We recently moved to a house with one of these. The door to the garage is off of it and there is no mudroom.. I hate it! It feels like trying to cook in a utility room. I think a galley design is efficient and can be very functional, but not with a back entry door opening right into the kitchen.

I have a galley kitchen, very small. While I wish it were a smidge bigger, I love it, and I've always loved galley kitchens. EVerything is within reach, and you can cook in peace as there is no one under foot, since there is no room. So long as there is enough counter space for cooking and storage space for your things, I think galley kitchens are a great type of kitchen.

Mine is a modified galley kitchen - meaning one wall, plus an island almost as long as the wall, but with openings at both ends. We had no choice but to repeat that layout when we remodeled (concrete floor in an industrial building - couldn't move plumbing). Anyway, the one thing I will say is its incredibly efficient. If I'm standing at the cooktop, I can reach all the condiments (pull-out), spices (drawer), utensils (crock on counter, some in drawer), pot holders (drawer) and trash pull out without moving a step.

I have a galley kitchen and I'm very happy with the layout. I had doorways at either end at the outset, so it was a true corridor kitchen, and the aisles were only about 37" wide. That plus a range against a wall and everything at least 25 years old and in horrendous condition meant we had to do a gut reno.

But after a lot of thinking, we kept the galley. Our only other option given our very oddly configured house was to totally eliminate the dining room, but it would have entailed redoing the entire first floor and it would have left minimal convenient dining space. We live in a 1900 sqft house and 2 big kids - living space is more important to us that a gargantuan kitchen. Plus it's a high cost area so redoing the first floor was getting close to the threshold to simply tear down. Which wasn't going to happen for all kinds of reasons.

I'm very happy with the outcome. We removed the wall on one (narrower) end to connect the galley to a breakfast room. And we finagled a wider aisle (about 50 inches in most spots). I don't feel claustrophobic any more!

We still need to do a few finishing touches, but if you're looking for great galley kitchens, google site:ths.gardenweb.com and galley kitchen. Every time I had a choice to make I would go back and look at all the galley kitchens that had been posted here. Or search by GW user names; some of the galley reveals that I have saved in my favorites links include BrooklynGalley, MGMum, kitchen_maman, runninginplace, erhm, nycbluedevil, histokitch, smilingjudy, yesdear.

I'm sure there are others, I feel like there have been several reveals posted even as we've tried to wrap up our loose ends.

We have a galley and I don't love it. Too much walking back and forth...and when people visit, Yikes! LOL

I would love to have an L-shaped, U-shaped, island, almost any other type of kitchen. I know many people love theirs, but we've lived with many galley kitchens over the years (even my parents') and I'm not a big fan.

That being said...they all had access to the backyard going right through the middle. If you could keep the galley out of the traffic pattern, it might work a lot better! :)

I have a very narrow galley kitchen. Now that I've done some renos I really like it. I'd like it more if it wasn't so narrow and if it was maybe like sjhockeyfan's, with a long island, but I had a limited budget and NO space to open up the kitchen. You access the back door via the kitchen. It's efficient, although due to the size it's not suitable for a large number of people at once. I miss the space of my old U shaped kitchen though. LOL

My sister has an L shape with an island, and I really like that too.

I only like galley kitchens if the two ends of the kitchen both lead to the living area -- not to a dead end or to the outside. I appreciate the efficiency of a galley kitchen in terms of reaching everything you need, but everybody always seems to gravitate into the kitchen when I'm cooking, and I need to not have people getting trapped (or me getting trapped) in a dead end of the kitchen. It's got to be possible to go around the other way if one route out of the kitchen is blocked.

I love my galley kitchen. It is skinny at just over seven feet wide and 22 feet long! The window is at one end. The wall is partially down towards the other end (open to the dining room). The fridge is at the far end facing into the galley. When I cook, I never have to move more than a foot or two except when I need something from the fridge. It is really efficient. I have a large peninsula on the opening to the dining room where people can sit while I cook. We eat there most of the time. I have miles of counter space.

I guess if I had a big house I might consider whether I might like something configured differently, but this works for me.

It's so helpful to hear some positive feedback on galley kitchens. Looks like that is what we will have in this house, even after a remodel! It just doesn't make sense financially to move around more walls.

@smalloldhouse, I will eagerly wait for your reveal and check out those other kitchens!

A galley done right can be a great kitchen! It's also economical because you don't have to pay for corner cabinets, which are expensive and inefficient.

But my own galley kitchen isn't great. Unlike some of the above posters, mine is TOO WIDE, and that -- in its own way -- is just as bad as too narrow. My cabinets are just a bit more than 6' apart, and the result is that I'm constantly one extra step from the "across" cabinet; for example, a few moments ago I was unloading the dishwasher. In an ideal kitchen, I'd be able to stand at the dishwasher, remove plates, pivot and put them into the cabinet . . . instead, I take plates out, walk two steps and put them in the cabinet directly across from the dishwasher.

I think 4' - 4 1/2' across would be ideal. In saying that, I'll add that I am a very small person; if you happen to be tall, you might want more space.

Also I'll echo what others have said: Pay close attention to what's at each end of your galley kitchen. I have a walk-in pantry /laundry room at the far end of mine; thus, people are always walking through to get a snack or put towels in the wash. Ideally you'd have a small breakfast table at the far end so that anyone who walks through will do it only once . . .and then will sit down and stay put.

@MrsPete, we have just about 50 inches in between the two cabinet rows right now! So hopefully that space is about right. Our fridge is accessible without getting in the way of the cook, I think we will put a pantry on that end also so that people can grab what they need without disrupting the cooking.

I need to think more about where the dishes will be stored depending on where the dishwasher/sink is.