the two 15" wide pantries as well as the supplemental pantry I suggested in the hall?

Buehl is onto something.

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I like your last layout (with the peninsula, but I would definitely move the fridge one way or the other and have one larger pantry next to it instead of two tiny pantries.

@Buehl - good suggestion re built in shelving. I will address with architect but I’m confident we should be covered by the two 15 inch pantry cabinets flanking the fridge. We currently have a 18 inch pantry and it holds pretty much what we need close by. We should be good with 2x15 inch pantry cabinets.

While prep space is limited near the cooktop, we are will be using induction. We have a similar set up at the moment and we have found that we are able to use the induction cooktop as a work space when we’re not actually cooking. When we cook, we find ourselves prepping on peninsula, facing company or watching kids.

The only tweak we are going to make is move the dishwasher to the other side of the sink. That way we don’t have people walking into that corner just to throw away refuse.

In architect's final revision, how much room do you have on each side of range - from the base of it to the base cabinet/corner on both left and right of it?

Also, are you using the dining room behind the peninsula as a dining room?

@decoenthusiaste are you in favor of the pantry cabinets on either side of the fridge? It was not clear from your post.

@ccwatters there is 18 inch of either side of the 30 inch induction cooktop. The total distance is 5ft 6 inch or 66 inch.

We are not planning to use the dining room as a dining room, for now. That could change if the nook doesn’t work out (we hope it does).

Yes!

I would NOT move the DW. Right now, someone can be loading/unloading the DW while someone else is preparing a meal and/or cooking or baking. If you move the DW into that small prep space, you will no longer be able to do that.

The most functional Prep Zone is one that has (1) direct access to water and (2) sufficient workspace with no interruptions (minimum recommended is 36" of straight workspace) and (3) Trash Pullout inside the Prep Zone and next to/near the Cooking Zone.

In addition, you will not have much room to stand b/w the DW and the corner for unloading the DW into the upper cabinets to the left of the range.

If you aren't willing to do something to gain more prep space b/w the sink and range, I would not make it worse by plopping the DW into that small space. Leave the layout as it is.

(I agree with you on the two 15" wide pullout pantries instead of one 30" -- they're really more functional when they can be split up that way...you can see everything by looking on either side and everything all at once. With one 30" wide, you'd have to do some rummaging around to see everything and it won't be a pullout, so you'd have to open/close each ROTS to find what you want as well as it's not great to have 24" deep shelves above -- they'll be difficult to access more than the front few inches. ROTSs won't work above b/c you won't be able to see past the bottom of the ROTS.)

[ROTS = Roll Out Tray Shelf]

Ok, I personally think given the existing space you are working with, you have the best layout here that you've had so far :)

A peninsula kitchen can be a very efficient workspace. Though you are close to the corners, 18" is ok and you also have the generous peninsula to prep on even while people are sitting at it.

Are you planning upper cabinets flanking the range? Or just a hood?

Going against the popular thought....One thing I might consider changing is actually making your (2) 15" pantries into (1) 30" pantry and put in the corner. The 15" pantries with rollouts/or that have rollouts will leave limited space for larger items, while a 30" pantry will have more generous-sized rolllout shelves for large bags of chips, cereal boxes, etc. I really like the look of the 15" pantries flanking the fridge, but just wonder if in reality the larger pantry wouldn't be more convenient. It would also push your fridge 15" further away from the person sitting in the chair at the table....and 15" closer to your workspace (where the proposed 15" pantry is already taking up space so fridge being there won't encroach any further)....making your already efficient workspace even more so!

And I agree with Buehl, I wouldn't put the dishwasher in the corner near the range.

I assume there will also be a hood above the range, correct?

The need for a hood has more to do with cooking than "fuel". Fuel has no bearing on the generation of odors, grease, smoke, and steam. It does have some bearing on "fumes", if you consider gas fumes vs no fumes for electric (both radiant and induction).

It's especially important in an open concept/space.

The hood should be 6" wider than the cooking surface and 24" deep (on an island, it would need to be 27" deep and even wider). If you have cabinets flanking and up against the hood, you can get away with a hood = the cooking surface, but it's not ideal. (The cabinets help corral the FOGSS.)

[FOGSS = Fumes, Odors, Grease, Smoke, Steam]

Another nice thing about those pantries is that they will help make the refrigerator look "built-in" without the added expense and space taken up by end panels building in the refrigerator. (If your refrigerator is already a true "built-in", then this is moot.)

One other thing to consider -- if the DW is in that corner, the oven & DW may not be able to be open at the same time. It's probably not a deal-breaker, but what would be a deal-breaker is if the DW door hits the range when you try to open the DW. I don't think it will, but just something to check on if you move the DW.

@ccwatters and @buehl we currently have a 18 inch pantry and it swallows a lot of things to the point that we have a hard time seeing what is in there. Buehl outlines every reason we came up with in favor of 2x 15 inch.

Noted re dishwasher. I definitely see the benefit of having access to refuse bin in the prep area, even though we will also have an in sink garbage disposal (sink shredder). Thanks for pointing that out.

We plan to have a 36-40 inch hood for the 30 inch cooktop. The hood would be flanked by cabinets along the entire wall. Those would be the only overhead cabinets in the kitchen.

you could also think about putting the trash in the end-most cabinet in the peninsula - then it’s very accessible to outsiders and (when it’s open) it’s just behind someone working at the sink. Granted if you have a lot of drippy trash then maybe that’s not a great fit - we have our trash at the end of the prep counter and I love not having it right in the middle b/c multiple people end up accessing it while prep is happening and this way we don’t get in each other’s way :)

@damiarian thanks for your suggestion. That was my initial reasoning for swapping with the refuse and dishwasher.

@Buehl and @Ccwatters - I find that all dishwasher loading and unloading activity only occurs when prepping and cooking has wrapped up. I can’t remember the last time someone was loading or unloading the dishwasher while someone was prepping or cooking. I usually load after dinner has wrapped up and unload in the morning after it has cycled overnight.

If we have access to a sink shredder the “drippy” refuse would be disposed via the sink so that negates the need to have a separate refuse bin directly under the prep space.

I had a kitchen where the dishwasher was where you want to put it to the right of the sink. It was awful for all the reasons buena mentioned. In our house it was just myself and my DH but it seemed he always needed put a dish away as i was prepping.

If you have kids, at some point you will want them helping and once again you will not want the dow in the prep space. You can put a small trash pullout under the sink for those times you need to throw something out without crossing the aisle

I prefer to locate the DW where the dinnerware and silverware are located. Here, a dish drawer closer to the dining area would save steps/time. Consider putting the fridge and flanking pullouts where Buehl has the stove, and put the DW and a dish drawer where the fridge is on his drawing. Easy to unload the dishes into the drawer and to place them from there on the nearby table. Here is the dish drawer idea.

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I like the final revision with Beuhl's peninsula. Another thought is to do side by side ovens with an induction cooktop, if those were something you really wanted.

@decoenthusiaste - dish drawer is a great idea. Thanks for the suggestion! This will likely have to go into the island.

@Buehl - you bring up a very good point, yet again. Our kids aren't old enough to help out yet, but they might in the future, (we hope!)

with a island there, you need to pay attention to the size of the design, avoiding it looks too crowd in your kitchenroom

I think that you'd be better off using the entire kitchen area as a work space and eliminating the bench and table seating. In all your plans you have 3 seating areas in one rather small space--the bench/table area, the island, and the dining room, and as CPArtist said, it looks crowded.

Why not place the sink on the wall where the bench is, with the nice big windows, and the range on the wall where the sink is? Then you could have the fridge on the wall where the range is in "C" and have a nice open U-shaped layout? The dining area is then used for seating/eating, and is still open to the kitchen.