You don't have room for an island at all in the kitchen itself. Your Kitchen is only 118.5" wide 118.5" - 25.5" for the sink counter (not counting any appliances) - 42" aisle b/w island and sink counter [bare minimum aisle width] - 27"D island ======= 24" for an aisle behind the island. The minimum it should be is 36" to squeeze by when someone is sitting at the island; you're a foot short. (44" is the minimum recommended, another 8" more) Plus, that 42" aisle is the minimum for only one person working on the aisle, not for more than one. Are you a one-person household? I assume not since you say "we". For two or more people, the minimum work aisle is 48". The island would not be able to have standard cabinets. You need 15" overhang + 1" for decorative door/end panel on the back of the cabinets + 1.5" counter overhang in the front of the island...that leaves you with cabinets no more than 9.5" deep. It would also mean no appliances on the right wall, so the refrigerator will need to be moved to either the sink wall or the top wall. The peninsula layout is much better than the island idea. In fact, anyone telling you an island will work either doesn't understand kitchen design at all or is lying to you. I know you don't want to hear that. Islands are all the rage right now, but not all Kitchens can support an island.

Yes, continuing the wood into the kitchen is an option. If you're going with white cabinetry and white counters, wood floors may be a good option to keep your space from looking too cold. I think you'd want to attempt to match your current wood. Is the rest of your wood flooring in need of refinishing? If you refinished the rest of it at the same time, you could be assured of a good match. I've never had wood in a kitchen and still don't feel entirely comfortable with wood flooring in a kitchen because of my concerns about water damage, but most here dismiss that concern and I think the houzz kitchen board is, in general, strongly in favor of wood flooring in kitchens. Are you going to keep your current layout? I'd keep the island surface at one level and drop the overhang, since it doesn't appear you use it for seating and it also doesn't appear there is actually enough space for seating.

UPDATE - SEPTEMBER, 2022 It took until October of 2021 to get all the cabinetry in and line up the contractors. Construction began in late October, moving cabinets and appliances around. There was no real gut-job; moving the fridge and the cabinetry and installing new cabinets took the crew about 3 days, with one more day of finish work with crown moulding and so forth. Everything was basically finished by mid-December, and then the countertops were changed out just after the new year. Everything was up and running except for the backsplash, which we finally got in in February. The general contractor was Adam Silverstein of ACRO Construction in central NJ. I highly recommend him. BEFORE Note fridge location, induction cooktop in island, open shelving on wall AFTER New granite on island. Prep sink in island. Bluestar 48" gas rangetop with high flow, professional grade ventilation. Stainless backsplash with integrated pot rack. Open shelving replaced with new, contrasting cabinetry. BEFORE Long wall of unbroken cabinets, sterile look. AFTER Fridge moved, new smaller cabinet added between coffee/breakfast prep station and fridge. Additional cabinets were moved to a previously unused wall on the opposite side of the kitchen entry door, just to the side of the fridge in this picture. All cabinets were upgraded internally to contain roll out drawers/shelves. AFTER Relocated pantry cabinets in backgroud. Foreground showing detail of new granite on island. This kitchen is far more functional, attractive, and FUN than the previous version. The nice thing about a 48" cook top is that 2 or even 3 people can stand at it at the same time without crowding each other. There is ample space for multiple people to work, prep, clean, whatever is needed. We find the commercial quality gas range to be far superior to the induction unit we had in almost every respect. We have much more control of temperature, better simmering, and with the ventilation hood, far better control of cooking messes, steam, smoke, etc. Induction is more efficient and boils water faster, for sure. In every other way, we find cooking to be superior with gas. And with gas, we can use our copper cookware, a chef's dream. The amount of storage space in the kitchen has practically doubled. The only thing left which we had hoped we could avoid is to replace the tile floor. Unfortunately it will have to be replaced; the kitchen had been gutted in 2018 by the previous owner, who had put in these cabinets, this island, and the old white countertops, the induction, etc. That would have been the time to replace the floor, but he chose not to. It will be a mess and tedious job but it will give us the opportunity to make the kitchen even prettier and more functional and modern looking with new tile. We have been joyfully using this kitchen daily for all of 2022. Thanks to all who expressed support in the project, and for the nay-sayers, I'd say we did a pretty good job.

I found this thread a while back; the author has apparently since been banned from Houzz, probably for being too direct/unfiltered. But it is a good read nonetheless... 10 tests for you and your contractor