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To help us help you, it's better to post the pictures in the thread instead of linking to them. You might consider creating a post for each one that includes the picture and accompanying text.

Edited to add: I don't mean separate threads, I mean separate posts in this thread.

It would be very helpful if you would also post a fully-measured layout of the space without cabinets, etc. "Fully-measured" means a layout with the widths of each wall/window/door/doorway and the distances between each wall/window/door/doorway labeled. If something cannot be moved or changed, label it precisely on your layout (see post in sample at end).

Some comments/notes:

You're a household of 4 -- is that 2 adults + 2 children?

You say:

"In each layout where there is a peninsula, I’m showing 36”between peninsula and the opposite counter. Is that sufficient, given there’s no sink or stove on the peninsula?"

Is that counter-to-counter or cabinet-to-cabinet? If cab-to-cab, then you really have no more than 33", less in front of the range and refrigerator. Aisles are measured to/from the items sticking out into the aisle the farthest -- counter overhangs, appliance handles, etc. They are not measured to/from cabinets. The 24-inch depth of the cabinets only includes the cabinet boxes, not the doors/drawer fronts, etc. Counters overhang cabinets by approx 1.5" for a total depth of 25.5" (not 24"). Ranges stick out approx 3" beyond cabinet boxes. Counter-depth refrigerators stick out approx 6" (some 7" or more) beyond the cabinet boxes.

The space b/w the peninsula and table looks to be much less. You do not have room for seating at the peninsula with the table there.

Having such narrow aisles (even just 36") will mean a very tight workspace and, in time, may become an annoyance (if not frustration) -- especially if you have to stay once your children (I'm assuming children) hit their pre-teen size.

Are you sure you want a bedroom opening into the Living Room? That means very little privacy in that room.

Have you blocked out the Living Room in it's reduced size? The Dining Room?

Move your table to the new location and get some boxes to mock up the peninsula. Are you happy with the tight spaces?

In the fully-measured layout, include all the spaces involved in the remodel -- hall leading to the smaller bedroom, Linen Closet, Living Room, Dining Area, Kitchen.

Include trim in door measurements.

No matter which plan, I would change the swing of the entry door so guests enter your home facing the long hall wall to the master which can be decorated in a welcoming fashion with a slim floating shelf and art. OR, if it suits you better and there is room, a bench for removing/storing shoes and hooks for coats and bags. As for pantry space, you might try the idea below. I would not open that corner because I would want the fridge and pullout pantries in that area. Leave the sink/DW where they are, or move them further down the wall. It may make for easier loading/unloading if the DW is moved to the other side of the sink with a drawer for dishes storage next to the DW and therefore, not so far from the dining table. Then you can wrap an "L" of cabinetry all around the rest of the space, and make a nice induction range and hood the focal point opposite the kitchen door. Tuck a drawer microwave in the end of the "L" near the dining area where it will be welcome and will keep your work area clear of traffic wanting to make a snack in the micro. I like your "no uppers" idea. You'll gain lots of accessible storage that way.

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Do the condo CC&Rs allow you to add a washer and dryer to your unit. I would think that would be a huge value-add.

Hard for me to parse out all the different links and designs but here are some general thoughts as a person who lives in a 2 bed coop apartment in a big city and completely understands storage needs. I also get that you have to balance what you are spending because you don't always see it reflected in an increased sale price, so you need to be careful to not spend too much on structural changes.

1. No matter what your aesthetic, you are crazy to not have upper cabinets that go to the ceiling in a city kitchen. Make them sleek if you'd like, paint them the same color as the walls so they blend in - whatever helps you like the look. You are wasting serious storage space. When you live in an apartment and have enough cabinet space you no longer need to use your hallway closet as a pantry. I put so much stuff in my kitchen cabinets - cooler bags, shopping bags, bar glasses, extra paper towels, booze, china, and high up bags of snack food that I reach with tongs! As a result I can pack my coat closet with out of season coats and a million other things.

2. For resale I would not put the bedroom door opening into the living room. Everyone wants more privacy in a 2 bed apartment and having a door open into the living space really makes the whole apartment feel less private. I ruled out coops and condos on zillow simply based on the floor plans and how private the bedrooms felt.

3. Build closets in the hallway where the current entry to the living room is - in other words between the current fridge and the current linen closet. Have the entry to your kitchen/living space be where your current kitchen entry is. Widen that door way to whatever degree you can to have it be more inviting. You can then also put shelving or cabinetry or your hutch in the living room where your living room doorway was.

4. Open up your kitchen as much as possible while maintaining the electric box and post. Have the kitchen as an L, moving the fridge and stove to the edge of the space and demoing the space where they are now.

5. Use a dining table and forget the island. It will just be too crowded to have a dining table and island and you are clear that a table is right for your family. When you go to sell, if you feel it isn't the right look then put your table in storage and buy an inexpensive prefabbed island to stick in the space along with some stools.

My kitchen-dining-living is approximately 29x17, so I have a pretty good sense of the space you're dealing with. In my house I have a window and swinging door to the back patio. The sofa is in front of the window now - I've had it where you have yours drawn and it encroached on the dining area a bit too much so I recently moved things around. Food for thought on space planning.

I looked at your drawings and basically ended up with a similar plan. I would not use any corner cabinets, though. They're inefficient.

I started with creating a generously sized fridge niche in the post/panel corner and widening the entrance and then worked from there. The weirdness where your hutch is is meant to represent a small corner banquette with under-seat storage a pedestal table and two chairs.

Thanks @Buehl, good idea. I will post them as individual comments. I’ll also post a plan with detailed measurements, but it’ll take me some time to get to.

1 - Kitchen peninsula, new BR door, new closets and cabinetry in old hallway.

I think I like this most… but it entails more buildling. And there’s a bottleneck between the entry and the kitchen… the small bedroom’s path to the bathroom is a bit long… but it yields so much storage space! And the kitchen layout? Okay but the sink and stove are slightly squished? Not ideal for two people to work at once. This layout also works without the change at the bedroom door, and the wall of cabinets facing the hall instead of the dining room.

2- Kitchen Peninsula, with an entry closet in the old kitchen door.

I really like the entry closet this creates, without requiring more changes to the walls. I’m imagining a built-in storage bench at the base (for sitting/perching while taking shoes on/off). Then coat hooks at your back while seated, and shoe/umbrella/hat/mitten cubbies to your right. It’s all forced to stay shallow because the fridge needs space for the door to swing open. The path to the bathroom is improved, but the kitchen gets less storage and it’s a longer walk into the kitchen from the entry.

3 - Same as above, but with fridge/pantry on the left, and swapped bedroom door.

I like aspects of this, but is it terrible having the fridge tucked behind the peninsula, and harder to access? And you have to pass by the cooktop from the fridge to the sink. How bad is that? I do kind of like the half-deep counter to the left of the sink. Is it better to have a counter directly facing the peninsula? Or is it good to have them staggered like this? This way two people can work in the kitchen back to back and not bump into one another. Here, the new bedroom door doesn’t create as much storage space, so we would probably not bother with it.

4 - same as above but with fridge up on the right.

In this case I’m showing a 30” fridge, because there isn’t enough width for more and have an entry closet on the other side. And I’m showing standard depth to maintain fridge volume. Consequently the corner of wall needs to be left a bit deeper, which encroaches on the kitchen space, especially between the fridge and the peninsula. Nevertheless, I like how moving the fridge up on the right gives a lot more space to the stove and sink. Although overall kitchen storage is reduced compared to some other plans. Just one wide but shallow pantry next to the fridge. If I can find a left-handed microwave, it could go in the hard to use corner to the right of the pantry. I like that we get a spacious kitchen AND entry closet, without a lot of changing walls.

Edited for grammar.

5 - Island, with “L” opposite.

Another layout with staggered (not back to back) work spaces. A challenging dead corner. I don’t know about the kitchen counter just dying out on the left wall. I guess I could cap it off with a bookshelf? Or perhaps a built-in storage bench? Also the kitchen sink ends up for from it’s current location…a plumber will have to confirm if this is possible. And while it seems counter intuitive, even though you get two paths from the entry hall into the living and kitchen space, I feel like the island creates more of barrier to flow than the layouts with the peninsula and just one entrance from the hallway. Once again, I’m showing the bedroom door change, but for just a small gain, we may delete this part.

Edited for grammar.

I am dizzy from reading but the first step is to find out from the condo what you can and can't do. Usually moving plumbing and often electrical are not allowed . Same as removing walls that might house plumbing, HVAC many things . IMO get a nice round table put it at the end of the LR near the kitchen and use that eating space to enlarge the kitchen with as little demolition as possible. You will also need permission from the condo to have the work done in a timely fashion and during certrain hours of the day,Once you have the permission then get a good interior designer who has experience with kitchen design .

Here is my suggestion if it is of any use. I hate wasted space created with hallways so my idea may lead to rethinking some things. I kept the support beam and panel. I created a foyer closet. I moved the door to the spare room back to create enough room for a hallway to the master bedroom. This would get rid of the long unused hallway to the bedroom behind the bathrooms to create two storage rooms for those seldom used items. It would also create a walk in closet in the master bedroom. This would give you a nice "U" shaped kitchen which BTW is the most efficient.

Lorraine’s idea of moving the door to the primary bedroom is brilliant. What great storage! And it creates a nook in the bigger bedroom in case you need an office space or place for an exercise bike.

@Buehl: We're a household of 2 adults, one toddler (2.5years), and another expected next year.

Thanks for those details about cabinet and aisle measurement conventions. That will be very useful as we transition from sketches to detailed plans.

@decoenthusiaste: Thanks for your suggestions for the master hallway. Indeed, since it only provides access to the master suite, it doesn't see heavy traffic, and we can probably afford to shave off about 6" to a shallow shoe cabinet, shelf and/or coat hooks. I will have to see with the building strata if we're allowed to swap the swing of our front doors. They can be sticklers, so I suspect the answer will be no. Thanks also for your thoughts regarding accessibility. I'm all onboard with big drawers! Big fan.

@sheloveslayouts: Strata rules and bylaws, where we are Canada :) OMG, I wish! Sadly, no. And it's strictly enforced. Even portable mini washers are not allowed.

Your sofa is placed with it's back to the window, if I understood correctly? In our case, they're floor-to ceiling glass, and the sliding door is roughly 1ft to the left of centre, so there isn't enough space for our sofa on either side. We have considered turning it to face the exterior, and demarcating the separation of the future dining space and the living space... but our current sofa is a bit too long. We are not beholden to it though, and could buy a shorter, possibly sectional couch at some point. We also use a projector, not a TV, so facing a wall is preferable.

Thanks so much for taking the time to play with layouts for us. When the engineer eventually visits, we will ask if that section of wall next to the condo entry is movable. It may be, but may not be as simple as demolishing and relocating. Since the joists run perpendicular to that wall. But certainly that would be a great way to eliminate corner cabinets and create entry store at the same time.

@Kendrah: We are in a big city, but we're lucky that our place is over 1000sf, which is way bigger than average. That's one of the benefits of being in an older 3 storey woodframe.

1- haha, I hear you. Everything goes in the kitchen cabinets when you're pressed for space. Our last place had a far larger kitchen, so there was a section for car and bicycle maintenance, a section for party supplies, a staging area for thrift store donations, etc. It's not so much of an aesthetic preference, as much as it is because I hate working at a counter, sink or stove and having the bottom of a cabinet threateningly close to my face. I suppose it's a mild form of claustrophobia. But we very well may end up getting uppers, and may compromise by setting them a little higher.

2- thanks for your thoughts. Yes, we like the privacy of this master suite, in spite of how much space is lost to hallway in order to achieve it. It's pleasant. We've heard some parents say they appreciate that their child's bedroom was less private, for easier supervision. But you may be right that for resale, it's less attractive. Perhaps more attractive if they view the small bedroom as a home office?

3- Yes, in the first plan I'm showing storage in the livingroom entry, but indeed if the bedroom door doesn't change spots, those cabinets could be reversed to face the hallway. What we like about that option is the extra wall space in the living areas, which is always useful for art, furniture or hand stands. I'm not particularly a fan of how it encloses the hallway to the small bedroom. But life is full of compromise :)

4- L-kitchen: do you mean something like this layout (ignore the hallway/bedroom door configuration here):

It's definitely the most open option. Although for an L, I think I prefer this kitchen/dining arrangement:

(although it doesn't allow for any additional hallway closet)...and a peninsula can always be added later, if deemed profitable for resale. There's not a ton of counter space in an L, so you rely on the table to pitch in.

5- Yep, totally. What do you think of the two L layouts above? If we went with one of those, with the option to add an island or peninsula at a later date, how can these layouts be optimized? Thanks again for your thoughts!

@Patricia Colwell Consulting: Thanks for your thoughts! Yes, indeed our strata council is very clear that we need their permission for anything more than replacing fixtures. That said, they require us to submit designs in order to get permission, so that part has to be done the other way around. And my understanding is that as long as we are getting all the required permits from the city (for structural, electrical and plumbing), and are not impacting other units in the building, the strata is not meant to have any reason to reject us. In principle, at least :)

@DD: Thanks for your thoughts. My understanding from conversations from an engineer are that because we are on the ground floor, with parkade below us, we COULD change a lot of the plumbing fixture locations, even the toilet, but it's expensive to scan and drill into the slab, and way beyond our means and ambitions. But you're absolutely right that the lines supplying others must remain.

@Lorraine Leroux: Thanks Lorraine for your creative ideas! Coincidentally, my sister came up with the same scheme to move the small bedroom closet over, make a door to the master, and fill the hallway with closets. While I agree that the hallway feels like wasted space, it feels like a lot of new framing and cutting (into an important structural wall no less, between the two bedrooms) to achieve what is actually only a little bit more storage than what I've shown in option 1 (which fills the small bedroom hallway). Although your plan doesn't require a door onto the livingroom, which is nice. It's great thinking, but all in all, I think more work than we want to take on. What do you find efficient about a U-kitchen? Do you have ideas how to deal with the inaccessible corners created by a U?

@lmckuin: Thanks for chiming in! We currently have two home office desks set up against the windows, back to back on either side of the sliding door, which is a nice bright place to work, and leaves enough space for the bed away from the window on the left side of the bedroom. With the new door location, our bed would have to move toward the window, and then we wouldn't have space for the home office there. But you're right, there would be space some space toward the back. The wall between the two bedrooms is structural, and heavily insulated, because it was initially designed as a separate unit. It's currently very nice that hardly any noise travels between the bedrooms. Do you think putting a door there would spoil that feature? Are there fairly sound-proof doors? The other downside to this layout is that the small bedroom gets smaller, and yet in a couple of years it's going to house twice the amount of child :)

We started out with a standardish length sofa and quickly realized that was not optimal. A few years ago we found an apartment size sofa (I think 6 ft?) on Craigslist and its definitely a better fit for our space.

You may have considered this layout with a dining table butted up against the back of the sofa. Not a toddler friendly arrangement (they just want wide open space!) However, I think it's a clever small space solution.

@sheloveslayouts Yes, I like that configuration too, and I actually think it would work ok with our toddler. But it's the 0-1 year olds that I find are incompatible with it. We need clear sight lines to observe their flip flopping on the floor. So it'll be a couple of years before we try it.

1. I think "shelved closet" should be your linen closet, since your master has plenty of room for a dresser. Then "linen closet" can become a coat closet.

2. I think the dining room table should run the other direction. Then I'd actually *extend* the wall to the left of the range to allow for another landing spot. Then you extend the counter on the sink side to match, to have more cabinetry and more counter space.

3. Much as you want to "open up" your kitchen, you already have almost no kitchen and almost no storage, so I don't think you can afford to throw away uppers. You could open up between the uppers and the counter, to make more conversational and visual linkage, and/or use "shorter" uppers to widen that space a bit.

4. Then the stove and sink sides need to switch, which will allow venting of range top and safer connection to LR. You can keep the support corner closed in for a drying area that's hidden from guests.

This should be super budget-friendly while allowing you to achieve most of your goals. Remember that you need it to continue to be liveable for 4 people!

I like #5 best, but I find the scale of the kitchen vs dining room off — The kitchen is too big relative to the DR. Have you considered having the table and kitchen island integrated together?

Ok I played!

I cut back both walls at the kitchen entrance.

Hopefully that would be ok and not mess with the electrical panel

The wall on the fridge side needs to be cut back to allow the fridge door to fully open.

I made the kids bedroom a little smaller though. That was in order to fit a storage bench with cubbies or a normal closet in the hall.

@Buehl: did it! here’s the existing plan with detailed dimensions.

I apologize that isn’t more legible. Houzz seems to have downscaled the image.

Hi OP I will answer you question here about the efficiency of "U" Shaped kitchens.

They are the most efficient especially in small spaces as they create a great working triangle with each section of the "U" being an a separate wall. Corner cabinets these days are never unaccessible. There are pull out trays-lazy susans and easy reach cabinets that all utilize the corner more efficiently.

I have a peninsula in my kitchen were I created a visually hidden cabinet on my dining room side rather than a corner cabinet in the kitchen because of tights measurements on the run to house a sink and dishwasher. There are many ways to utilize corners efficiently.

Haven't had a chance to think about your L layouts. But will comment that I am claustrophobic so I totally get your concern about uppers. I had mine installed 2" above the typical height and got good undercabinet lighting. It helped a lot to reduce the claustrophobic feel. In our last kitchen, I stopped the uppers above the sink and put in a few shelves that were much more shallow than the cabinets. That was helpful too. In our current kitchen I couldn't afford to loose the space.

Former kitchen - higher cabinets, went to the ceiling, break with shelves, good lighting

Current kitchen - higher uppers that go to the ceiling but couldn't loose the space to put shelves above the sink. Did make one set of cabinets glass front, so that helped a bit.

I would agree on eliminating any scheme where Bed#2 door is moved to the Living wall. I certainly like the different opportunities that @Lorraine Leroux scheme allows for a Kitchen, Dining, peninsula, etc, and the storage space has increased exponentially.