I have a smaller version of the kitchen in island layout. It's been very functional.

Re: the aisles are not overly generous: My island has no seating (smaller kitchen, no room for the overhang), and has 45 inches on the backside. I'd say that your 48 inch aisle back there is "sit and chat" space more than it is "room for a comfortable meal" space. Is that OK? Are you planning smaller-scale stools? Think about whether kids will be running through the kitchen while someone is seated there, too.

The aisle space in front of my dishwasher is 48 inches. I can open the dishwasher drawer and store dishes in the drawer stack in the island easily. You may not be able to open the drawers quite all the way, but it's not too bad. The aisle space in front of my range is 42 inches, and I've found that to be plenty of room there.

My dishwasher and sink are scooted down a bit on my L, and the trash pull-out is between my sink and susan. Moving your trash pull-out to the other side of the DW would keep you from having to cross the aisle when prepping, but is still a couple steps down from the main work area between sink and stove.

One of your lower cabinets should have vertical tray storage, unless your cookie sheets are in that pantry unit already? One thought would be to convert that 36 inch base unit to two 18 inch base units, one with trash pullout and one with vertical tray storage, then widen the drawers in the island a bit to fill in. (27 to 30 inch drawers are pretty versatile.)

i just went from pennisula to island and my SO was questioning me but it is so much better. We also had it before in our last house and the simple thing of taking the dishes from the table to the sink were very annoying with the pennisula and flows much better with the island. I also had to kick people out of my kitchen when entertaining with the penninsula. I havent entertained yet but I am guessing the flow will be much better. We also had a cook top on ours which was the main reason for the reno but if it wasnt there we may have considered salving the cabinets.

Thank you both for your practical experience. Since we do have the kitchen table and dining room table we won't be eating our meals at the island. My intent was to have someplace for friends to sit and chat while I was finishing up preparing a meal, or a place for kids to sit to help make cookies or something like that.

Re: the vertical tray storage, I have learned on this forum how important that is! I'm planning on putting vertical storage over the refrigerator. Thank you for mentioning it though.

How often do you use the counterspace on the peninsula? If I were to imagine myself working in your U kitchen, I think that area would not serve much function outside of plating or laying out food. With the island I see more useful and multipurpose function. If you can, I'd switch the sink and DW to gain more area between the sink and range.

We actually use the penninsula quite a bit because there is not very much room between the sink and range as is. It is less than ideal, however, when stuff is dripping etc. I'm considering the island because it would give us additonal counterspace closer to the sink and range.

Hi, i am going for an island, and our kitchens are quite similar so I'm feeling better about my design. I do have some tall storage where you have a doorway, but the arrangement is almost the same.

I would not move the dishwasher, as I don't think it should be in the corner. I'd consider making the island larger.

Jeannie

Here is a link that might be useful: Similar Kitchen with island

Do those aisle widths include the counter overhang on your cabinets? I.e., are they measured cabinet-to-cabinet OR counter edge-to-counter edge? Counters overhang cabinets by approx 1.5". So, if the aisles on your layout are cab-to-cab (which they appear to be), then your actual aisles are really 3" narrower b/w the sink and island (1.5" on sink run + 1.5" on island) and 1.5" narrower b/w the pantry & island (1.5" on pantry counter). That means you actually have 39" and 46.5" aisles.

Something else to be aware of: A kitchen w/an island and counters on both sides of the island and seating at the island should really be at least 181.5" (15'1.5") wide:
25.5" counter + 36" aisle + 40.5" island + 54" aisle + 25.5" counter = 181.5"Or, with a 42" aisle:
25.5" counter + 42" aisle + 40.5" island + 54" aisle + 25.5" counter = 187.5"
Perimeter counters = 24" deep cabinet + 1.5" edge overhang
Island = 1.5" edge overhang + 24" cabinet + 15" seating overhang = 40.5" (add a "decorative door" on the back of the island, and it should be 41.5" deep)
54" aisle = 21" for a seated person + 33" for someone to walk by or stand at the pantry; 60" is better, but I think 54" will suffice in most cases, especially since you don't plan to eat your meals at the island.

For reference/experience...I have 48" b/w my peninsula and my DR table. When someone is sitting at just one place (i.e., table OR peninsula), it's not easy for someone to pass b/w the empty, pushed in stools and the person sitting at the table (or the empty, pushed in DR chairs & the person sitting at the peninsula). We've had to push our DR table over to add about 6"...but now the chandelier is lined up w/the edge of the table instead of the center. Even the resulting 54" isn't ideal, but it works.

Where does that door in the upper left corner lead? If it's a well-used door (like the family/good friends entrance), the 48" (or 46") aisle could be an issue even if someone is just sitting there for a chat.

I like your island layout very much. My only suggestion is that you have a place in your island or perimeter where you can keep the foodstuffs that you reach for many times a day. E.g. oils, cooking spray, etc. It is not a long walk to your pantry unit, but if you're crossing over there several times a day to fetch and put away bread, etc., it may get annoying (especially if that's a traffic-y area).

I didn't realize that I was getting annoyed walking across the kitchen to get stuff until I moved it. I moved oils, vinegars, cereal, bread and peanut butter -- my kids eat cereal and toast for snacks. I am much handier keeping that stuff where I use it! In exchange, I moved large, not-often-used tupperware containers and salad bowls to the pantry -- stuff I don't get out that often. So...just an idea.

Re: the DW, I think remodelfla was referring to your peninsula plan, or was it the island plan? For the island plan, I'd leave it where it is to keep cooking separate from cleanup -- especially if you have helpers who can unload the DW while you fix a meal.

So what is your situation...do you have more than one cook or cleanup-helper?

And BTW, that granite is yummalicious!! What kind is it?

JeannieMer- thank you for posting! Do you know what your aisle dimensions will be?

Buehl- thank you for your comments, I was hoping that you would weight in. The door in the upper left corner leads to the garage. We are having the cabinets custom made, so it would be possible to have 1.5" overhang + 22.5" wide cabinets + 12" overhang to keep the total island top at 36" and maintain the 48" aisle/ 46.6" where base cabinet is in the pantry row.

Alternatively, is there anything else you would suggest doing? Is the peninsula the best use of the space, or should I pursue a narrower island with a couple seats at one end instead of along the back?

Scootermom- right now it is just my husband and myself, and we split cooking/cleaning duties. Our lazy susan holds our oils/vinegar (and is mostly empty so we can definitely add more frequently used items to that area!) The granite is called Hurricane.

Again, thank you all for the comments!

Here is a link that might be useful: google image results for hurricane granite

I have a pre-reno u-shaped kitchen too. I like my peninsula. I'm currently thinking that I'll keep my footprint the way it is. It's very functional for me. Granted, I've never had an island, so maybe I just don't get it.

Majra, I really think it depends on the size of the U and the dimensions of the room. I am keeping my U, but after a lot of thought as to how to create an island and it did not make sense to me. Unlike my kitchen, Hab14's U is wide enough, she can fit her stove and fridge and comfortable counter spaces between.

The advantage of an island is that counter to the left of her sink will become more usable because the corner right now is not very accessible for prep or cleanup. And, she gains the island space which isn't that much smaller than her peninsula.

Finally, with the peninsula unit, she has one less corner in her lower storage where she needs either a lazy susan or a door on the opposite side to access the space.

Thank you all for your thoughts. My mom has a peninsula, but her oven is right "across" from the peninsula (where my pantry unit is) so its only a couple steps from her prep surface to the range. If I'm prepping on the peninsula its several steps to the range, which is just not ideal when things are dripping, etc.

However, since I've never lived in a house with an island I'm still a little hesitant, as I don't want to feel like we can't move around. I'm going to do a little more mocking up tonight to get a feel of the aisle space and what will work for us. If anyone else has any ideas, please let me know!