you'd think, that since i've had so much time to work on the kitchen layout, i would have had this figured out a long time ago. not so much...

in order to see how i finally came to the final design, i thought it would be interesting to see some of the process. and sadly this is only a small portion of the process, i have so many cad plans, sketchup models...

in the beginning my number 1 goal was to expose the window that is currently behind the fridge.

the design above opened up the window and created a galley style kitchen. i decided that the layout was kind of odd in the room, and it really wouldn't be very functional for us since we are a two cook household.

then i looked at a similar layout, only with an island so that we could walk around the entire space. in reality, this design didn't have very much storage and no added counter space.

i gave up on the window. i really really really wanted to have that additional window and natural light, esp. since the existing window is in great shape. but trying to work around the 3 doorways and the additional window was limiting the design. since i couldn't move the doorways, i decided to see what i would gain if i left the window covered. the layout above is similar to what we currently have. an added bonus is that we wouldn't have to do any major plumbing work since i was only slightly shifting the sink and dishwasher.

or maybe white cabinets all the way to the ceiling with a built-in island?

look at all of that storage!

then i combined a few ideas and tried to keep a similar layout to what we have now, only with more cabinets. at this point i also put the design in the ikea kitchen planner and started using standard ikea kitchen sizes. luckily, the standard sizes fit nicely in the space, but it's going to be a tight fit.

this is the design that i took with me on my initial ikea trip.

during that trip i learned that the door style i wanted was discontinued - and 70% off. the store had a limited selection of doors and drawer fronts left. they did not have enough of the small doors for the upper cabinets. so i did some re-design while at the store and come up with the plan below.

the range hood helps to break up with wall of cabinets. i have all of the door and drawer fronts for this design. at the time i thought that this would be the final design, but after thinking about it...

i've already made a few revisions. i think that i have the design finalized now and mike and i will be traveling to chicago soon to get the cabinet boxes.