Am trying to picture the island...5 x 10, perpendicular to your cooktop wall, with one half at one height, and the other 5x5 half at 5 inches higher? What would be under that half/How large is the overhang? Will you be able to reach the center for cleaning it?

This would be far easier with a plan or something to see. You have no plan on your computer you can download to a photo site? Do you have a phone that takes photos or anything?

For over the sink...Good, bright, clear light. I prefer halogen...A 'Halogena' bulb in an incandescent fixture works, too.

I'm going to try real hard to get some pictures. I'll be out there this afternoon to prime some walls! The raised area of the island would be open under with table legs to make the sitting area. I'm also going to try to "make" the island out of cardboard or something to get a better feel for the size. I'm thinking 4 feet wide could visually look better and yes be easier to clean. Thanks

I am impressed by your description! I think either 4 or 5 feet will work, but 5 feet will be pretty wide. I can reach 3 feet to clean my 4 foot wide island.

We have two chairs across the end and one down one side only on our island. There is occasionally a little knee bumping but it works fine, and I think the seating goes to 30 inch width down the side. Four feet of side seating should be plenty. Remeber that if you raise the end of the island your "cleaning reach" may be less depending on your height.

I have all drawers in my island except under the prep sink and in the knee well in front of the side seat. If you have other places for the larger pots and other items, you could probably do all drawers. It sounds like the pantry wall will provide plenty of storage for that stuff.

One of my son's favorite things is the "snack drawer" right next to the seating area: I may have to move it to a less convenient location since I have no self control these days!

Instead of 5 feet low and 5 feet high, I would go 6 low and 4 high. You only need to feet per person so actually you'll need to go a bit longer than 4 feet to account for the legs. And with cabinets back to back, you will have 4'4" wide once you add the counter overhang.

Here's how it might look with the 5 foot wide island separated into 6' and 4' (although it looks almost even in the overhead). I wasn't sure how your other corner was set up, so I left it open for now.

I can do a rendering with a 4 foot wide island later, but I'm heading out right now.

WOW! I appreciate the help from this site! You are all amazing.

Houseful, to think that someone would take the time to do what you did! You are awesome and that is my kitchen! I guess my description was better than I thought. The only thing is that the pantry is actually in the other corner and then cabinets will go all around the corner on the rights side. So, if I have rather large, beefy looking island legs, I'm assuming I will need 48 inches up to the leg in order to get the stools "under and inside." How much "overhang" is there usually for an island area like this?

Also, I think I've decided to definitley bump out the areas in front of the cooktop and sink. Does anyone know if this is usually about 6 inches? Then...should I also make the island a little smaller to account for this added dimension. DH really wants to make sure it doesn't get to tight. He originally wanted to have 5 feet between the island and all other cabinets, etc. We have 3' currently and it is tight for a busy family of 6.

So now the fun stuff...we are having cherry cabinets made and I'm looking at a rather lighter stain with a glaze over. Then the island will be painted black. We are looking at probably uba tuba or a different very dark granite on cabinets and then a lighter granite over the island. Any suggestions on this? I think a butcher block top would be really cool on the prep are possibly, butI'm chicken. Actually I'm concerned to even have granite ruined by hubby or the boys.

Again....THANK YOU for your help. You are so appreciated! I hope I can soon post pictures of progress!

I love doing this and it takes my obsession off of my floorplan, LOL!

If you have 6 inch legs, then your seating area may have to be 5 feet wide. Making the seating area wider than the prep area is an option. I've seen that in many kitchens. I'll let the design experts answer your other questions since I am very challenged in that area :)

So, a few things occurred to me as I was doing your revision. If you want to bump out the stove and maintain the 4 foot aisle, you will have to shorten your island. If you bump out your sink base, you have to decide whether you want to maintain 4 feet from the bumpout or from the rest of the counter run. This could throw off the location of your island if you wanted it centered.

This leads to my next questions - is your cooktop centered between the pantry and the other wall or centered on the entire room. Does it matter to you if your island is not centered with your cooktop?

Let me know what you decide.

Houseful...you must have missed my post a few weeks back with the dilema concerning the off centered island, kitchen & hood. I almost put a STOP to drywall and knocked out the pantry etc because I finally saw things 3-D and off center. I went ahead with the off centered kitchen. That means that YES the cooktop is centered on the wall between the pantry and the other wall. The island is then centered in the center of the room. I set the room up "makeshift" and actually realized I liked it anyways. It is so far off center that it looks fine rather than being just a little off as if it was just a mistake with things not lining up quite right. Also others shared their pictures etc and I like the idea that the hood area will be seen more like a focal point rather than being hidden behind the island chandeliers. And I really hated to give up the walk-in pantry. I'm really thinking about going with a 4 foot wide island now because with the overhang it will be a little larger and with the bumpouts I don't want it to be too tight. It is very important for us to have space between walkways, etc. I was a little concerned with the island appearing to square, big or boxy. Also, 5 bar stools will actually be fine (one at the end and two on each side). When does Mom ever get to sit at the island anyways? I'm always up serving and preparing when people are at the island. Again, thanks for all input and help!

Ah yes, I do remember that thread although I didn't realize you were the OP. I wouldn't care if things were off-center if the overall design is pleasing, which I think yours is. Keeping the pantry was very smart, IMO.

And your right, we never sit much in the kitchen, LOL!

How deep is your fridge run and how wide is the entire kitchen. I just need those two measurements and I can finish your rendering.

Thanks again for the help. Our width is 17' 2". The fridge run is 24 because we actually built a niche in the wall and the fridge sits into the wall to give more of a built in look without the extra cost or smaller capacity fridge.

Things got kind of crazy with the cabinet maker. His samples were stunning and the stains perfect. Though I have to basically change all of my upper cabinet layout related to the size restraints of my kitchen. To think I've been playing with the same plans on graph paper for about a year. I just didn't realize how narrow some of my cabinets were getting. It looked fine on paper. Also, the bump out in front of the cooktop can't be done the way I wanted because of the short span there too. The hood is beautiful, but at 5' long I'm starting to question that decision. We were to have two cabinets (full length, touching the counter) one toucing the pantry wall and then going towards the hood and the other glass cabinet was to be at the end of the cabinets to the right of the sink. We were going for varying heighth cabinets and again the wall space and corner make that look srange. I had decided to just build tall cabinets with a stacked look of small cabinet above each with a glass door. Now I'm thinking about going back to the glass door full counter touching cabinet. positioned as I explained earlier. I was thinking these could be about 1 foot from the ceiling and all the others would be dropped lower than these. Would it be possible for you to try to put those uppers in for me to visualize. I would appreciate your effort and time so much. I thought it would be better than the graph paper that failed me. Thanks!

My cabinet maker was planning to start these in the morning. I hope he will stick us through our delay as he has another new home waiting for him after ours!

Here's a start. My computer is supposed to be strong enough to support this new program I just got, but something keeps locking up when I try to change some of the colors and materials.

I made the bar a bit narrower to give you more aisle room especially by the fridge. You could probably go even go 6 inches narrower or just keep it the same as the prep counter. All counters measure just under 2'2" to account for counter edges so aisles are true measurements.

I tried to read back...Is the glass cabinet to the counter something you're set on, or just considering? It crowds the cooktop and will always be spattered and covered with a coating of grease, I'd think. I'd also prefer more visual balance than you can get with it that size and in that location. This is why 3D renderings are so helpful and why I couldn't have designed our kitchen without them.

If the island seating is for snacks and on-the-run meals, it's OK to leave your seat off...But if you use it for meals, please make sure you have room to join your family!

WOW! You are all amazing to help me through this almost crisis. It looks great...I had forgot to tell you that the window wall actually is much smaller. It is only 10 feet and then opens up to a really nice kind of circular/octagonal area with windows surrounding the angled walls. This will house a round table to seat up to eight.

I definitely agree about taking the glass cabinet to the counter off beside the cooktop. Also, what do you think about an angle upper cabinet in the corner afterall?

We did decide to have 1 barstool at the end of the island as we have the table area for dinner etc.

Thanks for all the help! This is coming together! Yesterday was such a disasterous day that I'm feeling refreshed...again. Never dreamed that GC'ing our own home would be quite this draining and time consuming. IT WILL BE WORTH IT!

I love the glass cabinet look and you can still incorporate smaller ones somehow. I put a lazy susan and corner cabinet by the sink. What about a glass cabinet in the corner with a tambour(sp) door for appliances?

Whatever you decide, you're going to have one beautiful kitchen. I have to admit my green-eyed monster is starting to surface, LOL!

{{!gwi}}

OK, I'm getting more than excited! Thanks for all your help. I have 10 foot ceilings and trying to get those upper cabinets finalized. I'm still thinking about the glass ends, the corner cabinet in glass is a great idea too. I'm thinking about staggering the cabintes. The corner one being higher, etc. I'll also have a built in desk over on the other wall on the opposite side of the table window that is depicted. So, I'm thinking of a glass cabinet over the desk somehow might work nice. Oh, I just feel so relieved that it is going to come together! Thanks for all your time and work on this project for me. Anymore suggestions from anyone?