If the p ictures are of your current kitchen, I much prefer what you have than the drawing of what you want. Yes, its too narrow for an island. However, Its not all that nice to have to entertain people in your living room, and see all the cooking going on in the kitchen, and all the dirty dishes piled up from doing all that cooking. That isnt a good look.

If your floorplan is to scale you've got less than 10 feet of width and way less than what you'll need for an island or table with seating. Or even without seating. A floorplan of the whole floor could lead to options to price out and consider. Is there a basement?

You can not have an island in a ten foot wide kitchen. A ten foot wide space is essentially..... a GALLEY.

You need a very accurate drawing of the current walls, window door entry, all of it, every single inch, and every one of those elements has its own dimension. Include the entire area accurately, fireplace and all. Inches for EVERYTHING.

Post it - use graph paper , it's fine and make the scale consistent for everything.

Post it as a jpeg below ( not a screen shot )

Great question — a 10x20 ft kitchen with an open living room layout can absolutely work for entertaining, even without an island if space feels tight.

A few layout ideas to consider:

1. L-shaped kitchen along two walls — this keeps the work triangle efficient while leaving the rest of the space open for a large dining table or a mobile butcher block island that can be tucked away when not in use.
2. Peninsula instead of an island — extending a counter from one wall can provide seating and prep space without breaking the flow into the living area.
3. Use a galley layout with a pass-through — if one wall faces the living room, a half-wall or counter opening can maintain visual connection while keeping the kitchen zone compact.

For entertaining 6–10 people, focus on clear traffic paths (at least 36–42 inches between key points) and consider open shelving or light-colored finishes to keep the space feeling airy.

On the appliance side, since space is at a premium, a sleek under-cabinet range hood can help maintain an open feel without overwhelming the design.

Sinda’s slim profile copper or stainless steel range hoods offer solid performance in a compact form, which might be a good fit for your layout if you're looking to maximize both function and aesthetics.

Hope this helps — excited to see what you come up with!

I’d want to trick the eye a bit to open up the room by painting the walls a lighter color so there is not such a visible line between the walls and ceiling

When you post a to scale floor plan of the whole main living space you will get some real help. Do the plan on graph paper it makes it easier. Show every window, doorways and where those lead and every measurement clearly matked posted here in a comment in jpeg format. The plan you posted is pretty useless for us to work with.I rarely like LR and kitchen open to eachother but it can work with a good KD and understanding how you entertain