Hello,

We are renovating our kitchen and looking to add an 8 or 9 foot length by 3.5 or 4 foot wide kitchen island to replace our eat in kitchen table. So we are trying to incorporate seating for 6 stools with 2 of the seats on the bottom side of the island ( so at least two seats won't have the TV to your back, and you can face people seated on the left side of the island. I believe seating two people at the bottom would require us to have 48" on the bottom side ,which would mean we need to go with a 4' wide island. We are having a hard time finding cabinets deeper than 24", so on the side of the island without cabinets that would create a 24" overhang which I am being told is too much plus unsafe. We have considered doing a two tiered island with the seating area being table height 30" and the countertop area above the cabinets be 36", but that idea doesn't thrill us and we'd like to have the countertop all be on one level. We've thought to add accent legs to the corners but that will restrict some seating area and if we could avoid them that'd be ideal. We've also considered reusing the small island (48" width) and moving it to the large island then building a microwave cabinet on the right and box for a wine fridge to the left of the existing island cabinet but may make more sense to just buy a new cabinets for the island.

Stylistically what do you think would look best among these two designs? An island that has cabinets positioned in an L shape which would crating an inverted L shape seating area? Or having a narrower set of cabinets on the right side creating a C shaped overhang with 2 or 4 legs?

When you walk into the kitchen from the foyer/stairs you the first thing you will see is the top portion of the island which we would put a decorative panel on the side cabinet. If you are looking into the kitchen from the family room you'll be looking at the island's left hand side with the kitchen in the background. If we went with the L shaped design not sure if it would look imbalanced and unproportionate.

Where do you guys think the trash drawer ought to go? By the fridge or sink? We're thinking best to put by the sink/cooktop?

Thoughts on removing versus keeping the small island?

I am pretty sure we will be refinishing/painting the existing cabinets and putting in this big new island, doing away with the standard vent hood installing a larger wall mount vent hood and eliminating the cabinet over the cooktop, moving the microwave elsewhere to make room for a double oven. We are contemplating boxing in the area between the existing wall cabinets and the ceiling and adding crown and moulding above them to give the appearance that the cabinets go to the ceiling,...if anyone has any good examples of what that would look like we'd appreciate it.

If anyone else can think of any alternative or innovative ideas we'd love to hear them!