What will you do with a larger island that you can't do now? Help us understand its function.

Is this island too narrow for workspace on its top or too narrow aesthetically in the larger pair of open rooms?

How much space on the stool side do you have? How much on the range side?

florantha asked good questions. Also, your island may visually look smaller now without the impact of countertop, hanging pendants and the counter stools, which will take up actual and visual space. Consider how far out your countertop can extend beyond the corbels.

I would put up some cardboard and feel the room, easier to make changes now!

Can you post a picture looking out into the family room? It does look like it's a little narrow for the space, but the counter top is not on yet so it's hard to say for sure. But you can add 12" deep cabinets on the back of the island to make it wider and also give yourself more storage space. Like peytonroad suggested, get some cardboard or boxes and mock it up and see what it feels like. Don't forget you need room for you stools as well.
Your kitchen looks great so far - can't wait to see the finished product!

I am putting wall cabs as the back of our island. We will get more storage and not even need panels to hide the backs. Win/win.
We won't have seating at the island, so your situation may not work the same....

Thanks for the help everyone!
We have 4 1/2' from the range side to the island, and we have 9' from the island cabinet to the wall. I think it is both from a workspace and aesthetic standpoint where we feel the island should be wider. We are foregoing our kitchen table and plan on using the island for casual dining, homework, etc. There will be a prep sink on the corner where my DH is standing, and with the island as is, I don't think there will be much usable space across from the sink.

Below are a couple more photos - one is looking from the range side across the island into the great room. The doorway is to the mudroom, and there is a step down into the great room. The second picture is from the great room looking through the kitchen.

Are you ever going to feel the need to put a piece of furniture on that mudroom wall? Or are you committed to it always remaining a clean wall as a continuationof the passageway? Because if you're going to keep it clean, then I think you can go with a deeper island.

You say your island will be 3' wide. If your cabinets are 24" deep then you should have 16+ more inches on the backside for your island seating. If you're not having a table 18" depth would give you great space. You will have approx 1.5" on the front side for an overhang so now your island depth is 1.5" +24" + 18" for 43.5". If you want it even bigger add more cabinets under the counter like a few others have suggested.

How big is the countertop planned for ? You could put a good sized radius along the back side & extend out beyond the middle corbels maybe another 8-10". Other than that I think the sizing looks good. The way you made it seem like the family room was right there. But as is- it looks like you'll have a good roomy walkway behind the island.

Wait until you get the rest of it in there.

Partly build houses look "wrong" because we're not used to seeig them.

We had a 60" x 36" wide island and when we remodeled we made it 4 feet wide. We did that by adding 2 cabinets to the backside (these were upper cabinets that we had taken down and we added feet to them also). Gave us a lot more usable space on the island since it also had a cooktop on it. The previous island's cooktop only left eating area at either end, not along the cooktop, so the wider island was very useful. If you have room, I'd go for the wider island.

You are losing some of the heft of the island without the counter. I would try to mock it up by either laying some plywood or cardboard on the island to simulate what the counter will look like. If you are really adventurous you can even bring in some chairs (borrow or buy some inexpensive ones or buy and return - I didn't write that did I :) I find unless you are super meticulous most of the day the chairs are not all the way in and that add to the visual "volume" of the island. I always had a hard time visualizing the naked kitchen and used mocks up all the time. Good luck.

What sparklekitty said. It will look much bigger once the top is on. And, besides, space is a good thing. Space is the greatest luxury. If you decide the space is just too big, you can put a hutch on that long wall -- it would look wonderful.

Is the 17' the measurement from window wall to empty wall?

Will the empty wall stay empty?

If the empty wall is the Mudroom wall, does that mean there will be significant traffic behind the seats?

If answer to all of the above questions is "yes", then you have:

17' = 204"
25.5" window wall + 54" aisle + (25.5" + 18") island + 60" aisle behind seats = 183"

That leaves 21" for another set of cabinets on the back of the island. If you reduced the aisle behind the seats to 57", it would give you enough room for a set of standard-depth 24" cabinets on the back of the island.

The three main reasons I put in an 18" seating overhang are (1) to protect someone sitting behind the prep sink from splashes, (2) to be sure everyone will be comfortable sitting at the island (my 6'5" DH & 6'6" DS think our 15" overhang is a tad too shallow), and to be sure you have enough space for plate settings, etc.

The other option is a run of cabinets behind the seat for maybe a Beverage & Snack Center. Maybe add an under counter Beverage refrigerator and/or ice maker and maybe put your toaster/toaster oven and a small MW (or your only MW) there.

Where is the range going? Where is your MW going? You do have a lot of space, btw, there's so much you could do/fit!

Don't know if you planned to do a "radius" as granite-girl suggests, but I think that is a great idea! especially if you're not going to have a table.

Thanks again everyone for the responses. Our GC has suggested doing away with the corbels and adding chunky table legs to the island, allowing it to come out to a 4' width, with or w/o a radius. He is going to bring us a 4x8 sheet of plywood today to lay on top of the island cabinets so that we can getter a better idea.

Our mud room wall is going to stay empty for now, for two reasons. One, we want to live in the house for a while to get a feel for what, if anything, we want to do on that wall. And two, we don't have room in the budget for any more cabinets :( But I do like the wall empty for now - as many of you have said there will be a lot of foot traffic since the mudroom is there as well as kids going back and forth from the great room to their bedrooms and playroom.

I hope my GC's idea will look good - I will post pics of what we do.

I like the idea of adding table legs and making the top a bit wider. I also like the idea of a narrow hutch along that black wall though. I don't think it would disrupt flow at all and it would look great. Another idea is a narrow computer station on that wall. It would make a fantastic spot for a homework center.

The mockup counter from the GC will be very helpful. I'm late to the party but one additional thought is that if you're planning on using the counter for homework, it would be really nice to have storage somewhere nearby just for the homework. (Books, papers, pencils/pens/markers, etc.) Otherwise all that stuff will end up sitting on the counter. You could have narrow cabinets (uppers) facing toward the seating side of the counter, or if you do a radius you could just have 2 on either end. We had that in our old kitchen (below) and it worked pretty well, but it does cut down on your seating space. We only have 2 kids but by the time they were in grade school they had so much stuff for homework.

You could also have your homework storage on that blank wall behind you somehow, whether in a hutch, narrow console cabinet, etc. But that's a nice walkway so I can see why you want to keep that wall open.

Radius counter with extra storage on either end (old kitchen but that part at least was functional):
{{!gwi}}

Ourbigdig - I have an island with legs and I love it. I was going for a table look, and everyone thought I was crazy (you have to clean around them, blah, blah, blah) but I think it really looks beautiful. You can go with legs that your cabinet maker carries, find your own online or even have them made (our cabinet guy made ours, which I wish were a little thinner in retrospect.) We put in an apron along the length (ours is curved) to give it a more finished table feel.

I know others have mentioned curving the edge of the counter to make it more social. We don't have a curve and wish we did (space constraints) to make it feel less like people are riding the bus together :) I do have an overhang on either side that fits a stool, which helps with that (which is why we did it.) The curve doesn't have to be drastic and the edges can even be corners with the curve starting a few inches in.

Glad to hear you are making progress on this.

Here is a link that might be useful: My kitchen with island with legs

I love how your island sits in the room. It leaves that really luxurious walk way behind the island so people can sit and be comfortable with people walking past into the room below. Your kitchen will be lovely.