For option three, I like the idea of putting legs on and doing seating on three sides. So far, my family members haven't been enthusiastic, but I would love to hear what others think! Here is a picture of what I am thinking of:

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Thanks for your comments, I do worry about the aisle width. I like the idea of using boxes to figure out the three dimensional feel of the island since we have no furniture in the house at the moment. I wonder if option 2 might be doable because even though there is just 41 inches on two sides of the island, it is next to cupboards that won't be used as much as the stove and fridge for example. However, I am curious to hear if it would be strange to the island to have a 5 1/2 foot aisle on one side.

5-1/2' almost negates the reason for the island in the first place, which is to make the kitchen more efficient! (48-54" is optimum for me).

sjhockey, thanks for your comments. So it sounds like your thought is 5 1/2 feet aisle between the sink and island will be too far for prep? I had been thinking option 2 might not be bad for taking stuff out of the fridge, chopping it, and then putting it on the stove. But I didn't think about the washing vegetables part. If you don't think an island will work in this kitchen, would you recommend a portable island?

I would love to hear from those of you that have smaller kitchens and have little islands with less aisle space. It seems like in old threads that some people might be more comfortable smaller proportions

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2665008/show-me-pics-of-your-small-kitchen-island

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2690074/can-you-put-an-island-in-small-kitchen

OK, we are all different so using boxes and pretending you are working in the kitchen is really your best bet to figure it out. And you should ask all other people in your family to participate. If you have kids who will probably want to come in the kitchen during meal prep or clean up, they should participate. If they are little, have others pretend to be them so you will know what it is like when they are fully grown.

People should be going through the motions of actual tasks, like someone is baking, someone else is making dinner and someone else is unloading the DW. And then someone else pops into the kitchen to make coffee. Whatever. You get the idea, right? Obviously, tweak the scenarios based on what is common for your family or what you would like to be common and comfortably do-able.

41" aisles are going to create congestion at the access points to your kitchen, IMO. They would not work with my family.

And to show how we are all different, I totally disagree with sjhockeyfan. I have a peninsula that is disconnected from the other cabinets in my kitchen so it functions more like an island. It is still temporary so we have been playing with placement. We liked the peninsula 54" from the main perimeter counters but we just recently moved them 62" away and LOVE the extra spaciousness. It is very efficient for both individual worker and multiple workers. Obviously, this is a YMMV issue.

If I had your kitchen, I would probably put a small work counter or butcher block on wheels there instead of a bigger island.

At 16x10.5, your kitchen is not small. You have entered the medium category.

Perhaps consider living with a portable island for 6-12 months, to give you flexibility before/if you decide to build a permanent island fixture.

Another option would be to add a peninsula to the left side making it a G shape kitchen. Just an idea.

https://www.google.com/search?q=g+shaped+kitchen+floor+plans&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AVqFQoTCNC8iYvh9scCFYWbHgodAUsOGw

What don't you like about your existing kitchen? What do you like best? Other than doors that aren't falling off, what are your goals for the remodel? (for example - my goals were to increase storage and prep space, reduce clutter on the counters, and vent the range hood).

What purpose will the island serve, that isn't being served by your current layout?

A sketch showing how the kitchen relates to the rest of the house would be helpful.

We have 38" isles which by GW standards is horrific. Yes, the dw or fridge does pretty much block it off if one is open. If that is the case then the person coming through is smart enough to just go the other way around. I love that I can open the fridge and place things right on the counter in the center of the room. I can wash veggies and turn around and put them on the same counter where it is all now easily accessible. Good luck!

Are those new cabinets already?? If it were me I would change that footprint (get rid of the U) to move the stove and refrigerator to one side or the other and clear one side. That would allow a longer and thinner island. You could have three seating facing the sink or three seats with 2 on the long side and 1 on the short side. 51 inches is too deep. I would keep it around 40 or less. you could recover some lost cabinets on the sink side of the island and maybe even get your MW off the counter and put it under the island. Putting a 51 square island in a U shaped kitchen like that is going to feel claustrophobic.

I vote for option 1. Maybe just shave 6" off the island for more aisle space. But I have 36" aisles (gasp) and I think they are fine. Worth the trade off for more counter space.

Hi, thanks so much for everyone's thoughtful comments. So this is the new kitchen, and changing to a peninsula isn't an option at this point. That said, I have already thought if I would do it again, I might possibly switch to a peninsula. When I designed the kitchen, I had input from quite a few places (not on here though and we couldn't do a kitchen designer this time around :), and it seemed like a 4 x 4 island would be doable and look okay. Now that the rest of the kitchen is in, I am unsure. A novices trial and error! My family also suggests using a portable island for a while. Anyone know where to find a nice one with seating for two?

As for how I would like to use the island, I would love to have at least seating for two people, and I would love to have a place to place things when I pull them out of the fridge, or when I am preparing plates, etc. Also, my original plan was to put a microwave drawer in the island, but budget was getting too tight towards the end so we put it on the countertop for now. Not ideal, but as we tell ourselves, it is still a huge step up from our prior kitchen.

I tried to figure out an L shape when I was first working on the design. However, there was an obstacle I couldn't figure out, and so went with the U, plus liked the coziness of it (though now have the island issue). Basically, starting at the window, for four feet the ceiling is one foot lower than the rest of the ceiling. We are using stock cabinets in limited sizes, and so there wasn't a cabinet that over the fridge in the lower section. Probably could have still figured it out, but the L design seemed a little crunched.

This is a relatively low cost kitchen so it is feasible to change it in a few years. But for now, I suppose I will have to consider the portable island. Thanks again!

Also emilyam819 , thanks for your vote :). I am still considering option 1. Maybe even have it be 51 inches wide and 40 inches deep, so opening a little more space up

Quick update - my contractor said it wouldn't cost much more to switch it to a peninsula than to do the island. So I would love to hear any ideas on how to make it work best, and will have to consider this option! The peninsula would need to be on the stove side, and we would probably need to switch to a smaller cabinet to the left of the stove (and move it to the peninsula). I just checked the length available on that side, and it is 31 inches to the molding around garage door.

For us to advise you on that, we really need to see a floorplan of the entire floor. At the very least, the rooms adjacent to the kitchen. We need to see how things flow together, traffic patterns, and such. Something hand-drawn is fine. To scale is best using graph paper. If that's not possible, at least dimensions need to be provided. And please identify what the surrounding rooms are used for.

If the garage door is on the stove side, I would not do a peninsula there. If you enter the house through the garage, you would have to go all the way around the peninsula to enter the kitchen area. A kitchen with 2 entry points (around the island) is much better than one, almost always, IMO.

We'd like to help, but we need more information so we can help you design a Kitchen that will work for you and your family. Please see the Layout Help and Kitchen Design FAQs for more information on what we need. E.g., we need a measured layout with the lengths of all walls/windows/doors and the distances b/w each wall/window/door (there's an example in the Layout Help FAQ.)

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One thing you want to be sure to avoid (if you stick with an island) is a "barrier island" narrow aisles will create a barrier island, wider ones will help prevent a barrier island.

In addition, since your refrigerator is on the opposite side of the Kitchen from your Prep & Cooking Zones -- with the Cleanup Zone and DW b/w them -- narrow aisles will be even more of an issue - you have to dodge a potentially open DW door to get to/from the refrigerator and Prep & Cooking Zones. To expect someone to go around that island while prepping or cooking is not very cooking-friendly! If you keep this layout, I recommend the aisle b/w the perimeter and island be at least 48" - and that's measured counter edge-to-counter edge, not cabinet-to-cabinet.

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Kitchen Design FAQs:

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How do I ask for Layout Help and what information should I include?

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2767033/how-do-i-ask-for-layout-help-and-what-information-should-i-include

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Kitchen work zones, what are they?

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2767031/kitchen-work-zones-what-are-they

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Aisle widths, walkways, seating overhangs, work and landing space, and others

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2767035/aisle-widths-walkways-seating-overhangs-work-and-landing-space-an

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How do I plan for storage? Types of Storage? What to Store Where?

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2767036/how-do-i-plan-for-storage-types-of-storage-what-to-store-where

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Thread: Ice. Water. Stone. Fire (Looking for layout help? Memorize this first)

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2699918/looking-for-layout-help-memorize-this-first

Thank you so much everyone! I just came down with a bad cold so will be out of commission until I feel better, but will follow up when am I fully functioning again. emilyam819 thanks very much for your comment - I am still leaning toward adding the island. Perhaps even option three but a little thinner, and with seating on the end. I know this isn't the classic layout for the island, but I think it will work well and I can get bigger aisles.