Lindsey +1. If you switch the ovens and refrigerator, you have a very nice and very workable kitchen. With plenty of walk space.

Thank you to everyone who replied. I think the fridge could be moved and switched and the cooktop and double ovens could go along the other wall.

Could I just switch the island to have the cabinets on the side by the fridge and the stools on the side by the double oven?

I wouldn't . The people sitting at the island are wanting to visit with you in your work zone. So they want to face where you are. You also don't want them sitting and walking inside the work zone.

And you don't want to move the cooktop. It is in the perfect place. Only the ovens.

If you think of how you work in your kitchen, you will realize you use the refrigerator a great deal more often than you use the ovens. The ovens can live outside your regular work zone.

How important is it to have the dbl oven and stovetop on the same wall. I don't have a question mark, long story. If they are split up with the stovetop and fridge together on the current stove wall, and the dbl oven on the current fridge wall, that would make the most sense to me.

Not to complicate things, but you could consider a different shape island, so the stools wouldn't have to directly back up to the fridge or the ovens. Here are some ideas for triangular islands, some with prep sinks. Your space would dictate how big it could be. How many stools are you hoping to have?

Thank you for all the suggestions. We are reusing luxury cabinets that came out of a difference home, so I have to use the rectangular cabinets for the island, but the other shapes were a great idea.

I've only ever had a range, so I'm not sure how much of an issue it would be to have the cooktop and oven separate. I guess I assumed that it would be better to have the ovens near the cooktop, but I can see now that the fridge would be helpful as well.

Ok maybe I am seeing wrong but where are you fitting a dining room table in there with the island projecting that far into the room and all those openings?

This was from an earlier plan. We expanded the width a bit. I'm also thinking of changing the doors to be sliding glass doors instead of french. Seeing this now, I probably need to make that change.

Wait, your 51" wide island is over a single row of cabinets? (judging from the second drawing, which has it 39" wide) That's crazy. If this island is at counter height, you basically need a maximum of 15" to feel comfortable sitting at the counter -- I have a foot in my kitchen (where it's very close to the dining room table), and I never feel like I'm perching. So I'd say that the 39" width is more than enough, and wider is just setting you up to have an unworkable kitchen.

If you leave 3' between the sink and island, that will be plenty of walkway especially if there is only one cook. Putting a prep sink in the island would make a narrower walkway even less of an inconvenience. Then you have plenty of room for a dining table without tossing out your french doors--they are so much nicer than slider.

My experience with ovens is you put stuff in and come back usually quite a while later unless you're baking some kind of fragile cookie. That's why having a dbl oven a bit removed from the cooktop isn't a difficulty--when you are cooking on the stove you aren't in the way of someone else using the oven. It really is much more practical to have fridge by stove.

@acm, it depends. I have a 4x7 island as previously mentioned. The over hang is a full 2' because I wanted a 24" wide, 15" deep cabinet on the end, plus the 24" for the depth of the side cabinets. I like the deeper overhang--it means my backless stools can tuck all the way under the island so there are no legs to trip me up--I'm a toe-stubber!

Although I agree that in OP's case that might not be a practical consideration.

I think 39" will be fine! Our island is 7' long and 41" wide, and I wouldn't want it any wider. When I am feeding the kids, clearing plates, glasses, etc from the other side of the island, I can barely comfortably reach across as it is. Any wider and I would need to walk around the island to reach the opposite side. Our island is counter height with a 15" overhang, which works perfectly for all of us.

These are the cabinets. The island will have two sets of cabinets. The B12-39s are narrow. My husband will build in a bookshelf or something to fill in the extra space.

If you need those narrow cabs, either place the open shelves on a corner, add a bank of drawers, or use a filler to make it look like solid wall. Open shelves hidden under an island will at best go unnoticed so useless for display and at worst look silly. Can you really imagine reaching under a counter to grab a book?

If you don't absolutely need them for storage, I would suggest letting them go. It's OK not to utilize them and it will be awkward to access them. Maybe there is another spot in the house you could put them, if you don't want to "waste" them; a laundry room, craft room, family room?

hmm, I guess now you're looking at 36 + 12 = 48. if you do a bookcase, do it at an end, unless you want them kicked off the shelf all the time. still, I'd want some aisle space -- even a "counter-depth" fridge is several inches deeper than the counters, and that's with the door closed!

I don't know that I need those narrow cabinets. Maybe that is where I should save space and do an island that isn't as wide. I agree that the storage would have to be something I rarely use (vase, special kitchen tools, etc.) as it will be a pain to get to them. I think we envisioned the cookbook shelf being somewhat of a wraparound on the end, and pushing the two narrow cabinets closer together. (The designer just didn't know that at the time.)

Having more kitchen aisle space would be more important to me than utilizing the narrow cabinets. I would find another use for those and have a smaller footprint for the island. It would allow you to have the knee room/leg room you desire at the island, and the narrower island won't feel cramped and/or obtrusive with the overall flow of the kitchen when people are moving around.

I agree Carriebear28 that getting rid of those narrow cabinets might be better. What width would you suggest for the island then?

Here's an idea: use the narrow shelves to form an L at the sink end of the island. So the 39" length of the cupboard becomes the whole width of the island. Tuck the other narrow cupboard under the island top to form an L, making the front edges even. That will leave about a 3" gap between the backs of the cupboards on the two long edges--it can be covered by a panel to match the rest of the underside of the island.

I would also leave the French doors and make it work.....they are so much nicer than a sliding patio door. I wish we had room for them. Will you even need to open and close them while people are seated at the table?

Just seeing that you are open to not using the narrow cabs. Yay!

If you went with my idea, your island would be 39" wide, with a 15" overhang running about 5' of the length of it.

If you don't use the narrow cabs, I think your island should still be the 39" to allow a 15" overhang, which will run the full 8'.

Lindsey, I'm having trouble picturing your suggestion.

Depending upon the type of bar stools you have you could go with one of the options above. What about taking the two bar stools that are in front of the refrigerator and moving them to the long end of the island. You may have to extend the island out a little more to accommodate the stools depending upon which type you use, however this would not impede flow in front of the refrigerator or ovens if you decide to switch them out. I hope this helps!

I think I remember reading that 15-18" overhang works best for counter height islands. So if your base cabinets are about 24" you should end up around 39"-42" total width

Our base cabinets are 25" and our overall width for the countertop is 41 inches. We have a little over 15" of overhang on the sitting side, and approx 1.5" overhang on the cabinet face side. I didn't want a bigger overhang (on the stool side) because we would have needed more support brackets for our quartz. Clarify that with them to see if there is a difference in supports that you would need for your countertop.

The 15" overhang is comfortable for all of us (3 kids ages 4-9, myself and my 6'1" husband. I think 18" would probably be even more comfortable for his long legs, but he doesn't complain about the 15").

I am 5'3" and need to stretch across to reach my kids and/or their plates, glasses, etc. So I really wouldn't want to go wider than what we have, or I would be forced to walk around all the time to reach the other side of the island. I wouldn't mind if our overall width was an inch or two narrower, because my arms are short. But I don't have a prep sink, either -- just a big slab.

Now I feel like an idiot! Our designer originally had a 39 inch island and I worried that it wouldn't have enough overhang for our legs.

Thank you AHI Stoneworks. So many beautiful choices!!!

Carriebear-thank you for taking so much time today to share your experience and give me suggestions. I really appreciate it!

Try not to faint from my super awesome drawing skills. Not even close to scale:

But I would honestly just stick with the 39" wide island!

Thank you, Lindsey! I think just not using those narrow cabinets might be best. I'll show my husband all of these photos though!

I would like to add a prep sink. The one I found that I like most is a Kruas and the smallest size it comes in is 23 inches. Is that too big for my island? DH seems to think so. Someone always seems to need my sink when I'm cooking though, and I really would like to have one sink for dishes as I dirty them and another on the island for prep (empty pasta water, washing hands, washing veggies, etc.) Any suggestions?

If your plan is drawn to scale, each square equals 18" based on the size of the island. That means you have 39" clearance in your aisles. This list of guidelines http://starcraftcustombuilders.com/kitchen.design.rules.htm#.WLcdN5E8Kf0 will let you evaluate your design.

I hope they are done right, cwestover. Our architect is a U of I graduate (ironic because of the link you shared).

You are not an idiot! With the second row of narrower cabinets in there, 39" wouldn't have been much leg room at all. So I can totally understand why you wanted to look at a wider island....you needed another foot of leg space one way or another. But as you discovered, it would sacrifice too much kitchen walking space to do that, so it makes more sense to trim off the narrow base cabinets (12") to gain more leg space, rather than widening the island another 12".

If you want a prep sink (and it sounds like you can really benefit from one) you will want more than 39" width with a 23" sink, but it need not be the full 51" either. What about splitting the difference: 45" will give you 6" more of walkway and still allow you 20" of clearance between sink and island edge.

I like that idea Lindsey, if it gives me the right space to walk around. I think we will switch the fridge and double ovens if possible. Where would you put the sink? My husband is against it being in the middle. It needs to be off to one side. I would lean more toward it being on the left (toward the dining room). I have no clue what I'm doing though! We can rearrange those base cabinets in the island so it fits in whatever base we need it to.

Nicole, our island is 100"x36". The cabs for the island are about 25"D. That leaves about 11" of knee room under the overhang, which has been fine. One can't scoot close enough to the countertop to have one's belly against, but that would be pretty uncomfortable if one did. Our stools are 14"D, so they protrude slightly into the walkway when unoccupied.

I would like the sink about 12" from the dining room end. That way you have room to the left of it for tossing stuff from the fridge and you've left about 5' of space for someone else to work at the island, if necessary. I'm imagining: pile veggies to the left, rinse, pile to the right, chop, head to the stove, cook, flow to your left for cleanup. It will be glorious!

Lindsey, I've wanted to just sit down and throw an I'm-overwhelmed-hissy-fit all day. THANK YOU for your kindness and sweet personality. It's really helped today. House design is not at all my thing!

I was thinking of getting a 60/40 split sink, with the 60 side being on the left. (I am right handed.) I may need to rethink that. I'm assuming the designer put the dishwasher on the left because that's where it fit best (since we are retro-fitting used cabinets.)

Oh, Nicole, don't worry and don't beat yourself up. Every single one of us who goes through a reno or build experiences days like this. Even the most seasoned pros, I expect. You're doing great and your openness to suggestions will carry you through as you finalize your decisions. I love that you're re-using cabinets and diverting waste, too.

I hope I haven't dominated the conversation here. There are lots of good ideas at play :)

Just check in with your designer about the dishwasher. You're probably right that it is the best for re-using of the cabs, and it's really not a huge deal.

I have a 70/30 split sink and I love it. The small side is great for quick wash-ups.

Hey Nicole. Have you posted on the kitchen forum? The gurus there can also help out.

We have 60/40 sink and big side is on left. We had choice of putting d/w on right or left. My wife chose left b/c it was a more natural turn for her, being she's right-handed. Neither are right or wrong, merely preference.

BTW, our sink is Kohler SmartDivide. My wife chose that b/c the partition is wider than most and doesn't come all the way to top of sink. That way it's easier to rest large items while scrubbing. We looked at sinks from pretty much all manufacturers. She's been real happy w/ her choice.

Just my $.02, if there is a way to have island seating on 2 adjacent sides, please do it! People love sitting at my island, which forces me to stand across from them the entire time. I would love to have L seating that I could utilize.

'Nutha BTW, our old K cabs had a pull-out cutting board that my wife kept. Turns out, it's exactly as wide as our sink is. The sink is Kohler's 8-degree model. My wife puts the cutting board over the wide side of the sink, where it nestles onto the angled upper edges of the sink, and uses the small side (w/ disposer) for prep sink.

There are too many suggestions to read them all,

The frig and oven are perfect as located. You go from frig to sink to stove. A prep sink on island would work. Changing the shape of the island counter top for seating at the dining table end makes sense. The few cabinets you wouldn't use might be useful in another room or garage (at worst). What size are the squares on the floor plan?

The squares represent 18 inches.

What about facing the island toward the sink?

What about turning the island 90 degees and making it a little narrower? It could make a nice separation for the dining area and not break the 'work triangle'.

Try changing the direction of the island. Make sure corners are radiused.