You are right to want to turn the island because it can use a prep sink on it, because the refrigerator is so far away from the sink. So instead of turning the corner for the fridge, don’t, and put the fridge on the same wall as the stove.

Like this:

Love the rest of the plan. Is that a beverage fridge by the butler’s sink?

Can you elaborate on what the home looks like now vs this plan? I assume there are some limitations. Verbo’s comment is brutal and I would ignore.

Here are plans of the existing house. It’s a 1928 California Spanish bungalow, originally probably around 1000 sq ft. The small room and bath on the back of the house were added later by a previous owner. It’s currently about 1250 sq ft.

There is a garage behind the house currently being converted into an ADU so we have limits on how far we can expand back and still have a nice sitting area. Also, there are total overall square footage limitations that we have pretty much maxed out. One more thing to consider is the kitchen ceiling is flat, since there will be a second floor above. The family room will be vaulted.

Taking all this into consideration, we determined it might be better to turn the island. It not only gives us enough room for everything we want to include, it also defines the space under the flat ceiling better. The island and kitchen window are both in line with the entry to the space to make the intentional design decision very clear. We put a lot of thought into the island placement. It would be nice to know if anyone else has this setup and how they feel about it.

A couple of personal things. I am not interested in an island sink since I want full access to the entire island top. My tall husband doesn’t want a drawer microwave. In the plan the microwave is just to the left of the fridge and moving the fridge to the same wall as the oven will reduce space for all the things we want for that corner (coffee maker, toaster, etc.). We like the idea of having the fridge and small appliances kind of off to the side so anyone cooking/cleaning doesn’t have to deal with as much traffic from other family members. I had a similar setup in a previous place and it worked well.

The main purpose of the butler’s pantry is to minimize the need for extra storage in the dining room. It does have a drink fridge, again to keep people out of the kitchen. We cannot expand out to the side of the house, so there’s not much we can do about the small dining room. We love our little bungalow and are fine with it not being as roomy as a modern house.

Two things I’m not a super fan of:

1. Door to bedroom wing which also makes it harder to get to bathroom

2. Laundry location is very not ideal right in middle of main living areas.

Lots I do like. I agree with switching island direction and like the open spaces.

The door to the bedroom wing is existing. It’s something I’m not a fan of, but it does come in handy more than it’s an issue. We struggled with where to put the laundry. It’s currently off the existing kitchen, so we had to find a place for it in the new design. The house is small and not too many steps to anywhere. The plan makes it seem (to me at least) bigger, but it really is quite the compact space. The entire house including upstairs (primary bedroom/bath, walk-in closet, and office loft) will only be around 2,500 sq ft total. The island is the only thing I’m still on the fence about. Turning the island around puts the edge of it in the middle of the entry into the room. I do think walking into the space with island and large box window centered in front of you is better. If we turn the island around, we also have to move the sink to the right so it’s not past the island.

I don’t like the kitchen/dining room arrangement. I would find it very aggravating. And they’re separated by a laundry room, of all things.

Plus the dining room is not very big as drawn, and the table and chairs sketched in there doesn’t look like it’s in scale with everything else. Especially since you need a pathway (the home’s major thoroughfare) on the left side.

Go back to the starting point with what exists now. Find a new architect. That addition is poorly thought out and is not worth the three hundred thousand or so that it is going to cost

Another idea to allow you to turn the island - move sink/windows over to make room for refrigerator. Put microwave etc to right of stove.
Consider rotating dining table (and plan windows accordingly. Because if the dining infringes on formal living, that’s not a big deal because you’ll probably spend most time in the new living area.

Oops, here’s pic

Also maybe shrink the laundry to allow a wider aisle in front of the beverage bar.

Let me understand this. To get to your dining room, you have to go on a long hike with hot foods and plates past your laundry room? Sorry but that's just poor.

And to get to the laundry you have to go through the dining room?

And then you're adding a pop up to what is probably a wonderful old house?

When I was looking for an older house, I saw too many remuddles like this. Instead I decided to build a new old house because it wasn't worth all the trouble trying to fix other peoples remuddles. And I adore old homes like yours. I would have loved to find one that was well done.

I’m not sure where everyone lives, but in a larger city with smaller lots these types of layouts are very common. The dining room is not that far from the kitchen and the butler’s pantry provides a staging area if needed. I’ve had the plans reviewed by local designers and not a single one is concerned about the dining room/kitchen placement. The placement of the island hasn’t raised any red flags either. I really just wanted to find out if anyone has a similar kitchen island setup and get some feedback.

You have our house! :) (Or a variation of it, at least.) We have thought a lot about additions over the years (and are just finishing up turning the office into a bathroom, since we have a closet where your second bathroom is--in our case those are original to the house, which was 1250 sf as built). I really like having a direct link between kitchen and dining room. I agree that I wouldn't put the laundry in between the two--can you push that to the back of the house instead? I would think about the kitchen in relation to both the family room and the dining room, but would want the butler's pantry and laundry room out of that mix to the extent possible. Do you need the door to the exterior out of the laundry? If not, maybe close that off, put the machines on that outside wall, and have the laundry room (closet?) be much shallower. Then you could flip the island 90 degrees, put the refrigerator on the outside wall as well, and widen the opening to the dining room so that the kitchen feels more connected to the dining room. I think it would still be better to move the laundry to the back of the house if possible, though (and if you have or are considering having kids, I'd think about whether it would be good to combine it with a mudroom and have a primary entry into the house there from wherever your new garage/parking will be). I think the dining room could be reconfigured in a way to create space for a sideboard to address storage, and then you'll have a lot of room in the kitchen and family room for additional storage if needed.

ETA: Also, I think you can push both the sink and its window towards the righthand wall with no negative impact on the aesthetics of the outside--and that would get your stove and sink closer together for a more functional prep space in between.

How tall is your husband? My 6'5" husband and 6'7" son both love our MW drawer. In fact, my husband has stated he never wants another counter or above counter MW.

If you want to keep the island bare, then there's no reason to rotate the island. Without a direct water source, it will not be functional as a Prep Zone. A direct water source is KEY to a successful Prep Zone. Your Prep Zone will be b/w the sink and range -- but it will really be too much. The range & sink will really be too far apart. Additionally, your island is now a barrier island -- it's a barrier b/w the Prep Zone and refrigerator.

My brother & sister in-law had a similar layout (barrier island, no sink in the island) and she hated it. The island was a pain to go around every time she needed to get to the refrigerator. She also found that without a sink, the island was useless for prepping. Her Kitchen wasn't as deep as yours, so when they remodeled, she removed the island (there wasn't enough depth to turn the island to face the range).

In a Kitchen the size of yours and with an appliance configuration like yours an island works best with the long side of the island facing the range and a prep sink in the island.

The Dining Room would be better located if it were to the left of the Kitchen. Does your architect work with a true Kitchen Designer? Architects are usually very good at designing for the flow of the home, as well as the overall interior & exterior structure, etc. They usually aren't very good Kitchen Designers, but they sometimes have a Kitchen Designer on staff. (There are exceptions, but by and large they aren't KDs.)

Just b/c everyone else does something one way, doesn't make it the best way. And keep in mind that many Kitchen Designers are really cabinet salespeople, they're not credentialed Kitchen Designers. In addition, many will give you what you want if you insist b/c they don't want to lose a client. No one on this site has a financial incentive in your project, so we can be honest with you.

So, I guess the question for you is -- what's more important to you -- function or looks? There's no right or wrong answer, just what's right for you. It sounds like looks. If looks are more important, then we probably won't be all that much help since most of us are function first. It's very easy to make a functional Kitchen look nice. It's difficult, if not impossible, to make a dysfunctional nice looking Kitchen functional without ripping it out and starting over.

Good luck with your project.

Just to let you know, the aisle measurements on your layout are incorrect. Aisles are measured to/from the items that stick out into the aisle the farthest -- counter overhangs, appliance doors/handles, etc. They are not measured to/from cabinets like it shows in your layout. The 24" depth is only the cabinet box. It does not include doors/drawer fronts, hardware, or the 1.5" counter overhang (the overhang is to protect the cabinet faces & doors/drawer fronts from spills).

A run of cabs/counter (with no appliances sticking out), therefore, is 25.5" deep, not 24" deep. Similarly, the island will have a 1.5" overhang extending out past the cabinets on all sides.

Taking into consideration all of the above, this means your aisles are at least 3" narrower than the labels. Most 48" ranges (I think that's what you show) are around 30" deep as are counter-depth refrigerators. True built-in refrigerators are often 27" deep. (I cannot tell if your refrigerator is counter-depth or a true built-in since the layout is blurry when zooming in.)

So, the aisle b/w the sink wall and island is really 45" (48" - 1.5" perimeter counter overhang - 1.5" island counter overhang = 45").

The aisle b/w the range and island is really around 40" (48" - 6" from range - 1.5" island counter overhang = 40.5")

I assume you have the minimum recommended 15" seating overhang (clear leg/knee space) for your island seats.

Buehl: This feedback has been helpful. I’m thinking about discussing a few more updates with my design contacts. My husband is 6’3” but can be a little finicky about the weirdest things but he can be persuaded. What microwave are you using in your island? We’re considering the monogram 5 in 1 ovens. I’m not sure how well the screens can be seen at counter depth, but I can do some research on that. We’re looking at 4ft built in fridge. I know the measurements are from the cabinet. The architect is just plugging in basic info so I can see how everything looks.
artemis78: It’s a common layout on these older homes. We can’t really move the laundry to the back, since that will get in the way of how the backyard is being designed. The room labeled laundry is actually a multi use pantry/storage area that has washer/dryer in it. The exit to the outside is absolutely necessary, since we do have to go to that side often and going around is very inconvenient. Looking at the current plan we might be able to widen the hallway a bit, which could help open things up. We don’t have a lot of storage since the garage, which is at the back of the property anyway, is being converted to an ADU. Everything has to find a place in what you see in the plan. The plan is actually inspired by a friend’s professionally designed high end home. She has a bit more space but the basic layout and distance from kitchen to dining area is similar.

The plan has poor spatial relationships. Having to walk through a butler's pantry to access different rooms other than the kitchen to the dining room, and there should be other access to those rooms, is poor design. It is a feature that makes it a "forever home", in that you will never be able to sell it for the price you want and be stuck with it.

Since it is a remodeling and not a new home, there are more factors we do not know than we do know. If you want something better, you may have to find a better local designer.

I agree with emilyam about moving the fridge, but you'll need to be able to open the door. You could make an entry from the laundry/pantry to the kitchen and put a shallow pantry on the kitchen side. Make the island deep enough to use a corner sink (not ideal, but better than no sink) with 36" prep on the side facing the range. The cabinets marked P could be used as pantry space or for other storage.

Eta, a couple of variations in the following plan. The MW is moved to the butler pantry--I thought about putting it in the upper to the right of the main sink, but that's just as far from the fridge. The shallow pantry could be changed to ROTS pantry and recessed into the laundry, but that would eliminate the pocket door. I really think you need the prep sink, but there is still a triangle with the main sink (green lines).

I live on a small infill city lot now. When I designed my house, I put the laundry in my hallway to my master suite for the reasons you state about it being a smaller footprint. My first house was on a 40 x 100 lot and very similar in layout to your actual house. I still stand by my comments.

What about a smaller laundry that is accessed by the bedroom wing.

The bathroom that is closest to the family room that bathroom can be a powder accessed in the family room. Not shower needed. Make the closet smaller and put the laundry stacked in there.

For an overall small house so much space is given to laundry at a cost to flow and usability. If laundry was out of the main area that could all be much more open and lovely and dining table could turn and there would be more space for foot traffic.

The Laundry Room is not a good place for pantry storage -- assuming you mean food storage. Food should be stored in a cool, dry, dark location -- the exact opposite of your Laundry Room.

• Window/door = light and, if in a climate with warm summers, heat
• Washer = moisture (a lot!)
• Dryer = heat & moisture (some even if vented to the outside)
• Exterior wall = heat in the summer (unless a fully-wooded lot and the sun never beats directly on that side of the house and your summers have mild temps)

Oh, and the same goes for putting a refrigerator or freezer or MW in your pantry -- all three generate heat and moisture.

A better location would be an interior room with no heat or moisture producing appliances -or- shallow (no deeper than 15" deep) pantry cabinets -or- narrow (no wider than 18") pullout pantry cabs (shelves attached to the door(s)).

What you can store in the Laundry Room is cleaning products & tools (brooms, etc.) or anything else that is not perishable.

CPArtist has a very good point about the location of the Laundry Room. It should be either near the master bedroom's closet (my preference) or near the children's bedrooms (but only if they're very, very young -- but they grow up quickly!) Probably 99% of your dirty laundry comes from and clean laundry returns to the bedrooms & bathrooms. Very few items go elsewhere (e.g., Kitchen linens or garage/work rags).

You might consider enclosing the Butler's Pantry and putting in shallow (12"D) pantry cabinets along one wall of it and maybe reduce the size of the Laundry Room to give you a bit more space in the Butler's Pantry. Put the washer & dryer on one wall and counter and hanging space (if desired) on the opposite wall. Or move the Laundry Room upstairs if that's going to be your Master Bedroom/Bathroom.

What is that in the Butler's Pantry? At first, I thought it was a sink, but now I don't think so.

I do have another suggestion...convert the downstairs bedrooms to a Master Suite + Laundry Room. Maybe have a room that can be used as an office/small guest bedroom/nursery (if needed) on the same floor. Then, instead of a Master Suite upstairs, include 2 bedrooms and an average size bathroom.

Having a first-floor Master Suite has two advantages:

1. Resale will be much easier (they're becoming more & more popular/required, probably b/c of the aging overall population) and
2. If this is your "forever" home, you will be able to age in place (I know, young people don't think about that, but just as children grow up, adults also all grow older!)

Before I saw your comment about no sink in the island & no MW drawer, I came up with the layouts below yesterday (Kitchen only). I went back & forth about posting them, but I decided to go ahead. Ignore them if you prefer, but at least they're an example of what you could do. The prep sink could be in an 18" wide sink base to gain 3 more inches of counter space.

The laundry seems pretty large for a small house. Would you be willing to to consider a laundry wall concealed behind doors? It looks like there might be some room near the shower and stairs for a stacked unit— you could turn the bar area into the laundry wall and move the bar along the shared wall with the kitchen. Or the laundry wall could go near the side entry. Both would open up the dining space more.

Buehl: Oh, wow! I really appreciate the advice. We had something more similar to you drawings previously. I might bring back some of the elements and (based on feedback here) am strongly considering a prep area on the island. I’m thinking of keeping the basic direction of the island and adding a more square seating area on the end. I do like the refrigerator on the same wall as the stove, but have concerns about being able to open the door completely (even with a tall cabinet to the right). We had a plan in which the door to the pantry/storage/laundry are was from the kitchen side. There were lots of pros and cons, but it definitely didn’t provide as much of the kind of storage I wanted with that layout. I feel like I can do a combination of what’s in the current plan, bring back some elements from previous plans, and incorporate suggestions from this post (thank you!).

We have a multi generational living situation. Husband and I are both around 50 (give or take). The goal is for my parents to occupy the two bedrooms downstairs (along with having primary use of the living/dining area), while my husband and I can have our own space upstairs and use the new great room for our day to day living area. There are no children, just teenage nieces and nephews who visit regularly. We will all likely use the island for daily meals and use the dining room when family/friends visit. Aging and stairs is definitely a concern, which is why we added a small bathroom to the second bedroom downstairs. I know the stairs could eventually become an issue, but I’m hoping that several years away. I know primary bedrooms downstairs are a thing in many other parts of the country, but even brand new construction all have them upstairs in our area.

On a side note, it’s a little strange to me how much controversy the laundry is causing. Because the house is smaller and narrow, we have to go through the dining area and kitchen now to get to our very cramped laundry area. It’s about the same number of steps, and none of us have ever found it to be an issue at all. The new plan actually eliminates the need to go through the kitchen to access laundry and cleaning supplies. Also, out current situation has our food storage in the same space as the laundry AND water heater, except it’s much smaller and more problematic as a multi use space. We’re trying very hard to keep as many of the original parts of the house and it’s charm intact. Without a totally gutting/tearing down of the original, we have to find creative ways to work around the existing limitations. It really feels as though there are some regional differences in house design, since nothing on this plan is at all out of the ordinary for our area. In fact, it incorporates many common design elements found in the area.

Lena it really sounds like you just like the plan as is and aren’t open to suggestions despite the title of the post. This is totally fine and I’ve been there in posts too. Sometimes posting helps you see what you really want and why. One word of quick advice is that just because something has been fine for awhile doesn’t mean a better option isn’t out there. This is a chance to improve aspects of the current house not continue with the status quo.

Flipping the laundry and dining

I would be concerned that your house is ADA friendly. Not sure that as you have it designed that it is. Have you considered working with an ADA specialist?

And for example, even counter height bar stools can become an issue for those who are getting up there in years. My Dad for example couldn't maneuver onto the counter height stools in his later years and for my Mom who developed Parkinson's disease, it would have been completely impossible.

Honestly, neither of those bathrooms downstairs will work for someone as they age. What if your Mom or Dad needs a walker? How will they maneuver in and out of either of those bathrooms?

And a tub? That's an accident waiting to happen.

My Mom got around fine with a walker in her later years (Parkinsons) but even the curb of the shower was like climbing Mt Everest for her.

I'm wondering if you'd be better off selling this house and finding one that will work better for you and your parents. Or finding a teardown and building something from scratch that will truly reflect your needs now and for the future.

If it's the character of the house you love, you can build in character. I know because I did it with my house. I love craftsman houses but couldn't find anything that would suit us since we say our age is retired. After looking for 2 years, we found an infill lot in our city and built a craftsman style house that works well for us now and into the future.

I like PPF's suggestion to flip the laundry and DR, but that puts the pantry storage too far from the kitchen (I have to walk through my DR to get to the bulk pantry, but I have a shallow pantry in the kitchen for more convenient access). Maybe including a tall pantry in the butler pantry area would work. I turned the island and included dish storage to keep helpers out of the prep zone:

These are all great suggestions. Some more things we needed to consider are that we didn’t want to change the original house too much so are focusing attention on incorporating the additions into the current design. The renovation is costly and we’re not cutting corners, but we are trying to minimize removal of walls whenever possible.

The living room has a barrel type ceiling that requires a beam transition to the lower/straight dining room ceiling (which is original and works well) to look right. This gives the dining room a very specific size and feel. DR was originally much smaller and the side was expanded out (in the 1950s by a previous owner) to extend as far to the side as the living room.

The living room and dining room spaces are fairly compact. We really need them to remain as open a possible. Also, the existing layout is very common in our area and messing with it too much risks making the space seem out of place. I know design trends are different in different regions, and we’ve consulted with local designers to make sure none of this ends up causing design issues for us.

The kitchen design is one of last items to finalize, and I had some reservations about the island placement. Based on suggestions here, I’m going back to our design contacts with some suggestions that I feel we can incorporate.

mamma goose: Yes, we’re definitely putting dishwasher and dish storage on the same side as the sink. We keep going back and forth with tall pantry in the kitchen and will probably incorporate something somewhere.

Spices, oils, seasoning, etc. (which we have a lot of and use very often) will need to be stored closer to the stove, so we have that to consider at the very least.

So I guess ADA is not a concern for you?

It’s not that easy to just take an existing house and change it to be ADA compliant? It’s hard to tell from the images what is being changed vs not. If the bathrooms aren’t changing nor is the living area then if it currently isn’t ADA compliant it won’t be after either!

If you turn the island it could be more square-ish to help fill the space between it and the family room.

Not every family has two strapping Salamanca twins to lift Tio Hector up stairs, or through doors, or physically carry them to the bathroom and personally attend to their needs.

Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding.

It’s not that easy to just take an existing house and change it to be ADA compliant? It’s hard to tell from the images what is being changed vs not. If the bathrooms aren’t changing nor is the living area then if it currently isn’t ADA compliant it won’t be after either!

No it's not which is why I suggested their best bet may be to find another house.

They are in their 50's which most likely puts the parents in their 70's or maybe even a little older. Their parents may still be in what we like to call their go-go years, but in the not too distant future, they may find their parents reaching the no-go years. And once one, or both parents reach the no-go years and if they need something like mechanical help (walker), then how will they maneuver around the house or the bathroom?

Then they will move or their in laws will. Not everyone wants to plan for what if. A friend of mine unexpectedly ended up in a motorized wheelchair, their house has tons of stairs and lots is no longer accessible to them. I asked what they thought and if they regretted their house and if they would move and they said right now no way, the house they bought worked when they bought it, they are adapting for now, will move later if they need to.

We are taking aging into consideration, but we are not designing around it completely. The original part of the house worked fine when my octogenarian father in law broke his hip during a 2 day visit and had to stay 2 months. My parents are still relatively active, and they have experience caring for aging relatives with accessibility issues. They are very involved in the decision making process, and I constantly remind to think of their future needs. We’ve also discussed limited in home care options if it becomes necessary. The house might not be ADA compliant, but our family should all be fine as it is planned.