I tried to fit the peninsula into your layout, but I'm not sure it works. My kitchen was actually a little smaller, but open to the hallway with a shallow pantry across the hallway. My isles were not the standard 42 inches, but they worked well in the kitchen (better than the the kitchen I have now with the 42 inch clearance) The stove sink and peninsula as drawn are similar to what i had. I'm not sure you have room for the bar seating in front of the sink. My fridge was a little further from where I drew yours and I'm not sure if where I put it is ideal. Also I took another foot from your garage to give you extra width. I am definitely not an expert in this area. I went to a couple of kitchen designers to get layout help before we finalized the floor plan and one designer was excellent and had great ideas. Actually, I like your original floor plan and shallow pantry. Putting a 30 in cabinet next to the fridge should help when setting things down and using the fridge. I don't think you've allowed enough room on either side of your stove and I don't think I would want to switch it with the sink.

I am in the same shoes you are right now. I'm trying to plan a wonderful kitchen for a new home that functions for my homestead way of life. I cook from scratch, and will be freezing, dehydrating, and canning again. I like to stock up on bulk staples. I'd like to raise chickens and maybe a calf, and I garden too. I have pets. Basically, a very independant minded person. So the challange is how to come up with a compact work space with enough storage. One solution many women in Florida do is to put a summer kitchen in off their porches, and this is where they can, and keep all those supplies, as well as their extra fridge and freezer. It's not in the house and the mess and steam involved stays out there instead of heating the whole kitchen and house up. It's made with less expensive and easy to clean materials, and yet it's a hop and skip away. If it's not attatched to the house it's taxed as an outbuilding instead of square footage. (It can be "detatched" by as little as an inch). It frees up some of the needed kitchen space, and takes some load off of utility room needs. I'm seriously considering doing that. I'm having wood floors in my house but my canning kitchen can have easy to clean vinyl that I don't have to worry about trashing. I am also trying to place at least one, and hopefully two walk in pantries in convenient locations. My goal is to have one near my stove for pots and pans, (I use mostly cast iron and have quite a collection of it), and one near the prep area for all my kitchen staples. This is not the "norm", so there isn't much information out there on how to do this. Everyone wants to sell mounds and mounds of cabinets, which only serves to spread things out too far and costs too much. Walk in pantries fit an enormous amount of storage in a compact space. They can always have a pretty glass front french door with a curtain to dress up the kitchen. I'm determined to figure this one out. I'ts not easy figuring out how to achieve a kitchen that is sufficient in size and storage, while at the same time efficient. My house will be an open floor plan, so I also do not want my back to everyone while I cook, and I need lots of natural light to be happy. It sounds like your kitchen is the heart of your home, as well. I do know that a kitchen with appliances spread out too far, and not enough dish storage convenient to both the table and the dishwasher is awful! My last kitchen, designed by a kitchen designer, was gorgeous. But...the stove was too far from my sink on an opposite wall, and the path between them was also the path into the kitchen. I always worried while carrying a pot full of boiling pasta to be drained to the sink. I spent a lot of time walking and carrying between my sink and counter and the stove and counter. I spent a lot of time trekking dishes back and forth to the table. I never want that again. Ever. It was not a user friendly kitchen, and we started eating out a lot. There are some valid concerns being brought up here, and much of it is most likely based on some of the awful stuff others have delt with, and want to help you avoid all that. There's a great deal of walking while carrying things to and from your dining table, in this plan. That may not bother you, but give it some very careful thought, and reherse the differing scenarios out to be sure that's what you want. I know you come home tired. Very tired. One of my friends is a vet and also runs a no-kill shelter that she started. Twenty feet is a long way in a kitchen. Perhaps what will work for you is to still have the open large space you crave, but with alcoves and centers for each activity that are subtley defined, but still open to one another. If you frequently have baby animals in your kitchen, perhaps have a nook for that in your plan that can also double for another use. I'm with you on the island seating. My husband and I would never eat at an island. I always felt if people are putting seating around their islands, it means they actually want to eat in their kitchen, and why not just put the kitchen table back in there, where they "used" to be. (I'm ducking). I never had an island, but am thinking I'd like one. I always cut cookies out, fill muffin tins, and make homemade pasta at my kitchen table. I'm almost afraid to put an island in, and then find I end up back over at my table anyway. The other thing is, I'm sure my husband will just have one more spot to put all his guy stuff. Still debating. Maybe I'll buy one of those nice Boos maple farm syle islands. Then I can move it if I want. Keep at it. It looks like you have a lovely space to work with. Unfortunately, I haven't found this a fun process. We have acreage, and I have a clean slate. My brains are scrambled from trying to design. Too many options! Please post your ideas as you progress. Sandy

OK...here are two options. I reworked the Pantry and Mudroom as well as the kitchen and Dining Nook. Note the Nook + Kitchen is longer - it expanded into the "Growth Space". Personally, I think if the Dining Nook is flush with the porch wall you will be able to see more of the outside - especially the pool. This can be very important later when you have children and they're in that in-between age when they don't need constant surveillance but they do need checking on periodically. The rearrangement of the Mudroom gives you a wider closet and provides cubby space that is not in full view of the Dining Nook when the door to the Mudroom is open - which I suspect it will be more often than not on a day-to-day basis. It also provides a Message/Command Center where you can drop/hang your keys when coming in from the garage, charge your cell phones, drop mail, hang a calendar and/or dry erase/chalk board for keeping track of family activities and for leaving notes for each person, etc. The upper cab is optional and may not be needed. If you just want to hang a calendar/board there, then you probably don't need the upper cab. The Pantry has plenty of 12" deep shelves for food and a set of 15" deep shelves for small appliances. Both layouts offer you the ability to make your range/cooktop wall a nice focal point from the point of view of the Great/Living Room. They also both "hide" the dirty dishes a bit b/c the dirty dishes are no longer front and center and drawing everyone's eyes immediately. You may say that you always cleanup as you go/immediately unload/load the DW) and that you never leave dirty dishes out - but you don't have children yet! There will come a time when you don't have as much time to keep things perfectly tidy (think fussy babies, needy toddlers, etc.) and later it won't just be the two of you creating dirty dishes... Regarding the island. With a prep sink, the island is ideally placed for your primary Prep Zone It has a water source - very important for prepping Plenty of clear workspace - even if the kids are sitting at the island Near the refrigerator Near the range/cooktop Contains the trash pullout (prepping and cooking generate far more trash and recyclables than cleaning up and for a much longer period of time) Prep & Cooking Zones protected from casual traffic ("just passing through") It faces the Great/Living Room so you're "part of the action" and can keep on eye on what's going on :-) Something to keep in mind: Kitchen work studies have shown that kitchen work breaks down as follows for the majority of us: 70% to 75% of the time spent working in the kitchen is spent prepping (i.e., "Prep Zone") 20% of the time spent working in the kitchen is spent cleaning up (includes not just rinsing/loading DW, but also wiping down counters, etc.; this is the "Cleanup Zone") 10% of the time spent working in the kitchen is spent cooking (meaning...

Remodelfla, thanks for responding, questions are welcome. Yes there is a 24" counter in front of the cooktop, yes the great room is directly adjacent in the carpeted area. Main pathway for getting into the kitchen is mostly thru the utility area for my husband and I, but currently when guests are here they use the dinette area more. We're fairly certain that is because of the orientation of the current layout (frig, sink, and overhand closer to that end now). By moving the frig over, we thought guests could help themselves to whatever in the frig but not impede too much in the work areas. We trialed the counter/seating area for pulling out chairs and 30" seemed ok (kept pulling out to 24" and wanted to give the "extra" space though I'm not convinced it will be enough). This area "should" have light traffic as the main pathway will between two loveseats in the great room. There will be approx another 15-18" of unused carpet area that would be ajacent to the hardwood flooring too. Palimpseat...the sink will be centered (no window there now)....I guess, I was getting careless at the end of diagraming it out....much easier to fix on paper then when the hold is cut out :)