I like option A just fine, and don't like option B, especially since you don't think the drawers will be as useful to you. It depends on who is making (and/or maybe installing) your cabinets whether you could have the trash door look like 2 drawers. If I can have my dishwasher panel look like a drawer and door, it should be possible to have your door look like drawers...but, again, it depends on your cabinet line and what they may offer, or who might be willing to contrive it from the pieces the cabinet manufacturer has available.

My cabinets are currently without the molding for the top, so about 5 inches from the ceiling. I actually think they look OK that way and I'd be tempted to leave them if we hadn't skipped painting the wall completely behind. (Picture below)...So I, personally, would go with the 42" uppers, so you can have 3 usable shelf spaces inside.

Countertop overhang: The drawer fronts or doors will be 3/4" plus, possibly, a bumper, so will stand out from the cabinet almost an inch. I like a good 1/2" of overhang past that, so that anything dripping off the counter gets to the floor, instead of running down the face of the cabinet. That makes a 1 1/2" overhang the safest bet to meet my needs. You might get away with 1 1/4", but I don't know if that's worth it.

I doubt they'd make a cabinet 36" deep, opening on both sides with a divider in between, but I guess it never hurts to ask. As far as depth, unless your aisles are getting too narrow, I don't think a 36" island should look to bulky. But if you want to make it shallower, it depends on what you want to keep in those shelves and cabinets how much you can subtract and still leave yourself something usable. Did you say whether the cabinets are framed or frameless? I think I'd want at least 9 1/2" inside, since a lot of things (plates, baking pans, etc) seem to be 9".

Thanks for the comments rhome410. We're using Scherrs cabinets so if they can make a door that looks like drawer fronts do you think that would be better than Plan A?

LOL...No idea what I'd keep on the shelves. I'm not a knick knack person, I don't have that many cookbooks and I'm not sure it would be deep enough if I end up reducing the depth even more anyway. I originally thought of shelves because I figured the middle section would be too shallow for a cabinet and I could stick the dog's water and food dish under the shelves (instead of under the desk). But then I decided it might look dumb to have the dog dish under an area with display items. OTOH, does it even make sense to display something in that location anyway? Oh, the battles that run in my head!

Good point about losing the third shelf with shorter cabinets. If I do put crown molding, I'll have to make the end wall cabinet an inch or two narrower because there's not enough wall space for the molding to return. I have lights above the cabinets hidden by the cabinet frames now. I don't know if the fixtures will be too visible without molding above a frameless cabinet.

I promised you a photo, then forgot! That's what I get for staying up too late, but it sounds like you might not need it.

I could like either the matching drawer fronts or the asymmetrical look of the larger panel over the trash pullout. Depends on the kind of look you prefer. I think the all drawer look is more contemporary and sleek. The other is a good balance.

The back of the island wouldn't be my favorite display location...Ok for cookbooks maybe, though, or other items for fun or function. Remember, too, that open shelves in base cabinets are really good for gathering dog hair. :-)

I think you have enough room with the uppers at 42". I actually have things stacked on the top shelf where getting things in and out would be more difficult if they were 3" shorter.

I like the door/drawer combination on the island. If you made the trash pullout look like drawers (which I'm sure is possible since my DW panel is made to look like a drawer and a door cabinet), then you just have a solid grid -- no variance. The combination is more interesting to me and looks more like someone thought about what it was supposed to do rather than just slapped a bunch of drawers together.

Regarding your shelves on the back, I have 10" deep cabinet with shelves for cookbooks. The depth after the back is 9-1/2" and the middle shelf is about 8" (comes to the back of the face panel). I put larger, deeper books on the bottom with the 9-1/2 and smaller ones above. It would also be deep enough for a lot of display items, but a large bowl could be a problem. And I don't think the shelves are too wide.

If you order a cabinet 36" deep, make sure you have a doorway you can bring it in through -- exterior as well as the interior coming into the kitchen. Most folks would not. I have double French doors at the back of the kitchen/breakfast room, but I don't think they'd be able to get that through my gate to get through the backyard and around to the back door. If they did manage that, it would still be a major hassle.

Also, don't set your cooktop back -- just the downdraft unit inside. You don't want to have to be reaching further to lift pots, stir, etc. Your arms and back will be unhappy and it creates a greater burn risk (harder reach being more of a risk of dropping something and bending over to reach something on a back burner creates more of a risk of hitting something on a front burner).

The best way to save drawer space under your cooktop is to carefully study the options and configuration for the downdraft blower. Look at the connections and fit of each model and look at the overall size -- especially the depth. Consider whether you can use an external blower. See if you can block just and upper or a lower drawer. Then make the drawers fit -- notch or U-shape to get the most you can. It's similar to engineering the drain pipes and such under your sink to maximize space rather than just slapping something together in the space available -- which is what most plumbers will do if they aren't told they won't get paid for that kind of job.

Rhome is right -- the standard counter overhand is about 1-1/2". I think my tile counters in the original kitchen here were an inch or less. EVERYTHING dripped over than edge and onto the cabinets, where the drips ran into and around every bit of trim on the doors. Don't skimp on the overhang -- make sure your door fronts, including any trim that sticks out past the 3/4" panel will be covered.

rhome410, You didn't have to send your pics. I've seen photos of your gorgeous kitchen in several of your helpful posts.

You guys have convinced me to stay with the 42" wall cabinets and the 1 1/2" countertop overhang.

I'll have to think more about the shelves on the back and see what Scherrs says they can do. The cabinets have to be assembled so getting them into the house shouldn't be a problem. The shelves look nice on paper but I'm not sure about the location or if it fits my style. My daughter likes the shelves but we never like the same thing so that should tell me something. Spunky doesn't shed so no worries about dog hair though.

I'm not sure I want a 6' bank of doors there either. If I made the side cabinets more shallow, how about if just left the middle cabinet recessed 6-8" just to give it some interest?

I'll have to see what they can do with the drawer fronts too. I'm glad to hear at least two people think Option A would look alright. I really like symmetry but straight drawer banks across the front seems boring. I was thinking about slab drawer fronts because the panel ones seem a little too busy to me, especially in the short drawers. I'm going to have a lot of drawers. I wonder how it would look with some panel fronts in the middle section (or some other variation of drawer front)? Has anybody seen that?

lascatx; So you don't think setting the downdraft back from the cooktop would be a problem? I thought of doing that but since people here discourage downdrafts as it is, I figured I should keep it as close as possible.

I had to laugh at your comment about checking the downdraft configuration and the plumbing. When they did our current downdraft the HVAC guys brought the vent out the front and had it coming all the way to the front of the cabinet before going down. My husband redid it as close as he could to recapture some space. I just found out that it *could* have vented directly through the bottom! He also redid every sink in our house because the plumbing took up too much space. In school, in the dark ages when computer programs ran on cards, he always had to write his program in the least number of cards too!

Demolition has officially started. I told my daughter she could start taking the wallpaper down. Apparently she hated it because she was on it in a flash.