I have most enjoyed having two couches at the dining table. Possibly you would too, who started the thread. My husband lifted both couches onto risers (elevated platforms the couches fit onto). We'd had one for years, it has carpet on it. The other he used eight inch wide pine boards for the top, it has resonance when you step up to sit down and also serves as a foot stool. One of the couches has no arms, its a VERY deep couch with no back cushion, and a feather pillow the size and curve of the entire length of the couch. Aproximately a 1980s couch. high end. The other is a mid century, deep, couch that tilts you back when you sit. claw foot. VERY heavy. 8 way hand tied extremely heavy springs. Three cushion. It sits on the thick pine board riser. I set that one into the dining room window so you can sit on it sideways and look out the window into the garden, or lean back into the morning sun filtering through the trees onto your shoulder. I have experimented first with a round, thick table top. it allowed great access getting in and out whether the couches were directly across from each other, or end to end along the sides of a square- with the round table floated in the center edge where the ends of the couches met. Then I found coversation worked so well, even doing work on laptops when we remained across from each other, and I am experimenting with an old library table top (on the same scrolled 1970s solid legs. I have a small TV with DVD player in a cabinet at the very end of the libary table at this point. Then there is room for drinks, laptops, serving food, eating sitting facing each other, lounging with friends & visitors. The test for useful ness : this holiday season this was a favorite gathering place of our visiting family & couples that liked to sit together. This fall it became a favorite eating nook in our home for us as a couple but the holiday visitors really proved it works.

Benje - thank you for your design(s) as well! Completely removing that door and moving to the family room is still an idea and if we go that route I do agree that it really has a great flow. It has no double wall oven though so that is our main concern with the design. Also a little concerned with storage space. I never feel like we are going to have enough!! Buehl - Thank you very much for your work on this! Sorry it took so long to get back to you all, we have an 8 month old so timing isn't always great! To answer all of your questions first: We are currently a young family of 3, my wife, myself, and our little 8 month old. We are planning on having one more child down the road a bit. I added a quick sketch of the first floor layout of the house which I have added to this post. Hopefully this will help everyone. If you need more measurements or identifying anything on my less than stellar drawing please just let me know. We don't have our fridge yet but it is going to be counter depth, not built in, most likely. That could change pending a few items but at this point we are going with counter depth and staying away from the ultra high end appliances. We were originally going to go with the subzero / wolf line but found that money better spent elsewhere. We do have a separate pantry area but it is in between the garage door opening and the powder room. It isn't ideal but we had none when we moved it so I made it the make-shift one for now. I think there is a good amount of opening (65") going into the family room so we wouldn't be opposed to closing up that half wall to the ceiling if it allowed for the island we really want. Worst case we could use that angled supp pantry you put in your KD and keep our old pantry the way we have it currently. The DR door could be moved down as far as I know. I am assuming you mean down as in away from the range. Obviously assuming that their wouldn't be any cabinets along that wall. Didn't open up the walls yet but assuming there isn't any duct work or plumbing over there. I don't NEED the 36" cooktop, it would be a nice to have as I prepare a wide variety of meals and always curse at my lack of space on the current 30" one. I could make do with a 30" though. I think the door staying in the kitchen is the best idea though, just making it a single door instead of the slider. We'll put an all glass door so we get a good amount of light in. We have no neighbors behind us so privacy isn't really an issue. Double wall oven is a must - we host most parties, holiday's, etc at our house and making a big meal without 2 ovens has really hurt us! Buehl - we LOVE your design with the large island. You removed the bar which will hurt but we understand if it's at the cost of the larger island we can always move the bar into the dining room. What are the overall dimensions of the island? I can't really make it out from the drawing. We would most likely bring that half wall to the ceiling and door wall to ceiling pantry there. My initial concern would be the storage space but if we get that full pantry over by the 1/2 wall, the spice rack, and the pots/pans under the cooktop I think it works GREAT.

We currently have the peninsula design you show and I hate it. It is SO cramped, only 4 ft across from the “arms” (width of sink base), there is limited work space and NO storage. Definitely a one person kitchen, and there are 4 of us who use it. Not totally clear on where your dining room is but ours is behind the stove wall. We are redoing the kitchen, taking the stove wall down to open the kitchen to the dining room and taking the kitchen into the eat in area for more space. We bought the house in May and I have never bought a kitchen table because I was determined to redo it and get a bigger kitchen. I don’t need a kitchen table 6 feet from my dining room table, I would much rather have more kitchen space. I didn’t want to do a huge kitchen remodel when we bought the house, I planned to just take out the peninsula and put in an island, but the kitchen is only 11’ wide so that won’t work. In the end we decided to bite the bullet and just redo it. The expanded kitchen and more open area will give us a much more usable space and also really bump up the resale in our area.

Good News Everyone!!! I solved all of our problems! I started a new discussion on this same subject- considering this one was a bit confusing. So if you still are interested in helping, by all means, go to the “Latest” page, click on “Latest in Discussions”, and search “Dining Room Early Spring Remodel/Re-Decorating 2.0” and you’ll see my brand new much better written/displayed discussion constructed based off of all of your request. If you already found it then great! If you want to find it just let me know and I’ll help. -Thx!