block Range Refrigerator Pantry
ovens DW Sink Butcher
block Ref /
freezer Island Prep
sink Range
top
table Ref /
freezer Wall
oven Prep
sink Cooktop Pantry
Study 1
The first study tested whether zones alone could fix it. We kept the old butcher block and built it into the cooking zone. The long counter runs stopped dead-ending and became a partition, with double ovens on the baking side and the refrigerator and freezer serving prep and cleanup. It also made room for a pull-out table.
We drew the island they'd asked for, too. To give it a purpose it needed a prep sink, and to fit at all it needed a wall of storage and appliances to come out.
It worked as a plan, but it cost them storage, and it kept the butcher block for sentimental reasons when it had stopped doing a job. What it proved was that the appliances could divide the room on their own. Everything after built on that.
Final Floor Plan
The plan we built asked for less. Pulling the appliances into one tighter zone lets the two cooks work together or apart while sharing the refrigerator. It frees the sink wall to become part of the dining room, handling table setting and cleanup, and from the dining room the kitchen finally reads as one composed wall instead of a row of compromises.
Two of the studies gave them something they'd asked for by name. The one we built gave them something they hadn't thought to ask for, which was room to be in the kitchen together.
The Existing Conditions
One aisle carried everything. Prep, cooking, cleanup, storage, and anyone keeping the cooks company all shared the same strip of floor. The pantry was a closet that held whatever didn't fit elsewhere, and the only prep surface stood in the path to the garden doors. There was enough room. None of it was separated.