How would you arrange this kitchen?

[buppy]

The entire house only exists on paper right now so anything goes! We are closing the pass through. We think the pantry is too big and there's no microwave. Each counter slab is about 2.5ft and each wall of
the pantry is 4ft. No pressure but I kinda told DH you ladies would know exactly what to do. TIA

[housegeek]

It looks ok to me, we have a walk in 4x4 with the angle pantry and loooove it

[puglady]

I would close the door From the hallway to the kitchen, doesn't seem to serve a purpose since you can walk a few feet to the right and be in the kitchen, and you would gain counter space. Also would not have the sink and dishwasher in island. Maybe it's just me but sometimes dishes gather at the sink despite my best efforts and it would drive me nuts to see that on my island. I would move the sink to the stove top and the stove top to the island, with a microwave drawer in the island. Personally I don't think there is such a thing as a pantry that is too big.

[housegeek]

Stove on the island might be kinda scary if there are kids though, can't really sit there. And then you'd also have to have a hanging overhead vent thing right?

[munkii]

If you're good on the amount of total counter space they've given you, the only thing I would do is move the double ovens down by the pantry and bump everything else down. However, I think they're shorting you on counter space, and, in general, this isn't the greatest design. The pantry, though, is not too big!

[new2this2]

I personally don't mind the dishwasher and sink on the island. I think it works and it doesn't bug me. I ditto closing off the door to the walkway. It will give you so much more counter space.

[InBetweenDays]

The distance between the island/sink and the stove seems huge. Is it 6'? I'd probably move it over a foot or so and then have more room on the other side of the island for stools. But I prefer to have a more narrow walkway to make sort of a tighter work triangle.

I'd also want more counter/prep space and more cabinets. Right now the countertops and cabinets are very disjointed with the placement of the pantry and door to the hallway. Like the others, I'd close off that doorway to the hallway.

[SusanBAnthony]

I would want the island open as a large workspace, so I would close the door and move the sink and dishwasher over to that counter. I wouldn't want a stovetop on the island with kids.

[boiler717]

I think the double ovens are there to make a symmetrical design with the fridge, I almost always see them on the ends of stuff in new construction. They probably don't have a microwave because you will either get an over the stove top microwave with vent OR a convenction microwave + oven instead of a double oven. I highly recommend just having them build a shelf in your pantry for a microwave instead and doing double ovens and a pretty hood. Your pantry is not too big, I think ours is 8x8 and it is full and there is just 2 of us!

I would:
- Move the double ovens down a few more feet to give you more counter space between by the stove top
- close the walk way and move the sink/dishwaser over there
- increase the size of the island and make sure you have deep drawers on it

[TBM]

May 20, 2013 6:18:47 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

I would want the island open as a large workspace, so I would close the door and move the sink and dishwasher over to that counter. I wouldn't want a stovetop on the island with kids.

I like this idea. I think it solves the lack of a workspace convenient to the appliances and the sink issue.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using proboards

[FoxInFiji]

I'm not a fan of floating appliances like your fridge or appliances on the end like your ovens are. I like to have counter space around both. The little bit of counter space between the stove and ovens would not be enough for me. What if you have more than one hot pan? If you're taking a bunch of stuff out of the fridge do you really want the only available counter space be 4' behind you?

I would rather have more counter space than a big pantry like you have shown. I'm also not a fan of how corner pantries like that break up a kitchen. They make the space feel smaller and more closed in. We took the same approach in our master bathroom...instead of putting in a linen closet we have a base cabinet with upper cabinet that sits on the quartz countertop and it makes the whole room feel a lot bigger. Upper and lower cabinets with countertop or lower cabinets with an appliance garage/uppers that sit on the countertop would make the space feel more open and unify the two sides of the kitchen.

[emjacobs]

Let me know if this doesn't make sense and I'll draw it out. 

There are a few things that really bother / confuse me about this kitchen, one of those is the lack of a work triangle, the ovens and the fridge were both abandoned to the edges. 

So starting at the corner that the fridge is at and working around, move the fridge over, close the door to the hall off and extend the wall between the family room and kitchen slightly.  Make this spot your pantry. Move the double oven to the corner on an angle, extend the cabinets and countertop on both sides (I'm sure the double oven is skinnier than the pantry) where the pantry was up to the fridge.  This gives you plenty of counterspace behind you and to the right as you are getting things out of the fridge.  Turn the corner, move the cook top down left about a foot, this will give you a little more room on either side to move things, prep, etc without being crowded.  Since you will have a lot more counterspace with the double oven being where the pantry is you will have plenty of room for setting pans. 

Island: Switch the DW and the sink, I don't know about you and your family, but T and I are righthanded and it is much easier to load the dishwasher that is to the right of the sink than it is to load T's grandmothers that is to the left.  Doing this will also open up some counter space to put things out of the fridge or the oven. 

Above the double oven: Cabinet with vertical storage for cookie sheets, baking pans, and pizza stones. These are always hard to store. 

Between the double oven and the fridge: Make this your small daily appliance location.  Mount the microwave on a shelf and put your coffee maker, keurig, toaster, whatever right here.  It's easy to get things from the fridge / freezer and toss them in the microwave, easy to keep things contained.  I don't know if you have kids but once you have teenagers it is a nice contained spot for them to make a snack and not leave crap all over the place. 

Trash cans: Get the ones that are built into the cabinets as a slide out, they are great.  Get two single can ones, put one in the base cabinet under the microwave and the other to the right of the stove. This makes it easy to toss prep trash and coffee / fridge trash. 

That was a lot longer than I intended. 

[Deleted]

I think this is how I'd do it. FYI, I'm not a fan of anything in a corner. I did not remove the access to the hallway because of that, plus I like the light from the front window. I still like having a pantry though, so I adjusted the closet in one of the bedrooms. I did not put a door on the pantry though since I think the door type would be more of a personal preference and I'm not really sure what I would choose. I think all the options are fine (sliding, double doors, 2 single doors or accordion).

[buppy]

Thank you so much everyone! You hit on everything we do not like about it and there's lots of great ideas. The kitchen is the last major bit of planning for the house and I think we saved it for last because we just didn't know what to do with it but liked the overall way it fit with the rest of the house. This is a custom house so it's been a journey just to get to this point. Still a lot of details to take care of but we are getting there! I'm going to post the master shower in another thread after our meeting with the architect. We aren't quite sure where to put showerheads and bench.

Keep your ideas coming if you just haven't posted them yet. I'm all "ears".