have something made and install it on the wall to the right of patio door. then find a small stool/bench or chair and set it against the wall that approaches the seating zone. This type of furniture is not complex: but you want to specify it ...any woodworker in your area can build one.....you can get it the exact way you want it. You will probably end up with a better product, budget wise, as well.

herbflavor - Thanks! My husband is actually a decent woodworker and could build it. That's a good idea about a moveable piece of furniture. Don't know why that didn't occur to me at all! lol

mainenell - I'd be fine with an open bench most of the time, but since this is in my kitchen I might occasionally want it closed, for those rare times we have guests. Though at this point in our life, that is rare!

To help you with a visual I’ve shown the measurements for this bench (hopefully you can see them). A little 6” lip is not big enough to sit on. I think 10“ would be the bare minimum.

The length of the bench is 5.5 feet but reducing something like this down to 4 feet would still give ample room for a place to sit (leaving the end sitting area open) while still having closed storage to hide the clutter. This has drawers and cabinets on the left, but you could do a full height cab there instead as well as a couple of open hooks.

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they have easy to find templates for these. I'd put him to work . Another idea is to start several inches away from patio door trim...go into the corner..wrap the corner and end it 14-18 back from edge of island on the side wall. [maybe that could be 2 pieces.... years later -just leave one segment ….repurpose the other side elsewhere!] Million ways to do it. You have a nice zone with two walls to consider. Lucky

nidnay - That is another good idea! A partially closed cabinet. As I thought about it more, I realized that if I was doing formal entertaining then I'd clean out the lockers anyway and put the coats and shoes where they actually belong, so maybe having doors on the lockers really isn't necessary at all.

herbflavor - Oh he's going to be very busy very soon! lol, though this will have to wait until the rest of the kitchen is done because my fridge is currently in this spot. I have to figure it out before I can finalize the island plan though. I'm really liking your freestanding chair/bench idea and lockers on the door side wall, because I could stack them and put two wide lower ones for the kids and two high ones for the grownups and get that bench out of the way if we had some kind of gathering where we didn't want congestion there. Maybe some high wall storage on the 4' wall for other gear that seems to end up on my kitchen floors periodically like soccer and swim bags, or my husbands bow because if he's going to practice with it, it MUST be kept by the back door. {insert eye-roll}

With that in the kitchen/living space, I'd want doors that close. We have a bench in our mudroom and no ones uses it to sit and put shoes on. They usually bring their shoes to the kitchen table and put them on there or we're in a rush and shoes get put on in the car. Same with shoes.....keep them contained behind closed drawers or at least every kid gets a dedicated basket they can slide in and out. That stuff tends to spill out which is fine for a hidden mudroom but I'd want it hidden on the living space.

gthigpen, yes at the very least I want it not scattered far and wide across the kitchen like it is now! I do have a shoe rack in here (not attractive) and they still seem to have a hard time setting them there!

Bottom is 18" deep, top is 12". Definitely usable for putting on/taking off shoes in that function without doors in the way. The doors would hamper that significantly, I would avoid them and live with them looking like they are used. Expecting your kids to open doors and neatly put their stuff away probably isn't realistic anyway.

We have that bench area under the window which is nice to have and the storage underneath is very useful. If you want doors, trimming down to locker to leave a bench space at one end is a good idea.

DrB477 - Nice! How I wish we had a real entryway. I did realize that I probably shouldn't worry about doors. If i have guests I'll put away the coats and shoes in the coat closet and let the bench/hooks look neat that way. At this point I'm just thrilled this looks like its going to work and I won't have to choose between a decent island a coat/shoe wrangling system!