1) will you have a range hood?

2) will you enclose the fridge with some kind of paneling so it has a more built-in look?

3) open shelving above the dishwasher would be nice I think - the single cabinet is a little awkward

4) do you have a trash pullout somewhere?

5) are you planning to frequently use those shallow cabinets on the half wall? If so, then wide deep drawers might be more functional

6) do you prefer the dishwasher to the left of the sink? I find it easier to load on the right side of the sink

7) assuming that the sink is centered under the window?

8) how much space between island and cabinets with the sink?

9) will there be cabinets underneath the countertop where the stools are?

Hopefully you’ll hear from the gurus soon, but until you do here’s my take :).

I personally can’t stand cooktops in islands, hazardous, messy and how do you vent except with a downdraft which are expensive and not anywhere as efficient as a hood.

Without seeing the rest of the floor plan it will be difficult for others to help with layout and traffic flow. If possible, post a layout of the entire floor and you will be rewarded. Even a hand drawn sketch will work. Also, the makeup of your family and how you will use the kitchen will help.

Good luck, looking forward to seeing what develops.

“Any tips? Recommendations? Is there a good grate that we could put on that would handle chairs going on top of them from time to time?” We have the very same situation, with chairs busting right through the grates. Lowe’s has cast iron grates which I hope will withstand the weight. Hope this helps. They have various sizes as well. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Accord-Select-Charleston-Painted-Cast-Iron-Floor-Register-Rough-Opening-4-in-x-10-in-Actual-5-35-in-x-11-42-in/1000118835

Can we see a 2D floor plan of the space and a plan showing how the kitchen fits in the rest of the floor plan?

This is not a good kitchen plan for the reasons already mentioned plus a real lack of prep space. You can do a lot better

"I personally can’t stand cooktops in islands", So any discussion starts with an obvious bias...

"hazardous" How is this more hazardous than a range against the wall with this much counterspace around it? People would have to crawl up on the island to get any closer to it from three sides. And the front of it is the same distance from the edge as it would be on a wall run of counter. This is one of the words that people who don't like them throw out there to make people who want one feel guilty like they are going to be endangering their babies. In a large island this is just not a rational argument. In a too small one, perhaps.

"messy " Maybe, but the other conventional wisdom is that people spend much less time cooking and more time prepping and cleaning up, so it seems like the sink should be messier longer than the cooktop. Plus people don't leave piles of dirty or drying dishes and bottles of detergent and hand soap piled around their cooktop hours every day, if not permanently. So the argument for placing the cooktop against the wall because you spend so much less time there than you do at the sink runs exactly counter to the messy argument yet both are used to keep cooktops off the island. You have to pick one or the other though.

"and how do you vent except with a downdraft" With an island hood.

AJ Madison, one retailer, has 245 island hoods. (And 47 downdraft vents)

"which are expensive and not anywhere as efficient as a hood." Since it is a hood it will be almost as efficient as one that has a wall behind it. It will probably be more expensive than an undercabinet hood.

All that said, I think the plan could be better, its' extreme openness makes it rather inefficient, but this sort of openness is what people seem to want. And while I am neither particularly for or against islands, I think they complicate rather than improve many kitchen designs and in that capacity are often just the use of a fad.

Not much real usable prep space, a problem. Unless you prep on the counters along that far wall. But imagine rinsing vegetables at the sink, then carrying them dripping across the floor to that far counter, then carrying the chopped/prepped vegetables across to the cooktop in the island. This would be solved if the sink were in the island instead, and not centered, and the island was used for prep.

If you are looking for friends/family to be gathered around the island while you cook, the reality is that is a bit of TV fantasy. Most of your kitchen time is spent prepping rather than actual cooking time, and it's nicer for family to gather around the island while you prep. They can even help. Kids can do homework on the island while you prep, but not while frying pans and hot pots are going. At a cooktop, there's only one cook at a time, there is splattering, and you are looking down at your cooking, not at your friends/family.

I am sorry, but your plan needs a re-do. It's great you are still in the planning stage - some people come on this forum and say "I just spent $50k on this kitchen, and it's driving me crazy".

Did you consider moving the kitchen down into the space for the table and putting the table in the area with the patio doors?

We are dealing with almost identical layout issues (removing stove wall between dining and kitchen, same slider and window locations) so I will be interested what you end up with. I agree a 2D layout with measurements would be more helpful.

My first thought is I'd swap the range and sink. You tend to prep next to the sink not the cook top (grab food from fridge, clean at sink, chop up while next to sink so you can scrape leftover pieces back into sink for disposal, then cook if necessary). Moving the sink to the island will give you prep on both sides. You will also be facing the room and those seated at the island for prep and clean up. I agree with closing up that window where the range would then go. I am debating doing the same thing in our kitchen - as a trade off we are going to add windows on the other dining room wall, can't tell from your diagram if yours is an exterior wall but if it is you could consider that.

We are finished with the demo and are done with the electrical/plumbing
work. And just need to make the final decisions on the cabinets to move
forward, which is where we would love some input from the community.

So rearranging the layout--ship has already sailed. You have a decent flow, and prep space on the island. You'll need to move rinsed items from the sink to the island prep areas, but lots of newer kitchens have the opposite set-up--range on perimeter and sink in the island.

We also had a similar situation with a return air duct. When we took down the wall between our living room and kitchen we were able to fairly easily relocate the return air duct into a new 2x4 pony wall on the back side of our new island. Our new island is about 18" away from where the old wall was, which looks similar to your situation.

Thanks for all of the input. It is always helpful to get outside opinions and insight. Below I've responded about your comments/questions.

1) Location of sink/range: Our old kitchen was laid out the same way with the sink where it was (moving it over slightly) and the range where it is. Only difference is, they were 7' apart from each other (now they are only ~4' apart). While I understand you logic about switching them around, we like this look and have no plans on closing up that window to make the other option a possibility. Plus I enjoy washing dishes while looking outside... We have neighbors that have done a similar layout when they knocked down the same walls and it works really well.

2) Prep location: It is my intention to use the island for my prep location, which is increasing my prep space 5x. In the past my fridge was next to the stove and I had this weird L shape next to my sink where I would do my prep in a small, cramped 3x1.8 space (narrow old cabinets). So I was constantly moving from one side of the kitchen to the other which was not that function at all. Now with the fridge next to the sink, the initial phase of the prep (washing) will go smoother and then I can easily move it over to the island for the real prep work. For me, i've always found the opposite issue regarding prep... I would wash, cut, chop, mix, etc my food and then have to drag it across the floor (dropping stuff along the way) and then get it into the pot/pan on the stove without making a huge mess. Food always ended up on the floor making a larger mess then if I could do all my prep next to the stove.

3) Storage: There is storage located all around the entire island. There are 2 drawers on the stove side, and 1 on the sink side. Two 24x24 cabinets on the back corners (facing out due to the pillars) and two large cabinets (30 and 33) under the over hang on the back side of the island. In addition, along the low wall, I am using that space for all my additional storage - four 30x15 cabinets. When removing the walls I thought I was going to be loosing storage but instead I have gotten more. So all my nice plates, glasses, serving bowls, etc, that are in closets/storage can finally come out of hiding. It is the plan to have pull-out drawers for these cabinets - thanks for the recommendation as well.

4) Hood vs Downdraft: Because we just got rid of all the crap from the ceiling (see photo) and don't find the hoods appealing to look at (even if they were coming from the window side) we've opted to go for a downdraft stove top. We are going to get an electric stovetop and to be honest I can count on 1 hand the amount of times I turned on my old vent (which we found out wasn't actually attached to anything and just blew hot air into the cabinet above the old microwave) in a year, maybe even two. Instead of a hood we are going to have a nice, long, sleek light coming down from the ceiling to hang over the center of the island. A light and a hood just won't do.

5) Return Air Vent: Thanks for the tip about the iron options at Lowes. I will take a look at them. We are trying to see if there is a way to move them over a foot and have them under the back cabinets on the island but I don't think that is possible. So something solid that can handle stools on top of them will be a big plus based on the current situation :)

6) House layout: The house is a tri-level house and this room that we are remodeling is the main room of the house that you walk into, when you enter the door. The stair case that goes up, goes to the bedrooms and the staircase that goes down, goes to the TV room (plus basement and garage entrance). In the old layout the front room was rarely used due to its odd layout (adding the bay window helped) and the dinning table was just hidden in the distance. I've attached 2 new photos of the old layout with my initial dimensions I used to SketchUp the new design and a photo of that same old layout from on top of the stairs looking down into the enclosed, tight kitchen.

7) Family situation: We are a couple in our late 30s with our first kid on the way (due in July). We also have 2 cats.

Does anyone have opinions about the different companies that we have gotten quotes from for the cabinets? Nouveau (Canadian brand under Thomasville), KitchenMaid or IKEA.

We like the high gloss finish options (as depicted in the SketchUp drawings) and are aiming to have one color on the walls and a darker color on the island. We've also seen ideas from Houzz that suggest getting stainless steel toe kicks instead of the standard color matching option.

Any additional thoughts and tips are appreciated! Thanks again for your input thus far. It helps finalize the details that we are closing up in the next 2 weeks.

Kirsten

You said you are finished with the demo - so this is an old picture, not a current picture? Do you have a current picture of the space? Is your living room directly behind the stools at the island? Do you need a tv in that room and where are you planning to put it? These changes to your kitchen will make your living area a very long narrow space, so I’m not sure how you will be arranging your furniture?

We have a completely separate area in our house where we watch TV, etc. I'll find a photo of that space for reference.

It is our plan to create/find a nice entertainment unit for the TV area. But right now this room is not our priority :)

@palimpsest, I was in a hurry this morning so didn’t take time to elaborate.

I stated that it was my person feeling, so yes, I’m biased, hence me saying “Personally, I...”.

My best friend had a house she rented for a year or so while building her current home. It had an island with electric cooktop on it.

The first week they lived in the house her son knocked a bowl of cereal across the counter which gummed up the controls for a few days. Then some time later her husband knocked a glass of wine across the counter while she was frying something on the stove. It somehow caused a flash fire in the pan, which scared the bejeezus out of them.

The kids gave up doing homework there since everything seemed to get spattered with stuff. Granted, my friend is someone who actually cooks large meals from scratch almost every day. Lots of frying and simmering, etc. The kitchen in the house they built has a humongous cooktop and hood, one of the few people who actually makes use of it regularly. Unlike most of the show kitchens in the McMansions around here.

As to the vent hood, I was just glancing at the pic and it looked like the plan was open to above. So I probably assumed incorrectly that she would have to do a downdraft. So sue me.

kjenshoej - that floor of your house is very similar to ours. My kitchen is almost identical except my stove is on the dining room wall and I have a peninsula where your dishwasher is (tight U shape), and our eat in area isn’t open to the downstairs family room. We even have the sliding door in the eat in area but ours is only 11” from the wall (rail in your house I guess?) so it had to be moved to make that far wall usable. We are also taking out the walls between the living and dining rooms. We are doing our redesign differently (we are putting an island where yours is but taking the kitchen into the eat in area too), but I totally get what you are saying about the increase in storage and prep space! I can’t wait to get to where you are! We don’t even have a start date yet.

“Any additional thoughts and tips are appreciated! Thanks again for your input thus far.”

Look, you’ve said no to each suggestion on this thread. In your follow-up post you explained why you don’t want any of the suggested changes. Evidently you have your mind made up. Stop asking people to generously spend time to write thoughtful helpful suggestions. You are past that, and I am guessing by your posts that your goal in starting this thread, and in asking people to keep replying, is so you can state why your choices are the best ones.

@Miranda33 - Just to be clear it was not my expectation to not take any suggestions from the community into account. I have been working on the design for awhile, that is correct, and there are aspects that we can't really change at this point due to electrical/plumbing aspects, but I honesty did post in order to see if there is anything that I was missing and needed to reconsider (if possible) with my plan. The points brought forward were helpful but unfortunately they either didn't work with my taste or with what we need to work with.

On the flip side, the comments made did help make me understand and validate why I had designed the kitchen as I had up until now. Again it wasn't my intention going in to not take any suggestions. I'm sorry that you feel this way.

If you were frustrated with crap getting dumped on the kitchen table, the island can easily meet the same fate. I recommend keeping a pretty candle and/or fresh flowers with a sign to "keep clear." I was not consistent with my family and the new hot spot on the corner of our peninsula and it's hugely frustrating. I was just thinking that I need to have an absolute zero tolerance policy for non-kitchen stuff on the kitchen counter. It multiplies so fast!

Ideally, you can get your heat grates into the toe kicks somewhere in the kitchen, rather than having a floor grate that will hang up the chair legs when you try to drag them across. Floor grates near food can make for some nasty mess. I can’t wait for our floor grate to be incorporated into the island for both of these reasons.

See if you can test drive some of the high gloss doors that have caught your eye. They might not look so good with sweet baby smudges on them. A matte finish could be more forgiving.

I’ll bet you are excited to have your space opened up and hope you’ll post pictures as you progress.

Have you thought about changing the slider to a swinging door? The right side of the slider is a better spot for the fridge. Then you'd get an additional 3 feet of counter around the range and the range could be more centered on the island.

eta: I'm on my phone and mixed up the sink and range locations. If you swapped the slider for a swinging door, you'd gain 3' around your sink. :-)

@laughablemoments - Thanks for the tips about the heat grates and the high gloss. I've been told that it might be possible to order a sample so we can have a proper look at it in the house, vs simply looking at it in the show room. So that is a great idea

@benjesbride - Thanks for that tip. We had thought about seeing how we could incorporate the fridge on that side but unfortunately it won't work right now. That corner area that goes out to the sliding door is unsupported outside as it is a build on and therefore doesn't have concrete underneath. Plus our windows are only 3-4 years old and we really love the slider that we put in there. But thanks for the thought.

The other idea we had been playing with was putting in a tall pull-out cabinet next to the fridge but we thought it was encroaching on the dinning room window too much, so we removed it.

Yeah. Don't crowd the dining room.

I see the bump out now. Weird. Fixing that isn't part of your reno? It seems like a structural issue.