We are renovating our house and adding the side deck (among other things, new floor etc), I’ve attached a copy of the concept plan.

We want a new kitchen as the current one lacks in some key areas: 1) it lacks a fridge space (it sits in front of a window), 2) there is no pantry cupboard (we use a kitchen hutch out of photo) and 3) we are adding a side deck and want to improve its access.

We also aren’t sure if the location of key items (fridge/pantry/cooktop/sink) is appropriate.

1. No fridge space, ideally we want a purpose built spot for it. The architect suggested closing in a window to give more space but we feel it would make it darker and strange given the lack of regular spaced windows.

2. There is no pantry, we ideally want a built in one. We are thinking about a below bench pull out one under the southern window or corner pantry in place of the cooktop.

3. With the new deck we also want to improve access to the outside space/deck so we are thinking of removing the kitchen bench near the door and replacing it all with a sliding door/glass. This will reduce our storage space so we want to make it up elsewhere.

4. We plan to introduce another window in the location of the above bench glass fronted cabinets as this will complement the view out and better suit the side sliding door/window/deck.

In the plan you can see that it’s an open living/kitchen space but it’s small so we are concerned that extending/reposition the kitchen along the southern wall will intrude into living space (plus costs).

We would be open to benches underneath the southern window and extending the island for more space.

We are brain storming ideas and wonder if we should put the fridge where the microwave/oven is (next to window/cooktop) and then move/combine the cooktop and oven to below the window at the sink, then move the sink to the island. Microwave to go under the island. This would allow a corner pantry cupboard in place of the current cooktop.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou.