Excellent on taping out the layout!! I hope you also taped up, or will do, a "hood" and uppers. One of our members did that years ago when she was trying to decide where to put it and it made a huge difference. There's an old bias from the middle of the 20th century, and before, not to put the oven near the fridge because the heat from the oven would make the fridge work hard, or previously, melt the ice in the icebox. Additionally, it's not nice to have the stove (cooktop) right by the fridge or any wall because it cramps your handles, elbows, etc. It has definitely become an embedded cultural trope. Today's ovens are well insulated. Between that and the cabinetry, there shouldn't be any side heat warming your fridge, which, itself, is very well insulated. Warm air will be blown into the room to cool the electronics of the ovens, but it shouldn't be an issue. There are no warnings from manufacturers to separate them, and there would be weasel words (lawsuit preventers) if this were a problem. The big issue with putting them next to each other is if the fridge door swings to cover the oven. I don't think we talked about swing. I would put the fridge opening toward the eating area, because it's more convenient for taking out armloads of the stuff that gets put on the table (condiments, pickles, drinks, salads, etc.), where as stuff for prep gets put on the island, which is the same either way. The biggest problem I foresee would be a gigantabird that you want to clean in the big sink, if that sink is going in the corner, because you wouldn't be able to just shovel it over. If you'd prefer to have the door swing away from the kitchen, then you have to be sure that there's enough swing room. My Advantium is right next to my fridge. The fridge opens really wide, but the oven handle is angled. I assume it's just for this reason. If your handles aren't angled, you can either put a stop to prevent the fridge door from opening too far, or put a spacer between the two so they don't bang. The issue is not putting dings in your fridge door. Having the door swing across the ovens also means that you have to be careful to fully close the oven before opening the fridge, which isn't usually a problem, but could be with competing kids. Train them while they're young to be aware of can't open the fridge when the oven's open, and when they're older it shouldn't be an issue. If any of this makes you uncomfortable, that would be a reason for moving the ovens, but you really will be upsetting the visual impact you're trying so hard to achieve. There's no one better than Buehl for a well working layout. If there were a functional issue with the one you and she developed, I promise you, it would have been fixed. What we've been working on here is taking what to my (experienced) eye, and Buehl's excellence, looks like an optimal layout and adapting it to your desire to make the kitchen fit a different aesthetic. Putting aesthetics first is not a bad choice. None of your options will be awful. The worst is that big sink in the corner, and, as you have already experienced in other kitchens, it can be lived with and worked around. There's nothing in G that makes me say, "That kitchen makes me want to rip it out," which I really have said many times in the last five years. I'm seriously blunt when people are going seriously wrong (though recently I did it because I didn't absorb a prep sink that was in the words but not the plan, and I thought she was specifically trying to make it work with a barrier island and no prep sink--my bad.) You're not in that situation here. Whatever you do will be good enough. I just think, equally bluntly, that if you're going to sacrifice optimal function for looks, you'd better optimize looks, or you're just getting middlin' everything. Nothing really great. Nothing really horrible. But who wants to go through all this for meh?

April, I understand your goals - get the most kitchen you possibly can with your reno dollars - but I think you're crowding too much into your space, reducing ease of function with these versions. My feedback is blunt, sorry, but I want to see you get the most functional kitchen you can for your money. Versions 1 & 2: You've lengthened the table and right hand bench to 58" or 60" (is that grey thing a 2" spacer?), which means that there's only a 12" or 14" gap between table and 24" deep pantry for someone to slide into the left hand bench. That's tight. I can't determine the width of the table but I recommend one no wider than 42" to give you enough room for benches with padding or pillows. These two versions also only give you a 34" to 36" aisle between peninsula and right hand bench and the full sized fridge across the aisle. I'm assuming your fridge is 36" deep - box, doors, air gap and possibly handles included in that measurement. Even if your fridge is slightly shallower, that's still a pinch point, potentially impassable when the fridge doors are opened. You wrote that one of your beefs with your current kitchen is that traffic jams up in the narrow aisle around the fridge. You're going to recreate that same frustrating scenario with versions 1 & 2. Version 1: I'm not sure what purpose a 12" side cabinet will serve on the left side of the fridge, other than to take away valuable counter space between fridge and range. Because you're opting for a 33" Susan, not a 36", you will only have 9" between sink and open oven door. In other words, no one can be at the sink when you open the oven door. That limits your kitchen to a one-cook kitchen. I thought one of your goals was to create a kitchen that could accommodate multiple cooks during family gatherings. Simple fixes: Move the fridge to the left end of that run and add the 12" from that cab to the cab between fridge and range. Shorten the right hand bench and table to 48", eliminate the peninsula, move the oven cab to the left of the DW, change the 33" Susan to a 36" Susan and put a 30" cabinet where the oven cab was. Hmmm, one problem with this is that you now have the oven doors opening right behind anyone seated in the right hand bench. If someone leaned back or flung their hair back ... well, that could be a problem. You can address this issue with a high backed bench. Version 2: The sink/DW area has ample room but it's at the cost of the fridge/range & oven side. 9" on either side of the range doesn't provide enough room to set a pot down or enough clearance for many pot handles, nor is 9" wide cabinet space that useful. I think you'll find this a frustrating set-up. Simple fixes: I've never used corner Susans but I've seen enough posts here that one with too small an opening is frustrating to use. If you eliminate the peninsula in this version, you have enough room to swap a 33" Susan for a 36" Susan. However, that does not address the space issues of the fridge/range, oven wall. I don't think this plan is a viable option. Version 3: Part of your sink will extend beyond the window. Will that bother you? Based on comments made here, it does bother the majority of people. They want to see a sink under a window or not under a window, not partially under a window. If I'm following your key correctly and doing my math correctly, the banquette is version 3 is only large enough for 2 people, one on each side of the table. Is that your intention? I fear you're trying to make this large enough for 4 people but it really isn't. The corner is unusable, which means the bench along the sink wall is only 52" long. That's enough room for 2 people - each need 24" of room - but that leaves only a 4" gap for people to slide onto the bench. Unless you're really, really skinny - skinnier than Twiggy (that dates me) or Kate Moss (for the younger crowd) - that's not possible. Easy fixes: Move the fridge down, eliminating the 9" cabinet. Exchange the lazy Charlie (never heard this term before, funny!) for a 36" wide Susan, which puts the sink under the window. Put a 30" cab where you show a 24" cab in your plan. Go with a 36" square table to create a banquette for 2 with room for people to slide onto the bench. To seat 3, reduce the pantry to 36", lengthen the bench on that wall to 94", and opt for a rectangular table, 36" x 52" - an odd size so likely custom. I realize that in one of my earlier plans, I had suggested a 60" long table but that was when I was incorrectly remembering that a table can overlap a bench by 6", not 4" or 5". I also suggested that 18" was enough room to slide onto the bench because the pantry in that plan was only 18" deep, not 24", which does make a difference. You may be able to make 18" work between table and 24" deep pantry - you'll have to do a mock-up. None of these plans show the doorways moving. Is that beyond your budget? That's understandable but it does make squeezing everything into your space a challenge. ;-) Here's an idea to try: This pretty much reflects the changes I suggested for your version 1 and for the banquette area. The key thing I did in this plan was to move the ovens to the top left corner with a 26" cab next to it. You can store baking supplies, pans, etc in this cab, plus the counter gives you landing space for items coming from the ovens. I moved the pantry to the left of the DW, which means it shrinks from 48" to 32", unfortunately, but it no longer has to house the MW - that's in an upper cab on the DR wall - so that helps. Plus some of the items you may have stored in the pantry can now be stored in the cabinet next to the ovens. You should end up with about the same amount of storage as before. This lay-out will allow more than one person to work in your kitchen. The 42" x 48" table overhangs the bench by 4" on each side. You can add additional storage if you add a drawer to the right hand bench.

Please post more pictures. Don't worry about the mess. The more pictures the better. Please draw out the basic floor plan, as is, on graph paper if you can. A rough sketch is even okay. And YES... I'm talking the whole entire first floor around the kitchen showing as much as possible. :-) Label the sizes in feet and inches of all the walls, that staircase, and any window or doors. If you do that, let me tell ya from experience, you will get the most amazing help! The thread you want to read is this... Read this!

I did an L shaped with Island. It works for the way we cook and entertain. In past kitchens... We have had a G shaped , A giant U shaped with inside U island. (really a barrier), Galley kitchen, a galley that turned into a L at the end, a U with a peninsula, an L shaped.. and when we did our final kitchen. We chose an L shape with giant Island and wide wide aiels to accommodate friends and multiple cooks. Think about the way you cook. If my kitchen were only about cooking I would do the Galley as that is easy for a single cook with various work stations and saves on stepping to complete a task.