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....

Thank you everybody for your opinions! I really like "talking" these things through with lots of people. Why is this so difficult? So, this is what we decided to do. We just moved into a new house, and we need several pieces of furniture. We need a dining room table more than chairs bc my DH accidentally threw out the leaves to our table during the move (long story) and the current table size configuration doesn't really accommodate our large family very well. We have chairs, although they are beat up bc they weren't the best to begin with and have taken over a decade of abuse, and they are functional. So, we decided that our priority should be the table. So, I think we're going to go ahead and buy the above trestle/pedestal table and wait on the chairs (unless you all can talk me out of it!). Although I love the chairs, chairs are the big expense in a dining set, and we can wait on those since we have chairs, and we can think about whether they'd match the table once we get the table (we wanted to go bold and get the chairs in red). Anyway, we figure that it would be best to spend those funds on getting furniture we don't even have for rooms, instead of replacing furniture we have. Plus, with 4 young boys, those chairs would take so much abuse; so, may be it's worth waiting a little bit until they are older and won't be so messy (does that ever happen?). Thank you for talking me through this. It's hard to resist the temptation to go out and get everything at once and furnish the house in one swoop. Do you all still like the table or is the table by itself a mistake? Thanks!

Thanks again everyone for such positive feedback :) It still isn't quite right for me - I'm dying to get the backsplash in to pull it all together. Have the name of a good tiler now just need to pick out something! I"m thinking beveled subway tiles, maybe cream/bone but if anyone has any suggestions I"m totally open! I'm not a designer type person whatsoever.... but lots of you on here are for sure.

OMG thank you all! I will look into those links. I love this forum - so many people willing to help and think outside the box. Cloudswift, the beverage center is as lowered as it can go and we cannot take 1/2 inch off the cabinet above it. We can (well we could at great expense) shave the toe kick off the cabinet next to it (but it does not help because we still have the coffee maker cabinet problem). Another problem is that base cabinet is attached to the refrigerator cabinet into which the Sub-Zero was already installed (by a certified SZ installer), I believe the fridge is bolted to the studs in the back. After the money we spent on purchasing that and the installation, I do not want to mess with removing that fridge! Thanks though, trust me I have been up every night thinking of ways to resolve this dilemna!