You'll find that traversing more than 18' of length in your cabinetry area will become tiresome for a single cook. What to prioritize is a function of your lifestyle. If you are out shopping every week for groceries, then I would prioritize countertop space. If you live in a rural area and shop a couple of times a month and need to stock up, then I'd do more pantry space. Also, if you are part of a food co-op or something like that where you buy in bulk frequently, then you'll enjoy the pantry space. Most people don't ever regret expanding their countertop area if they have the chance.

That’s really great feedback, thanks! Our goal for any extension would be more storage type space. Extra bulk food, China, serving pieces. But a lot of your comments about why you need more counter space certainly applies to us as well!

If it were mine iI’d extend to about 19-20 ft. The last few feet(beyond peninsula shown) would be cut back in depth and probably run counter the whole way. I’d be sure and extend island ... the cut back in the wall cabinetry depth at this end of the run will Allow this. Your island expanded a bit and the dinette zone beyond ( a smaller airy zone ) is a nice combination. I wouldn’t worry about smaller feel of dinette ..., if u can get a couple more seating positions for island it will reward you. besides, reducing the depth on wall cabinetry will be an important adjustment and the dinette won’t really feel cramped or tight.

Thanks! When you say cut back in depth you mean make them less deep than the rest of the kitchen? What depths would you suggest?
Also- how long/deep do you suggest the island be? I would love a nice Long Island, but we are concerned because while the main part of the kitchen is open, there is an exterior wall on the other half (the breakfast area) and we don’t want it to feel too tight.

Thank you!

I think you need drawers.

if it were mine I’d put range and fridge on back wall and sink on island . You can walk around island on both ends without fridge on short wall. You have no windows so fridge on back wall isn’t a problem. ( no chance for windows?) 28 ft total length : 8ft island w 42 in walkway on the one end leaves 16 and a half feet for dinette . ......maybe a 10 ft island? I would. You don’t want tall storage cabinets . You want drawers in bigger island and everywhere else except at reduced depth part toward dinette. You want great counters / pretty tile and under cab lighting to illuminate since there is a void of windows . Glass doors on wall cabs is another feature you may want. Good luck w island kitchen once you rearrange a bit!

Thanks so much! The good news is that we have three large windows and the glass sliding doors in the breakfast after and large windows in the adjacent living and dining room.

W the windows in the adjacent areas do something visually in the kitchen rather than tall pantry cabs up against the wall. The idea is to keep the eyes moving around the whole open space : the visual appeal of counter , backsplash, glass doors and good lighting including pendants for island will be your fabulous counterpoint to the other areas which seem to contain your windows w light and view. You can get pantry features in cabs without so many linear feet of tall cabinets in your particular space.

I want to reiterate what @eld6161 wrote in case it was missed - replace those lower cabinets with drawers as much as you can.

Also, not what you asked, but I would try to work into the plan that the exhaust hood is 6" wider than the cooktop. That both makes the hood more effective, and provides a higher-end look. Also, those flat hoods never work as well as canopy-shaped hood with baffle filters.

I would have never thought of that with the hood- how do you account for that with cabinets next to it?

Many modern designs eliminate cabinetry directly around the hood to give more space there. On your question about island size, I'm not a kitchen designer, but I have read enough posts over the last year or so with my own renovation to see the repeated recommendation that a residential island need not be larger than 6 to 8 feet in most instances. That varies wildly in practice, I am sure, depending on how much space you have and what you intend to use the island for. Many people choose to limit island size to whatever countertop material they have chosen so that they are sure it will not exceed the dimensions of a single slab, thus avoiding a seam in the island countertop.

Back2work those are great tips! Regarding eliminating cabinetry- I’m used open to the idea but I’m having a hard time finding examples of people with some open shelving and some cabinets, designs seem to be very all or nothing. If you happen to have an inspiration photos I would love to see them!

It is not so much eliminating cabinetry around the hood and replacing with shelving as it is just leaving a little bit of space on either side of the hood. So, say your stove is 30". For best extraction, you want a hood 6" wider than your stove, so your hood is 36" wide. If you have wall cabinetry that for some reason exceeds a depth of 12" or 13" (specs differ per stove), your stove may call for that cabinetry to be 6" away from each side of the stove, so that gives you a gap of 3" from the end of the hood on one side (6" divided by 2) to the cabinetry. So, just place your cabinets 6" to each side of the stove, and you'll have a gap of 3" to the hood on each side. That would be the minimum layout, and you can always leave more empty space than that if you want. Here's an example from the BlueStar Cooking website:

@herbflavor- just wanted to follow up on your suggestion regarding cutting back on the wall cabinets to the end. What depth are you suggesting? Thanks!

well "the end" means the section extended into dinette..right? A relative has that situation at only 12 in deep...the cabinets below have doors hinged at sides with shelves, but really useful......she put coffee cups and misc. below ….you could do open bookcase shelves[no door] the 12 in deep counter had coffee pot [smaller one] fruit basket/basket for napkins/etc. yours would be near table....you can lay out things geared for mealtime being near dinette . don't think for a minute that 12 in deep isn't useful.....it is. Obviously figure out positions of appliances and bigger things on back wall first, and see how far you want to extend this ..but less depth means you can take it a little further if it's a help in the space.

Looking at your floor plan and the 3d mock up of the new space - I don't think you have enough room for the new plan. Given that the kitchen is 11' wide by 18' - you end up using quite a bit of the space for aisles / walkways. And the exterior corner makes a pinch point. Below is how I would envision the space working if it were re-arranged with an island - with ~4' aisles around the island.

I wouldn't extend full height cabinets into the breakfast room - I think they're too overbearing for the space. I agree with herbflavor to go half depth - I would space them so they look more like a buffet / console than a giant wall of pantry... but then I'm not 100% sure about your needs.

I just don't think that you have enough room to (a) have the fridge stay on the short wall and (b) have an island that extends more than like a foot.

Here is a floor plan based on the 3D mock up... on it in red is the current end of the peninsula - you can see that the new plan is proposing to have the island extend past that spot PLUS add a seat. If you have the 2D/overhead view of your proposed layout, that could help clear up some issues... but again, I don't think yo have the space.

@damiarain thank you! I have attached a partially updated design.

Is it weird to go from full to half depth cabinets? We decided to move the microwave and oven to next to the counter depth fridge so that will be a full 4’ and hopefully leaves us a little wiggle room on the long run. We are contemplating adding open countertop with legs into the breakfast area.

“how far should my kitchen cabinets go?”

As far as their little legs can carry them! Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Your revised plan looks more balanced than the original. Good work!

At 30", your island does not have enough overhang for comfortable seating; the NKBA recommends a minimum of 15" leg space at counter height. I'm not even sure you have space for the island, but the length needs to be reduced. Also I'd put the ovens on the back wall and the pantry to the right of the fridge. The oven will then have adjacent landing space, and the landing space for the fridge will be the island, or the counter beside the oven.

I put the DW to the right of the sink, to get it out of your prep space, and to put it closer to dish storage. With clean-up zone to the left of the sink, a helper can load or unload the DW, or gather dishes to set the table, without crossing your prep path.

Thanks mama goose. Why do you feel the island can’t go into the closed off part of the kitchen? Doesn’t 37” gives me plenty of walk space? If we do island seating we were planning to do it as a horizontal overhang with legs (parallel with the sink area). The overhang to make it 30” is for the sake of counter top space.
I really prefer the dw to the right of the sink for loading purposes, but I like your point about the helper unloading.

@eam44... I love it :)

Mamagoose- we were thinking about putting the oven there, but then if it’s open, it completely closes off entrance to the kitchen from that door.