Are you having this custom made? I see your pictures & am curious about the rest of the kitchen's empty spaces & what-not.
Anyway- If you're having custom cbts made then this is no big deal, but if you are trying to save money & those are stock or semi-custom cabinets, then you should watch the sizes of your cabinets. 29", 19" & 10" are all custom sizes. Cabinets come in 3" increments, so you should have 30" , 9 or 12" & 18". Plus the depth of the cabinets are 24" usually, so the 1st plan saying it's 35" D. again not a 3" increment, I don't know if that's possible to do drawer glides that deep. I like the long bookshelf on the back or I'd rather see it facing the kitchen table. Facing the other end, no one will really see it.

Good Luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: granite countertops

Okay - based on Granite girl's comments, I probably should add a few clarifications and measurements to really make this helpful:

- We are using a Amish cabinetmaker who originally made this kitchen when it was built. He will be making matching cabinets to fill in the whole (cooktop on counter in middle, hood above and upper left cabinets.) He can make anything for the island.

- One consideration is that we are installing it ourselves, which means I think we need it to fit through a doorway?? 35" wide. That would really limit us in terms of design. Perhaps he would be willing to build in 2 parts somehow and we install the molding and cabinet together?? I would have to see.

- So despite the issue of how to get it in, I would love to know what people think is the great size to the island. I always like to know the ideal and then work backwards, trying to figure out how to do it.

- I need a good 52" -54" from the refrig. to the island, realistically to open the door and take things out.

- I would like to leave 42" from the sink to the island and 42" from the cooktop to the island.

I believe that means at max. the island could be 36" deep and 72" long to fit in the space...

Is it possible to switch your fridge and your pantry cabinets? With your current layout any island will become a barrier that you will have to walk around every time you need to travel between your fridge and sink and between fridge and cooktop.

Hi Erikanh -

Well - yes ideally we would. In retrospect, we should have put the refrigerator in the middle. We actually just a week or so ago finished wiring the oven to that spot. Oh well.

However, we do hope to upgrade to a french door stainless steel refrig. So that would help eventually.

bump

Ah. Island runs deeper than 24" (by any substantial amt) are usually made up of multiple cabinets. In your example above, you'd have two 29" x 24" cabinets and a 12 x 24" cabinet and then perhaps 2 35" x 12" cabinets. The whole thing is assembled and then end panels are put on. An alternate way for "really" custom, is to make two 70" long cabinets that are each about 18" deep and assembled back to back with molding or a cover panel applied on the ends.

I have a bit of base open shelving and this is what I'm saying after living with it for a few years. The thing that makes the base shelves work is being able to see what you have and get to it easily.

I like mine and have to clean them about once a season - except the bottom shelves get cleaned once a month. I keep things in them that are accessed all the time, so dust builds up on the shelves, but not the items inside.

The bottom shelves accumulate the most crap - the higher you can make them, the cleaner they stay. So, consider being up on legs. It's definately a pricing and total storage consideration.

Get extra shelves. You can stack stuff pretty close together and its nicer looking and stays cleaner without a lot of the head room above items.

Fishing for stuff in the back (or cleaning out the way back) is no fun. Consider making each side about 15" deep and accessing the slot created in the center from each end. Great for stacked wraps, wine, tools, rolling pins, tea towels or what have you. Maybe stack cookie sheets or trays if you wanted. (make two 15 x 70" cabinets and install shelves or 6" filler pullouts between them).

As an alternate, if you want to use a 24" depth on one side, ask if cabinet guy can make shelves that pull out with matching cabinet wood. If you want to get very cute, make the shelf thicker and hide some undermount glides.

Extend the top overhang more than usual - at least 1.5 inches and up to three inches beyond the edge of the shelves. It will help keep dust and fluids out.

hth

bmorepanic,
Thank you so much for the specificity of your recommendations. This is so incredibly helpful. Truly, your thoughts are so wonderful as to the construction and little details we can do to make them really function. We are lucky to be able to work with someone who will do custom for an amazingly low price (lower than a typical kitchen store). But for that reason - we are not able to work with a designer to get any specific ideas or thoughts. We need to submit him the plan. Yikes!

Just this morning I was talking to a friend on the phone and they said, "No seating??!? I think you will regret that and think about resale issues."

My heart fell to my feet. Here I'm finally thinking that shelves are "it" and now I'm feeling nervous again. Do you regret not having seating at your island? Or do you have seating on one side?

I feel that the open shelving island would be much more attractive in my kitchen and would make it more of a cook's kitchen. Seating would be more of an entertainer's kitchen. And then we would have more chairs on top of chairs. But I suppose, if we really thought seating at the island was important we could put open shelving on just the end and stools along the side with the refrigerator.

Thoughts on this? I am making a big mistake to eliminate seating at my island?

bump again - still seeking thoughts and getting lost on page 4... :)

It's tough to get a feel for the space that you have to work with. Is there any way that you could do a drawing to scale? Perhaps on graph paper and then scan it or take a picture?

Okay, yes, will do. I can easily do it on graph paper and perhaps I can figure out a way on the computer. Shouldn't be too hard (famous last words).

No seating at the island wouldn't bother me if I were buying your house, but maybe someone with more real estate experience will chime in.

I like the second island better. In the first island, the cabs are 35" deep-- that's almost a foot deeper than standard cabs. If you have drawers you can use all that space, but you have to allow room to pull out the drawer in the aisle. And think about what will get lost in your slotted cab! I think it's too deep. IMO you are better off doing standard-depth cabs, as in the second drawing.

If you really want to have shelves and seating, you could put a seat at the end of the island nearest the table. You could maybe squeeze two stools there, but it would be cramped, one would be better.

If you run open shelving across the entire back of the island, that's a lot of open shelving-- are you a cookbook collector? You could have half or a third bookshelves, and the rest a shallow cabinet. I have shallow cabs in my island and they are handy. Or you could have shallow cabs at each end and bookshelves in the middle-- pretty much whatever satisfies your need for symmetry and function.