My kitchen has 16 inches to the right of the cooktop, and I consider it almost useless. Only good for setting seasonings or chopped herbs on. I have 20 inches of usable space to the left which is my main landing/ingredient area. You can click the link under for more pics if needed.

Here is a link that might be useful: kitchen pics

How about moving the entry to the pantry to the other wall and put it in the middle. May have to do narrower depth on shelves inside, but you'd get 12' of storage that way and could do some shallow at the end too.

If you moved the dishwasher so it was between the sink and the ovens rather than the sink and the cooktop, you'd get two benefits:

(1) More flexibility in where you place the cooktop--in other words you could move it closer to the sink, giving you more room to the right of the cooktop while still having plenty to the left. With the DW where it is in your drawing, you can't get more room to the right of the cooktop unless you're willing to make things asymmetrical (i.e. put the cooktop closer to the DW than to the fridge/freezer). That would look weird, like the cooktop and DW are bunched up together. But if you move the DW to the other side of the sink, you can put the cooktop anywhere you want along that run and it will look good.

(2) More room for someone to help you in the kitchen: they could be loading or unloading dishes while you're cooking, WITHOUT being in your way (you don't want anyone but yourself between the cooktop and sink when you're cooking).

Many thanks for all your good suggestions. We are talking to the architect about moving the dishwasher to the left of the corner sink, as suggested by ideagirl2, perhaps by shifting the whole pantry "up" a bit - making the countertop run that includes the ovens just a bit - 8" - 12" - longer. We'll see! I agree that more room is needed to the right of the cooktop. At least 20" as kiko has mentioned. And, Iyfia, moving the pantry door is a good idea, but my husband wants a flat screen TV on that wall. I may not win that one! Keep the great ideas coming!

Another idea to soften the corners of the pantry is to plan on a diagonal entrance on the SW corner (in the sense of the drawing.) You lose a bit of space, but I think easier access might be worth it.

Corner pantries ebb and flow in popularity on this form. Some people loathe them, some adore them. I think it varies largely due to how much they block the space. You could have almost as much shelf space if you just bent the cabs around the L of the wall (this would be around the NE corner (drawing-wize). You'd lose the enclosure to hide stuff, but do your relly want to be planning a jumble space/ dump area in your new kitch?

By avoiding the walled-in-ness of the corner pantry you'd gain very valuable circulation space and visual breathing room in your plan. Yes freestanding, matching cabs are probably a bit more expensive than just shelves hiding in the pantry hole. You also could probably economize by making the cabs in this area different, cheaper, with less expensive counter and backplash.

And speaking as someone who is, er, at a certain age, and planning to live in my house forever. The walled-in pantry creates a mobility barrier if one needed to use a wheel chair or walker at some far, far, far away point in the distant, unimaginable future. Building accessibilty in now means less angst, untimely expense and disruption, in the whenever.
'Nuff said.

(I am someone with a corner pantry in my plan who is noodling about changing it to an ell-shaped array of cabs for exactly this reason. Wheel chairs need 4 to 5 feet circles to move around.)

HTH

L.

Hollysprings, you are my new hero and have generously given much food for thought. Part of the reason for titanic pantry is that we have always used that space for feeding dogs (Irish wolfhound and German shepherd) and so required LOTS of real estate for that. With the new build, I am campaigning for moving all dog-related activities to the mudroom, and therefore could very well have a step-in rather than a walk in space. I like your range idea, but I cook in front of a range at our lake place and it's WAY too hot for me to have oven going and be using the burners as well. I initially had fridge and freezer split, with freezer actually inside the giant pantry, but hub wants ice and water near the eating space. Compromise was putting Subzero freezer drawers with ice maker in the island to the left of sink, then where does the micro drawer land? Thanks for your time and effort -- I appreciate it very much!

Do you have good ventilation at the lake? If you have a decent range hood, you should be able to use cooktop and oven comfortably.

Annkh, I do have good ventilation, an enormous 42" hood, that works very well, but I also live in "hot flash land!" For several reasons I have had this issue for 10 years, and probably have another 10 to go, so a range is one thing that sets me off every time!