I vote for the full wall behind the bakers table. Nice sight lines from the seating area at the peninsula. I think it's OK not to have a landing counter next to your ovens since it's a quick turn and step to the counter next to the cooktop. But, given that that counter is also next to the door, I worry it will never be an available landing space, if you're anything like me :-). I'd go ahead and do the cab between the oven and the bakers wall without a counter, but hedge your bets and put one of those pull-out thingies (I have a pull-out cutting board in my kitchen), but a countertop instead of a cutting board. Then if one day you discover that your oven mitt has a thin spot you never noticed before, you can slide out the pull-out and make an emergency landing. Also, I slightly favor switching the sink and dw, and switching the baker's table and fridge, to tighten the work triangle. Although, I have a large triangle and it doesn't bother me. Just throwing it out there. I really like the boundaries you have to work in. the way the main corridor of your kitchen, for example, ends up being about 5.5 wide; that's really nice. Not too narrow, but not a football field either. Can't wait to see the lovely baker's table in its final home!

Thanks for the input! I havent really wanted the fridge along that wall because of how much space it takes up and how visually prominant it is, but DH has been thinking along those lines for a little while. I've been resistant partly I think because that's where it is currently, but I hate my current kitchen. It might end up feeling really different with the rest of the layout changes. I've been trying hard to get the corner cooktop to work because I love how they look, but we just might not be able to swing it. I don't think I'd like the oven being so far from a full counter, though, since that's not a great landing for hot things in that design. The island was supposed to have a prep sink, but that got cut when the island got narrower. Would that alter your feelings about functionality? The cooktop wall used to be shorter, with more openness to the deck. Now that we've made it longer anyway, it very well may be the better place for the stove. I hesitate, although lavender makes good suggestions, because that plan just seems to be a little less interesting. But I need function over form, as they say..... Prickly pear: the fridge is in that other location on some of the other options. What did you think of those?

I'm going to take this question as a philosophical one rather than a concrete one. :) THe thing is, we don't use our kitchens differently! At least, not that differently. :) Food comes into the kitchen, and gets stored. Dry storage and cold storage. For that, you consider the traffic path and any possible encumberances from the exterior all the way to the primary storage spot. Now, the amount of each type of storage can change based on family size and real estate available, but the need itself doesn't change. Then, food is removed from that storage, washed, and prepared for consumption. If all that's being prepared is box mac and cheese, then you don't need a lot of space to spread out the prep for that, but you still do need access to the measuring cups, pots and pans, and water. You'll always need some counter space and water during prep. And if you're doing Thanksgiving dinner, the more prep space the better. There's not really any such thing as too much prep space, as long as it includes access to water designated for that prep alone. This consumes the most time spent in a kitchen, and therefore should receive the lions's share of space. It's the only true work space, really. All other counter space is secondarily occupied if at all. Then comes applying the fire to the food. That can be a microwave heating a freezer dinner, or it can be standing and stirring a roux for 20 minutes while it reaches it's perfect brown color. Actually doing this step takes much less time than people think! Even if you do a lot of slow cooking sauces, if you've got the right tools to keep them at a simmer, you don't need but to periodically stir. After you've started to make a pile of dirty prep things, then comes stowing them away in the cleanup zone, or, if you've designed the kitchen correctly and have a partner, the partner can take the dirty prep items and be loading the DW with them while you are still chopping up a storm. That's what separating the prep and cleanup functions well can do for you. And it's not necessary to have that second source of water in a kitchen to do that, you just need to get over the idea of symmetry in a lot of cases and allocate the majority of space for the side that serves the prep. There have been many kitchens that have been designed here over the years that have done a good job of keeping the zones distinct and separate, yet compact, and minimizing outside intrusion into the high traffic areas while actually allocating enough space to those high use areas. That's all that good kitchen design IS, actually! Breezy's kitchen and Bee's kitchen both come to mind as being fairly close to "ideal" as far as the mythically perfectly designed kitchen. But reality is that no one designs the perfect kitchen and then designs the home around it! There are always tradeoffs. Money and space always come into play, and never in a good way! LOL! Even in homes that are being designed from scratch, bigger usually doesn't generate better. 50 steps between the prep sink and range is so much worse than having a step and pivot. It's like biology, when an organism reaches a certain size, the actual volume enclosed makes it so unwieldy that it's just not successful.

supermom.... thanks so much for the heads up. I'm right around Ft. Lauderdale but the door style won't work for me plus I want all drawers (where ever possible) for the lowers. It would be great to find something like that. I check craigslist daily and will start again with ebay. I know the chances of finding the door style I want in the configuration I need will be slim to none. But ones never knows.... I'm going to perfect a final drawing and then post. I'm going to need help to figure out what kind of lighting. Again... a little ahead of myself but if it took me this long to achieve a layout; who knows how long lighting will take! The electrical is one thing that we won't be doing any of the work on ourselves so I'd like to have as much as I can figured out so when we do have an electrician come in I can get a price for all the work at one time. You are all amazing! Thank you seems inadequate. Elyse