you are willing to buy a counter depth,yet the wife wants a protruding black textured fridge.....different..... the main prep will be divided between island and corner to the right of sink. In the corner and at range, one's back will be to other people....so how much more significant is the standing at the sink?Less time is spent at sinks with great dishwashers anyway and you have an island available to pivot to in this plan.

Yes but my fridge is french door and counter depth, regular will not work in your layout and here is why- cabinet to cabinet I have 43.5 inches, counter to counter I have 41 inches, fridge to counter I have 37.75 inches, fridge handle to counter I have 35.25 inches, if you add on the extra inches for full depth it is just too tight.

herbflavor: Textured is 10x less maintenance with little kids running around, so yes, I'd buy a CD textured if I could. Good point about the less time at sink w/ a good dishwasher. Here's a side question, I guess--what qualifies as a good dishwasher? Are there any specs we're looking for? Here's the dishwasher were are planning on.

athomeinva: Thanks for providing your measurements. Actually I think we would have similar clearances as you, because while we've got 43" from cabinet to cabinet on the plan, we'll be moving the island to give 3'11" or 4'0" between the cabinets. In other words, we'll be adding 4 or 5 inches to the isle, which should make up for the difference between a CD and regular fridge, shouldn't it?

I have a black textured refrigerator and its greatt. Nothing shows.

As for DW, just bought a lower end bosch and love it.

With the island moving back then it should be ok, you will def like the larger aisle space near the sink and dishwasher as ours can get a bit tight. Can you mock up the setup to see how the depth of the fridge affects the sink to table view/ feel? It looks like you table will sit in a pretty central area (rather than towards the back wall as ours does) so I do not think that the deeper fridge would be much of an impediment on that view.

Also, for your reference, our fridge depth is listed as 30 1/8 inches deep to the handles, the cabinet portion is 25 inches which is a little deeper than what the depth minus doors is listed at. The standard depth should only add a bit more than 4 inches but you should check the specs on whichever fridge you choose.

Thanks athomeinva for the measurements. One of the fridges (25 cu ft) we are looking at has the following specs:
Overall Depth: 33 5/8"
Overall Depth without Door: 28"

So it looks like maybe this fridge is 3.5" deeper than yours? Good to hear you think your clearance works, so ours should be pretty similar.

Now, the big question I think is: do you ever notice the fridge placement being annoying for you? I've never been in a kitchen like this in person.

the maytag jetclean plus has the "autoclean"cycle which is a sensor cycle so the energy output is dependent on the staining and volume of load. Some machines have an econo cycle[I use that about 90%of time]..or a top rack only cycle..... You can in other words place in mixing bowls/utensils at the end of a prep stage..you will not overuse energy if the load is less than full and you just want to run those items at a particular point in your activity. It is a feature which makes Less standing and "doingdishes" at the sink. You can recess fridges back into walls a few inches..[ to your other discussion].

Overall I like the fridge placement, it is in a good location for getting out items and putting them on the island for cooking/prep and for refilling drinks, etc. from the eating area. We do not have a cabinet in between the fridge and dw so it is possible to bang our fridge door into the dw when it is cracked open, looks like you probably have enough space so that this will not be a concern. The biggest annoyance in our kitchen is when the kids come in to eat and want to use the kitchen sink to wash up, we just do not have enough room to be getting stuff ready around the island and pulling stuff out of the fridge when the kids are walking through. We have two other sinks close by so it is really more of an issue of getting the kids to use them without having to be reminded.

Yes. My B and SIL have their normal depth fridge in that position. And, it works fine! Great actually, as the kids only need to come that far into the kitchen to get their drinks!

Herbflavor, wow, thanks for the details!

As far as recessing into the wall, this is an exterior wall, so I don't think we could recess it much... it will be a 2x6 wall, so maybe we could do a header and make 2x4, but that wouldn't save much space?

Athomeinva and Kirkhall, thanks. This is making me feel a lot better about this. I was loosing sleep last night over it, which is pretty dumb.

Here's another side question: do we need to have a finished cabinet on the left side of the fridge? I like the idea of having the whole side to put magnets and such on, but I think it would look funny to have the back exposed. We may need it anyway to support the cabinet above the fridge? Thanks everyone, you are all making my day.

That's the flow in our current (non-remodeled) kitchen and I have no issue with it whatsoever. We also have a stubwall next to the fridge that extends out farther, which limits our view more. You're not really going to have much in that corner of the dining room (although we have our high chair there) and you stand away from the sink anyway. You should rest easy with this layout.

I would rather have a finished panel than having the side of the fridge exposed to the dining room.

Cam G, our kitchen has the fridge in that location, in a U. The sink is where your stove is, no island. The gap between the fridge and the wall is 1-1/2", and it might look funny - I'm used to it, so I can't really tell.

In our remodel, we're building a pantry to the left of the fridge (opening toward the dining room), and full-depth cabinets above, so the fridge will be enclosed on both sides. One of the reasons I'm excited about this is to eliminate the pictures and junk stuck to the side of the fridge, and going for a more "grown-up" look!

It looks to me like you have room to put a 12" floor-to-ceiling pantry to the left of the fridge - I plan to use mine for small appliance (like the crock pot) and food storage, and cookbooks.

Yep, I have a very similar lay-out w/full-depth french door fridge. We pulled the lowers out to provide 31" deep counters on that side so I'm not "tucked in" while prepping or doing the dishes. Love it!
It looks like you have the room to add a set of upper & lowers (maybe 18"-22" wide?) between the fridge & the slider. This makes a valuable landing space for the fridge that's away from the busy kitchen space and finishes-off the fridge cabinet nicely. Our space there is 24" wide & has become the "snack center".

Cam- This is not about the fridge...but can you put a bigger window, over the sink?

My mom has that size and it's the one thing that she might change about the kitchen, if she could. It's a little dark, even with the windows in the dining area (similar to yours). Would you have room for a 36" or even 42" window? It might mean losing a little upper cabinet space, but the extra light would be wonderful :)

LL--you and your windows and porches :)

That is a 36" window (3036 means 3'0 x 3'6", as I understand it). I've thought about that, I'll give it some more thought. Part of this is that I'm heavily modifying a builder's stock plan, and at some point I'm afraid they'll tell me "no more changes..." But I'll look. Thanks for the idea!

About the fridge...the one thing that bugs me about my mom's kitchen is that you can see the side of the fridge. It sticks out past the cabinets and she doesn't have any cabinetry on the dining room side.

This may not bother you (she like it and puts pictures of the grandkids there) but she also has a second area for the table, for holiday meals, etc.