Follow-up notes: 1. The lighting placement works a lot better at 45" between the sink and island. Joists and ducts prevented optimal placement for 48" spacing. Lights are more on center at 45". 2. There's no seating at the island, so that's not a factor in aisle spacing.

"The island recessed cans are not placed quite right for 48" aisles. We've got a few days left before drywall where we can still move the lights. But should we?"

Switch to remodel cans please. Fish the wire, drywall, and you can position and install the cans after the ceiling is painted if you prefer. Nice way to buy time and your lights get positioned perfectly, not just close.

I would go with the 45", with only 2 people using it you won't have traffic issues. I have 6 people, so the 48-50" was very important (I had 36" previously, anything over 42 was luxury).

45" is plenty wide

Thanks everyone! @Joseph Corlett, LLC thanks for the lighting suggestion. I can't (well won't) ask for different cans now. Just a matter of playing nice with a good contractor and spending my "please fix this" karma on a few other critical things. But I will remember remodel cans when we start fixing other parts of the house

I would go with the 45".

IMO change the light placement and 48" is min. id always. BTW 4" cans ae what you want and need and a big deal when doing LED lighting which BTW all of yours should be in 4000K

The newly revised NKBA design requirements are 48" for a single cook, and 54" for dual cooks.

Where did you get this information, @User? I just took the CKBD exam a couple of weeks ago and this change in requirement was not represented in any NKBA literature.

https://nkba.org/2022/05/nkba-releases-new-planning-guidelines/ The new guidelines are not being tested on yet. But they will be part of the new test they are developing, as well as the actual design layout part of the test.

NKBA guidelines are guidelines, they are not residential code requirements.

True. I don't see anything about the aisle clearance change in the link @User shared but it could be included in the new book. It's not in the online documentation. Having said that, I would find a 54" aisle space uncomfortable if I was working in the kitchen alone. I'm not convinced it's necessary for two people working in a kitchen. I am definitely interested in seeing if the new guidelines account for the larger kitchens that are customary in new homes now. The work triangle maximum distance guidelines in particular are difficult to meet with the size of the some of the kitchens I design.

They are also based on, IMHO, a certain style of "american" home with overly large kitchens. Not saying that this kitchen couldn't support 48" walkways, but just addressing the info above about NKBA guidelines.

It's also a good idea to do mock ups and think about how you use your kitchen. I'm a pivot and drop cook. I lived in a condo for a year with very large walkways and I found it frustrating and tiring.

Because of the layout the cooktop and sink both slightly overlap the adjoining aisle so the dimension is slightly increase because of the corner and the diagonal measurement.

(I think having two people working so close to that corner could at times be a pinchpoint unrelated to aisle width.)

I agree with Kristin Petro--54" doesn't make sense to me. My MIL's kitchen has 48" aisles, and it's quite functional with 3-4 adults working at one time. Maybe this makes sense for a family of tall people.

Palimpsest, not sure I understand your comment. Increase the aisle size because of the sink/cooktop overlap? Or narrower 45" aisle is fine because the diagonal already increases the width there? Agree that it is a potential pinch point. Everything is tradeoffs, this was the best we could do without moving walls and doorways.

We're talking about 3" here, so it's not going to make much difference. I'd say 45" is plenty generous. I wouldn't move the lights.

I think the 45" is okay because of the adjacency of the other aisle. I was just noting that it's possible that at some points both people could tend to work toward that corner

My family rents a shore house every summer that has an island like this and a lot of prep work gets done on it despite not having a sink or appliance on it, so using the island will also free up that corner a bit.

Yes, the plan is that the island should be a main prep surface. The corner should be for the person at the cooktop, or the person doing baking work (stand mixer will live in that corner). I'm the only one who bakes, and I don't do it while another person is using the cooktop.

Thanks everyone! You've given me confidence to keep the aisle width at 45". Looking at everything carefully, I think we should still move the lights at the corners a bit for best placement, even at 45". Easier to make that call now that we've settled on the island placement.

Just echoing others—45” is fine. We have exactly this L layout and have 39” on the sink and stove sides, and 42” on the aisle side. Have never felt it’s too tight with two people working (and kids running through).

Where is your dish storage? In the island? If so, be careful about less than a 48" aisle b/w the DW and the island. You should be able to have both the drawers in the island and the DW door open at the same time with no overlap.

DWs stick out around 27" and drawers around 21".

Thanks, Buehl. That is one concern I've had. Our dish storage will be in island drawers. Stacking dishes on the island, then putting in drawers, seems fine to me. Our current arrangement is remove dishes from dishwasher, then walk them 10 feet away, around a blind corner, to storage in the breakfast nook.

But is "way better than now" good enough? That's one of the hardest parts of remodel decisions. Our layout is constrained, and we're used to really terrible work flow. How do we decide what is good enough, where we need to push for "perfect," and where we decide to make things non-optimal so that another part can be better. In this case, there's best DW/drawer distance at 48", and better light placement at 45". The north/south placement can't be changed, because of joist and ducts. 48" between the sink cabinet run and the island will mean island cans that sit a few inches out into the aisle, not over the island countertops, and island pendants that sit closer to the working edge than the center. Which flaw would you choose?

Hmmm... The other issue is that to go to/from the refrigerator from/to the Prep & Cooking Zones you have to cross through the Cleanup Zone. That means if you're prepping or cooking while someone is cleaning up, you have to pass them and, possibly, an open DW door. If the aisle is too narrow, that may be an issue.

What if the island pendants were placed so they're over the back half of the island? That would still be plenty of light for working that would be placed where shadows would not be cast by the person working at the island.

Could you post your lighting plan?

Here's a marked up version of the lighting plan. I used Paint to try to show our structural constraints. The solid lines are joists, the squiggly lines mark an HVAC duct. The lights on the north end of the island are centered a few inches north of the island edge (window wall is north). The lights on the south edge have been moved significantly into that aisle--black circles show their approximate location. Because of the duct, the island pendants can't towards the back edge. They will sit just north of center if we use a 45" aisle.

Here's a picture of the ceiling structure. Taken facing the east wall. The can in the upper left is the NE island can.

If it helps, this is my lighting plan. We have 4" cans (5" didn't fit).

Our lighting includes:

• Recessed mostly over the aisles, the prep sink (the diagonal corner), and the cleanup sink as well as in the pantry
• Under cabinet lights under all the upper cabinets
• Pendants over both peninsulas and the cleanup sink

With all the options for lighting, we have no issues with general lighting, task lighting, or ambient lighting. My lighting plan:

.

Would the plan below make sense? Unfortunately, it would mean more lights are needed, but I think it addresses all your concerns. As a plus, you get 3 pendants over the island to provide more task lighting as well as a light in your Prep Zone as well as over the sink. I'll admit I'm not a Pro, but it seems this would work well.

The pendants over the island would mitigate any possible shadows a body would make from the recessed lights in the aisle.

The recessed or pendant lights in front of the window would mitigate any shadows there as well. Note that I moved the lights over the sink/in front of the window back a bit b/c if they're in the middle, when you're leaning over the sink/counter working, your head will block the light and cast cast shadows over your work.

I assume your hood has a built-in light, so that fixes any shadows on the cooktop/range.

The red/canned lights may be overkill, but I was trying to evenly space them throughout the Kitchen to give full coverage and and avoid the joists & HVAC.

That's OK. You'll probably be fine with the 45-inch aisles since you're both adults. It's when kids are involved that it can become an issue - the inevitable "She's in my way!" or "He won't let me pass!" etc.

Good luck!

Thanks! And ha ha. The children are a whole nother kitchen issue. If only spacing where our largest problem there ....