I do this for a living and love the old houses, the door is tops were it is... you can change the window and still make the sill sit at bench height. But I'd sit the window 200mm above bench height to give a more of a splash back feel, as if you use a sub tile for splash back there 100mm high so x 2 height will contrast well. I'd leave it and if it can fit just put the fridge next to the pantry door, all depends if you want to create a larger space? Then yes remove the pantry wall and use the space were you have the mini fridge , and of course if your going to live in it? Sometimes unless your doing this for a quick turn around actually puts a dent in the pride of the house as it is... Google and of course Houzz gives great options on what to do and what not, you'll be right but that's my input... Good luck!

Hi Anne, there are some good suggestions above, in addition the question I always ask is "where is north"!! This should be a consideration too, and it's a little hard to tell how this open plan room connects to the rest of the house - is it the door at the end of the lounge, and are those solid walls at that end? (You might want to consider taking the windows further into the corner of the lounge, to ensure you can see the view from your couch/lounge chairs etc). I am quite curious about what "view" it is! Ocean? Mountain? Although a kitchen-sink window is always great, because you tend to spend more time socialising and meal-prepping around the large island, we would suggest trying to have the island face the view, or if side-on to the view, that it isn't obstructed by other benches. With your room only 6.5m wide, if you rotated through 90degrees and placed the kitchen on the long wall and leaving the pantry/wet room 'behind' the kitchen as in the current arrangement this might potentially block the flow of circulation through to the rest of the house. You could consider leaving the kitchen as-is but moving the kitchen sink bench to the other side and making this a 'tall things' zone (fridges etc) and moving the sink to where the fridge was, and moving pantry entry to the same side as wet-entry. The reason I suggest this is because when you are cooking intensely, you want to minimise circulation routes through a kitchen, so people can come and go and access the fridge (and the wine!) without interrupting the cooking. Of course it is only access to the pantry, so this might be fine too however if you did move the pantry entry to the other end this would create a protected cooking zone at the 'view' end. Ultimately, there is the opportunity to fully glaze the view whether the island is side-on or facing the view - exactly like the kitchen image posted above! (But insert your view into the picture!) As a side note, some builders only complain about sliding doors because they are harder to install and problematic to fix if the architraves need to be removed and replastering done (compared with simply rehanging a swing door!) For a good builder it should simply not be an issue and will significantly improve your access to the space, we always do sliding doors into pantries! Also ditto about the width of the pantry, 1.8m would allow a 600mm bench space on one side for appliances to be kept out, normal depth drawers under and shelves over, and a wall of 300mm wide shelves the other side, this will genuinely feel like a 'big' pantry. And finally - a suggestion to NOT put an oven in the pantry if 4doz bottles of wine are in there! Even if you are not cellaring long term wine likes a nice stable (and cool) temperature for storage. Good Luck Anne!

what happened to the old column? i think you need to add a corner cabinet (900 on the stove wall and 1050 on the sink wall) with doors hinged across the corner provides 300 + 450 wide doors and better access to the corner for storage of big appliances and to allow more space for the drawers to open, the 1000 fridge space allows an air gap and two 750 wide drawers next to the 900 wide stove, i've kept the 1200 gap between benches and island and added a cabinet (opening toward the sink allows for a 600 wide 450 deep space for a bin) then two 750 wide drawers and the built in microwave making a longer island and extra drawers next to the dishwasher ...in my experience, if you're having custom made cabinets you only need to specify the size of appliances and sink, the general layout of the room and your preferred arrangements and approximate sizes and the cabinet maker should measure the site and custom make the cabinets to suit the space with minor alteration to allow for any obstacles eg like making the pantry cabinets narrower to allow for architraves around the entry door..and it's more comfortable to walk around if the pantry doesn't overlap the architrave or encroach on the doorway

Benchtop oven is one of those round glass ovens with the element in the lid. Cost me all of $35 and it's one of the best appliances I've ever owned. I cook everything in it and the bowl just goes in the dishwasher. Much easier than cleaning an oven. And it costs so little to run, heats quickly, and cooks superbly. Can't build it in though because you insert food through the top, be removing the lid, and then it gets pulled apart to wash the bowl after use. Accurate dimensions are a problem right now because this terrible virus thing has delayed our move into the house until end July. Very frustrating, but can't be helped. And we can't go to the house at the moment either, so I'm just working off plans as best I can. It's not ideal, and everything will have to be checked carefully when we move in, before we start any work. But I want to get going as soon as we move in so I want to have most of my plans almost confirmed. With the latest plan, I don't think I will reuse the existing cabinets after all. The kitchen is in excellent condition. I just hate the design. I think I'll sell the kitchen and start over. The cabinets seemed to work for my original plan - even had those lovely corner drawers! But I like your idea much better, Siriuskey, and the existing cabinets just don't work with that layout. I think it would be cheaper to sell the kitchen and start over. Maybe keep the oven tower with oven and m./wave in it, as they are in excellent order. Also keep the dishwasher, which probably doesn't even have to move at all.