No spice pull-outs next to the range. They’re the worst. Ugh, had them, never again. Put your spices on the Rev-a-Shelf rack in a low-height drawer directly under the counter near the range. Here is a thread where people talked about their dislike for the spice pull-outs next to the range.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3866883/pullouts-next-to-cook-top

Hey Shannon! The addition will start where the windows begin. We aren't looking to buy new appliances to try and save a few thousand, and ours work perfectly fine. We want the sink and dishwasher in the island, and the stove obviously on a wall, however, I see the problem that will come with them being across from each other. Maybe put the sink and dishwasher under the set of windows to the left of the kitchen? The door on the right side will be going out to a deck, so we cant use that side. Also, we wont be needing the spice pullouts... lol That's just something fancy the designer threw in, but thank you for the advice.

Your island is very large at 60" x 110". It may be hard to find a slab of granite, quartz, soapstone, etc to cover that without seams. So you might wind up needing bookmatched slabs or consider corian for a seamless look. That is what jumped out at me - sounds like a fun project!

It’s too big. What size is the kitchen in relationship to the house? Half the size of the house? You don’t need a 150K+ addition project for a workable kitchen. Nor do you need to fill it with cheap RTA imports from cheap online sources. Not if you want something that will be actually worth investing in. You need to rethink your goals. The resale on this might be 30%, at the most.

@live - current kitchen is 9ft wide and 18ft long. Very narrow, with maybe 10sqft of counterspace total. Only 9x9 of the kitchen is where all the appliances and cabinets are. Cant expand to use the rest of the square footage due to the laundry room being on the other side. The total square footage of the house is 1200. Theres no way to do anything with the kitchen other than expanding it. The RTA stuff wont be used. I just used them to get an idea of what things might look like together.

I have a layout a bit like yours, with the sink in the island and the cooktop on the wall. If the two are offset a bit, as appears to be the case in your plan, it actually works pretty well. If the cook wants to move from sink to cooktop, it's an easy swivel; if the cook is at the cooktop, someone can still work at the sink because, to put it as delicately as I can, they are not butt to butt but hip to hip.

Dsgts - Standing at the sink the way it is in the renderings, you would be looking into the living room. Outside the windows, all you would see are trees. We have plans to thin out the woods to try and see a creek, but that's not on the forefront right now. It's just my wife, myself and toddler son, so I'm not worried about being too crowded in the kitchen at one time. The only time we have a big crowd of people over is during the holidays and birthdays.

Below are two layouts--the original on the left, and a more efficient layout on the right. Both show work paths, and how much more the work zones overlap in the original plan compared to the one on the right.

The big difference is the relocation of the clean-up sink and DW, and the addition of a prep sink on the island. In the plan on the right, a helper can be loading or unloading the DW, or gathering dishes to set the table, without interfering in the prep or cooking tasks. You have a second convenient prep zone for helpers.

Moving the fridge closer reduces steps to the prep spaces and range, and keeps the snackers/grazers out of the work zones. You are re-using appliances, but I would either sell the existing fridge and purchase a new 36" CD model, or at least build the fridge surround for that size. Families change and grow, and sometimes sell and move to another home. It would be better to keep your options open.

I made all aisles wider and reduced the width of the island, which would still accommodate four seats.

Wow, that is awesome @mama goose_gw zn6OH. I also want to emphasize to the OP, because he said his son is "just" a toddler, that in no time he will be a gangly 8-year-old all over the place, and then a teenager - with all his teenager friends, and they all hang out in the kitchen. Quick as you can blink your eyes. Ask me how I know! Don't make a kitchen design thinking there's not many of you and not a lot of traffic.

I would also add that shrinking the island a bit is a good idea not only because of the reasons stated, but who wants to wipe down a continent? People need to think about cleanability in their kitchen design also.

Lots of wasted space. For example you have a long run of cabinets to the right of the fridge but no water there. When we cook, we take food out of the fridge and pantry, bring it to the sink to prep, prep besides the sink and then move it to the cooktop.

Any space that is not near one of these winds up becoming a dumping ground. You have lots of dumping ground. Mama's plan is excellent.

Just want to throw this in that my house is smallish, also with a creek in the back, and after a large water leak a year ago and resulting 4-room renovation, we looked into building an addition to increase our space. Talk about sticker shock! If you're planning to hire all the work done and not concerned about preserving your investment at resale, proceed. If you think you'll move within the next 50 years, literally, please re-think this investment. These additions always cost more than you think, and cabinetry for that large of a space is going to run into the many tens of thousands in a mid-range brand. Labor costs will double or more your material costs. If there is any chance you'd be interested in moving to a house better suited to your needs, this might be the time to do some shopping. The big refrigerators and pro stoves are so nice. If you do add on and have room to leave space for different appliances when your current ones reach their end of life, you might be happy with that forethought.

The 'pantry' design 20" wide by 24" deep is a black hole. You may use the front half of a couple or 3 shelves. The rest will swallow up everything. 11" deep by 30+" wide is more useful. Even with bins on the opening door and the reduced depth of interior shelves that cabinet isn't wide enough.

Question for thought - are you really "sit at the island" types? You don't seem to need it for prep space that much. Will you ever really have 5 people perched in a row there? I am wondering if you shrink the island, will you have room for a table?

You definitely need to do something about the fridge next to the wall - either shorten the depth of the pantry, or put a broom closet or other cabinets between the fridge and the wall. Not being about to open the door past 90 degrees is a real nuisance (been there!)

Also remember, nothing needs to be symmetrical in a kitchen. Including the cabinets on either side of an appliance.

Ditto on the base drawers instead of cabinets - you will love them.

I highly recommend frameless cabinets also, for ease of access.

Pullout shelves, or even drawers, will make the pantry fully functional even if 24" deep. Mine is almost the same dimension, and the drawers allow me to access everything easily and quickly. I also have my microwave on a purpose built shelf in mine.

I must be an oddball, but I had a 9" space next to the stove that could not be avoided, and I really like having the spice pullout in it. You don't have to have such an awkward space, though: if you go semi-custom with your cabs, you don't have to stick with the standard 3" increments in size.

(I started this late Christmas Eve but got busy with holiday activities -- since then others have pointed out some of the same things. I'm leaving it as I originally wrote it.)

Tough love here...that layout has a lot of wasted (and expensive) space!

What do I mean by that? The majority of your counterspace is located where it is inconvenient to try to prep at. It's in the "hinterlands" with regards to Kitchen work.

Yet you have all three primary work zones crammed into a small space.

Key components to a successful Prep Zone:

• Direct water access, i.e., water in the Prep Zone (not across an aisle)
• Sufficient workspace -- at least 36" of straight counterspace with no obstructions (including a DW); 42" or more is much, much better
• Near Cooking Zone -- Next to or across an aisle from the range or cooktop. (The aisle should be a protected aisle as opposed to a busy/through-traffic aisle.)
• Follows the Kitchen workflow: Refrigerator ==> Sink (prep) ==> Prep workspace ==> Range/Cooktop [Or, Ice.Water.Stone.Fire]
• No barriers -- i.e., no barrier island, tall appliance/cabinetry, or other obstruction to the Kitchen workflow

Other important factors:

• Little to no zone-crossing when following the above workflow
• No DW in the Prep Zone

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We have a set of Best Practices/Guidelines that I think will help you understand what we're telling you. They're in the "New to Kitchens? Read Me First!" thread, but I'll post them here. In addition, we have a Layout Help FAQ, which I'll also post, that discusses what information we need to help you. (Most of this any KD you work with should be asking, if they aren't, consider finding a different KD.)

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Kitchen Design Best Practice/Guidelines FAQ Threads:

FAQ: Kitchen Work Zones, What Are They?

• https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5500762/faq-kitchen-work-zones-what-are-they

FAQ: Aisle Widths, Walkways, Seating Overhangs, Work/Landing Space etc

• https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5500771/faq-aisle-widths-walkways-seating-overhangs-work-landing-space-etc

FAQ: How Do I Plan For Storage?

• https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5500787/faq-how-do-i-plan-for-storage

Asking for layout help:

FAQ: How Do I Ask For Layout Help & What Information Should I Include?

• https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5500789/faq-how-do-i-ask-for-layout-help-what-information-should-i-include

Humorous discussion of workflow and other layout topics:

Looking for layout help? Memorize this first.

• https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2699918/looking-for-layout-help-memorize-this-first

Regarding pantry shelves...12" is the "sweet spot" for depth. 12 inches is deep enough for all food (including cereal boxes), most small appliances, and other food without being so deep that things get lost.

I recommend taking some of that wasted counterspace and using it to create a shallow reach-in pantry. It will also help with the refrigerator -- as others have pointed out, you won't be able to open the doors fully for access or cleaning the way it's place right now.

Also, Mama Goose's design is a definite improvement.

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What is your family composition? Empty nesters? Children (now or in the future)? Other?

A layout of the entire floor would be very helpful. It would show us how the Kitchen relates to the rest of the home as well as how traffic flows in, around, and through the Kitchen.

Do you have a separate Dining Room (or other table space)? If so, where is it?

Where do groceries enter the home?

@mama - Thank you for that layout! Great idea about the fridge width.

@dormelles - My wife and I debated about moving, but we decided that we love everything about our house other than the kitchen. Our home is a split foyer, so we have extra space downstairs that's finished, but upstairs is 1200 sqft.

@dan1888 - the pantry was just an idea to fill up this weird corner space. Seems like there are better ideas here, so change whatever you'd like!

@raee - Yes we are. We loving sitting in the kitchen and entertaining. All of the family get togethers happen at our house. I don't think there will be enough space to have a dining room table in the kitchen.

@buehl - Family is my wife, myself and our 18 month old son. Growing the family is a big unknown due to wife's medical concerns. No separate dining room, and groceries come through the front door. Attached is a drawing of the layout with the addition built.

Merry Christmas everyone, and thank you for all the replies so far!

Merry Christmas, @Jonathan! Congratulations on the adventure known as remodeling that you’re about to undertake (or take you under)! How far along are you in the process? Are window locations able to be changed? What’s going on on the exterior of this space in terms of views? If you could post some photos and show the existing space and where the addition will be in relation to it, that’d be super helpful. Btw, at 4’ x 9’, the proposed island is not extraordinarily large.

What's at the bottom right below the laundry?

@cpartist - guest bedroom.

@sammy - Merry Christmas! Right now we are getting quotes from contractors. We havent made a decision yet on which one we will choose. Are the windows able to be changed? Yes, but we want as much natural light as possible. Views will be of trees and the back yard, which we want to eventually create into an outdoor entertaining area. I'll take a picture of the current kitchen when I get home.

Sorry if I missed this - is there a dining table area anywhere in the house?

@Emily - Nope. I wish there was a separate dining room, but there's not.

Current kitchen and the expansion will be to the right where the door is. Behind me is the laundry room.

Then in a kitchen this size, if you are only going to have one sink, I suggest a table instead of island. Wayyy cheaper, and wouldn’t sacrifice function at all.

That space is more than big enough for a kitchen and dining room. It’s functionally too large for just a kitchen. A kitchen can be too large, and it is. But, redesigned, it could be a kitchen and dining. And work all the better for being smaller. Kitchens are very expensive per square foot. Reducing the size and gaining dining space will help to reduce some costs.

http://starcraftcustombuilders.com/kitchen.design.rules.htm

https://www.remodeling.hw.net/cost-vs-value/2019/

Your new kitchen will be 19’ x 18’, am I understanding that correctly? If so, that’s a nice sized kitchen—not too large to be functional, at all.

@the cooks kitchen - I understand the triangle, however, I'm not sure where we would be able to put a table and chairs.

@Emily - We are using a table now for more counterspace/prep area and I don't like it very much.

@sammy - That's correct. With the laundry room being a part of the kitchen, a little more space is necessary, in my opinion...and the addition will be square and seamless with the existing walls.

I think you can make space for a table. The island depth can be reduced to the minimum 42", and the range aisle can go back to the original 42". You have plenty of base cabinet storage (all drawers, if possible), so the extra cabinets on the island shouldn't be missed.

The distance between the island and table is drawn at 54". The table could be moved toward the LR another 6", but since you won't be using both at the same time, I think that should be sufficient. Of course, the arrangement of LR furniture might have to be considered.

I made some other changes; the pantry was changed to 24" deep roll-out tray shelves, for easy access.

The two drawer bases on each side of the range are combined into one wider drawer base--you can divide the wider drawers into sections, and save a few inches of interior space which would be lost to drawer glides.

The range hood is drawn 6" wider than the range. With no upper cabinets to help contain the plume of steam and grease, the extra width will provide a larger capture area.

Something I just noticed...your aisles are measured incorrectly. Aisles are measured to/from the things that stick out the farthest -- appliance doors/handles, counter edges, etc., not to/from cabinet boxes. The 24-inch cabinet depth measurement only includes the cabinet box/carcass, it does not include doors/drawer fronts, counter overhangs (~1.5"), etc. In your layout, if you look closely you will see the aisles are measured from the cabinet boxes, not the counters. That means your aisles are at least 3" narrower than shown. So, 42" really means 39" -- much too narrow!

In addition, the refrigerator is blocked from the Prep and Cooking Zones by the island, making the island a "barrier island". This is something that should be avoided.

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Given the information you've provided, you don't have room for both a table and full-size island with seating in the Kitchen. You can, however, fit an island with no seating + a table or a shallow island with seating + table.

This is what I've gleaned from your posts & layout:

• Your new Kitchen + Dining space will be 18' x 18' (correct?) Your layout shows 216" x 216", which is 18' x 18', yet you told Sammy that it was 19' x 18'...which is it? If 19', which side is 19' long?
• You have at least one child, so you need to plan for a multi-person Kitchen. Before you know it, your son will be old enough to start helping out in the Kitchen -- both cleaning up and cooking. (Both are necessary life skills for both boys and girls.)
• Your current refrigerator is 33" wide. However, as refrigerators are standardizing on 36" wide x 72" or so tall, I strongly recommend you plan for that size a refrigerator, so make your alcove at least 37" wide x 72" high. Appliances do not last forever, especially today, so you plan on the need to replace the refrigerator at some point in the next 5 to 8 years.
• Your desired appliances/fixtures: 30" range, 24" DW, Microwave, Hood (36" for over a 30" range), 36" farm/apron sink

Regarding the pantry...

Pantries, in order of best to worst (IMO)

• Built-in Pantries -- Reach-in/Step-in/Walk-in (more efficient, better use of space, floor-to-ceiling usage, much cheaper, more versatile, etc.)
• Pull-out pantries no more than 18" wide -- not too wide to lose things, can see everything by looking on both sides, etc.
• 24"D pantries of any type that are wider than 18" -- things get lost; if use the swing out contraptions, lose a lot of space and very expensive

For some pantry ideas and information, see the following:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2401919/pantry-photos-pics-of-pantries

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I came up with two main options; one without seating at the island and one with seating. There's also a third option with a seat on the right end of the island instead of along the back.

Note the different aisle widths b/w the table and island. If there's seating at the island (on the same side as seating at the table), you should have at least 54", with 60" better. [In my Dining Room, I have 48" and I cannot have people seated at both the table and peninsula at the same time. In fact, now that my kids are off to college, I've removed the chairs from the table on the peninsula side so no one sits there and I've moved the table away a bit as well. (The table isn't centered under the light fixture when it's pushed back, but I can live with that.)]

Without seating at the island, the aisle only needs to be 48", although a few more inches would be nice.

In all layouts, there's a primary Prep Zone between the range and sink along the perimeter. In the no-seating island, there's a second "primary" Prep Zone with a sink. The island is not a barrier between the Refrigerator and the Prep Zone between the range and sink. It is, however, still a barrier between the Prep Zone in the island and the Refrigerator.

Also in all three layouts,

• There's a 4' wide shallow, reach-in pantry. This pantry will hold more items than either the pantry you have on your layout or a pantry cabinet. Items will be more accessible and all will be visible at one time. In addition, the pantry is shallow enough that you don't need additional filler or cabinets b/w it and the refrigerator. It's location also makes it easy to bring groceries in since you bring them in from the front door.
• I put in a Tea/Coffee and Snack Center in the upper right corner along with a MW drawer and optional beverage cooler/refrigerator drawer. I toyed with putting it on the left wall, but then it didn't leave room for decent dish storage or a decent pantry. The top right location seemed better. In addition, it puts the beverage cooler and snack center near the backyard door and a straight shot to/from the Living Room without tempting anyone to go through the main/working part of the Kitchen. (The red oval with a "C" is a coffeemaker, if you use one. Or it could be an electric tea kettle or nothing at all!)
• There's plenty of work space in both layouts, although more of it is useful for prepping in the island without seating layout (Layout #1).

Of the three, I like Layout #1 best because it gives you more work room on the island along with water and nice second primary Prep Zone, but I could live with #3 as well. I don't think I'd like #2 because it seems too crowded and the island isn't as useful. It's rather shallow (30"), which limits its use due to the risk of knocking things off the back and when people are seated at the island, you lose most of that shallow depth to the visitors.

Here they are:

Layout #1:

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Layout #2:

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Layout #3 (same work zones as Layout #1):

@buehl - Wow! Thanks!

The current kitchen space is 9x18, so a 10x18 addition will put the total kitchen space of 19x18. The 19' side will be the left side, where the fridge will be. Great point about making sure the fridge opening is 37" so there wont be any complications with future replacements. As for the island, we want to have seating on the back side, and I like the idea of having a prep sink in it as well, so I agree with layout #1 looking like it will be the best option. Having said that, making the island a little bigger, like 4x8, might be better. The door to the backyard/deck can swing out instead of in, so we wont have to worry about it being to close to the island. That door location isnt set yet, so it can be moved if needed to make the most use of the space. It just has to be within the addition part of the kitchen. The laundry room doors are two bifold doors, so they close up nicely and dont take up very much room when opened either.