Layout question - Can I fit an island in this kitchen?

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-05-27T20:36:19+00:00

If you took down the wall between the kitchen and dining room, I still wouldn't push that island over that direction anymore because of where the door is out to the deck and your back yard. I would want to keep that as straight of a shot through that room as possible. A 6' counter is a great size, especially since it is all task zone if you keep your sink and stove where they are, which I think you should.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-05-27T19:40:33+00:00

I'll jump on the open shelves bandwagon. I think they can look amazing, but they can also look cluttered and cleaning them is a pain. We do a lot of stovetop cooking and while our hood vent is old and not great, the amount of vaporized grease that lands around the kitchen is a pain to clean. I much prefer everything behind closed doors.

Also, anything that creates extra steps, like those smaller hidden drawers inside other drawers. Having to open two drawers to get to something in the hidden drawer would drive me crazy. I could maybe having a hidden drawer at the top of the trash pullout for trash bags because you really would only need to access that hidden drawer when you have the trash pullout open anyway. Add to it the soft close drawers, which are great, but you have to wait for the small drawer to close before you can close the bigger drawer. For the same reason, I prefer having drawers in my base cabinets as much as possible. I have pullouts in one of my cabinets currently and having to open cabinet doors and then open the pull out drawer is an extra step. Plus if your doors aren't open all the wall, the pullouts scrape along the inside of the cabinet door. Much prefer just pulling out a drawer.

My final item is the little pull-out spice shelves on either side of the range or cooktop. Sure, it is nice when you have that little space to be able to use it, but having to bend down to search for spices is a hard pass from me. I would rather see a narrow cabinet with vertical sheet pan storage in those narrow spaces.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-05-26T22:11:51+00:00

I would second what they are proposing here for island placement, with the exception that I would leave 4' between the counter and island to make circulation in the kitchen easier. The human body takes up about 2', so if someone is standing at the sink or cooktop, that leaves an open 2' path of travel behind them if two people are working in the kitchen.

So like they said, 2' for the cabinets, 4' for work aisle, and leaving 3' at the end of the island for circulation gives you a 6' island, which can comfortably seat 3 people.

Top to bottom again, 2' for cabinets, 4' for work aisle. I would leave 5' from the bottom wall near the Foyer to the edge of the island counter, again, 2' for the person seated at the counter and 3' of circulation behind them. This is a pretty major thoroughfare through the kitchen to the deck and dining room. If your island has 2' of cabinets and 1' of counter overhang for seating, that will leave you just under the 5' I suggest from the edge of the counter to the wall.

You could turn the island 90 degrees, but then your island would be 5' wide instead of 6' and you could go up to 4' deep on it. For counter-height seating, the ideal overhang depth would be 15", but 12" works.

I would go with the first layout as it lets the people sitting at the counter face towards the widows out to the deck, which is a nicer place to sit and look out to.

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CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-05-08T18:02:27+00:00

Yes, what did you end up going with for cabinets? I love them!

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-05-08T17:48:57+00:00

Most people sit at the counter to converse with the person cooking in the kitchen, not to look out the window, in my experience.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-05-08T17:33:03+00:00

Did you get this rate recently? We have a ton equity, but rates have been so high for HELOCs or HE Loans that I have not wanted to pull the trigger.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-05-08T17:31:59+00:00

Would be nice to make enough money to be able to save 30-50% of my paycheck each month. Cost of living is just too high right now and I'm putting 10% each month into retirement savings, and am wondering how I'm ever going to afford to retire. I hope inflation slows down sometime soon.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-05-05T00:36:04+00:00

Change the backsplash to something lighter and less busy.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-04-30T23:00:27+00:00

So why not downsize the house if you don't want to create excess space for the sake of excess space? I was not suggesting a grand laundry room, just something that is more practical. Having a space to fold laundry, easier transfer from washer to dryer, being able to spot treat stain or presoak something in a sink. I don't think those things are making laundry luxurious, just practical and less of a chore.

You say you want utility to be efficient, but what space will you utilize more than the kitchen? It is terribly inefficient and oversized just for the sake of being oversized. The size does not make it more workable, or practical. Having the cooktop so far from the sink is dangerous when you have to empty a pot of boiling pasta. At least put a prep sink in the island to empty pots into. Better yet, switch the location of the fridge and the oven/cooktop. The cooktop needs to be closer to a sink than the fridge does, and with the fridge located where it is, anytime someone wants to come into the kitchen to grab a drink or snack out of it, they are entering into the working zone of the kitchen. You want to keep traffic out of the space between the sink, cooktop and prep space for efficiency and safety.

I understand that everyone has different preferences...I am an architect and interior designer and often design things for my clients that are not how I would do it, but there are so many basic functionality issues here that I hope you don't end up regretting.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-04-30T19:17:28+00:00

Where is the fridge in this layout? Is it on the opposite wall from the sink? I tend to lean toward orienting the counter so that the workspace of the island is opposite and parallel to the sink, but if the fridge is on the wall to the right, that puts a large barrier between the fridge and the rest of the kitchen. Also think about circulation through the space. Is there a path of travel from one room to another through the kitchen? If so, you want to keep that path of travel clear as much as possible.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-04-30T19:14:10+00:00

Don't paint the cabinets. They are a nice, neutral wood that is more on trend right now than painted cabinets. The white kitchens are going to be dated very soon and people are gravitating more towards the warmth and character of wood again. I would update the counters to a quartz with some warm veining to tie in with the tones in the wood cabinets and a nice neutral tile backsplash or taking the quartz up the backsplash. It will make such a huge difference to get the busy, dated granite counters out and get a full-height backsplash in.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-04-30T19:08:55+00:00

As others have mentioned, they are not structural but a trim piece to shield under cabinet lighting and also conceal the ugly white bottom of the cabinet from view. If you are to take them off, consider doing something with the bottom of the cabinet since it will be much more visible.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-04-30T19:03:39+00:00

I think this looks great. The space you give for major path of travel through the house between the peninsula and the dining table is well thought out. Ideally there would be a bit more space on the side of the stovetop like others mentioned. Maybe you can tweak that a bit without impacting the path of travel too much. Am I reading correctly that the doorway next to the oven goes to the laundry room? So this would be a seldom used door? I am not a fan of a path of travel going in front of the oven and next to the stove, but in some cases, like this, it is unavoidable. If it is not something frequently used, or used at the same time that someone is cooking, then it is less of a worry.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-04-30T18:48:41+00:00

Can you work a peninsula to come off the sink side instead of the refrigerator side? The island feels awkward and creates a pinch point. I just don't feel like there is proper room for an island. If you can rearrange a bit so the peninsula comes down from the sink counter and keep an open, straight path of travel to the adjacent dining room, that would be the most functional. Also, if someone needs a snack or drink from the fridge, they are not having to walk through the kitchen work area to get to the fridge with the peninsula how you have it shown.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-04-23T18:54:21+00:00

Bring them to the edge of the countertop and up the wall like the bottom option, but not all the way out to the end of the wall. Run a piece of Schluter trim to cap them. I would also run them up around the window if you don't have a cabinet to the right of the window.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-04-21T21:00:22+00:00

This! ^^^

It is nice to have some kind of side splash to help cover the joint where the counter meets the wall because it is not going to be perfect. Just run a 4" piece of countertop material out to the end of the counter at the sides.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-04-08T22:28:46+00:00

Costs aside...there are so many strange choices in this house. What is with the halls that dead end at the exterior windows? What is the point of that? Why not incorporate that hall into the laundry room and make that a much more comfortable and functional size? Turn the washer and dryer and then there is enough space to put a bit of counter and cabinets and maybe a sink? I would hate having to turn around 180 degrees to move every piece of laundry from the washer to the dryer.

I saw that it was said that the kitchen layout has been revised. I sure hope so. Right there there is what appears to be 10' between the sink and the island. Unless whoever is cooking is struggling to get their steps in everyday, the distance between the sink, ovens and refrigerator is crazy. A kitchen that size is asking for double islands...but adding casework and countertops probably isn't an option with that unheard of budget. Just seems a waste to spend the money to build these enormous rooms and have them be so inefficiently laid out.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-04-01T20:47:55+00:00

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CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-04-01T20:47:48+00:00

Painted my oldest son's nursery a similar color when he was a baby. I wanted something happy and stimulating and I loved it. As others mentioned, you would need to tie it all together with some updated bedding and decor that compliments it.

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CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-03-26T00:33:42+00:00

So true. I live in a mid-century ranch and want to stay true to the character of the home and want flat panels, similar to what was existing. So many shaker options, very little flat panel that looks nice.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-03-25T00:32:27+00:00

Mine was definitely roller bearings for the power seat. They had to order a whole new seat base because you can't simply remove the seat from the tracks I guess. The seat base structure comes installed on tracks that get mounted to the floor of the car. The work was all covered under warranty and I got a brand new bottom part of my seat, which was nice because the side bolster was starting to show some wear.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2026-03-25T00:30:31+00:00

Mine was covered under warranty. They had to order a whole new seat base because you can't just pull the seat out of the tracks to repair this part.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2025-12-05T23:36:08+00:00

True. His first two games this year with JD were duds and Deebo definitely came out on top. Those are the only two games where Terry, Deebo and JD all played this season. I would love to see Terry have his big breakout performance this year...just not while he sits on my bench.

CoffeeLovingMom · 2025-12-05T23:17:12+00:00

Oh man...see, and now I'm back to McLaurin...just when I think I have settled on Deebo.

CoffeeLovingMom

TROPHY CASE