I think your clearance from the island to the bifolds/sliding door is ok as long as you are not planning a row of stools in the gap? I can see why he is worried about the fridge in your second sketch. It's not great having it opening into the walkway into the pantry. What size fridge are you hoping to include? That's quite a high worksurface? The standard height including worktop is usually 900mm. However if he is tall it makes sense. Anything non standard could be harder to sell on one day although it shouldn't be a dealbreaker. Your pencil sketch although very neat is hard to make out in some areas!

900mm wide circulation space is the absolute minimum recommended but since you have planned big fridges and dishwashers to open into that space plus hubby is big….. I think the plan you have come up with is too tight.

Thank you Isla. Aiming for a French door fridge but under 900 wide and under 800 deep. Good advice about the bench tops too. Might need to compromise somewhere between. And yes sorry about the pencil. We have been making so many changes I gave up on pen and lost patience with an online version. 😉

Personally I think that you need more wall space in here so you should forget the bifold and use doors to the garden in the nearby dining area.

If you are going to have high counters then you can buy bigger kitchen cabinets rather than put standard cabinets on taller feet. Lots of German manufacturers have an 86cm high cabinet (with 7cm legs and 2cm worktop this is the night you are envisaging.

Since hubby is tall he can reach deeper worktops. Consider extra deep (70cm deep worktops and cabinets for extra storage.

Standard dishwashers are 81cm tall but you can buy taller (bigger inside) ones at 86cm.

But I think the best route to making this fit is having the pantry and laundry combined.

Thank Jonathan. What distance would you recommend? Version 2 is 1000mm. Our current kitchen has a small peninsula but it is 2100mm between beaches and it’s too far. It is also not wide enough to be useful. We had to put in a movable bench in the middle as a workaround. I’ve tried larger peninsulas on both sides, dividing the kitchen from dinning which improves the space between benches but feels liked the entry to the kitchen is too tight. I do worry our wish list is too much 🫣

Like this

We have talked about combining the laundry and pantry but we have animals and use the laundry for them. Don’t really want dogs going in and out via the pantry and I often have to wash (live) chickens in the laundry sink 🤭

You are so quick Jonathan! Thank you. I am intrigued by the idea to bring the dining room doors in. Can I ask what software you use please?

Turning the island and easy access to the pantry?

Thanks Katlucy. We had a similar version but yours is better. And I love there is someone else usigraph paper and pencil 😁

Love my graph paper…and a decent rubber!! Have lots of drawer units would be my advice.