Thanks, everyone, number 3 it is! I'm actually going to modify it slightly so that I have more full deco tiles in the open floor space of the room. This is what it will look like: (The face-down bullnose tile show the edges of the vanities.) Kendog... Yes, my husband is v e r y thorough! We have a good tilesetter but he's probably not going to spend the hours moving and placing tiles that we did! I then went back and outlined where I wanted each of my deco tiles. Thanks for the compliments on my tile. It's Materia Forte by Edimax and the color is Bronzea. It's a porcelain tile but the coordinating decos are travertine. The flash is washing out the color of my tile here but you can see the detail of the deco: I love the color of these tiles but they do look a little strange with all of the orange in my room right now! Let the tiling begin!

I like the larger subway tile in the beige shown as a 2x3 size. From the photos, it is the only sample that doesn't have pink undertones. Agree with others that the smaller size tile will look very busy with your counters. The travertine will likely look dated before the rest of your kitchen, and the 4" square pattern you describe sounds both busy and very 90's. Have you found any subway tile that is a creamy off white like your cabinets? Is this the house with the pine paneling and ceilings in the family room? Adjacent to a huge but dated white kitchen? I have wondered what you ended up doing with the house....this is an unsubtle hint for pictures, Caroleh!

if it were my kitchen to redo (leaving the sink where it is for plumbing) I get a counter depth fridge and put on the south wall, move the stove down to about where the fridge is now (leaving a space for countertop to each side of it), put the DW where the stove is, then I'd even skinny up that penisula with maybe cabinets at 12" depth under it. I'd also round out the corners of the counter top of the penisula (then 2 people could sit at the end - at each 'corner'). there'd still be room on the south wall for a pantry and the far wall by the dining room could be a computer / message / book / study area. depending on how much etc the penisula got skinnied up there might be room for the DW to the right of the sink even and then the stove could go midway on the west wall (figuring that's west). I'd put in banks of drawers on either side of the stove and to the right of the sink (if DW not there). probably no drawers on the skinny cabs under the penisula (unless custom cabs). depending on exactly how i worked it I'd also try to have a trash bin under cabinet close to the sink (maybe under sink?) I don't see the need to push a fat fridge back into the bathroom etc and use money that could go for a window. windows are a priority on my list. big windows! lol! with the stove moved farther down, maybe the sink could move a bit to the left making room for the DW to it's right. I'd prefer that and would try to get that to work out. hopefully there's no rule that says the sink has to be centered. I'd rather it off center w/ a big window than centered to a small one.

Thanks for the great feedback so far! Keep it coming!! The original island was 8'x3'8'. The new version is 4'6x8'. It was initially supposed to be a workspace/table combo, but I realized to Lisa's point that it will really be only used as a table if we keep it like that. I also had the concerns about more appliances than storage, and that's part of why I started modifying the island. If we were to use the architect's design as is, we would add an additional workspace, much like you did. We were thinking something less fixed, like this: [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/architectural-portfolio-eclectic-kitchen-portland-phvw-vp~2936999) [Eclectic Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/eclectic-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2104) by Vancouver Photographers Shawn St.Peter Photography However, our concern is that with 2 islands and the corner nook, it starts to get very cluttered and busy. That led me to want to move the dining area to the nook and use the island as a work station w/ more storage. There are only 2 of us for now, but with house guests and entertaining, we would want to be able to seat 4-5 regularly and 6+ for special occasions. You make a good point about the limited side seating, so we will remove it. I'm glad you all pointed out the issue with the dinnerware being so far from the dishwasher. My concern is that if we move the sink/DW back to the corner, there's not really any more storage over there, and then the sink is really far from the fridge. We could put the dinnerware and glassware in the uppers over the DW in my layout to resolve the issue, and then would just need a place for the flatware - either over the tupperware or back in the corner by the ovens. I could also probably get 18-20" of drawers next to the DW if I cut the tupperware/wraps drawers in half and take the extra 6" from the drawers on the other end (which would also put more counter space between the sink and ovens). OR the dinnerware/flatware could go in the drawers on the end of the island. So let's assume we can solve the storage location issue - would you still move the sink? (I don't think we could do a second sink because of the costs, so let's assume only 1.) How does the pantry on the left allow more space for the fridge doors? We would have french doors on the fridge, so I assumed it wouldn't matter which side. I actually wanted the left originally so I could put stuff from the fridge directly on the counter to the right, but since the laundry and pantry are paneled it looks better to flank the fridge with them. I guess if we kept all cabs the same color, it wouldn't matter as much. We put the fridge and pantry at the same depth as the laundry for 3 reasons: 1. a 36" deep fridge would look built-in without built-in prices 2. deeper pantry = more storage and 3. if we put the "tall things" in a contrasting color to the other cabinets, we would want them all flush so they form a wall. We haven't seen the ovens under the counter in person. We are planning on using the new Bosch swing door ovens, so hopefully that helps with some of the bending issues (only down vs. down and over). It does mean that we would want 30" clearance on either side, though, for the door to swing out. There is also a chance we may not be able to use both ovens because we only have 100 AMPs and it would be very $$$ to upgrade, so we could reduce to a double wall oven or just a single. I'm not a huge fan of the double wall oven because it seems like the top oven is too high to easily see and reach inside. However, I don't have personal experience using them so maybe it's not really an issue? Here is the link to my other post for reference: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/remodel/msg0812432221051.html I plan to add an update as soon as we make a final decision on the contractor!