Just a few comments ... We have a 100 year old farm house so the area we have to work with is what it is. The entry doorway will swing in toward wall with sink. The entry next to refrigerator goes into our dining room. The peninusla overlooks our den. I think we've decided not to do the pantry at the end of the run of cabinets. I'm not sure about the stacked cabients, we might eliminate thise too. We're going to extend the peninsula a bit so we can fit a 24" micrwoave drawer, 18" trash cabinet and 18" stack of drawers. The 24" dead zone at beginning of peninsula, we are thinking about doing a 24" cabinet accessible from the backside of peninsula. I'm not sure what we're going to do above that on the wall, as we will have a beam running over the peninsula from opening up a wall adjacent to our den. We will swap out some of the base cabients on the sink wall for drawer bases. Not sure about keeping the trash near the sink - I know it sounds crazy but I feel like we need trash near the sink and on the peninsula as that will probably be primary prep (husband is a chef, lots of prep happens). Cabinet storage is not a huge issue for us as we have a 4 X 12 pantry elsewhere, as well as cabinets going into the dining room. Would love your opinions. Thanks!

I think I would keep the pantry(s) cabinets but configure differently. Drawer unit under, tall shelves over. I took the top shelf of a tall cabinet and attached tray holders - it holds sheet pans, cooling racks, etc. The next shelf down holds taller baking pans, roasters, pie plate, etc. Those are thing I can pull out of the cabinet with fingertips. The cabinets with doors beside the ref, I might change to single door opening away from ref - because of clearances but also opening one door is better than having to open two.

Do more drawers. Let chef have a pot rack on the beam, or even immediately under the beam.

The other thing I might consider is closing up - just a foot - of the opening between ref and sink run. Then trade the pantry cabinet for a pair of 18" pantries - on on either side of the ref.

If you choose to do uppers in the sink-run near the door, seriously consider NOT running the cabinets down to the counter (those drawers are tiny) but do consider increasing the depth of all of those uppers to 15". Coffee pot, micro, and toaster gotta live someplace.

Non-layout thing, but hoods like that are difficult to keep clean. You're better off with a straight down. I'm also unsure about the wee flanking cabinets to the hood. Not a lotta storage for the cost + I wonder if it would feel better left open.

Best wishes to you both. Interested in the completed photos, no matter what you choose.

I agree with @bmorepanic's point about the cabinets meeting the counter, and ditching those. They would make you forego valuable counter space. And those little drawers are pretty useless. And when you open the lower drawer, you have to clear whatever may be on the counter in front of it in order to open the drawer. Who needs that.

Are these going to be framed or frameless cabinets? They look frameless from the renderings, which is a good thing, but I just wanted to make sure.

I am sorry @bmorepanic but I do not agree with your comment about the hood. I do not think that a chimney style hood is more difficult to clean. I do recommend to the OP that she makes sure her hood has baffle filters, not mesh filters. What do you mean by "a straight down" hood?

@Shannon_WI You're considering cleaning the inside of the hood, I'm thinking of the outside. The slanted sides collect all of the dust and any escaped grease - it's hard to fit yer hand into that space between the cabinet side and the hood - gunk will build up there over time. Not recommending this particular hood - I know nothing about them just using for the photo - the outsides go straight down.

https://futurofuturo.com/36-amalfi-wall-range-hood/

@bmorepanic I appreciate your comments greatly! We have gone back and forth about adding 12" to the refrigerator wall so we could do a larger pantry. We were thinking about doing a 36" but I love the idea of doing the two 18" instead. I also agree with your comments about one door vs. two doors on the pantry, great input. I was unsure about the stacked cabinets on the counter for the reasons stated, but the idea of bumping out to 15", if my cabinet maker has them, is a great one and not something I had even considered. We are not doing that range hood - may even consider doing open shelves but chef wants someplace to keep plethora of spices, so we may have to keep the cabinets.

@Shannon_WI the cabinets are frameless. :).

Thanks to you both for some great feedback.

I think I understand.