Cabinets would require to be anchored in some way for safety. If they are screwed strongly together that may be okay. Depending on height of cabinets, are they bench height or to ceiling? If to the ceiling you would definitely have to ensure they are not able to tilt and fall.

I doubt you’ll get a cabinet maker to measure and install without a wall. You can go narrow if space is a problem. Will you need electrical?

Thank you. Yes we will need electrical. One end oven and the other fridge. Early planning at this stage.

The drawings on the right are the current kitchen, so will be removed and the island will go there.

You need a wall.

i was lucky enough to have a cabinet maker who made cabinets and pantry that are back to back without a wall and the weight of the cabinets screwed together makes them very solid and self supporting up to 2.1m (ie don't reach the ceiling) but including wall and base cabinets on both sides as well as a power point ..what is the size of the rooms that you are planning to use...a floor plan of the house including surrounding rooms, doors and windows would help as i can't read the plan that you have posted

This is the best I have available at the moment. Our aim is to get more usable space in the family room instead of wasted space in the dining. Very early days in the planning.

Hi. Is it possible for you to redraw your plan to scale. Say 500mm per square of graph paper

I'm not very good at this. This is the best I can do. 😬

Assume there is an existing wall between dining room and kitchen. If you are removing this wall, have you checked whether it is load bearing?

Yes, we will be removing it if possible. We do think it is load bearing but our builder believes he will be able to solve that but still has to do some checks.

you first need to decide how you will use or not use the old dining room door and any structural challenges of removing the wall between the old dining and kitchen ...this very rough plan retains the maximum amount of old kitchen space to add to the family room but has less deep counters in the new pantry shown in your first plan but is a good sized pantry

but, if you were to close off the old dining room door and enter the kitchen from the family room (not through the old dining door) with less space added to the family room the pantry could be bigger and the kitchen more spacious with the fridge sideways like in your original plan but depends on what you need in the family room, pantry and your choice of appliances

and the question of back to back cabinets, full height or partition wall that doesn't reach the ceiling doesn't make too much difference and teh BEAM shows where the original dividing wall has been removed

That's great! Definitely worth investigating! Thank you. How do you do that so fast?🤣

We can't have a bench along the old dining room external wall where the window is as it is too low.

i can do this so fast because of years of practice!! and for the overall cost of what you are planning to do changing the window may make the most improvement in the whole design and not essential but please explain the area next to the dining room and study...is that area a separate hall or open to the entry or??..some photos looking from both directions would help??

Excuse the mess.

He loves getting into photos!🤣

A diff approach to add a desk

Wow! That is a different thought! Thanks!

Hello Liz, How are you getting along with your kitchen reno plans? I am an architectural draftee and could do this for you easily. Then you would have ready b4 and proposed plans to show cabinet makers and your builder. Also ideal for purchasing tiles, appliances and putting you firmly in control of your works. Contact me for a chat if you like and I can start drawing for you. Cheers Margot

Well, we got out kitchen/ butlers pantry finished just in time for Christmas. We love it.

Awesome. Haven’t seen an opening like that . Love it. You have avoided window changes by the looks and

And makes the pantry so open Often wonder about the main sink in pantry. How do you find function?

You could also add a dropdown panel if you want to hide sink from view

Hi Kate. We love having the opening but, yes you could put in a shutter of some sort. We do use the sink in the butlers the most. We tend to do most of the meal preparation in the butlers and the opening is great for passing things through from the fridge etc. It's lovely and bright which I wanted. I didn't want a dark, closed off butlers where no one wanted to work!