How will you use the summer kitchen? Do the utility room and mudroom have the best view in the house? Where will you put the clean dishes from the dishwasher? How do you envision using the island-it looks like the main area is between the sink and stove and that there is no use for the island? Is the mudroom also the laundry room? You have so much space here, I would have made a walk in pantry you have not chosen to do that, is that personal choice?

What is the point of those little stub walls? It looks like those walls in yellow are existing and cannot change, but you are making a mistake in adding them to the addition if it's only to mirror the other side of the kitchen.

Either way, I have some changes to suggest to you that will improve the flow of your kitchen while cooking.

If the stub wall on the top wall needs to stay: Fridge should go where command center is, and cooktop where pantry is. Pantry where cooktop was.

If the stub wall on the top wall does not need to stay: I would group all the tall items together (wall ovens, pantry, fridge) all the way to the right of that top wall, then place the cooktop between the tall items and the corner.

In either case, I would then do all of the following: Add a prep sink to the island, ideally somewhere between the range and cooktop. Command center where breakfast area was, and breakfast area where fridge was if it will fit - if not, put on cleanup sink wall. Ideal spot is bottom left corner if you are willing to lower the DW; if not, put it on the other side of the cleanup sink on the same wall. Now you have the cleanup sink for use at the breakfast area and do not need a separate sink. If the breakfast area is now too far from the sink for you, add an undercounter fridge in breakfast area or across the way in the island.

These changes give you a good working kitchen, with your zones properly separated, and the LONG side of your island across from your cooking zone (which is more ideal for prep). It also gets your cooktop out of the corner, which makes it more accessible for multiple persons and honestly, less claustrophobic to work in.

If you feel having the command center closer to the mudroom is a dealbreaker, I suggest the following: Move the door to the mudroom and the exterior door in the mudroom about 30" to the left. Then you can have the command center (and all of its mess) in the mudroom proper. On the kitchen side, simply put the pantry (or ovens - but pantry is better/safer) in that space.

You have a nice big area to work with! Good luck!

Thanks for the input! To answer your questions:

The summer kitchen was planned before the kitchen was bumped out 8 feet as a place for canning, making beer, cheese and wine, storing seasonal baking stuff, and a place for the chest freezer and an additional fridge. Now that the kitchen is substantially bigger, I think the summer kitchen may get smaller.

The utility room and mud/laundry room will have a good view, and previously the utility room area was planned as a breakfast nook with windows on two sides. The plan changed as the architect kept increasing the amount of space needed for the geothermal heat pump and central vacuum. We need a pretty large mudroom as we live on a farm, so the nook was sacrificed to expand the mudroom.

WeâÂÂre planning to store dishes above the dishwasher, although there will also be space directly across from the dishwasher as well.

We havenâÂÂt thought about a walk-in pantry because we didnâÂÂt see how one would fit in.

The stub walls show where we will be taking out load-bearing walls. They will need to stay to support beams.

I took tracie.erinsâÂÂs ideas (modified a bit!) and came up with the design below. Adding a sink to the island could solve some problems, but I couldnâÂÂt get over the idea of only being able to access it from one side of the island so IâÂÂm wondering about mounting a double bowl sink (like the Kohler Strive) crosswise so there would be access from both sides. Also, with prep sinks, do people really not have dish soap, sponges, etc. out on the counter? It seems like they could take over the island.

{{!gwi}}

Oooh, much much better. Very nice!

You can mount the prep sink that way. Farmgirlinky did that with a single bowl sink; unfortunately all her pictures are gone or I would post one for you. You may also want to consider a single bowl sink - they hold more than a double with that pesky divider. If a double, at least make sure the double you choose will hold, say, your largest stockpot.

Re soap and sponges: sponge goes on a sponge holder that suction cups to the inside of the sink, soap goes inside a counter-mounted soap dispenser that matches your faucet. Attach the soap dispenser to a NeverMT for maximum convenience.

A few comments:
-Is there enough clearance around the wood stove? I seem to recall they need a lot of empty space around them. You should be able to find the specs in the stove's paperwork, or look it up online.
-The breakfast bar is far into the kitchen; you may still want to swap it with the pantry. This makes the pantry more accessible to the cook, and puts the breakfast bar in a more convenient location. It also keeps access-ees of the breakfast bar out of the cook's way, if you expect that those two activities may occur simultaneously. The pantry can take up that whole corner - where it intersects with the counter, simply take the upper all the way down to the counter, and maybe step it back to 12" deep. It's a nice look. You would then NOT turn the corner to have any uppers on the cleanup sink wall. Actually, I would do that either way - it's nicer to have some breathing room around a window, and it would solve the asymmetry issue (you don't have/show uppers on the other side of it).

Would making two islands instead of one help in the layout?

I like so many things about your kitchen! Lots of light, wood stove, two sinks....it's just such a LONG walk from the clean up area to the dining table.

Here's another idea, if you can move the wood stove. It would give you a small seating area next to the wood stove, and lots of light. And it places the kitchen between the dining and seating areas.

The wood stove in the original location is something you have to walk past to get to the clean up area and the stools seem too close for comfort. This way, you can easily access the kitchen work area, clean up area, breakfast and cooking areas...or go past them to sit in a sunny, cozy seating area.

From Kitchen plans

You said you wanted the command center next to the mudroom, but you could switch the fridge and command center locations if that would work better. Or make the command center a dish storage area. You could even have a bookcase or TV on that wall against the raised dishwasher. Just a few ideas :)

From Kitchen plans

This post was edited by lavender_lass on Wed, Nov 5, 14 at 14:52

I am bothered by putting the utility room in a corner giving it "corner office" status where there could be windows on two sides with reportedly great views...Must those utilities be on an outside wall? Do they really need their own separate room? Could they be behind a cupboard in the mud room? Similarly it looks like there is a series of large sliding doors in the mudroom...my understanding of a mudroom (I am a California girl and do not have a mudroom) is that people store coats and shoes there and maybe the washer dryer but people really don't spend much time in that area. Why the fancy windows? I understand that the mudroom must occupy valuable real estate on an outside wall, but it is taking up a significant amount of wall...

sink in the island accessible from both sides from farmgirlinky kitchen

Here is a link that might be useful: sink in the island

traci.erin - The new wood stove has 6 inch clearances all around which was one of the reasons that we are choosing it. ItâÂÂs also pretty.

IâÂÂve been thinking about constructing a niche for it like this:

But IâÂÂm not sure if I want to sacrifice the space.

I think that the breakfast bar and cooktop will be used at different times of day, so there shouldnâÂÂt be any overlap. IâÂÂm also realizing that this layout would work well as an unfitted design which I have always been attracted to. There would be room for the espresso machine next to the sink and the space along the north wall could incorporate appliance storage for the toaster, slowcookers, rice cooker, etc. Something like this:

The pantry could also look like a separate piece of furniture.

WeâÂÂre planning to store dishes above the dishwasher. Since it will be raised 10-12 inches, IâÂÂm not quite sure how it will work yet, but again it could be constructed to look like a separate piece.

Karenseb - We thought about breaking the island in two and moving the seating section toward the dining room, but weâÂÂd like to keep that space open so that the dining room table can be expanded to seat 14 people. IâÂÂve already been informed by family that when the remodel is done, weâÂÂll be expected to host holiday meals!

lavender_lass - Unfortunately because of the chimney requirements the woodstove canâÂÂt be moved more than a foot or so from where it is on the plan. I got really excited about your plan before realizing that it canâÂÂt work. I agree it will be a long walk from the dining room to the wash sink. The clearance between the island and the woodstove is 43 inches, so I think it will be okay.

Practigal - It was a hard choice to give up on a breakfast nook in the northwest corner, but as the space requirements for the utility/laundry/mud room kept increasing, something had to give.

Efs - Thanks for the link, itâÂÂs always helpful to see a picture!

Is it posible to move the Mudrom and Utility to the new bump out?

That would give you a squarish kitchen and it may be easier to have clean up and cooking a bit more closer to the DR and no stub walls to deal with. Maybe something like this:

I have a raised DW that I love. In your renderings you have a double door cab above the DW. I think, it will be better to have a single door (or if you are tall up lifting door) cab above it if you plan to use that cab for clean dishes+glasses.

Wow, sena01, it never occurred to me to do that! Unfortunately it also requires new stub walls as that wall is load-bearing as well. (I lengthened one of them to partially hide the command center.) A positive is that since it's the north side of the house, I could put in skylights above the cleanup area/breakfast bar to bring in more light. Some of the 'view' will be the side of the woodshed, but the shape of the kitchen being more of a square opens up some new layout options.

What do you all think?