You have 3 aisles - what are those measurements? The left wall to the two islands, between the two islands, and then between the island and the pantry wall.

You'll get more responses if you embed the image in your thread. I tried to do that for you but I don't have access to the HTML code to do that.

Go to Posting pictures for instructions how to do this from a Flickr account.

At first glance, I agree with the KD, however, as blfenton wrote, we need measurements for the entire space and for the aisles to really assess your plan.

The measurements of the aisles are: between fridge wall and two islands, 48", between the two islands, 46" - this could possibly be made 2" wider by narrowing the overhang where the stools are. This, by the way, is not the plan that the KD thought had too much walking space, she actually rather likes this one. My intention was to keep the fridge, cook top and prep counter relatively close which I think this does.
Carol
Here's my attempt at embedding the drawing.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68898472@N06/

Here I go again (getting tired of being rejected by a computer)

One thing is I think I would flip the 33" sink on the island and the baking counter. Put the sink of the other end so the baking counter is closer to the ovens.

What do you want us to do?

I guess I have a couple of stray thoughts right away. This is an example:

The working area of the kitchen is a hallway to the ref and other shall we say guest amenities like coffee - not usually a good idea.

One potential remedy - if the first aisle(against the office) had guest amenities, then it might contain:
the ref, the coffee, the wine, an entertainment sink or the main cleanup sink, bar/coffee dishes or all the dishes and the dishwasher. That would mean you can move the pantry and freezer over to the 11'10" back wall where they are a little more accessible.

I don't know if you're looking for little things like remodelfla offered or larger things like what I used as an example.

How disappointing, to have a plan you like...only to find out, it's not going to work (at least according to your KD).

Did you say, there's a window over the sink, on the wall? If not, I'd put the fridge on one side and the ovens on the other...with the sink in between. I love to bake, too and I would want some counterspace, by the ovens.

I think you've done a nice job with the islands. The cooktop and sink are not directly across from each other (well done) and I like the curve, for the stools.

Also, the wine storage/shelves give you something nice to look at, while working at the cooktop, but I would think about adding in more storage there...maybe a beverage fridge/coffee maker (as suggested earlier) perhaps even the microwave, depending on when you use it. Ours is mainly for defrosting meats and heating up frozen snacks. If you use it in the other area, then it makes sense to have it closer to the main fridge :)

bmorepanic,
Good question. I guess I would like confirmation that this plan would work. But if you don't think it would, I would like to know that also before I get much further along. I am in this house for life and want to make the kitchen functional and user friendly. I spend a lot of time there.

Essentially, this entire kitchen is a series of hallways. I'm calling it a hub. In actual fact, when the house is full, everyone hangs out in the kitchen. The dining room is used only for meals with more than 4 or 5 people and usually in the evening. So that particular "hallway" becomes a serving and clearing corridor at meal time. I don't see it as much of a problem when the dining room is not in use and during the main cooking time.

In one of my other iterations, I had the coffee/refreshment zone on the counter space next to the office. Here I included a small sink. But I kept getting stuck on the refrigerator and the need for milk. I could always get a small under counter sink for this, but I would not want my main fridge there, so far from the working zone. (I keep asking myself how many appliances a two person house needs!) I don't mind the pantry being a few steps away as it generally contains the bulk or less frequently used items. I intend to keep baking goods (flour, sugar, etc. in the drawers in the baking zone) along with the equipment required. That arrangement works well for me now.

The KD asked why I put the small sink next to the dw. To me, you don't need a big sink for rinsing dishes. When I need it for major cleanup of big items, it is close at hand. It is also at hand for washing a bucket full of greens from the garden.

The dw and dishes and glass storage are near the kitchen table where we eat most of the time. Having them in the "office hall" would be a long hoof. On the other hand, it is a good location for the overflow of the "good" china and fancy dishes used only on occasions.

Do you see any problems with the cooktop in that location? Because it is at the "back" of the kitchen, I have no problem with an over head hood as it will not block the view while in the kitchen.

I truly am open to all suggestions, big and small. It is very helpful to see this plan from other perspectives. I think I'm a bit too close to focus clearly.

Thanks for your ideas. Keep them coming!

Here's my thoughts:
Since your fridge is all-fridge, I would be annoyed (I think) by having to walk around to the all-freezer for ingredients all the time. I keep the freezer of my fridge stocked with a wide variety of frozen ingredients (stock, herbs, nuts, etc.) along with a small selection of frozen main things like veg., etc. I keep my freezer(s) stocked with considerable back stock of the above, and meats and the pre-cooked convenience items in my house. The all-freezers in my house act largely as warehouses, not convience places, so I don't go to then as often as to the freezer part of my fridge. It would be hard on my cooking patterns running to the freezer for the little dibs and dabs of ingredients in the middle of a meal prep.

Your proposed sink arrangements confuse me. I have to confess I don't use a DW at all, so maybe I'm not getting why it's positioned near what is usually the prep sink (smaller of the two in a kitchen). Do you use yours for most dining and cooking implements? Or are you predominately a hand-washer? If so, which sink would you use for that job? Also I think it's useful to concentrate the main storage points for the dishes and where possible, the cooking utensils in logical and easy to reach places that get as close to the storage sweet spot of use and cleansing as possible. You don't look like you have much dish storage near the DW and would you be storing all kitchenware under cooktop and in the drawers on the middle aisle? I think the present arrangement heightens the chance that DW-unloading will be a bigger chore than necessary. It's easiest when you can simply pull the darn trays out and mindlessly stow most of things within a few steps.

Can you make a clearer explanation of the vaulted ceiling/ 8" ceiling notes? Will you have clerestory windows over part of the room, or am I misunderstanding?

You ask if people think your plan will work. Well, technically 'most any plan will produce food. Whether it does so as efficiently as possible is another story.

It's an uncommon, and even, unpopular (here on GW) approach, but I always start thinking first not about what I want the kitchen to look like, nor even what I want to look at whilst cooking. Instead I start with the path of the food from storage to prep to cooking to plating to table and back to cleaning and on to storage. I think I would spend a few hours playing around with just the walls of the room and the adjacent room uses and see what can be devised about the best food and kitchen clabber paths. Think, too, about how and where the food comes into the house.

I am impressed with the graceful, lovely shape of your islands and your willingness to challenge, and if necessary discard, some of the much-beloved popular notions like the TV-cook style island cooktop facing towards the guests.

But I think your design can be improved with more focus on the food paths.

You have to be prepared, if you post a plan here, to get many well-meant efforts (definitely including my own comments) that either don't resonate with your notions, or are simply impossible. When I posted my plan, for instance, clearly saying that I had to leave the range against an exterior wall because I wanted direct venting, a very kind person spent a lot of time laying out my kitchen with a new arrangement with the range moved to an interior wall on the other side of my central hallway, with no reachable exterior venting. Despite, that, the re-jiggering exposed a place, almost as an aside, where a different important change was needed, so in the end I was very grateful. (But moved the stove back to its original position.)

Off-point comments don't reduce the benefits of fresh eyes and approaches which can lead to an unexpected improvements.

HTH,
L.

I've never seen this dual island approach before and then I see the other area with the pantry way off on its own away from the main area(which I have in my house and DESPISE, but to have more room, I had to transform our coat closet into a second pantry.)
Is there a reason you aren't doing one big island instead of the 2? I mean, from the drawing it looks like there is room for a LONG 12' island!
What is to the left hand top of the drawing-across from the small table? I'm thinking perhaps under that window(I'm thinking it is a window?) you could have a low hutch/cabinet to be the drink service area instead of taking up valuable real estate on that back wall.
Is there a reason you have an all fridge AND an all freezer? To me, this just looks like a nightmare. If you REALLY need a secondary fridge/freezer, is there a place in say a garage or basement where one can be kept instead of taking up such valuable real estate? Then you can have a combo fridge freezer in the kitchen which holds your most used items-milk, etc, and lesser used items, frozen produce from your garden, etc, can be stored elsewhere where you can bring it in as needed-like 1x a week grab the veggies, fruits and such you'll need for that weeks menu. I store drinks(beer, sodas, juices) in the outside fridge and replenish our indoor supply every few days and then that freezer holds stuff like pizza, frozen meals my husband takes to work(it is in the garage, so he just grabs one before he gets in his car).

There is something about your space that reminds me of the 2009 HB Kitchen of the year. Take a look at the video and see what you think.

Again, what bothers me about your design more than anything is that it leads people to use the center aisle, where you're trying to work, instead of using the side aisles. So this drawing could be more efficient and customized for you - its just for illustration and not meant as a completed plan. I don't know enough about you or your house to do one.

So this design isn't meant as "theater" cooking, it's meant to share the views from both prep and cook. It's meant to be pretty efficient for prep and cook - a couple of steps to do most anything (but the dishes). There are large surfaces available for large projects. And very little whirling about while dodging people who are looking for a beer.

This kind of thing (with remote dish storage and cleanup) isn't everyone's cuppa, and its shown as an idea of a combined cleanup, bar with its own undercounter ref (can be an inexpensive one or ref drawers) for storing drinks, wine and coffee cream.

Yeah, its another appliance, but it removes most of the need for guests and family to access anything in the business end of the kitchen and shifts them to the aisle where its convenient. It allows the size of the main ref to be reduced.

So, I encourage you to think about how you cook and where you need things. Just to use a small example, main prep will likely occur over top of baking storage. Baking storage is used only every so often, but you're going to need some wraps, bowls, plastic ware, knives, peelers, mixer, food processor, jar opener, can opener, or whatever you use for prep pretty often.

Where would you keep something like garlic, onions and potatoes?

Think through what happens in assorted scenarios and walk through your plan doing whatever - having cereal, making cookies, guys over for game watching or whatever.

It can be helpful to trace how you cook now. We did - dh wrote down what I did as I did it and we looked at how often I went assorted places and why. Before actually studying it, I would have said I did stuff in a way I just don't and optimized the wrong relationships between stuff. But with informed layout decisions, the next kitchens became much more effective and efficient.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ina Garten gives a tour of 2009 kitchen

I agree with bmore that the biggest problem with your kitchen is the way it invites people to walk right through your workspace. I clicked on the house beautiful link and then clicked on the additional video on kitchen organization and Ina Garten states that a design encouraging non-cooks to walk into the cooking zone is the #1 mistake people make when designing a kitchen.

You may be able to save your double island, however, by just incorporating some of bmore's suggestions which would guide people to the perimeter. I like the idea of and look of the "wall of tall" and I also agree that if your coffee and clean up area needs to be moved to the location bmore suggests (if you don't want a drink fridge, put the main fridge at that end of the wall of tall).

very randomly and very quickly I thought of a rough something like this. I do not have software to really draw so I did not do measurements for exact placement... just an idea to throw out there. I like that the pathways are more constricted but still available. And I like dual islands.
{{gwi:1963888}}

bmore articulated what I was thinking, "...what bothers me about your design more than anything is that it leads people to use the center aisle, where you're trying to work, instead of using the side aisles."

As others have pointed out, there are ways to address this. Going to be interesting to watch your plan evolve!

Without reading all the other coments, I see a banquette or larger dining area by the deck wall. Also, I like bmorepanic's layout.

bmore's is more like I was picturing it in my head.
If you REALLY want the views, I'd consider a peninsula facing the views and an island behind in the center.
I wish i had pictures of my MILs kitchen. Her island is MASSIVE, but it has a built in bar, seating, wine storage(including wine fridge) and areas on the sides to hold all of the glasses.
I'm wondering if one side of one of the islands that isn't on the interior of the work area can be used for your beverage station instead of having it separated in a location on its own.

Wow! I am overwhelmed with all the responses and ideas. I will attempt to work through them methodically as I try to digest all the suggestions.

bahacca and bmorepanic, I have seriously looked at the long island configuration that runs perpendicular to the windows. It is an option that does work. But the more I test that one out in my current kitchen, the more I feel frustrated. I like facing the windows where I am also closer to the skylights and feel like I am almost outdoors (where I really prefer to be). So I hope to find a way to do that.

I understand the concern that the center work island might become a corridor and I am trying to think that one through. I centred the fridge on that aisle for the cook's convenience not thinking about my 26 year old's sons need for a beer! Perhaps a beverage fridge on the 9' wall along with the wine and corkscrew. It would also be a good spot for coffee but for fact that the most common items to come out of my dw are the mugs. It would be a long walk to put them away unless I also put a small dw on that wall. (Do I need two dws?)

I do agree that the most usable wall in the kitchen is the 12' one and that for that reason it is the perfect spot for tall things, like the fridge, oven, pantry. But if I take the dw and dish storage away from there, where do they go? Somehow that 9' wall seems too far from the table. And wouldn't I be frustrated carrying all my dirty cooking utensils over to there as well? Once I planned for the dw and dish storage to be near the kitchen table, it made sense to have the coffee there too. Am I going in circles?

liriodendron and bahacca, you have both addressed my fridge/freezer choices. I have to say, choosing appliances has been one of the most difficult decisions. I like the all fridge because of the amount of produce storage it gives me and I chose the all freezer because it did not cost much more than freezer drawers and would hold more. However, after reading your posts, I have thought more about how much I do use the freezer and how frustrating to not have it near at hand. I am probably into it more that I ever realize: all my nuts are kept there, frozen berries, and the sliced bread for sandwiches and toast, etc. So, I believe it makes sense to go with a 36" wide fridge/freezer and, I could then get fridge drawers for both beverage storage and overflow of produce and these would go on the 9' wall.

The "food path" which has been addressed by several of you seems to me to be: garden to big sink for washing, to fridge for storing. From fridge to prep counter to (possibly) the cook top where it might be combined with other fridge or pantry items, or the steam oven or main oven for cooking. Then, into a serving dish or straight onto a plate. Baking elements come from fridge, baking drawers and, often, pantry (raisins, oats...) then to the ovens. Hot pans and sheets need to go on the cooking island when they come out of the oven. Dirty dishes from the table, small cooking utensils and bowls, cups and glasses go to the dw and large items that require washing go to the big sink. Spices will be in a drawer next to cook top, oils, vinegar, etc. in the pullouts on either side of the cooktop. Am I missing anything? The pantry is probably the least used space in that the items stored there are not used all the time (canned goods, beans, baking speciality items, bulk oil and vinegar,...), so I think it could stay on the further wall. Everyday food items, such things as crackers and cereal could go in a cupboard near the fridge. Dishes would be stored in the drawers to the right of the dw and glasses and mugs in the cupboards above.

Sinks: I like the big sink on the island but am not sure if I need another so close. The main purpose for it was to dump liquids before heading to the dw and to refill the water reservoir in the coffee maker. Also, with glasses stored above, a good spot for a drink of water. I could do all that from the big sink though. I don't usually rinse dishes, just scrape off the bits into the trash. Would I find a 4' walkway between sink and dw a problem? I don't really want the dw on the sink island because I covet the idea of a wide bank of drawers for baking goods, bowls, and all the paraphernalia.

Windows: lavenderlass, there is no window on the 9' wall, there is one at either end of the jogged out area where the small table is and an entire wall of glass on that far wall going out to the deck. Above this are 4 skylights which are part of the vaulted ceiling. This ceiling runs up to about 14' height then drops down to 8' just above the sink island. Standing at that island, I don't just see out but also up to the sky and to the tops of the tall fir trees that surround us. The portion of the vaulted ceiling that is not skylights is t&g wood. Essentially, this was an addition done before we bought the house.

Have I addressed everyone's questions? There was a lot to digest in all your comments and I will go through them all again. I am going to carry on trying to make the two islands work but perhaps reduce the need for people to take the short cut to the fridge and coffee. Thank you everyone for your help. It
is great to have the "fresh eyes" on my plan and your comments are invaluable.

Carol