I love the concept of your design! It really sounds so well thought out. The general layout reminds me of the HGTV dream home from this past year. It was a mountain view, but the idea was similar and if you have not seen it, you might enjoy taking a look. I have only two ideas to suggest. I, personally would need a trash pullout in the immediate vicinity of the dishwasher and main sink. I would not want to dribble across the floor to discard the stuff I wipe out of the sink drain basket. I am a little picky about smells, and am not sure about your other trash area being below the oven - bacteria grows quickly in warmth. Best of luck, and may your family have great joy in your new vacation get away kitchen.

Good Morning to all - lavender: We will be putting a double window on the dining room wall. There will be a second phase to the renovation as early as 3months from now. Since my husband, a couple friends, and myself are doing a large majority of the work we had the plans drafted in 2 phases. We wanted to finish the main living spaces get our c/o and move in (we had a limited timeframe on the condo we are using living in). All major structural work was done in this go-round to allow for easy addition of the family room located behind the refrigerator wall. The entire dining room wall 12.5' will be open into this room. For now there are just french doors to the back yard. So whether or not it was the right decision to break up the work.... its done as DH loves to remind me (I'm learning a lot and taking notes from our first time experience on a remodel this size. Next time I'm planning entire house around the kitchen!) . Back to the topic at hand, the dining room wall windows (for some reason) were submitted on the second permit. It would cost extra money to have the plans reviewed/changed. So, I'll be in a shadowy kitchen for a few months :( To make matters worse.I can't fit my little window either :( :( It will be VERY close to the new living room exterior wall. Too close. and it is limited by pluming on the other side. So no window actually in the kitchen. But, my new thoughts - maximize light coming from mudroom french door. If I don't put a full height cabinet (or large uppers) adjacent to the doorway (at the end of the refrigerator wall) light DOES filter in for a good portion of the day. Any ideas how to utilize that expanse of counter? What would you do on the wall? CPartist - I'm hoping to use the end of the peninsula for a grocery drop-zone. we'll see how it goes. I live with a side-by-side now and always find myself walking back and forth around the door anyway. I opted for a side by side because I thought that opining a smaller door would cause less of a traffic block in the walkway.... but now with the pantry there too. It will probably still create a bottleneck. I'm really starting to think that smart kitchen design is TRUELY and art! I bow to all who do it well!!! Rhome - I am a little sad to lose DH's drop zone but I can probably accomodate him (with some training, LOL) in the mudroom. And I removed the extra tall cabinet next to oven stack to cut down on tall elements. One more thing before I'm off to work - The full height cabinets: The one anchoring the end of the "U" is the oven/micro built in. On the straight wall there is pantry, refrigerator, and 15" broom closet. I considered getting rid of broom closet, but laundry room is quite a few steps away and there is not a logical space to put it in the mudroom. So It would be nice, but not necessary, to have a small spot for cleaning essentials in the kitchen.

What about a U shaped kitchen in the area where you currently have your table (in the original sketch above: walls B-->D). I think you would have just about 4 feet of clearance which would make it a compact but very usable space for one person. Sink looks out the window and range is one side, DW on the other (or keep it under the sink). Downside is that you have two corners in this plan but with super susans you could use the storage and the continuous counters are more useful than chopped up bits of counter all over the room. I do not know if you have a separate DR but the little table with 2 chairs looks a bit sad and lonely to me. I would add a big L shaped banquette and banish the chairs to the LR unless you have a lot of friends over. This would easily accommodate 4-6 people (more if you squish and add a leaf to the table) and also be a great place for you to relax with coffee and a Sunday newspaper. Table could be rectangular or oval depending on the length you want. This leaves room on Wall A for pantry storage/microwave/fridge. Puts fridge near table, which is convenient and the whole kitchen is compact enough that it is all in range. Or better yet: reverse pantry and fridge as you had it in your sketch. Good landing spot for things you take out of the fridge. This IS more expensive than leaving the water lines and gas lines where they are but since you are staying for a long time, it may be worth it to make it work for you.

I'm a DIYer and am all for customizing Ikea as long as it doesn't end up costing more. The ease of installation of the drawer system is one of the draws. Replacing the interior and fittings would drive the cost up tremendously especially since most want all drawer kitchens. If I were concerned with lost interior space in drawers I'd definitely price out a custom kitchen and compare costs to the Ikea kitchen with drawer modifications. Both trash/recycle hacks I posted above I did with all Ikea parts. I did not have to purchase an additional insert system. An island can be configured to many different depths without cutting down cabinets. Add a 9", 12", 15", etc to the sides of the 24" with the large panels on the long end and you can attain many different depths (33", 36", 39"... -not including counter overhang). Yes, if a person must have exactly 36" and back to back, you'd have to customize. All depends on how much you want to spend. I use the rail system for mounting, except for islands and special circumstances. The feet aren't for support but do make fine tuning the leveling quite easy. Also, the toekick snaps onto the feet. Sometime I use Ikea toekick, other times I use base moulding or a combination. The bottom line is to be careful with your labor and material quotes for the custom work if you aren't doing it yourself as it can drive the price of an Ikea kitchen up tremendously. With careful planning you'll be able to have the kitchen you want without too many expensive changes since you're trying to save money. The easy hacks I've done and see called for frequently that aren't widely known are the trash/recycle pullouts, pulling the fridge cab forward and using a larger side panel for full depth fridges, alternate ideas for microwave spaces, installing a non-Ikea farm sink, adding drawers to pullouts and pantries beyond their suggested configs, and using kitchen cabs in other spaces. Buehl's FAQ thread is a compilation of these and many others.