The room behind the fridge is the stairs to the cellar. I don't see any way to expand into it. Huango - I've had several people suggest moving the range, but I haven't thought about moving the range AND the fridge. That has really given me a lot to think about! The one thing about moving the fridge to the spot that you suggested would be that one would be able to see the fridge from the living room and I am not sure that would be as ideal as seeing cabinets??? Also, I seem to suffer from inertia/fear of change. I am going to talk with the GC and KD about those moves. ideagirl - I do worry about the kitchen being too dark, but I also like the rich, craftsman look, so I don't think marble would be consistent with that. Also, I worry about staining marble. I still like the idea of soapstone. Maybe I could find a backsplash that would lighten things up a bit?? herbflavor - thanks for the suggestion on the microwave drawer, I will look into that. Thanks for all your help!

Wow, your dimensions are very similar to my house, although we have no basement and a prior owner did an addition off the back. The good news is that you can do a lot if you're prepared to utilize space from the dining room for the kitchen. There are (at least) 3 factors you need to think through carefully. One, opening up the wall between the kitchen and dining will make your kitchen visible from the front door. Not everyone likes that; for us, it was a perfectly reasonable compromise and I don't have a single regret. Either way, you want to think about the design with that perspective in mind. Even more important, you need to get the function right. Opening up the wall would give you 23 feet of length ... but it could mean a huge trek between the sink, range, fridge, trash if you don't plan carefully. Do you have a staircase to a second floor - does it run above your existing staircase? Finally, your budget looms large here. Opening up the wall was less exorbitant than I initially presumed, but in a small old house there are lots of costs I didn't initially anticipate. Your windows may need to be moved/resized among other things. I joined Gardenweb thinking we could just replace our existing layout and estimated it would cost about $15k. The eventual cost (including a heavy up, opening up the wall, and moving the gas and plumbing on a slab) was at least double that, and we'll add a bit more storage and counters in an upcoming addition/remodel. For us this made sense; we're here for the long haul and we still have one of the least expensive homes in our zip code. But YMMV. Finally, take a look at these two kitchen reveals that I remembered from wayyyy too much time on pre-Houzz Gardenweb. The first one looks larger than yours, but it's worth looking at since they did such a nice job of expanding without completely blowing out the wall separating the kitchen and dining: Cape house kitchen reno (So does this more recent one btw.) This one has a different layout than your kitchen but it shows how you can maximize every inch of a tiny kitchen if you plan carefully: beautiful small kitchen reveal I found this one when I was looking for the links to the others, another great example of what you can do with a very small space: tiny kitchen/dining reveal

Hi, I am designing/decorating my small dining area within my kitchen. I am thinking about doing window seating with a small farmhouse style table and 2 upholstered chairs on the opposite side. I am also thinking about changing the lighting to the one in the attached picture. Also, please let me know your thoughts on whether I should add a rug under the dining area? Any help or ideas will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

Have you already purchased the appliances? I would suggest getting a 24" dishwasher and 24" stove and putting them next to each other. Our neighbors in the islands have a 20" stove and it's small, whereas the 24" one I had in Europe was fine. 18" dishwashers are expensive. Put the fridge at the far left, making sure the door opens. You can then put a rolling cart under the window. You don't lose enough not having the cabinets turn the corner to justify blocking the window with the fridge. Use 42" uppers and run them all the way over to the fridge. That will make up for storage lost by eliminating that one lower.