Why do you ask? If you don't like it, don't do it.

I hate sinks in the island; there are always a pile of dirty dishes from everyone dropping them off by the sink.....put your sink under the window and enjoy the island sans dirty dishes. And yes I speak from experience....lol.

Her back won't necessarily be to "everyone", she may indeed be facing them! If the island is nine x four or five feet......it's great. Anything less? I vote for a perimeter. If its a CHOICE between a cooktop, or sink in an island? I will take the sink there every time. Learn to clean as you cook. After you eat??? there is NO HIDING THE MESS. : ) no matter where it is made

Lots of brand new kitchens are a wall and a bare half of one, and a big island. It is simply common now, to have one or the other on an island as larger refrigeration, wine refrigerators, pantries, wall ovens take the other lone wall, allowing a range hood center stage on the longest.

@Hal Braswell: I don't quite understand your reasoning. I have the main sink (no prep sink) in my island, and do both prep and clean up there. I chose to place the sink there precisely because it means I'm facing everyone while getting things ready: I can chat to guests, can keep an eye on the TV, whatever. And I simply load the dishwasher as a I go along, so the mess is "mostly" out of sight.

A few thoughts, in no particular order:

Primary question is how the kitchen will flow. Will there be two cooks? Will kids be helping? How much walkway space is there? Do you need seating space?

Having thought that through, additional ideas:

1) sink under window is a holdover from when we didn't have dishwashers and wanted to be able to see the kids while doing the incessant dishes. I've had kitchens where the main work/prep space was at the window, and liked it better.

2) If possible, it's good to put sink and cook surface in same area, connected by countertops. Floors get way less messy this way! That's the one thing I don't like about my current kitchen w/sink in island, but it was the trade-off that worked for me.

3) option if having sink in island makes most functional sense is to have a knee wall (half height) between it and everything else. Then put another countertop above the wall as seating if space allows. This hides the mess.

Ultimately, it's your room. Try and mentally drop yourself into the space and "walk through" preparing a meal. If putting sink other location than island is what works for you, go with it.

I've had a sink pretty much everywhere you could put a sink in a kitchen. My current one is in the island. I favor this over the others as it gives me more prep space as no matter where I've had the sink, I always do my prep work next to it as it makes it easier to prep and clean-up. Do you currently do your prep work away from your sink? One of my houses I had a huge island that didn't have a sink or cooktop in it and even though it was about 5 steps away from the sink I never used it for prepping as it was to much of a hassle to take stuff back and forth from the island to either the cooktop or the sink or dishwasher. Lot easier to swipe crumbs into the sink rather than carrying them across or throw dishes into the dishwasher when I'm working right next to the sink. I also had an island with a prep sink in it but I found the size of it not practical for my needs and it was steps away from the dishwasher.

You know how you use your kitchen and how the layout will work the best for your needs. So think about the overall layout and how the sink placement will affect the layout. What works for me, may not work for you. And I've never heard of a sink in an island being a trend... I wouldn't make that a part of your decision as to where to place it.

If I have a choice I would never put a sink in the island (unless it's a second prep sink) Sinks are messy splashy and putting that in the centre of the kitchen makes no sense to me. However, it's not a trend and it's not going away. It's a lot easier to put plumbing into the island then venting above the island, so when designing a linear kitchen you have the dilemma of sink or cooktop in the island – and the economical choice is the sink....

Our new kitchen design has the sink in the island so I can capture the views through the great room windows. I plan on having 2 dishwashers- one on each side of the sink. I don’t mind a sink under a window except I’m always splashing the window. It’s easier to wipe an island than windex tall windows.