I don't understand why it still doesn't serve as a barrier and the aisles out are the same width. It's still in the same location and the aisles out are the same width, so I think I'm not understanding your concern clearly. A 42" aisle is so much more efficient and the storage in the island would be more convenient as well as the workspace. You could go to 48" aisles if you felt that would be better.

Is the L section on the island necessary? Are you going to have seating along the outside edge?

Thanks for responding. In the first diagram, opposite the frig, the island length is 89 inches (the skinny part of the L island). And in the second diagram, opposite the frig is the 42 inch length of island (the wider main part of the L). Its an L so the cook can look into the family room (opposite the stove) and the living room and hall (to the left of the refrig) So barrier is 42'' v. 89''. There will be seating on the outside edge.

I am just dense today, I guess, because I have to say I'm confused. How does the L section on the island help the cook look into the living room? How does it affect the view in any direction? I think it will be odd to have the island shaped that way, and possibly hard to fit material on the top... My opinion, of course.

I would do the island as a rectangle rather than an L and have it about 4' from the range counter. Actually, that is what we did except in our case we put the rangetop on the the island. It seems to me that your drawing might not be to scale because our island provides a good barrier/edge to the kitchen with the length of the kitchen L being about 10 feet.

Remember too that if you have seating at the island, the stools need space on the far side.

Our island is 51" by 96". The base is 96" by 36" (a row of 24" deep cabinets facing the long side of the kitchen L and a row of 12" deep cabinets with the middle two having doors under the seating overhang and the side two being 12"" wide with doors on the short sides of the island. The seating overhang is 15". Ours is about 50" from the long side of the L which provides a good distance for having people working on both sides of the kitchen and even someone opening the refrigerator without interfering with a cook at the island. It's 36" from the short side of the island which we find a good distance for someone working using the counters on both the L and island.

You can't quite tell from the perspective in this picture, but the island edges are about even with the ends of the L. The breakfast room is out of sight to the left of the picture so we also have the kitchen as part of an area with living space to both sides of the island.

I did an L-shaped kitchen with an L-shaped island, so I, naturally like option #2. I think the clear walkways in option 2 allow better circulation in the room.

I can't quite tell what the measurements and dimensions are. Does the skinny part of the L-shaped island line up with anything? On the drawing it looks like it is out of scale.

I'm curious about the room measurments, I can't read them clearly, but it seems like you have similar dimensions to my kitchen.

rhome: if you're confused, it's me not you. Took me 3 hours to post the diagram, and it still turned out confusing -- one diagram is inverted. Where the frig is is the entrance. If you face towards the short arm of the island, the view is of the hall, living room and double french doors to the outside. There is a prep sink in the short arm of the island

Cloud swift: Wish I had thought of a double wide island. I like the cooktop on your island. How is your ventilation for it working? Was it hard to install the vent or the electrical/gas lines to the island? After seeing your island, maybe I should have cooktop on the island?

Deco Lisa: I like the convenience of diagram 2. My measurements are :
stove wall: 165'', including the frig
sink and dw wall 135''
short arm of island: 47'' by 24''
main part of island 108'' by 42''
Distance between frig and short arm of island 42''
Distance between main part of island and stove is 89'' (Dia1) and 42" (Dia 2)
Distance between sink and dw and island is 36"

Your room measurements are close to mine, 11.5'X 16'. Depending on where your gas line is, an island cooktop could work with some extra cost. If you're doing induction, electricity is easier to run on an island.

The downside of the island cooktop is that you will probably pay more for venting. You'll need to look carefully at the distance from the hood to the wall and the number of turns you may need to make in order to vent properly to the outside. In my case, the cost wasn't too high, and it was worth it to me.

An island vent also means more room for upper cabinets in the space against the wall that would otherwise have been the hood. This will also add to your cabinet price a bit.

Looking at the measurements that you supplied, I'm an even stronger vote for Option 2.

If you do a cooktop on the island, I'd place so that its on the same linear plane, slightly askew from the refrigerator, (or what I think is the refrigerator, maybe the pantry?) but so that someone can easily access the refrigerator even while someone is standing at the cooktop.

I have a very similar layout to Kit1 (two L's) and I am currently remodeling my kitchen cause the two L configuration is so horrible to work in. If I were you I would consider something similar to the Cloud Swift pic. The 2-L's will find you walking back & forth from the island to the sink or stove and you will find this tiresome after awhile. Also the layout will invite others to walk through the two L's and crossing your path while you are traveling back & forth. You will grow weary after awhile.

Locating the prep sink on the small L-section of the island might make sense in the first plan, but won't work as a 'prep' sink on that little section in Plan 2. The prepping path is usually fridge to sink and prep, then to stove...And a prep sink is often helpful in filling and draining pots of water. In Plan 2 the L'd section is closer to the main sink and far from the cooking work area.

I sure don't think you need to move the cooktop, but you could still have a simply rectangular island with the prep sink near the fridge, with plenty of prep and workspace directly across the aisle from the stove. The extra section wouldn't be necessary and you could have seating clear across the side, with storage for less often used things accessible under the seating overhang. This would mean, I think, that the seating edge of the island could be even with the end of the cleanup sink run of cabinets...forming one edge for the room. I think this may be close to or the same as what Cloudswift was saying.

Wish I had thought of a double wide island.

Why can't you change now? Are the cabinets already ordered or delivered? If they are ordered, perhaps you could change the order. If you have them already, you don't have to use the ones for the small leg of the L (2 cabinets?). You could even look into what it would cost to get the cabinets needed for a wider island.

In diagram 2, it looks like the island is the same size as diagram 1 and I don't expect that it would be. The cabinets might be the same, but the seating overhang changes. In 1, the seating is on the outside of the long side of the L. At 9', it will seat 4 (figuring the usual 24" per seat). In 2, the seating side of the island is now inside the L, which means that it will be 7' long and seat 3.

You could mock up the kitchen (use boxes, wood on saw horses or even just tape on the ground) to see how it is to move in the space. We have 36" between the short side of our island and the L. At that size, one can use counters on both sides of the aisle and just turn to get from one to the other. We have about 50" between the long side of the island and the L. It's a good size for an area where multiple people are working. Someone setting the table from the L cabinets doesn't interfere with someone else doing prep at the island. When something is needed from the other side, it's a turn and step to get from one to the other.

Our island is 51" wide (15" seating overhang plus 36" base). I wouldn't recommend putting a cooktop on an island with seating opposite the cooktop that was less than 48" wide. 48" allows for 24" of counter behind the cooktop. That is a good buffer distance between those seated at the island and the hot surface. 18" is cutting it a bit tight. 24" also makes the area behind the cooktop a good useful size. We use it as part of the baking area for filling cookie sheets, rolling dough, forming loaves, etc. It's also a good size when we use the area to set out a buffet.

You are going to have to get electrical to the island whether you have a cooktop there or not. Islands are required to have electrical outlets by code (unless they ave very tiny). You will also need electrical for a garbage disposal on the prep sink if you have one. Getting gas to the island is no more difficult than getting water to it - the sink will have hot and cold water pipes and a drain. Our house is on a raised foundation so gas, water, and electrical just went under the floor. Our house is one story so there is nothing in the way of venting to the roof. We had one difficulty with it because there was a joist in the way of the spot where the vent would go with the hood in ideal position. We had a custom duct cover made with a slant so the duct could avoid the joist while still having the hood where we wanted it. You can see the slant better in this picture:

Island hoods generally cost $500-1000 more than wall mounted hoods (because all 4 sides have to be finished and it has to be built to be supported just from the top). The custom duct cover added a few hundred more in our case.

There are threads discussing the pros and cons on island cooktops. For us, it works well having it there, but it wouldn't with a 42" deep island. Many others here prefer having the island as a large open counter without a cooktop interrupting it.