Jardin, I'll chime in while waiting for the layout gurus to hop on.

Your plan so far is certainly a great improvement on what you have, and the BlueStar an exciting start. After being scrunched up in an old kitchen for decades, however, the most important thing to me in a kitchen are nice pleasant stretches of counter to work at, not overlarge, just big enough, and separate enough that cleanup and prep aren't on top of each other.

So if that were my space to work with, I'd put the cleanup counter on the long D wall and do an opening above it (with shutters that could it close off as needed) so I could look into the dining room, where we'd drink our coffee and read the morning paper, as well as do the Christmas spread. I'd put a little chair over by the C-D corner for someone who wanted to hang in the kitchen with me. I'd want your breakfront, but its size would be cut down to make room for the chair. It might hold the microwave nicely also.

And, above all, I'd have the counter space I enjoy and spend most time at, my cooking/prep counter, running between the fridge and stove, which is just where I'd need it as it is. That'd give me a nice sunny window to look out and a stretch of counter generous enough to hold a little prep sink over near the fridge. There'd also be room for a broom closet in the fridge corner if needed.

Hope there's an idea trigger in there somewhere; even a no-way! can be a spark. :) BTW, you didn't mention the other fun stuff--what're your style, colors, and so on?

Your kitchen is roughly the same size as mine. Small but efficient! My door openings are different than yours and I only have 7.5 foot ceilings in mine. I am going to show you a picture of mine, if I can get the drawing to load in here. Hopefully, it will give you some ideas. BTW, my sink isn't centered on the wall either. Think we had the same architect?
ref="http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii274/mustbnuts2/kitchen%20drawings/?action=view¤t=kitchendrawings005.jpg"; target="_blank">

The door next to the opening is my step in pantry. I did move my dishwasher to the other side of my sink as it was just too close to the oven.

I like your ideas very much. I would put the fridge on the D wall with a above counter micro (similar to my setup). I like your ideas for the C walls. I would do as you suggest on the A and B walls. I too have the blind corner cabinet pull out thingys (once they get installed), so that should help with the space. I also added cabinets on either side of my sink window. I love them as it gave me a little extra space (my original floor plan and cabinets didn't have cabs there).

I think your plan sounds great. Have you picked out cabs yet and countertops? Will you go with recessed cans and under cab lights? I did that in my kitchen and I LOVE both of them.

If feasible and workable for the rest of your home, I would start by moving the doorway that goes to the Dining room to be opposite the one from the hallway - regardless of where you go from there. Keeps the traffic pattern out of the working triangle and gives more uninterrupted counters, etc..

If you decide not to take the wall out, I'd put the fridge on the end of the U by the DR. Keeps those accessing the fridge only out of the rest of the working triangle.

If you decided you want to open up to the DR (wall D) I think you should reconsider moving stove to penisula, with a bar height counter behind it and put the fridge on the end by the hallway door. I have two friends who recently did this....then with decorative hoods above, looks nice. Just depends on if you want the more open floor plan or not. Once you open up with a penisula, it kind of limits where the fridge can go.

Good Luck!

First of all thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my question.

Rosie: I just love cooking with gas - I can't believe I've gone all these years with an electric stove.... oh my, what a difference. Now I haven't done any baking (not a real big baker, mostly at Christmas time), so we'll see how my cookies come out. I know what you mean about counter space. My husband and I both like to cook and when we first moved into our home (about 10 years ago) from our apartment my husband and I kept saying that our small apartment kitchen worked much nicer than this. Well after ten years, we're finally doing something about it LOL.

Mustbnuts (love your name, LOL): Well..... a picture is worth a thousand words. Thank you so much for your drawings. It looks like you have a wonderful kitchen. So nice to be able to have a walk in pantry. Do you wish you had somewhere to sit while prepping. I find that I'm always going to the kitchen table to do alot of my prep work (as the bottom of my feet pain when I'm standing too long). This is why I was hoping for a small penisula with some seating. Perhaps instead of my L shape - U might be a very good option. The fridge on the D wall might work out just great. As it is now I do have wall cabinets on either side of the window and would like to keep this as every little bit of storage is needed.

As far as picking cabs out - we're thinking of going with what they are calling "transition". You know - a takeoff on the shaker style cabs in a creamy white. A rise above the cabs with a simple crown molding and under cab lights. I'd like it to be contemporary and classic. But that's about as far as I've gotten. The kitchen gallery on GB cetainly is a great help and I'm constantly visiting the library for books, LOL.

Dlspellman: I think your idea about moving the doorway on wall D is a great idea. We had considered it, but I wasn't sure how it would work out regarding a peninsula. It doesn't take long to find out that there are trade-offs and that I'm not going to be able to get everything on my wish list re the kitchen. I was mentioning to "mustbnuts" above that a U shaped kitchen may work out better. We use to have our fridge near the end of the hallway door, but it always bothered me there. If we go with the U shape, probably wall D would work out fine, but, I'm just wondering if we can do anything with wall C. Do you think it would be too crowded to do a small prep area on wall D if the dining room doorway gets shifted down?

I'd love to hear any other suggestions. Thanks.

{{!gwi}}

Not sure this is the right sink location?

I don't have a place to sit down in my kitchen. It is just too small for that. That said, I think if you kept the shape of the kitchen as it currently stands and didn't close the door on the D wall (which I wouldn't recommend doing), would you be happy with the breakfront on the C wall becoming a working counter top with stools or chairs underneath? A place where you could sit and work? You could have open shelves above it which would look great. (Unless you live in earthquake country). You could also do some upper cabs (12 deep) with pretty glass fronts)

I wouldn't recommend closing the wall on the D side as that would mean you would have to take all your food through the hallway door, into the living room and then over to the dining room. Too far to go with hot pans, dirty plates, etc.

I do have another idea and I don't know if it would work or not, but to move the doorway in the D wall to the area where the D and C wall meet--leaving that area where you have that pipe chase or whatever it is called--but putting the doorway next to it. That would create an open traffic pattern from the hallway through the kitchen to the dining area. That would give you space to have a small peninsula with stools coming off the D wall. Gosh, I hope that made sense.

It would be very tight. If I calculate in my head correctly, the D wall is about 12 feet? Figure 3 feet for the doorway. That would give you about 9 feet of wall space. Again, three feet for width (not length) of the peninsula. That gives you six feet left of wall space on the D side. Two feet of it would be taken by the cabs on the A wall so that gives you about 4 feet of space between the wall cabs on the A wall and the beginning of the peninsula.

Hopefully, that would give you enough room to move around. Your stools/chairs would be on the other side of the peninsula (the C wall side facing the A wall). Again, I hope that makes sense. If you did move the doorway to that C/D corner, I wouldn't put a door on it but leave it open. More space that way.

Have you tried some of those gel mats for the floor when you cook? That might help your feet to feel better when working in the kitchen.

I wish I could draw this for you so you could see what I have in mind. Maybe someone else can figure out and draw what I am stating on here.

I don't know where your drawing went "bmore", but fortunately I was able to have a look at it before it disappeared. I appreciate you taking the time to draw in your suggestions. "Mustbnuts", I did actually understand your description. The entrance into the dining room now doesn't have a door and your absolutely right it does help with space limitations. I'm not sure how much room a pocket door would need, but this would also be a good idea. Thanks again.