I don't have the exact scenario that you're describing, but my current setup has similarities. I have an island that is 5' 8" by 2' 11" and has a 36" gas cooktop and downdraft smack in the middle. This leaves me with 16" on both sides of the cooktop and 10" behind the cooktop and downdraft. For some crazy reason, the end of the island behind the cooktop has an overhang of 2". While that hardly works as a counter, we still have a couple of stools there and it tends to be the spot where people want to hang out in the kitchen. When we moved into this house, my daughter was 12 mos old and my son was 5 1/2. I was pretty worried about the danger of them sitting so near the cooktop. Surprisingly, never really has been an issue. It isn't what I would have designed in the first place, but it has worked. My children are now 6 1/2 years and almost 11. The entire time we've lived here, if I'm cooking something on the cooktop and the kids are sitting at the counter, I just raise the downdraft as a barrier and I haven't had a problem. Doesn't mean there couldn't have been a problem and it is the best setup, just saying I've never had a problem. Ever. With the situation you're describing, you don't have much room to one side of the range, but you have a lot more to the other side, which I think is more workable than what I have now. Let me tell you, 16" of prep space is really frustrating. With the raised bar that you're describing, if I'm reading it right, anyone sitting at your bar is a heck of a lot further away than in my setup. What I'm hearing is that you don't really have a great alternative to this setup and wonder if it will work. I think it will work just fine. I'm also guessing that in a perfect world with money and current layout not being an issue, you'd do something different. Well, with the world being imperfect, it sounds, to me, like what you have is doable. I hope that helps.

I'll weigh in since I have a bi-level island, and it definitely seems to be a less popular choice to a lot of people. Lots of people on this forum seem to advocate having a single level island so that it doesn't break up the space and so that you can have one very large workspace for projects, etc. If you have either a sink or a cooktop in the island, the project space might somewhat be diminished unless your island is very big. We chose a bilevel for a variety of reasons: 1) our kitchen is part of a kitchen/great room and we really liked the idea of having the spaces visually separated; 2) our island is really big, so we have plenty of room for prep without using the raised portion; 3) we have a dining table very nearby which gives us the utility of a work/project space; 4) positioning outlets isn't a problem! That being said, I love love love the look of a flat island in a lot of kitchens, but just not for our space. We have our cooktop on our island, and I personally wouldn't want a flat space with a cooktop. It seems that, for me (totally personal decision here), I would not like having either a cooktop or sink in a flat island, as I think water or cooking splashes would ease their way over the flat space. If I did a flat island, it would have neither cooktop nor sink (well, maybe a small prep sink...) I really love our island and its utility. I love that it does offer some division between the cooking and living space. I also realize that it's certainly not for everyone. Here's a couple of pictures: our kitchen table is under the hanging quilt: view from living area:

Most people spend far more time prepping than actually cooking (yes, there are exceptions like Errant_GW above). However, for most of us the following statistics apply: 70% or more time and work in the kitchen is spent prepping (preparing the food for cooking - washing veggies/fruit, chopping/cutting, mixing, etc.) 10% is spent actually cooking (stirring, adding ingredients to a pot) 20% is spent cleaning up (clearing the table, clearing counters, putting leftovers away, loading the DW, wiping down the table & counters, unloading the DW) In addition, unless you have at least 24" b/w the back of the range/cooktop and the seating overhang edge, there should be no seating behind a cooktop or range (grease can splatter over 18"!) Personally, I would much rather prep on a peninsula than cook! . Venting... Is more expensive b/c the hood is finished on all sides and more work is required to exhaust it to the outside, Hoods need to be over-sized and over-powered to provide effective capture and venting of fumes, smoke, steam, etc. Smoke, steam, odors, fumes, etc., are affected by stronger and more room air currents when the cooktop/range is on a peninsula or island than when against a wall. In addition, there are non cabinets flanking the hood or a wall behind to help corral and capture those odors, steam, smoke, etc., so you have to make up for these factors with a larger and more powerful hood: -- At least 6" wider than the cooktop/range -- 27" deep -- Cfms in the 600 to 900 range (or more) Outlets... We used pop-up Mocketts for our outlets in our window well. We checked with the County Inspector b/f we installed them and he approved them. Here's a picture of them: . Mocketts up: . Mocketts down: .

Sounds like your set up is something like this (but you’ll have open shelves and no sink). Two should be fine - you can always try mocking it up with some balloons once your cabs + shelves are hung