We are purchasing a new home and will be renovating the kitchen and adding a great room before moving in. My goal is to have the kitchen be more open and not closed off, but I'm struggling with the layout given the long rectangle shape. We are working with an architect for the overall project, but I think I'm going to need to specifically engage with a kitchen designer as I'm not getting great kitchen ideas from the architects thus far.

I've attached the plans I've sketched up of the kitchen/pantry area and the entire first floor. These are generally to scale, though based on high level measurements and not the detailed measurements that the architects took (waiting for the full plans from the architects). As far as appliances go, planning on a 36" BlueStar gas range, single convection wall oven, speed oven (stacked over the wall oven), and 42" SZ fridge. Undercounter wine fridge and beverage fridge on the wall near the dining room. Main sink will be 32" single bowl. Walk-in pantry will have second fridge, second dishwasher, counter top along the sink wall, and reach in, open pantry shelves along the side wall.

My main struggle - how to deal with the left side of the kitchen, including the opening between the kitchen and the great room. I've added the raised 'eating counter' to have stool space looking in to the kitchen, while not being in the way of whoever is cooking in the kitchen. Rather than having that fully open, I could extend the wall to create more space for upper cabinets that are closer to the dishwasher for glasses/mugs (plates/bowls/silverware will be in drawers). I thought about 2 islands (maybe 1 square 'prep' island closer to sink/stove, with rectangle island to the left), but seems like that would be awkward. Also thought about extending the island by having the 2 ft closest to the stove as butcher block instead of stone, but after looking at a number of inspiration photos, just didn't like the look.

Constraints - prefer to keep the sink in front of a window, and unfortunately only have one small exterior wall in the kitchen. There will be a lot of windows in the great room, which is why I was aiming for a large opening between kitchen/great room. Can't move either set of stairs, or the mud room, but we do have flexibility with the transition in to the great room.

As far as usage - we are a family of 5 with 3 kids under 10. Beyond normal daily usage, we host 25+ for major holidays and frequently entertain (in non-COVID times...).

Any thoughts or ideas on how to better use this space are greatly appreciated!