I'm also a plain jane cook and since it's only DH and I, we eat out A LOT. LOL. We also entertain a lot. My priorities are: getting as much storage space and countertop that I can in my small kitchen, having a pantry (be it small) by my refrig, having a double trash and DW on either side of my sink, having pots and pans drawers next to my stove, having my dishes close to my DW, having my glasses, mugs & coffee pot by my refrig, having a beverage refrig for entertaining, having a larger peninsula for buffets and/or bar setup, having 3 glass upper cabinets for my crystal, china and martini glasses, have drawers instead of lower doors with pullouts to make life easier and having my MW over my stove (I know it's not popular, but it works for me!) Hopefully having my new kitchen be warm and welcoming. Wow are you sorry you asked? Most of these things I've learned here! Thanks to all.
Barb

Pretty Plain Jane and generalized here, too, Mrs-Mjt. I've a whole lot of experience in how my passions and needs, as well as the possibilities for meeting them, have changed over the years, so I didn't even consider trying to create a current version of a perfect kitchen.

Except for keeping that damned cleanup area well away from my fun prep area. I've always wanted that. Other generalities I've *always wanted* were my priorities: Very sunny and lighthearted. Pretty views out. Direct access to the garden. Lots of counter/work space. Adequate-plus amount of storage.

Where and distance of any of it not SO important, same for lots of special details. We're empty nesters and I work at home and prefer to relax and entertain in the living room, so making a relaxed and relaxing kitchen nice to stroll about humming as I work, intead of knocking out meals before running out the door, keeping an eye on the kids, or serving canapes to a row of friends at the (nonexistent) bar, was my direction in design.

I did place my fridge on the less-convenient side of the kitchen because I didn't want its mass looming over my otherwise open sunny work counter and standing between me and whoever was at the table.

I just remembered another one about not being driven "bonkers"--My mostly very sweet husband becomes in charge, or thinks he is, of whichever household space he occupies and tends to regard me as an assistant (although he denies it); so, since he does most of the dishwashing, I made a nice wide sink at the cleanup area, wide enough for me to scoot in at the side to dump something in without requiring anything of him, and put the whole thing well out of both my primary and secondary prep areas. It means we have to walk farther to put the dishes away, but pays its way in serenity.

Oh, I dislike working facing a wall two feet away, so there's not even an inch of counter where I have to do that, and I made sure there was room for me to scooch by an open (undercounter) oven door so I could baste from both sides without walking around the island.

I had to have room for my helpers and I to work at once without tripping over each other. I wanted adequate workspace in the right places...No excess counter just for counter's sake and no competing for prime real estate when we're all working. And, hopefully, a place for everything and everything in its place. (It helps to map out what you'll need and where.)

My glasses and mugs are not that handy to the fridge or coffee pot. I don't mind carrying one glass or mug to get a beverage, but I would mind carrying a bunch of things too far from the dishwasher to put them away. It was a much higher priority to have the glassware, dishes, and mugs close to the dishwasher...So nice to just turn and put things away, since you have to grab so much of it only one or two items at a time.

My trash pullout is in my island across from the clean up sink, sideways across from the stove, and adjacent to my prep sink...Fairly handy to all 3, in that order. Because it's kind of around the island from one of the island work areas (where we do salad prep, make smoothies, and do baking projects), I'm going to add a trash receptacle and compost container in the cabinet under the prep sink.

A major priority is having trash and recycle pullouts in prep zone. I literally had to clean the floor everyday in the kitchen I just dismantled. Eliminating blind corners is important. After emptying out the cabinets and beginning demo we kept finding random things left in those corners. Old space had 6 blind corners(3 corners upper and lower) Future kitchen has none. Having an appliance garage on the wall end of the penninsula and frig towards the outside of the kitchen so DS can make himself breakfast w/o being in main part of kitchen. Having MW over my stove, not a popular choice, but you only have to have a child heat up silverware once to decide that all non toaster related cooking should be done by people tall enough to ride the big scary coasters. Additional pantry space specifically for baking and baking supplies, as my main walkin pantry is a few steps from main kitchen space. Getting rid of the upper cabinets on my peninsula - they blocked light and I could never see anyone on the other side. Larger peninsula for seating so I could talk to people who weren't in my space. OK this is already too long so I guess that's enough.

Thanks! Keep it coming! Does anyone know of a website that lists in question form what to plan for in each kitchen zones so you don't overlook the important things?

I want to be able to cook without walking across the kitchen to get ingredients or tools. I have two zones-- a clean-up zone and a cooking zone. Dishes/glassware will be stored in the clean-up zone; it will be a short walk to the refrigerator for a drink. I will probably have my coffemaker in my clean-up zone, as I have room for it there and it will be near the mugs.

Also, my kids really wanted a breakfast bar. I have made a counter-height bar for 2; if more are eating we will move to the table.

My top priorities were:

- Be able to prep and cook while helping younger DS with his homework and/or visiting with friends and family - so prep space and cooktop across from seating area.

- Protected work zone for prep and cooking. No reason for anyone else to need to come into my work zone while I'm in the crunch portion of meal prep time.

- Good work flow from fridge to sink and prep area to cooktop to table to dish sink.

- Adequate countertops and storage in key working areas, and not sacrificing important stuff for more storage or more countertops beyond the necessary.

I'm just in the dreaming stage and have a lot of storage in my kitchen but it's not as functional as it could be, so all of mine are specific to what I already have.

1) I want a deeper cabinet over the refrigerator very badly! I'm tall and I can't reach in there. I only keep things in there that can't break, like paper plates, and I still have to toss it in and slam the door shut. I'd like divided storage to keep baking sheets or trays there, and a panel to cover the side of the refrigerator (not as necessary). I also have a fairly useless narrow cabinet next to the stove.

2) My spice cabinet over the stove is also too high and far back. It has two racks on the inside cabinet door and I'm glad because I now know I'm not a fan of that; the top shelf is cut out to let it fit in and it's not worth the trade off for the 6-8 bottles of spice it fits. I like a lot of the spice pullouts I see here. I'd love to have all my spices and oils really convenient to my stove and much lower.

3.) I want the dishwasher next to the sink. For some reason I have a cabinet of drawers next to the sink - and when they put that in, they broke the runner on the bottom drawer so that it's fairly useless. I'd also like the dishwasher on the right side but that's impossible where the sink is now and since left-handed hubby does the dishes most of the time, I'd better keep quiet on this one!

4.)Stove on the outside wall so it can be properly vented. Of course that means moving the gas and cutting the ceiling on the finished part of the basement..so we'll see.

5) Undercabinet lighting. I think my current cabinets may be lower than many people's and it's very dark. I do almost all prep work on an island because I really can't see when I use the perimeter counters, so good lighting is a strong desire. This could include recessed lighting and I'd love to get rid of my old ugly flourescent fixtures, but the undercabinet lights will definitely be a priority!

6) I can't complain about storage but almost all the cabinets are on one wall, 18 1/2 feet long. Looks almost overwhelming to me, but especially silly are the two drawers over each 36 inch double doored cabinet. With the drawer unit, I've got at least 12 drawers. We keep our most used utensils in 2-3 drawers and the rest are all junk drawers of one sort or another. I feel like I have a lot of storage, but it's spread far apart and I need to figure out how to organize it better.

7) More seating. Currently don't have a kitchen table, just a breakfast bar that really can only sit two comfortably, three in a pinch.

8)Would love to open up the doorway to the dining room. Maybe not totally open but the doorway now is quite narrow. That would mean moving the stove and perhaps the refrigerator so I'm still visualizing my options...

9) one more - a frivolous one. I want a tv in my kitchen since I live in an older, closed floor plan type home. So I have to string up the cable...

That is a loaded question! There are so many priorities that we juggled around and I think everyone has to make compromises based on the size and footprint of their kitchen.

I love to cook, love to entertain, and also love to eat out. I also wanted room for style in the kitchen - not just cabinets everywhere and a utilitarian feel but places to display nice dishes. We spend a lot of time in our kitchen and the adjoining family room.

A kitchen designer did our layout thankfully, as I don't think we could have done it on our own. My main layout priorities are as follows, in no particular order (and some of this may not be relevant to you):
- As much uninterrupted countertop space as possible.
- Largest island as possible.
- Main sink under the window so I can gaze out of it.
- Refrigerator placed out of the way, so people can gaze into it without interfering with the cook. =)
- Glass cabinet to store everyday dishes for easy tablesetting, especialy to get guests/family members to help out
- Pretty display area - in our case it was open shelving
- Desk area for hubby as he's a computer nut, which is also in an "out of the way" spot as I wanted the kitchen to be the kitchen, not a library or work area.
- Ability to watch tv in family room while I'm doing boring prep work at the island.
- Organized spaces as I am ultra-organized - For example, large-ish pantry cabinet, drawers for cutlery and knives on island, pot drawers under cooktop, etc.

Not sure if this was what you were looking for?

Hmmm...good thread. I really need to pick my top 3 or 4 from this huge list and identify which are just the nice-to-haves:

Number one kitchen priority is not part of the kitchen: it's having a mudroom so that jackets, shoes, backpacks, etc. don't live in the kitchen. Beyond that....

Being able to see faces while I prep. Being able to see out both our front and back windows. Easy access to our back yard for grilling. Having a larger clearance between fridge and opposite countertop than the current 28 inches (and that's with a top-mount freezer model!).

At least one 30" or 36" inch wide set of drawers for pots and pans, and another for plasticware and bowls. More tray/cookie sheet/cutting board storage. Storage near prep/cook area for things we use every day during crunch time(e.g. oils/vinegars/croutons, peanut butter, bread, bagels, etc.). Easy access storage for cereal for kids...and dishes, too, for that matter, though I'm not 100% sure I want dishes in a lower drawer.

Materials must be easy clean, and as disaster-proof and idiot-proof as possible (yet floors must be soft enough for my back and knees).

Keeping 2 tables (DR and kitchen) while moving the DR table from where it is now (in the way of the back door).

Counterspace: need landing space on both sides of stove (now have just 12 inches on one side next to fridge -- very dangerous!). Need more prep space; we often have multiple helpers. Need a perch for my husband because he always seems to be standing right where I need to be :-), usually doing nothing (bar seating will be fine).

Induction cooktop and wall ovens are a heavy desire, but I could live w/ a nice range (any oven would be super at this point -- it broke in January and it has been tempting to run out and buy new one in the meantime). A recent string of bad thunderstorms and long power outages leaves me questioning this choice, but there's always propane and a camp stove.

1. More counter space. That was the number one priority for me BY FAR. Despite being a reasonable size, because of the extremely limited counter space, my old kitchen felt so cramped. Having more than one person prepping or cleaning up at the same time was impossible.

2. More storage. I had kitchen-related things stored in five different rooms because there wasn't nearly enough space in the old kitchen. My pantry was crammed full all the time to the point that I often couldn't find what I needed.

3. Improved traffic patterns for entertaining. The old kitchen always got incredibly cramped and crowded during parties. The new one doesn't at all.

4. Real wood cabinets, appliances that worked reliably, losing the old drop ceiling and soffits, getting rid of the hideous wallpaper. The old kitchen was just so . . . old. It was outdated and way past its prime. When we moved in nearly 12 years ago, the kitchen was the only room in the house that I thought needed to be redone. It took awhile to convince the hubby.

One wall of our kitchenn is devoted to an antique wood cookstove plus doorways (laundry, garage,entry). The original floorplan of this old farmhouse had a large "highway" from garage to dining room creating what I considered a useless wall. My husband wanted to eat in front of the windows which was walkway area. Fortunately KD suggested we incorporate more space from the farmers porch creating a dining alcove with a wall of windows. Two banks of lower cabinets separate it from the kitchen. Now the "highway" became part of the usable kitchen. Those cabinets are extra dishes on the DR side and extra canned goods on the other side.
I did NOT want the microwave over the stove. It is to the left of the stove where a lower cabinet would be. There was just enough space in the wall cavity for the extra depth needed. (DH is professional builder/electrician) The high cabinets over microwave and stove store cereals, crackers, pancake mix. To right of stove is absolutely required spice cabinet. The plexiglass shelves on door hold most frequently used spices/herbs. LOVE it! The next cabinet is unusual in that it is ceiling to counter with drawers behind doors. It's last cabinet next to DR door. The top part holds dishes. Bottom, casserole dishes.
Island was also DH's request. Opposite stove is pullout drawers behind doors for pots/pans etc. Corner devoted to 2 bar stools (we're empty nesters). Side opposite sink and frig has large pull out for baking supplies. With electric outlet this provides a great baking center convenient to cleanup area. Frig is last on wall with sink. Cabinets betweek frig and sink hold glassware. Drawers below hold flatware, drawer of plastic bag boxes, wrap, foil, bottom drawer holds frequently used lunch plastic containers. This makes a good bag lunch fixing area. If I need more room the island is behind me. Dishwasher next, then sink. If you've followed this convoluted description you might have noted dishes are next to DR but dishwasher is left of sink. I unload dishes onto island. Walk around corner and put them away in cabinet. Dishes are convenient to table and DR but glassware is next to frig. Again, drinks can be poured, put on island then transported to table. Upper and lower corner cabinets to right of sink hold coffee, tea, vinegars, oils. There's a narrow upper cabinet between sink and corner which holds measuring cups, microwave steamer, etc. We probably made a mistake on the narrow lower cabinet between we nixed KD's pull out trash container for deep, narrow shelves. Fortunately I found some long, narrow baskets to hold items. But mostly infrequently used things. Didn't think I would like standup lower cabinet for trays to right of stove but I forgot how many cookie sheets, muffin tins etc I had because they were always buried. There's a bottom shelf to hold rolling pin etc.
Best wishes on your kitchen plans.

love to cook and am in kitchen all the time...

Here were my priorities: trash near sink and in a pullout cabinet
dish and silverware cabinet near DW
large prep area between sink and range
island seating for my kids
optimize views (didn't want a lot of upper cabinets, so these went hand-in-hand nicely)
shelf for my cookbooks

there were other considerations but those were the key factors for me.

Great question!

Being able to cook without getting in each other's way.

Better, more efficient appliances.

That's pretty much the priorities: everything else grew out of those two.

My main goals were to correct problems in my current kitchen. I wanted to:

- be able to open my freezer door and the adjacent drawers all the way.

- have a large plain island for work space (i.e. no appliances or sinks taking up valuable counter space)

- places to store most of the items that I now have on the counter -- mixer, food processor, etc.

- a very open feel to the kitchen

Patti

1. Remove kitchen from general traffic pattern.

2. Counter space.

3. Storage space.

1. Several different, nice-sized prep areas, as we're a family who likes to cook together.
2. More (& better) storage!
3. A better view when looking from the family room into the kitchen. Before, it was of a big, ugly ss fridge; Now, it's our beautiful Old World hood and backsplash, which is much nicer.
4. My dream prep area where everything is within reach and I can still chat with my family in the family room.
5. A kitchen that coordinated with our family room, because they open into each other. Before there was a big disparity of styles and woods.

I love to cook and do a lot of it. We also entertain a lot.

I never dreamed I'd fit everything I wanted to in my small kitchen but I read Don Silver's book and hired him, which unless you live near him I would not recommend doing long distance. He was really expensive but he came up with a really unconventional footprint for our kitchen and with lots of tweaking between me and our custom cabinet maker, Ayr Cabinetry out of Nappanee IN whom we worked with long distance and I HIGHLY recommend, I have my dream kitchen. We did "steal" 2 feet from the adjacent open plan family room so we could get a bar for the kids to do homework at or friends to sit and chat with me.

• Lots and lots of counterspace. All the counters in my work zone are 30" deep as are the cabinets so there's tons of room to work

• Baking zone, prep zone and cooking zone within the work zone

• Clean up zone outside the work zone

• Can visit with friends or help kids with homework without having them in my work zone

• Lots of storage despite giving up my 3' wide 24" deep pantry for a built in freezer. Those 30" deep drawer bases hold a TON

• Turn the blind corners into usable accessible space

• Double ovens and a 5 hob cooktop that both work LOL

• Trash in both prep area and clean up area. Our solution to this was to put the trash in the arm of the U that separates the clean up zone from the prep zone and put in 3-way glides. The same trash recycling now opens into both the clean up area or the prep area.

• Two Dishwashers so there would never be dirty dishes out waiting for the DW to finish - still happens though, especially when we're prepping for or cleaning up after a big party

• A prep sink. I love it but wish I had gotten a bigger one as we use this one so much more than I ever anticipated.

• A kitchen that was beautiful and functional and fit with the rest of our house

• Floating bar to maintain the openness of the space even with heavy granite and it turned out better than expected.

Before we even started, we inventoried everything we wanted to keep in the kitchen. So much of it was in the basement, the garage, the hall closet but we wanted a lot of it all in the kitchen. Then as we were working on the plan we decided where everything would fit back. I've tweaked it a little as we've worked in the kitchen but for the most part it worked out well.

All our dishes and silverware are stored in the cleanup zone which is between the kitchen table and dining room. The clean up sink has an insta-hot and is next to the fridge as well so anyone can get something to eat or drink without bothering the cook.

One caveat - If you pick granite, look at it on a horizontal plane so you can see what it will look like as a counter. I love my granite but I am coming to hate that it always looks dirty because of the inclusions and the way the light hits them

I wanted a baking center -- a lowered height cabinet near the range good for rolling out dough. It's become my general purpose prep/chopping center too.

I wanted to replace a peninsula with an island, and have a range instead of oven/cooktop.

I didn't see the need for a prep sink in the island, so the baking center is one end of the island.

And I wanted one floor on both the kitchen and FR, as they are open to each other.

Everything else followed from that.

In our first house, we had a galley kitchen with a laundry area, making an L shape. I fantasized about moving the back door down into the laundry area leg, just so I could have a continuous run of counter around the corner, giving me a landing zone next to the fridge. Also, I would have loved an eat-in area with space for all of us. Otherwise, I loved the drawer bases, wall of pantries and counter area with no cabinets below where I stowed my stool.

Until DD arrived and we prepared to sell the house, we did not have a dishwasher. At that time, we bought a portable. New owners have installed dishwasher in my stool area and blocked off the laundry area leg of the L. Looks good!

The kitchen of 50s ranch we're in now had last been remodeled in the 70s. On moving in, we committed ourselves to moving the kitchen into the DR space so we could have space for an island. During the kitchen planning process, the idea of recessing the fridge into the adjacent "old" kitchen emerged. There is only one short run of wall where we could do that, so the kitchen layout emerged from that single issue.
Before:

After: doorway moved to the left a little, and fridge recessed into double oven space

We also installed wide drawer bases, pantries and an island with room for several stools. We eat there every day, and I also set up my laptop on it to work at home.

Thanks for all the great ideas!