That's about how much prep pace we had in our old kitchen, with sink and range on each side of a corner, like yours. Moving the range a foot to the right made a huge improvement for us.

I have a U kitchen, with a super susan in one corner, and drawers on each side of a dead corner between sink and range. I really like my SS for small appliances, but I LOVE the drawers around the corner. I have a 4-stack next to the sink, 18" wide, for measuring cups, spoons, and gadgets; bags and wraps; towels; bins for potatoes and onions. Next to the range is a 24" stack of 3: cooking utensils, pots and pans, canisters of flour, sugar, pasta, rice, etc. Everything is right where I need it.

I looked long and hard at corner drawers, and I'm sure my cabinet maker could have built them for me, but I had a few issues: first, I think the angled front would have driven me crazy (trying to find little things to fit in those corners); opening the drawers would infringe on someone standing at the sink or the stove; my corner space was too big for just corner drawers, but not big enough for corner drawers plus something else useful.

Can you move the fridge a few inches to the left? That gives you a bigger upper cabinet, which will help balance the cab over the fridge. If you also use a 30" sink base, you'll have room for drawers on each side of the corner. If would mean that the sink won't be centered on the window - but gives you more counter space.

Chicagoans: thank you for that link! I copied how the drawer was modified.

Annkh: right now I prep in a 12"x12" inch space in the corner between sink and range even though I have a peninsula...hate the peninsula with hanging cabs over it! Thirty inches will seem spacious; I could get to 36" IF I made the space between the cook-top and wall oven cab 12"; that seems tight and I tried to eliminate 12" cabs which I have now; they are not a very functional use of space.

I'm not sure DH will be convinced about off-setting the sink to gain more corner room (doesn't bother me)...the man HATES change! Our whole house remodel is taxing his sense of the way things should be.

Sink issues are a major source of frustration now with the sink under the window. He calls what he does "power-cleaning"; water and gunk go EVERYWHERE. I tried moving the sink in layouts and did not have much success; so I am removing wood trim when I do the backsplash, using a farmhouse sink that is wider and deeper than our current sink to protect the front (current wood looks awful), and planned going with either the low-divide 60-40 Kohler Vault or Whitehaven to try containing him. I will have to mull a single bowl 30" sink. He is why I am mulling deeper counters as beuhl suggested in my original post..means 1.5 inches less prep space between cooktop and corner...agonizing over best use of 1.5"!

It's agonizing over those small details that will make your kitchen the best it can be!

You are wise to be realistic about how your (and your hubby) live.

I agree with you that 12" cabinets are a waste. I had 3 uppers and one drawer stack that size in my old kitchen. Even going to 15" uppers made an enormous difference.

Have you gone through the exercise of figuring out where everything will go in the new setup? Cooking utensils, potholders, leftover containers, cookie sheets, small appliances, stock pots - the more specific you can be about what you want where, the better you will be able to arrange the space to best suit your needs.

DH actually suggested that today; I have a mental idea but he thinks it would help to put it on paper as you suggested.

I like the island orientation in your option B. I bet you will do a lot of your prep at the island, and in Option B it looks like you will be able to gaze out your dining windows rather at the front door when doing prep. I wonder if you should swap the fridge and the MW/Oven...do you care if you see the refrigerator upon entry to the house and from the living room?

That is the location I tried to keep the fridge so it was less visually prominent which was the plus; what you asked is where the fridge is now.

We are taking out the dividing wall between the kitchen/dining room and the living room so an island with seating will work. I have disliked my current peninsula for 30+ years. That dividing wall blocks the view of all appliances now. I will have to think about the question you pose about seeing the fridge .

Keeping the fridge where it is now definitely didn't follow ice-water-stone-fire, more like ice-fire-water-fire...stone between sink and cooktop iwoukd be 24" in that arrangement. With the corner-drawer stack, I had to have a 12 inch lower cab next to the cook-top...yuck since vertical storage iwould be above the microwave in the oven cab. I thought maybe splitting garbage and recycling into two 12" pullouts but that uses six more inches of potential storage than if they were in one cab. The only minimum 30" prep space is the island in that arrangement.

Not following ice-water-stone-fire in a small kitchen might not be a big deal in a small kitchen???

I am finding that never working/cooking in a kitchen with an island a major disadvantage when planning this kitchen. It is really hard to know what the best decisions are! I am getting REALLY frustrated...

For what its worth, I'm just a homeowner and we are doing a very similar remodel. We have a split level and also taking down the wall between the kitchen and living room to put in an island. Our final floor plan looks a lot like your Option A, except we won't have the wall of shallow pantries into the dining area or the wall oven/MW combo.

wysel: I never thought about the view...good point! I'm liking that orientation more and more even though I always assumed it would be like layout A. Buehl drew up a layout with the island like B which made me start researching island "rules."

Hopefully some of the true kitchen designers will chime in. Can you stand in your house and tell if there is a more natural way that you would like to face while prepping? With Option B, I see the lack of convenient dish storage near the DW being the biggest problem. With Option B, I think you would store glasses in the 18" upper, and dishes in the upper cabinets on the other side of the sink. In either case I think the kitchen is too small to introduce refrigerator drawers into the island. Personally I would want the cabinet/drawer storage space.

I agree about close dish storage which is why I thought about finding a new home for the trash/rec drawer and having a 24" cab pullout from the island toward the sink. Good idea or not?

I probably wouldn't move the trash location. You could store dishes in the 18" drawer bank between the cooktop and corner cabinet. You will stand in front of the sink to unload the DW and those 18" drawers and the upper cabinets on both sides of the sink will all be in arms reach.