Current gross kitchen from the day of our inspection last year. This is pretty nearly all the counter space we have. The shine on that wood is not polish, it's gunk:

New cabs (before ripped out):

Floorplan (explanation below). This is my first time using design planning software:

The room is roughly 17' 9" from stove to windows and 14 feet at widest. Behind the stove/oven wall is the bathroom. I only have the lower cabs in the plan. Starting at door on left side of drawing. We have a cart we might put next to stove/oven, but no cabinet that will fit there. The stove is 30", then an 18" drawer cab, the corner cab, a 12" cab, the sink in a 39" cab, 30" dishwasher, leaving about 18 inches. We have nothing to fill that 18 inches, so am thinking about getting a tall pantry/broom closet for the space.

The little wall that juts out is, I think, a support wall, that's where the addition starts. I thought the 33" cab would be a nice place to have our coffee/espresso stuff. Right now it's in the corner by the oven (along with a lot of other stuff). The 'island' is two 36" lower cabs back to back (not 100% sure this will fit yet). Would like an overhang and counter seats if possible here. I also am thinking of putting a storage bench under the big window bank. The door near there is the one most used to go outside. No room for a mud room and shoes and bags always pile up there.

The open space next to that door now has a cabinet that we keep our recycling in and toaster oven on. It's 30-something inches. The wall next to it jutting out is actually a couple of shallow pantries. DH wants to keep them, but if I had an alternate solution to food storage he'd be fine with that. Now, the strangest part. The next area where the frige is, is currently the closet for the tiny bedroom next to the kitchen. We are keeping it as a separate room, but not keeping it as a bedroom, so don't need the closet. I thought the fridge (30") would be better there. We don't like how it currently crowds the sink, need more counter space, and don't know where else to put it. The light switch needs to be there, so I've left the wall closer to the door in the drawing, plus then we won't see the side of the fridge from the dining room. The wall right next to the fridge ... could probably come down?

For upper cabs there are three 24" that I thought could go one to each side of sink and 1 to the left of the stove. In the corner I could put shelves. There are over oven and fridge cabs. There is also another upper cab that could maybe go to the right of the oven, but I can't remember the size right now.

It's past my bedtime, so I hope I was clear and not TOOOO wordy ;) Thanks for any and all opinions and suggestions.

can the 'wall' to the right of the fridge come down also?

are the pantries in good shape? enough to keep?

are you going to paint or refinish the 'new' cabs or use as is? have you checked a local habitat restore to see if they have any 18" cabs that would go with yours?

if you put a window seat under the window, maybe you could have a 'bottom' to it for shoes?

2. The wall to the right - I *think* so. I think we are going to have a structural engineer come in and take a look at that and a bunch of other things we are questioning.

3. Unfortunately, yes. But really, it's just big holes in the wall with shelves and big slab doors. They aren't actual cabinets. If we keep it, I was thinking of adding trim to make them shaker kind of doors and paint them. But am very open to suggestions.

4. Not planning to refinish the new cabs. They are plenty nice enough to keep as is until our "real" reno. Our closest habitat isn't close for casual browsing, but I do plan to get there, good idea!

5. Great idea!

do you have another one that could be altered to fit next to the dw? shaved down on the sides or a filler piece used?

on the fridge - I was thinking maybe it could be moved to the right which would take it out of the way of the doorways to the left of it now and balance that wall a bit more. you could then put a shallow floor to ceiling cab to the left of it for pantry storage. the same on the right. tho on the right it wouldn't need to be so shallow.

I'd look around (put ad in CL?) for something cheap for either side of the fridge then. I think even places like HD have big cabs unfinished with shelves inside and doors on them. How about some upper cabs stacked on each other? they'd be shallow and trim could be put over the connecting areas.

if you had enough cabs you could run them wall to wall in the coffee area - that'd give you more storage area and counter area.

the island - will there be enough aisle space on the sink side? you could use 1 cab and widen it with counter top overhang for a stool or 2.
that makes me think - you could also push the coffee area cab all the way to one side with counter top wall to wall leaving an open area under it on one side - to pull up a stool and have your cup of coffee right there - looking out the window.

I think once you find out about the walls by the fridge, get the cabs actually there and measured out as to where they will go and what you have left to fill in other areas (coffee area, island) and their measurements it can all be fine tuned.

Is your dh handy at woodworking maybe?

1 update - DH made it seem like when he picked up everything that he'd broken-beyond-using the corian counters, but he didn't. There's a scratch, a gouge, and 1 or 2 parts that broke in a way that didn't really matter. Point being, we have corian counter to use, including a peninsula that I'd given up for destroyed (it's gouged). I'll have to re-work that in. The original thought had been to have it coming from near the dishwasher. Oh, if only that little support wall wasn't there!

We do have a small cab to the right of the stove. You didn't miss it, but it's the old one and is going away. We have about 26 usable inches in that space, max. Unless we manage to completely eliminate stuff pushing into the room in that area we can't put anything bigger. But I like your idea of moving the fridge over and working with that some more!

We have only the 2 lower units that are smaller then 30". If we put either of them next to the dishwasher, then we are stuck on what to fill in on the other corner... I was thinking it would be easier to fill in the 18" next to the DW then try to arrange the other corner. But I could be missing a good idea there! I think > 30" is too big to cut down like that? Plus with the peninsula coming from this area I'll have to rethink it anyway. Maybe leave under open and put shelves above?

If I'm not using the 36" for the island I could use them for the coffee area. Both would fit or we could do the little seat area! Not that I necessarily want to watch the neighbors back door ;)

We are both somewhat handy. Inexperienced in this area but excited to learn new stuff. Well, I'm excited. He's resigned ;)

I'm going to work on a new plan tonight, working under the assumption that we don't need those closet walls. Thanks for the ideas!

Comments from my photo: floorplan in progress, can't figure out how to add: counters, upper shelves in corner between oven and sink, peninsula on other side of sink.

Upper cabs to either side of sink are 24", upper cab to right of oven is 36". Upper and lower cab next to fridge are both 36. Fridge is about 31" and cab above it is 36" so there is a gap under that cab. Kept the gap on that side for easier cleaning. The cabinets next to the door in the upper right are not from the new set and won't match but are keeping.