Floor plans will be requested; especially if you want realistic answers/suggestions. May I ask if you've considered a second oven in the wall with a micro above it? You might even have one of the ovens upgraded to steam. I hear they're all the rage among serious bakers/cooks.

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Counter-depth uppers are a little awkward. At the very least, you should have pull-outs when you do that. And even then, you probably need to use a stepping stool to reach everything. We have 19" deep uppers in one part of the kitchen. I actually like them. But they are only good for some items. They probably would be a horribly awkward place to store plates. And I absolutely wouldn't want to go any deeper than that.

On the other hand, we have lowers that are extra deep (i.e. 30") and most of them are really wide as well. I love them. They are huge, and they all have drawers. We store all of our plates in the lowers and we actually still have a good amount of unused cabinets. Big drawers in the bottom cabinets are fantastic. So much more ergonomic. Why doesn't everybody do that. Also, this gives us 30" countertops which are much more useful.

As for the microwave, we have a SpeedOven and a combination steam oven stacked on top of each other on one side of the kitchen. Looks great.

I second the recommendation to post drawings and a floor plan that is to scale. If you are patient, you'll get lots of opinions. And if you engage in an open dialog and are willing to make updates to your drawings, you'll end up with a much better design. Kitchen design is surprisingly difficult. Even many architects don't do a great job. But this site has a handful of very experienced and passionate members who are always up for a good challenge.

You could put the MW in an upper cabinet beside the fridge. You could even use deep upper cabinets all the way to the corner, but I would leave landing space below the MW, beside the fridge, rather than full depth cabinets.

We need a to scale foor plan and all measurements clearly marked show all windows doors and if it is an issue then where the plumbing is. IMO 24” deep pantry cabinets need pullouts and I prefer true pullouts instead of pullouts behind doors. A MW mounted below a cbinet IMO is the best place for one . IMO all base cabinets should be drawers and much wider than 18” then all your dishes , and pots can be in drawers put them where they will be used best I like my dishes next to my DW for instance. Make sure the drawing you post can be enlarged you will get a ton of ideas

I'm knocking walls out wherever possible and moving the kitchen, so placement of everything doesn't matter in terms of wiring/plumbing/etc. Including moving the window, which is currently too large and 5" too far to the left to allow a dishwasher to the left of the sink + >21" clearance to the counter, so that's moving over.

Just to be clear, I'm talking about doing full pantry-style floor-to-ceiling cabinets, where I'd keep the dishes in the traditional "upper" portion and have an appliance garage from counter level to "uppers". I'm also having custom-made cabinets, so odd sizes isn't an issue...planning to use every inch!

The gray solid outline is the walls I intend to have at the end (except where indented/marked, which is to notate halls). Hoping to take out that one section as well. I think everything else is pretty well marked? The grid is every 2 feet, but I did include all measurements.

My only rock-solid requirement is stove must vent outside, which means it has to be on the left or top walls. The blank area on the right, before the dotted line, will be my new dining area. The only reason I'm debating the full-depth uppers for where I want my dishes is because of microwave placement and that way I'd have a full wall of 24" deep cabinets (including frig). I don't think I'll particularly need the storage behind the regular dishes but could keep holiday dishes or something else I don't use much behind them. I'm really considering the full depth only for aesthetics. I don't have the space to put an in-wall oven, though I am debating putting one in a lower base cabinet depending on how the final design comes out.

I am not sure why you are saying that you don't have enough space for wall ovens. That looks like overall a pretty big room, and by opening up the floor plan, you have a lot of options. I am not the best person to ask for detailed kitchen design. There are other people in this forum who do a better job.

But I do feel you have a lot to work with. You should be able to fit wall ovens. And you should also be able to get sufficiently large lowers to store all your plates in there.

M

For every plus there is always a minus. 30" counters with drawers sounds great. Personally I would love them However it also means a harder reach to the top cabinets if there are any or if you're vertically challenged. As always it comes down to how you live what you like and specifically your physical size or physical limitations.

Inga who unfortunately is vertically challenged

If you make your countertops deeper, you also make the uppers deeper -- or you possibly just pull them forward, if you don't want deep uppers.

All of this is somewhat moot though, if you are building a kitchen and you are "vertically challenged". You should love deeper lowers in that situation, because it gives you so much more usable space. So much space is lost to cabinet sides, frames, fronts, drawers, ... for any of your cabinets. But the amount that is lost is constant, no matter the size of your cabinet.

So, even if you just make your cabinets 6" deeper and just a little wider, your usable space goes up a lot more than you'd have thought at first sight.

We have larger lowers and we can store almost everything just in the lowers. We still use our uppers, as everybody in this family is pretty tall. But honestly, if we wanted to, we probably could make do with lowers alone. Big and deep full-extension drawers throughout the lower cabinets is a very efficient way of using space. And our kitchen isn't even that large compared to many of the kitchens that I see here on Houzz. We do have a separate walk-in pantry though, which simplifies things.

I have no idea why the window needs to be moved center the sink under the window and put the DW next it only the sink needs to be centered on the window then you just design around the new sink location. I am not vertically challenged and have never really found 30” deep cabinets to be a plus I have very few uppers in my kitchen but I have all drawers and a wall of pullout pantries but I store my everyday dishes in a drawer next to the DW and my other glassware and dishes in 2 pullouts IMO hiding an appliance you use is not practical A wall oven with a seperate MW above it is the way to go.

Because this was originally a dining room, the window is too low to accommodate a counter. If I'm already doing exterior work, I'd rather just put the window in a place that makes the most sense, from a layout perspective, to place the sink. And I really want the dishwasher to the left of the sink.

I'm confused by the description. Floorplan (sketches) would help.But are you suggesting turning a full height pantry cabinet into an upper and lower with counter so...you can put the micro on the counter? Why not just put it in the middle as a built in (like decoenthusiaste showed)? You don't have to pay for a built it. Just have your cabinet maker make a nook and put your countertop micro there. They make them really small now, less than 18" wide. In decoenthusiaste's pic, there are doors above the micro--for your toaster and coffee maker?