We have a 13x5’ island and love it. But our kitchen is essentially a galley kitchen that is open to the living room. The other side of the island is just seating with some extra storage underneath for rarely used items. Any wider than 5’ and I don’t think my 5’4” self could clean it (and it’s a slight struggle at the very center of the 5’). We would probably feel differently if it was in the middle of our kitchen and we had to walk around it to access things.

Actually a bit of an update on this. We went to a bunch of showhomes on the weekend. A couple of thoughts. 1. The 48" between the stove counter and island is overkill for us. We could live with 42" but i think we will be at 44". 2. I was so adamant about a 15" overhang as per all the websites but we found 12" is perfectly fine for a counter height island overhang. We may go 13" or 14" tops. 3. I am a little worried about the length of our island. The counter will actually be 86 3/4" with a 1 inch overhang contrary to my plan. The side of the island is 32" from the kitchen table. Not ideal but not terrible either. BUT if we go for a smaller width cabinet next to the sink (say 21" or even 18") then i worry the island won't look symmetrical. ARGH. 4. I feel the depth at 56" is too big. I liked the 48" depth and could live with 50" or 52". 5. The cabinet place suggested back to back cabinets so a depth of 24" cabinet + 12" cabinet + 12" overhang = 49" countertop depth or perhaps 24" + 16" + 12" overhang = 53" countertop depth or 24" + 12" + 14" = 51" countertop depth. 6. On the side of the island, do i go with a 1" overhang or 0.5" overhang? Any additional thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

The minimum recommended overhang for seating: Table-height (30" off the floor) - 18" Counter-height (36" off the floor) - 15" (no, not 10" or even 12") Bar-height (42" off the floor) - 12" (but with an 18-inch surface to minimize knocking things off the surface and down to the lower counter or floor) Overhang means "clear leg/knee space" -- after accounting for cabinets and decorative doors/end panels on the cabinets The only time less might be OK is if you and your entire family are very short and have short legs. The minimum is for average height. In fact, if anyone is tall in your family or has long legs, deeper is better. With an island 48" deep, you should have room for at least 15" of overhang. Don't skimp! (Skimping does not "save" aisle space, people just stick out into the aisle farther and they're uncomfortable if they are seated for more than a few short minutes.) For seating, keep in mind that you need at least 2 linear feet (or 24 linear inches) for each seat. If you want 4 seats, that means 8' (96"). Another consideration...your Cleanup Zone is in your island. That means dirty dishes will be "in the face" of anyone sitting at the island. If you reduce it to only 3' deep, it will be even worse. Prep Zone...your Prep Zone is in the island, on the non-DW side of the sink. You don't have very much workspace as it is. Reducing the island to 7' will make it even worse. Finally, with the small amount of prep space you have, you don't want to be juggling prep dishes/tools while trying to prepare a meal, which may very well happen if you reduce the island to only 36" deep. Bottom line: I recommend sticking with the 4' x 8' island size. You appear to have enough space for a 4' depth and still have room around the island for 48" aisles, so leave it as-is. Regarding the aisle between the island and range wall...because you have the range and DW overlapping and the sink across from the range, you should have at least a 48-inch aisle between the range handles and the island counter edge. That will help minimize the conflict with the DW and range and, hopefully, minimize accidents when trying to use the range while the DW is open as well as minimize collisions when someone is working at the sink while someone else is working at the range. Speaking of aisles, aisles are measured to/from the items sticking out the farthest -- appliance handles, counter edges, etc. They are NOT measured to/from cabinets. The 24" depth for a cabinet only includes the box -- it does not include door/drawer fronts, counter overhangs (~1.5"), appliances, etc. This means the aisles are incorrectly measured if they are measured to/from cabinets, as appears to be the case for you. If that's the case, then in reality, your aisles are at least 3" narrower than shown. So, that 48" aisle is really only 43.5", too narrow with the range and DW overlapping and the sink across from the range. (48" - 1.5" island overhang - 1.5" perimeter counter overhang - another 1.5" or so for the range's handle that sticks out past the counters = 43.5" (if the handles stick out farther, then the aisle will be even narrower).) I'm assuming the layout is finalized and cannot be changed with regards to cabinetry, fixtures (sink), and appliances. Is that really a 24" wide range? Is the refrigerator a built-in refrigerator as opposed to a counter-depth?

Julie: Step back and look at the big picture please. When you're in business, you take some unfair beatings on some jobs; it's inevitable. They are sometimes hard to take, but say you did a million dollars in sales and ate $10,000.00 worth of work. Swallowing 4 $2,500.00 pills isn't easy, but combined they're only 1% of your sales. If you can keep your losses to 1%, you're into black ink. Same thing here. Look over your whole project. How much turned out well versus how much not so well? What is your percentage please?