I love that kitchen! Here's one with an old porcelain sink under exterior windows--can you change the window configuration?

Repurposing a salvaged sink · More Info

ETA a pic of plate rack across a window:

I'm not sure how helpful I can be, or how many people will be able to read your post in its entirety, but having made it to the end myself I wanted to offer this observation: your house plan and aesthetics are far from Victorian. Here is an image of the Practical Magic house.

It resembles yours only in that both are above ground. That kitchen doesn't really belong in your home, so try to distill what you love about it, and borrow only those elements that can translate well to the House of the Seven Dormers, or whatever you would call your design.

Also, watch the movie again. I remember that kitchen being fairly dark.

I think an unfitted kitchen would work with many styles as long as
you keep the home's architecture in mind when choosing cabinets and
finishes. You seem to be losing a lot of space to the entry hall, and I
think the fridge would be too far away from the work area, if it was
recessed into the space beside the PR.

Here's a plan with a work island, no seating, with extra storage in shallow cabinets on the back side.

There is an unfitted hutch for
dishes, with corresponding open shelves in the other corner, for baking
staples. I made the windows
slightly narrower, to accommodate the shelves. The antique sink is under the windows, as in the first pic I posted above.

The
fridge is standard depth, with the base cabinets made deeper, to be
flush with the fridge box, or, if deeper drawer bases are not in the
budget, standard depth cabinets can be pulled out to the same depth.

A tall, shallow, unfitted pantry cabinet is on the top wall, near the entries and fridge. I'm not sure if the scale is exact, without drawing it on a grid. If you like the layout, let me know, and I'll try to draw it on a measured grid.

GW discussions--deeper counters

One discussion--deeper drawer bases

Free-standing shallow pantry:

Here's a version that might look more like the kitchen you want, but it won't function as well as the first plan I posted. You could separate the eating nook with a pony wall and spindles and trim to set it apart from the main kitchen. The fridge could be recessed in the area under the stairs, but I'd try to recess a landing space and pantry, too. Could the PR sink be partially recessed under the stairs?

The island is more like a work table, with a couple of central cabinets, and open shelving all around.

In both plans I moved the second set of French doors down, to mimic the glass cabinets in the movie kitchen. You could put the glass only in the top part, with panels on the bottom, to mimic the drawer fronts on the cabinets.

ETA, I'm wondering if I misinterpreted where you wanted to recess the
fridge. I assumed there was a closet built under the stairs--is the area
to the left an entry to basement stairs? Did you want to recess the
fridge in the opening to the right?

Shorter island and shorter, wider table:

Mama Goose, thank you so much for all your terrific suggestions. Let me think a little about each one and get back to you.

I should have mentioned that the part under the stairs is in fact access to the daylight basement. Also, I have the large hallway there as a way of corralling all of the kid traffic to the bathroom, upstairs and downstairs, and going from one porch to the other. I was hoping to separate the kitchen from that, in part to keep it cleaner.

I am planning to glass in the covered porch on the left side of the floorplan, so perhaps my pantry sink can go in there. Also I think we will use the study as a dining room when we have a lot of people, or we will eat outside. The kitchen eating nook would be for daytime use or a cup of coffee.

I had some time to put the last plan I posted on a grid, with two options for the fridge. 1) In the hall (not drawn) or 2) Recessed into the hall, with space beside it for a shallow shelf with hooks for jackets, backpacks, or purses. (blue lines)

The red lines indicate architectural trim to make the nook look more like the one in the movie, and to make it look like a separate space. The short pony wall could have a 'window' in it, to mimic the glass cabinet doors on each side of the movie nook, and the unfitted dish hutch could have glass doors to match.

Each square = 1 foot. Plan based on 15' x 24' for kitchen:

I keep trying to make the plan more like the movie kitchen, and more like your original vision. In this plan I put the antique sink where you had it drawn, with another full size sink under the middle window. The red blocks at each end of the counters, beside the dining nook, represent glass cabinets similar to the ones in this pic:

ETA, Since I love that kitchen (and old fashioned kitchens in general), I'm very intrigued by trying to make it work with a functional layout, but giving the look you want, and keeping in mind that it will be two separate prep stations.

In the following plans I took a foot from the hall, to make the cabinets framing the nook a little wider. The bases in the dividing cabinets would be deep pull-outs--on the DW side you could have a utensil pull-out for silverware, and on the antique sink side the pull-out could hold the oils and spices you use for cooking. Uppers would be glass like the cabinets in the movie kitchen, or the by the DW could hold a plate rack (perpendicular to the counter). Unloading the DW to the plate rack and/or dish dresser in the nook would be less convenient than if the dividing cabinets didn't extend beyond the counter, but if it's the look you want, maybe the kids can to a dish relay. ;) I forgot to mention in previous posts, but I put the DWs on the exterior wall, because I thought there would be more traffic on the inside aisle, and I like the idea of both DWs near one sink--easier to keep track of what's dirty, and you have m/l central dish storage.

You could also keep dishes in the large drawer to the left of the clean-up sink, but it would be in the main prep space, so less convenient for a helper to load or unload, if someone else is prepping there. An option would be to put the sink between the windows, and store dishes in drawers to the right of the DW on the right (second plan). In that case the dish dresser could become the freezer storage, and the dish hutch could be a tall pantry for bulk storage and/or canning supplies.

There is no upright fridge--only fridge and freezer drawers. I don't know if that's in the budget, but I'd rather have the fridge storage in the kitchen. I put an optional recessed pantry in the hall, where you had mentioned recessing the fridge.

The tall cabinet just inside the porch entry could be used as a broom closet, or for things you might need outside, or for more storage for the kids' things.

The dark boxes on each end of the range run are there just to mimic the tile columns in the movie kitchen, to be tiled to match the backsplash. You could tile the fronts only, and have shelves inside for display of old canning jars, crockery, teapot collection, etc.

There is now more floor space around the farm table, so enough space for seating on all sides, although I'd keep the end seat clear while someone is cooking.

One more, with a tall, deep cupboard on each side of the dining bench. I don't know if 2' will be enough space to allow someone to slide in, but the pic of the movie kitchen it looks as if there is less space.

Good luck with your new house and 'old' kitchen. I hope you'll keep us updated, and come back and post pics of the finished kitchen. :)

Remodelista on fridge drawers

Mama Goose, thank you so much for these sketches. I printed them all out for my husband and I to look over. Your comments are so helpful!

Eam 44, I like your idea about accommodating the style of my house to the kitchen design, instead of trying to put a victorian kitchen in a house where it doesn't fit. Regarding refrigeration I know my husband plans to put a large fridge in the daylight basement to help with party/entertaining food and drinks. I may someday need a separate fridge and freezer, but right now we don't even fill up my small bottom freezer fridge.

Lilly's mom, I think the glass porch might be the best eating area for a large group. I will have to play around with a couple different scenarios

I really like her last plan where she puts the tall cabinets on each side of the bench. The bench will seem out of place without that grounding - just as you see it has tall cabinets on at least one side of the bench in the example. It helps that end balance against the heavier end with cooktop.

I'm glad to have been helpful.

One of my sisters has the second fridge in the basement scenario. Heres how that works: go grocery shopping? Half of the groceries go downstairs. Which half? Ask mom. This means that no one puts the groceries away without you. Need something from the downstairs fridge? You will, probably daily, which isn't the worst part. The worst part is that you never go down just once for anything.

They are a family of five with three teenagers. My sister has a beautiful kitchen. The only thing that has her considering a remodel is... the refrigerator situation.

Eam and Lily's mom- good points about the refrigeration. I hadn't thought about other people putting food away. I will have to come up with a full-time fridge option for the main floor. I am just not sure those commercial fridges are the best use of money or space. Most of the people I know who have them don't use the space too well. Everything is always chaotic- like maybe there is too much room so nothing ever gets organized or thrown away?

Briana- I agree about the eating nook. For some reason it seems like putting the built in cabinets on either side would make it more cozy. I think even if it was a tight space, the fact that there is so much glass and so much view there would help make it seem bigger.

Mama Goose- what was the reason for putting the fridge drawers on either side of the range? It seems like it would make more sense to put them next to whichever sink doesn't have the dishwashers. I thought pots and pans, oils, slow cooker, small appliance storage would be a more natural fit next to the range.

Also, what about having a draper's table in the middle of the room to serve as both prep area and occasional casual eating area? Something like this with a walnut surface:

Mama Goose- what was the reason for putting the fridge drawers on either side of the range? Sorry, I should have explained. One reason is symmetry, but the main reason is your desire to have separate prep areas. Each fridge drawer is convenient to each prep station, but still easily accessed by someone using the other work station. If the drawers were on each side of the antique sink, anyone prepping at the clean-up sink would always be walking around the work table and across the kitchen to access the fridge.

You could stock the fridge drawer closer to the entry with things the kids use often, so that they don't need to enter the work space to grab a snack. You could designate a baking zone, and stock the closer fridge with items for baking--butter, eggs, cream, etc. I labeled the counter beside the clean-up sink as the baking area because the counter space is longer than that available next to the antique sink, but I was thinking how pretty large glass jars of flour and sugar would look next the the old sink, or on shelves beside it. You just need to decide where each zone works better for your cooking style.

In the last plan I posted, I put freezer drawers beside the antique sink, because freezers aren't accessed often--sometimes hours before prep is started, so it doesn't matter as much where they are located.

As I said before, I was trying to reconcile function with the vision of the movie kitchen. In my house, I wouldn't put the main fridge in another room, unless it was one step away, with it's own landing space (like just the other side of an open door way). I have no experience with fridge drawers, but they seem to fit the space. You could put a built in fridge where I had it in a previous plan, recessed into the hallway, but make it look like a large cupboard, to match the ones in the dining nook, or use a CD fridge, which would not need to be recessed. You'd need to rinse items at the sink, then carry them across to the table to be prepped--less convenient than having a nice prep space beside the sink, and the range on the same run, but it depends on how much function you are willing to trade for aesthetics. (I don't know the length of the antique sink, so you might have more space around it in the following plan.)

You could still have a fridge drawer closer to the clean-up sink/baking zone, or omit that and just have the standard fridge. With four kids, home grown garden produce, and frequent entertaining, an extra fridge drawer makes sense.

If a prep sink on the island is out of the question, the draper's table is beautiful, but speaking from experience, it won't be comfortable to sit at for a meal, because you can't scoot a chair or stool under due to the low shelf. The table in the movie is gorgeous, but it doesn't look comfortable at all, because there is no knee space. We converted a dining table to work-table height by adding feet and a similar low shelf. But we have a bench (crafted by my BIL) that is the exact height to sit and rest our feet on the low shelf, but just fits under the table, on the low shelf, so when we need to move it out of the aisle, we can stow it there--our table is only 5' long and doesn't need the extra leg for support. You won't want stools in the aisle while you are trying to load or unload the DWs, so maybe you can have the Amish cabinetmaker build stools to fit the space under a draper's table.

A few years after we started using the converted dining table and bench, I added a couple of vintage iron swing out stools to the short ends of the table. I really like them, because they m/l disappear when not in use. If it's in the budget, an old industrial style table, with swing out stools would work well in your space, or if you can't find an original, there are some great reproductions out there.

Here's a quick sketch that keeps your dining table and provides nook eating for the kids. All of the orange pieces are a 24" deep lower cabinet with a 12" deep upper centered over it to resemble the hutches in the pm kitchen.

Im not a layout guru like mama is, but I don't like to see flowing spaces cut up if it can be avoided. If some of this looks appealing, let me know what you'd like to keep.

If you haven't read the New to Kitchens? thread, you should check it out.
It has some great kitchen planning info--also explains the different zones in a kitchen, and how to make them work together. I usually post a link with my first post on a thread, but I must have forgotten.

ETA, an Etsy link to an industrial table like the one I posted above. It says vintage 1920's table base with reclaimed ash seats/maple top. Vintage lunchroom table