The multiple openings make it seem awkward, especially having the ref and prep sink kind of orphaned across a main aisle from everything else. Unless you have a specific reason / preference for that setup, I'd prefer to move that opening to the other side of the ref, making the counter run with the cooktop longer and moving the ref up so that it's on the end of that counter run, and move the prep sink to the other island.

I'd probably rotate the powder room so that the door opens toward the space between the laundry and the stairs, rather than right into what I think is the foyer. (Most people want more privacy than a PR that opens into a very public space.)

Can you post a close up with measurements? (aisles, walls, openings) That will help the layout gurus give you advice.

It is hard to see what the adjoining areas are in your image. I'm no expert, but your layout is very open with alot of walkways. The fireplace is preventing me from saying that you should flip your dining and seating areas. I'm no expert and I am struggling to design a multi purpose room also. It will be interesting to see what the layout gurus advise. Good luck!

Thanks for the comments so far - very insightful.

Everything is moveable at this point, including walls and the fireplace. And I've had that dining area all over that room! The kitchen is really the biggest issue and we can build around that.

The house is shingle style. We want the public areas of the house to feel very open. We will not have a living room or a formal dining room. The great room is very large (23x28) at this point, and is sunken by one shallow stair (4").

I'm already moving the prep sink to the center island. The other island is planned to be a casual seating area with different colored cabinets and maybe even a different top, although I like the idea of something tying the area together, and counters can do that nicely.

What I like so far: everything I do on a regular, daily basis (cook, home office, laundry, etc.) is in or right off the kitchen. I can walk in and dump almost everything in the right room (pantry, mail). I like squares but maybe something should be angled in this plan, like the loveseats?

Chicagoans, I like the idea of making the cooktop area wider, but wouldn't I lose some counter space, overall, because of having to have the entry into the office?

What's that thing to the right of the door to the screened-in porch? And why do you have what appears to be two islands (one at the edge of the kitchen, one parallel to it with three seats)? And why is there what appears to be an exterior door that opens into the laundry room??

Since everything is movable... for one thing, you've got plumbing all over the place. You will need separate plumbing stacks and vents for each set of plumbing if you leave it like this. If you can make all the plumbing be close together, then it can share stacks, which will slash your budget by thousands of bucks.

Here's an example: put the sink and DW over where the range is currently shown, and then put the washing machine/laundry sink on the other side of that same wall (this would obviously mean eliminating or relocating that exterior door into the laundry room). Voila, now you've got the kitchen and laundry room plumbing all in the same place--you only need one plumbing stack for that! You just saved a ton of money and time.

You could even consider scooting the powder room up to be on that same plumbing stack, which would of course require moving the entrance that currently goes from the kitchen area into the laundry room and office... but that's actually a bonus: not only do you get plumbing for THREE different rooms on a single stack (which saves A LOT of money and time), you also fix the biggest problem this kitchen has, which is too many passageways cutting through it and chopping it up. (I mean, do you REALLY need to be able to go DIRECTLY from the kitchen into the laundry room/office?? Isn't it more important to have a good, functional kitchen?)

Basically... this kitchen needs its own room! It needs to NOT be chopped up or shrunk by doorways and traffic patterns.

Also, is this drawn to scale? If so, this must be the only house I've ever seen where the laundry room is as big as if not bigger than the kitchen! I don't really understand why you would want to dedicate so much of your home to laundry--if you had a family of ten, sure, but in that case you would also want a much bigger kitchen... And I have the same question about the pantry: why so humongous, and also, I don't see any windows on it. Won't it look weird from the outside, that much windowless space? On top of being dark inside?