I was surprised to see your name attached to a layout post! Another kitchen to plan...Fun! Even for my family, this plan is BIG. Lots of walking. It's really nice, but I'm not sure I'd want it this spread out. But I love it, too. As you can tell, I'm waffling. ;-) I'm not comfortable with the stove location, as it seems to be somewhat of a walk-through area and the island isn't oriented well to be prep space. If the stove were on the back wall behind the island, it would be great in relation to the island and prep work area. Your aisles are too wide for me! With the stove behind the island, I'd snug them closer together, for easy prep-and-turn. The widest aisles in my kitchen are 4 ft, and I wouldn't want them wider, especially where I work on both surfaces to each side at once. Maybe this is all too specific for where you are in the process right now. Will your local building code/regulations allow this many windows? Ours wouldn't. Have you thought about things like where groceries will come in, etc?

The refrigerator: Since you're building from scratch, you have the choice to do things so that they'll be most efficient. If you go with a counter-depth refrigerator, you'll be forced to choose from a relatively small selection, and you'll pay a premium price for your 'fridge -- not only now, but later when this one needs replacing. Not the best choice. Recessing a refrigerator can work well, but it's going to impact the room behind. I believe the best choice is to go with slightly deeper cabinetry on that wall. It'll probably cost about the same amount as recessing the refrigerator, but you'll get the benefit of a slightly deeper pantry and coffee area. As long as I don't have to lose more than the 6" pullout on the island, it's a definite possibility. I hate paying the premium for the built in fridge and getting less space inside. Would it look silly to keep the counters on that side regular depth and pull out the fridge, coffee station and pantry? Or would I also need to pull out the counters and cabinets along that wall too? And then what would I do about the wall cabinets? Would those get pulled out too? (I'm short and don't want to have to use a stool every time I need something from the bottom shelves.) Designing for the cook, not the walk-throughers: Yes, the kitchen should be designed for the cook ... but the passers-through are still going to walk through, and failing to plan for them will inconvenience the cook. Realistically, you've gotta think about BOTH groups, or the design will fail. That is why I kept the aisle on the fridge side 48" since I figured the majority of the walking through with multiple people would be happening over on that area. By offsetting the cooktop with the sink and ovens I felt I could get away with 42" on the cooking wall/cleanup area. Especially since in the cleanup area, people can push dishes, etc across the island. LOL. The space between the island and the dining table: I suppose this is bouncing off the above thought. 4' between the island and the table isn't enough, especially when you have seating on both sides. You really need 5', and 6' wouldn't be out of the question. I'd lose the sliding doors behind the dining room table ... and I'd install banquette seating against the wall (and, obviously, nice windows above the banquette). This will gain you plenty of space for the walkway without "upping" your square footage. And since you have the same sliding door literally feet away in the living room, no function has been lost. As I replied to you Mrspete in the building a house forum, it's an idea I'm definitely going to look into. One thing I can do so I have easy access to the outdoors from the kitchen without having to go through the living room is to move the door to the back hall down a bit.

If you're willing to move the kitchen entry a few feet (6'?) toward the top wall, you'd still have traffic coming through, but it wouldn't pass by the ovens and fridge. In this plan you still have a snack center on the periphery, with the ovens close to the cooktop. You still have a view while you prep, and a second prep area by the clean-up sink. There's room for a small appliance in the corner between the cooktop and ovens. (Forgot that the fridge is drawn too small--the pantry on the right of the fridge might need to be a pull-out, or make each pantry smaller.) In the laundry area there's room by the W/D for a short counter over a pull-out for storage. This close to the kitchen sink, I'd skip the sink in the mudroom/laundry. I wanted to post this plan, but also want to say (and I'll take the hits) that I don't think the ovens in the original plan are much of a problem. You won't be carrying hot dishes--with the oven door open and racks extended, you'll be pivoting in a 3' arc, to set them on the end of the counter by the cooktop. Turn the other direction, and you can use the island as landing space, if you have more than one hot dish. Ditto for anything you want to set down long enough to open the oven for loading. Just yell, "Oven's open!" before you use it. If you have small kids running in and out through that entry, you can always put a latch on the sliding door, and get in the habit of latching it when you open the oven. :)

Aisle Space - All measurements are counter to counter, so we are 2” below recommended 42” aisle space. We have lived with that spacing in existing kitchen between stove/ island and sink / island, so think we are OK there. Just because you lived with spaces that are too small doesn't mean you need to continue to live with spaces that are too small. If you're spending the money to redo the kitchen, do it right. Realize that 42" is minimum aisle size. Also while your counter space might be 40", what is the space between fridge handle and island counter or dishwasher handle and island counter, or stove handle and island counter? See? When I made it 42" between counters, it was the bare minimum. And having only 3'2" with cabinets behind the seating is too little space. Countertop Overhang - Regarding 12” vs 15” island countertop overhang for seating, I’d like to hear other opinions on that. I think 12” should be fine. Thought I saw 12” recommended somewhere as a min. Our basement bar has 10” overhang and that seems ok. Cabinets behind island seating won’t be used for everyday storage, so not too worried about difficult access if someone is sitting at island. 12" is minimum if you have a bar height counter. If you're using counter height, then 15" is minimum for comfortable seating. The problem with anything less is your knees don't have a place to go, so when you go to eat at the counter, you're having to lean over uncomfortably. I have that now in our rental and even though I'm only 5'3" it's uncomfortable sitting there for dining or doing anything else. Add to having too little overhang, you now have cabinets behind, and no one will be able to walk by when someone is sitting at the counter. So someone comes in from the garage and now the person sitting has to stand up to let the person pass? Dishwasher location - We went back and forth about this one. Our KD also recommended we keep the DW next to the sink. We wanted to keep the sink centered in the window, but guess that is not a big deal. No it's not a big deal. How often do you stand directly centered looking at your sink in relation to your window? Our thinking was that there would be no more spills on the floor than we have with present setup, as we presently load from the left side dirty sink, over the floor, to the DW. With DW in the island, with DW door open, there is only a 12” gap between end edge of door and sink cab. So it’s a wash. But it’s a lot less work to keep it next to the sink, and with the strong anti-island feelings from many, there must be more to it than I think, so will reconsider that one. The new layout now shows the DW next to the sink. As I mentioned, it's also having to turn 180 degrees every time you want to put something in the dishwasher. Another thing? If you ever decide to sell, having the dishwasher behind you would be a HUGE negative selling feature.