Hi Mom23: I am not a fan of sinks in islands. That said, with the current set-up you have, with cabinetry along the side of the island nearest your main sink, and seating on the side facing the refrigerator, where would you put a prep sink that would have cabinetry underneath, and not interfere with seating--other than directly across from the main sink? If you reconfigured where on the island the cabinetry would be, you would lose seating area. A few other observations: The walkway space between your range/cooktop and the island seems tight. The overhang of countertop on the seating side of the island (on the refrigerator wall) seems too large without any support on the one corner. If you are using stone, maybe rodding it would solve that. I am not a stone expert, but I think anything more that about 12" needs to be supported in some way. You have the post on one side but what about the other corner? this would be something to check out with your fabricator or contractor. I would consider rotating your island 90 degrees, so the length of it is oriented the other direction. With a 6'6" island, and 15'8" to the counter along the refrigerator wall, you would still have 3'7" walkways between the main sink counter and the island, and the island and the refrigerator-wall counter. That is not generous, but not bad. You would then be able to have a more generous walkway along the long side of the island--between island and range, (which you want if you have 2 cooks in the household). You would also have more space between the dining area and island seating. You could keep the cabinetry under the same section of the island as in your drawing--except now, it would be in the corner of the island closest to the refrigerator, which is where you want the a prep sink if you have one. It is also not going to interfere with seating there. rotating the island gives you many benefits--and if you will not have seating on the short ends anyway, is a viable option. Another alternative to consider is doing a more "triangular-shaped" island with a straight side along the "sink wall" and the "Range wall," with the third side having a curve to get more seating. The island seating would then not interfere with the dining area, and with the curve, you would get more seating. You would be limited by allowing for the pantry door swing--and that would dictate how big the curved side could be, and how much seating. Just some thoughts..

We will have one Fisher Paykel dishwasher drawer to the right of the prep sink. This will ensure that prep utensils are cleared as prep continues and no one is tempted to leave them for later. Also when we are empty nesters this will probably also be our clean up sink and main dishwasher because we know we'll only fill up a big dishwasher about every 3 days with just the 2 of us in the house. The cleanup sink is in a completely different area furthest from the great room for several reasons. First, we often just want to relax with guests after the dishes are cleared. When they are removed to the far end of the kitchen they can be hidden in the deep farmhouse sink and done when more convenient. The prep sink will then be available for water for coffee and the prep island for setting out desserts. Secondly, the cleanup sink is in an area where many people can work efficiently for a big clean up effort such as for Thanksgiving. The prep sink is really "my" sink and is part of the main work station for everyday cooking. As rhome does, I just make sure to clean well after raw meat is anywhere in my kitchen so the prep sink will be using for meat as well as veggies and fruit. Sorry for jumping verb tenses back and forth. The kitchen doesn't fully exist yet but it's been in my head for so long I feel like I'm already cooking in it.

My prep sink is used for prepping and cooking...from washing veggies & fruit to draining pasta to washing up utensils if needed. I love that I don't have to compete w/dirty dishes in the sink OR dirty dishes sitting around the sink getting in the way of prepping. Having a separate prep sink also allows you to separate the Cleanup Zone from the Prep & Cooking Zones...a much more functional setup. No competing for sink space w/someone cleaning up while you're trying to prep and cook. No DW in the way. It increases the functionality of a kitchen so much and gives you multi-functional space when needed (like when you have several people working in the kitchen at one time.) My prep sink is 15-3/4" square and is fine for most things. Occasionally, I wish it were a couple of inches wider, but not that often. However, like RHome410, if I ever do another kitchen I will aim for a prep sink a bit wider...21" to 24". I'll still stick w/my double-bowl sink, though. (Maybe make that wider as well if there's room.) Most people who find their prep sinks "useless" for much more than an "ice bucket" at parties or as a "drinking fountain" either have a sink that's too small (width/depth/deep) OR it's not located properly. I'm not saying that your particular layout is "bad", but I do think you are going to run into the "competing" issues at the main/cleanup sink...competing for floor space (especially since it's so close to a corner), competing for counterspace w/dirty dishes, and competing for sink space with, again, dirty dishes. If you plan on using just one side for dirty dishes and the other for prepping and only putting dirty dishes on the counter on the DW side of the sink...well, good luck with that! I tried that in my old 1-sink kitchen and it never worked! Maybe your family is very disciplined & will follow your plans, but mine family is not! Plus, w/only 25.5" on the DW side, it's not much if you have substantial overflow of dirty dishes (or if you have to take the dirty dishes out of the sink so you can prep in the sink). If you've already lived with this and know that it works for your family, great! Bottom line...this is your kitchen and you should design it for your family and how your family works. We just offer you our experiences as well as mentioning the experiences others have reported.

Thanks, all. There is a lot to consider here. We can't move into that dining room because it's a load-bearing wall, and our DR furniture is already cramped in there. Our table + end chairs just fits. All the designs so far were for a 24" cabinet for the prep sink, and one portion of our current double sink seemed like it would be roomy enough for our uses (our biggest colander fits, and it's around 18"). No garbage disposal, so we won't be doing prep directly into the sink. It will be for rinsing veggies, washing hands, and draining pots. I'll have to go see a 24" sink, though we had a 25" single bowl at the last house, which was small for our only sink, but seems like it would be too big as a "spare" sink. My husband still isn't completely convinced about the sink, so I haven't wanted to rock the boat on the sink size. He seems pretty set on ~18 inches. I'm having a hard time really envisioning that pantry wall, even after seeing elevations on the (various, now 4) designers' computers. I've gotten feedback that it would look "best" with deeper flanking tall cabs and recessed inner/counter portion (15-12-15), or "best" with the opposite, with the center/counter part jutting out a bit (13-15-13). Also that it might look bad if it was all the same depth across (either 12" or 13").