Congratulations on being cancer free - I'm going 7+ now. What a nice gift from a sweet hubby. From your description I think the island doesn't make sense. You want to be able to move around the kitchen freely. Why stick one it just because they are "in"?

Can you post a drawing of the room with dimensions and window and door placements?

Well congrats on your 10 year mark, I totally understand the joy as my mother hit her 10 year mark last year. I'm sorry this hasn't started out on such a good foot for you, any remodel work can be stressful but having a forum like this to bounce ideas off of or even get second opinions from helps a lot. While islands are the rage and everyone seems to want one, I can understand what you're saying. We have a small peninsula and I often wonder just how functional an island would really be for my own style of cooking.

I'm not an expert by an sense of the imagination but do strongly feel that any space you design has to be conforming to your cooking style and how you would feel most comfortable. I've seen many beautiful kitchens with peninsula's as opposed to islands so I wouldn't worry so much about the aesthetic. I would just try to keep an open mind to all of the design suggestions and then go with what will work the best for you and your family.

There are instructions on how to post in the thread of the link provided. It's helpful to know where entrances are, what rooms lead to what area, window placement, where water lines are and so on. You can either draw something out on paper and scan it, or do what a lot of people like to do and just use excel. Don't forget to list the things on your wish list too. It doesn't have to be fancy. A blank canvas is great fun for many in this forum and no doubt you'll find all kinds of help with the design process. Let the fun begin!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Posting instructions

We just redid our kitchen are waiting for countertops now. We did not do an island, but instead of a peninsula coming out at a 90, we put it on a 45 degree angle, which opened the kitchen up to the eating area, and gave the kitchen an interesting extra. We put counter overhang for stools on the end and back side. A friend did this also, but instead of a 3' wide peninsula, she did the 25" wide countertop and a 1' high bar countertop on the back side w/ high stools. Hope you can picture this.....we're both happy and they look great......

Congrats on the 10 year mark!! What a wonderful gift from your hubby.

Don't let a designer pressure you into an island. Your kitchen is about the same width as mine and there is NO way I'd want to have an island there. It will make every part of your kitchen seem small and cramped. If you put a 24" island in the middle of 8', you only have 3' of walk ways on either side of it which is going to cause serious congestion especially if you ever plan to have two people working in the kitchen at the same time.

And because the designers have suggested sticking an island in a too-small space, I'd suggest dumping all of them and try someone different. Their terrible idea would make me question their skill as designers and I'd wonder what other hair-brained ideas they might try to incorporate. I am glad you found gardenweb before you got started though. There are lots of very good designers (professional and non professional) right here who can help guide you. The first thing you have to do is get a drawing posted. Draw it to scale on a piece of graft paper and scan or photograph it if that's all you can do. Just get it posted so you can get the best possible guidance.

Thanks to all of you! I am so thankful I have found this site! I have learned so much and have been drooling over the pictures of your beautiful kitchens. I am not that computer literate but am going to try very hard to get a drawing posted! Thanks from the bottom of my heart! You all are wonderful!!!

Congrats on your 10 year mark!

We need to turn this fun and exciting adventure back into just that. No worries--you have come to the right place for feedback and ideas.

My kitchen is also 12' wide. I have a 24 x 48 island. It is small, but it does what I want it to do. When we were doing our DIY renovation, we already had an island, that we wanted to move and re-do. When we ripped it out, I loved the open floor plan that was there. However, my dh kept saying to me, that it was too much open space. 12' is weird, it is technically too small for an island and yet too big when left open. I toyed with the idea of peninsula. But, I have a slider near the seating area, and I thought of all the walking around the peninsula--that would drive me crazy. So, we went with the island. I am glad I did, it gives me a landing place for my fridge stuff that I'm getting out, as well as when I'm getting stuff out of the pantry. I'm glad I didn't make mine longer. We also moved it to a location a bit further away from the stove wall, so that really gave me more space for cooking, opening the oven, etc. I don't find the 3' aisles to be a problem at all.

I tell my husband that my dream island would be able to have seating at it, but that couldn't work in this kitchen.

You need to get what works for you. If you like your peninsula now, then I say get it.

I will share my before & almost after:
{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

I have no idea where you have windows & doors, but to give you an idea of what else can be done besides an island (and I think islands are way overdone in that even kitchens that cannot support them have them b/c they're "in" and people fight like crazy to justify them when they don't fit...oh well, to each his own.)

BTW, I do not have an island, at 11' my kitchen was also too narrow for one. Instead, I have two peninsulas (my kitchen is open on both ends). I love it and I am so glad I do not have an island!

If you see a 42" label on the orange square to the left of the sink...that's actually a 24" DW! (mis-labeled!)

Congrats on your 10 Years! New kitchen - nice gift!

My kitchen is even smaller at 11 x 19, with 9' for the eating area. I debated endlessly about the island too, but in the end stayed with the peninsula and got 36" wide for stools. The island would have been 24" wide, and for us more of a road block than the peninsula.

I love the new 36" work surface for baking. I love sitting at the counter myself. When I'm working in there people now pull up a stool and hang out talking to me. It's great. If I could have had a 36" island w/stools, I would have. But it's the function of the space that was more important to me.

We were able to remove the soffit and cabinets over the old peninsula, and arrange storage elsewhere. That opened up the room visually. It's a nice enough change for us.

YMMV

You all are great! I am definitely getting excited again. I guess I have two options (both would work) narrow island or wide peninsula, either way, new cabinets and appliances and I would be on cloud 9! Have to play with the blue tape a little more and then I am calling the contractor... want to get moving on this! Thanks for all the great advice, it means more to me than you will ever know!

Try to grab some cardboard boxes from an appliance store and fashion a peninsula or island out of them. See what it is really like to have something there.

We are experts at mockups--let's see, what can I remember,cardboard island hoods being hung by string, cardboard faucets, and balloons hung by string to imitate pendant lights. Drawing backsplashes on paper and taping them up. There should be a mock up thread on here!

Congratulations on your 10 years! That's wonderful. I agree that you shouldn't feel pressured by anyone to follow a certain design, especially if it doesn't seem to fit the way you use your space. (Some of their suggestions may have merit, so don't discard them all...) Love the idea of mocking up boxes to try out a peninsula or narrow island. The bulk of the boxes helps visualize and "feel" the space more than the tape IMO.

I just wanted to say congratulations. What a darling, darling DH. God bless you!

I am not good with design so cannot help you there, but I do have an itsy-bitsy island. If you would like to see it, look at the post "Please help me choose lighting for island" There's a good picture there of my small island.

I'm another in a camp of "would have loved to have an island" but my 11' x13' space really didn't make it work. And I realized, I love my pennisulas....I have a U shape similar to buehl's with cabinets across from the U and a walkway infront of those cabinets (I have fridge, ovens, MW on that wall).

One thing I did to make my kitchen work better is I made the counters deeper where I could: corners, ran the counter into the window sill, and widened up my pennisula to be 27" (the old one was 24" and things would fall off the back side). My pennisula is too narrow for seating, but I have a table adjacent to it...love the set up! But would encourage you to try to find one place to tuck in a stool.

As I think back to the kitchens I've worked in...the house I grew up in was laid out similarly though smaller than mine & it was a very functional kitchen. The one house I lived in that had an island (L + island)...was a nice big open kitchen, but I didn't find it as easy to work in beacuse the the work triangle was on the L, it seemed like I walked a lot in that kitchen.

You've come to the right place to get some help. Congrats on the 10 years!

Hard to really give advice without a floor plan. But I just wanted to say that our island is 24" x 42" and it is very useful. Our aisles are more than 36" though.

Congratulations on your ten years! Wonderful! I totally empathize with your planning stress. I'm feeling the same. Instead of an island, how about a movable Boos-type cart that you could use as an island at times and tuck out of the way at other times? I've seen some really nice ones.

a huge congrats on 10 years free!!! I'm coming up on the 7 year mark myself (God willing!), and while there is no better gift than continuing to get those test results back free and clear, I'd take a new kitchen too!!! how fun. you'll find such great input and advice here.

I very much second Pickle's cart option. This makes a mini-island that doesn't trap you into difficult walk paths. The space I'm working with is close to the dimensions of yours and like you, heard from "everyone" that an island was needed, but after a number of drawings, I gave it up. I have created something else by turning the kitchen sideways, but have informed DH that there is the possibility that a cart still may show up. If my windows did not dictate so many other things, I would have made a cart garage under the countertop.

I visited Ikea recently and was surprised to see all the cart options in the showroom. Large and small, wheeled or not, metal or wood. Lots of utility in them. Not advocating Ikea here, just the idea. My daughter has a little cart in her microkitchen in Fairbanks AK where it is invaluable. She can roll it out of the way when space is needed but otherwise, it's at her side when she needs an additional "plunk space" or cutting surface. Knives are in the drawer and most-used bowls, etc. are on it. A friend saw her cart and fell in love, went home to Minn. and created a one-wall kitchen with a modest cart as auxiliary space. It makes his wall a two-cook kitchen and is a transition between the table area and the wall kitchen. During the meal, things are plunked on it heading one way or the other; after the meal cleanup occurs via the cart surface. I don't think it moves around very much except when a specific cooking task requires it, but I know that wheels were important to him.

When there is a big crowd or a project where it's in the way, many carts can go away, outside even.

One of the mound of books I scoured for ideas during the planning stage featured the kitchen of a professional recipe writer. It had cupboards that were a little deeper on the two facing walls and there was a cart. I suspect that the cart was the stuff she needed on either of the two walls and that the top surface was that extra space needed in the heat of battle, in her case for dough often. Carts can have functional marble tops, butcherblock cutting surfaces, or color or....