Sorry, I haven't been following. Is that your DW at the top of the range run across from the sink? Why did you put it there? Seems like an odd spot to me.

As far as the kitchen you show, it's kind of dark and dank for my taste. I'm sure they "sanitized" the look for sale though. Your laminate would bring some loge into it.

I've always loved the look of that faucet shown. I know I want a pulldown rather than a pullout, but that one tempts me every time I see it.

Yes, we put the DW there because we weren't sure if it would fit in the island. And it wouldn't with the sink centered, but with the sink offset like in those pics we could do it. I figured in the other location it wouldn't be too bad since when it is open it would be quite close to the sink, and would be directly below where the plates and glasses would go.

We are also going with a pull-down faucet.

And yes, we plan to bring in color with the counter-top and backsplash.

Very austere and one dimensional. I see only dark and stainless steel. That's it, nothing more.

I see. I wouldn't worry about centering the sink on the island. To me, having the DW next to the sink would far outweigh any symmetry issue.

I like it, and I painted my kitchen celery green. The kitchen here is a little gloomy but I'm going to fault the photographer (sorry!) and the decorator. It's naked, but should dress up well.

Yes please put your dishwasher back where it belongs.

And OMG I CAN SEE YOUR TOILET FROM THE BATHROOM DOOR! :) I'm teasing. I remember the potty discussion. And I still like to be able to find the toilet immediately.

I assume that's supposed to be 2'6" from the fridge to the island and not 1'6"? Even at 2'6", it seems a little tight. Can the fridge be recessed into that storage space a bit? (LOVE the storage area, by the way.)

Oh, I see the 1'6" is from a random point in the middle of the floor.

Definitely move the DW into the island next to the sink. Much better to cross the aisle with clean, dry dishes than with wet and dirty ones -- especially if you are thinking about wood floors.

fori -> No need to apologize. The pictures are not mine, they are pulled from a real-estate site in a nearby city. I'm assuming with the right counter-top and a nice backsplash it would look much better.

mcmjilly -> If I remember right, the 1'6" would be the remaining isle with the fridge doors open 90 degrees.
Thought about pushing the fridge back if it makes sense, just need to figure out how we are getting our little freezer in that storage room.

the look has it's positives. Could the island contrast in some way..lighter maple or cherry, or a painted look?

I don't think I'd like having the sink and range back-to-back, as in the kitchen shown. If you move your sink to accommodate the DW in the island (a good idea), be sure that the sink and range are still enough offset so that people can comfortably work at both at the same time.

I love galley layouts. I agree that the DW should be moved back but the only problem with scooting the sink over might be butt banging with someone who is at the range.

Agree with mnerg. A lot of space is wasted to end up with a butt-to-butt kitchen.

Can't tell if it's just the pics, but this certainly shows the importance of finish quality in a semi-minimalist kitchen. Those cabs in the photo look cheap, and they really stand out because there's nothing else to look at.

With the dishwasher move, I like the layout of your house a lot.

I like the color of the cabinets, and dark floors, but in general, am not a fan of them together. I am sure there is a nice way to do them so you still have some contrast, I am just not an expert. I'd consider doing a medium brown floor if you do expresso cabinets if you still want a dark look. It's still a dark floor in contrast in the rest of the house, but might keep your floors and cabinets from running together.

I'd also go creamier tones versus white on the counters. I have learned a lot about color from Maria Killam's blog (not affiliated, just a reader:)

Here is a link that might be useful: Colour Me Happy

If you've seen my kitchen you know I love the contrast of dark cabinets with light countertops! But paired with dark floors it's too much for me. These pics make the open concept kitchen (which should look bright and open, no?) look cave-like and heavy. Maybe it would look better in a kitchen with loads more natural light. Can't tell from your plans whether you have that.

mnerg -> Very good point. If we go with a layout like this we will make sure we can offset the range far enough towards the corner so as not to cause a back-to-back issue with the sink.

As for the dark on dark, we need to keep thinking about that. I suppose the issue is that my wife really likes the dark maple floors we found, and I'm still leaning away from doing painted white cabinets (something about covering up nice maple with white paint). We have a hard time visualizing the end results, but I thought that the above kitchen with nice counter-tops and backsplash (add some color) may look nice in a open concept area.
What I need to do is see if our cabinet maker can make us a sample door with a dark stain so we can compare it directly to our chosen floor.
I do have another flooring choice that I like (a bit lighter maple) as a back-up plan if we really want to do the dark cabs and they don't go with the really dark floor.

Here is an idea to optimize a few things all at once.
I'll assume you have drawers and only drawers in all base cabinets.

Put the door to the storage area in the corner of the kitchen.
This makes the corner into a drawer base.
(if that drawer is open, someone can enter the storage area by sliding past an open drawer, but so what, as this won't happen often. An open drawer is usually about 5 - 10 inches open. Fully open, it is 20 inches out from the countertop).

Slide the fridge over, next to the coat closet (the one with bifold doors facing the hallway.)
Place a finishing panel between the fridge and the counter.
Build no wall behind the fridge.
This gives the fridge cooling circuits a lot more breathing room.
It also allows the storage area to breathe a bit.
It allows you to slide the fridge a little bit more into the boxed-in space or to slide it out more, depending on what suits your preference as you live in your space and see what you like. Currently, your fridge creates a pinch point but you may really like that, for some reason.

Around the coat closet you can build thin walls. Noise is not a concern so thicker walls serve no purpose and consume space for no reason except for one reason: that they are what the average builder builds on an average day so it let the builder keep on doing what he always does.

All in all you will have increased
your countertop space next to the fridge
your countertop space on the long wall
your aisle in front of the fridge
your useable drawer bases
your storage area
the useable layout of your storage area

This makes several "increases", and they are all improvements.
All achieved by making one layout change and by building things with lighter thinner materials.

It allows you to make the standalone piece of countertop next to the fridge be as "deep" as you might wish for, or even be selfstanding, unfitted, furniture. On this piece of counter you might want to give a permanent home to the toaster, toaster oven, etc. , so if it's extra deep that will suit those small countertop appliances.

I'll comment on the color combination too: I'm confident it suits the rest of the house and your lifestyle. You could also have a natural ash or maple look, almost bleached wood, and it would allow people to have more light in this windowless corner kitchen.

The DW is fine at that end of the kitchen, on one side of the aisle or the other. In the island it is less visible from almost all viewing angles. How you manage to take things out the of DW and put them away is a workflow study, beyond the scope of my analysis at this point in time. If I had your house, I would install two single dishDrawer DW's, and not side by side.

The sink as shown is perhaps the only double sink that the software allowed you to simulate. In real life you will probably go for one big bowl and one small one, if you want 2 sinks. Deep single sinks are now replacing double and triple sinks in more and more homes.

Hth

In general I really like the kitchen layout (and the house layout in general). While I'm not impressed with the photography in the house listing, I actually really like the kitchen.

I too would put the dishwasher in the island where it belongs, even if it means placing the sink asymmetrically or even extending the kitchen a little further into the dining area.

One idea might be to make the island area just for cleanup and put a small prep sink on the end of the cabinet run where the dishwasher is currently drawn or alternatively in the corner between the range and the fridge. I personally love prepping right next to my range since I'm often prepping things that are going right into a pot. Regardless, I think your layout looks great.

[Curmudgeon mode on] Interesting to see what rings people's chimes. In this case, the kitchen you posted has left me cold--I immediately want to violate the consistency of the style and color scheme and drag in something that has a historical connotation and some colors and some certifiable art and natural light and ... well, you get my point. At first I thought these were computer-generated images from visualizer software.

Sorry to intrude with my very different taste. If this room is indicative of your muse, you're in a good position to carry it out with your own plan and I bet you can do it even better. [Back to your regularly scheduled thread.]

I very much like the dark cabinets harmonizing with the dark cabinets. Both for themselves and for what they do for the space overall. There's a great deal of contrast higher up, so IMO more at the floor is not needed; and in a place that'll be filled with a great deal of living, and all that comes with it, the calm of that basic harmony will do a great deal to keep the whole picture looking good.

davidro1 -> Thanks for the post. When you say to put the door in the corner, do you mean like the kitchen pictured above? If so, I had a layout drawn very similar to what you are referring:

Just ignore the island...that was the first idea. I can't remember exactly why we changed the layout...I'm thinking because of a comment on my other post. Going by my drawing though, it looks like we are actually getting less counter space and cabinets.

As for not building a wall behind the fridge, I would never have thought of that. Would there not be enough room around the edge to see through into the storage area if you looked closely, or do you build the opening such that the fridge just fits? I suppose then the water and power for the fridge would come from inside the storage room wall.

Everyone else, thanks for your comments.

In your top layout, to save space, your storage door could be a false pantry cupboard, giving you a "secret" pantry.
{{gwi:1804509}}

I do prefer your backup floor--see how good the backup floor looks with the darker one (cabinet color)?

Colorwise, I think that the sample kitchen could use a throw rug and a cookie jar and a cat dish and some fruit and suddenly it doesn't look like a vacant house anymore.

no to the post on Thursday.

yttocs3, your OP diagram shows a 10'2" dimension of countertop front. Extend it another 24" or 26" ( = 12'2" to 12'4" total ). Not the same as the corner you drew previously and posted on Thursday.