Our kitchen is no where near done yet. But, we have narrow aisles...I think that we wound up with from countertop to countertop on the one side we, have 38", and about the same on the other side, maybe slightly less. The biggest "challenge" so far is that if the DW is open, I can't fully open the garbage (it's in our island and is across from the DW) and the same for the bottom center drawer of the island. Honestly, that hasn't really been an issue. If something needs thrown away, the front portion of the garbage is accessible. The back can is recyclables, so I've just sat whatever the recyclable is on the island for a tiny bit...truly no worry for me. I find that when I'm unloading the DW, I have things that go in the island drawers (mostly top and middle, which I can open with the DW open) and it's a little less convenient putting any pots/pans away that go in the DW - I either need to circle around the DW (I have about 12" to do so, which isn't actually as tight for me as I imagined) or I just put those items on the counter above the DW and put them away when I shut the DW. In an ideal world, I would have loved to have wider aisles. But, that just wasn't a reality for us unless we spent WAY more than what we planned. Personally, we opted to make our island just a tad skinnier than we would have originally planned (we wound up at 28" countertop total, a 24" base cabinet, 3/4" thick door, and 3/4" thick finished back board) and you may want to consider doing that as well...it gives you just a little tiny bit extra room to play with, but it does make a difference, I think. Some people would have said to scrap the island, but in the limited amount that I've been able to work in my kitchen so far (still mid-remodel), the island makes me remarkably happy and is an extremely important part of the kitchen. That said, I knew how I planned on using the kitchen. I knew what my tradeoffs would be. I knew that our kitchen wouldn't function flawlessly with multiple cooks...although that's not typically an issue at our house. And even if I do have other workers, there are various "stations" where someone can work and not be in the way of where my cooktop is or where the oven is. I would never represent the aisle width as "ideal", but I definitely classify it as completely workable and "comfortably cozy". But, again, review your layout - make sure that you don't have any issues brewing with how you have things laid out. One of the things we did was purposely moved the island more toward the dining area so that it slightly opened up the sink, fridge, and oven area a bit more. This post was edited by andreak100 on Tue, Mar 25, 14 at 17:53

When we first moved in to this house, we, too, had a small kitchen. So we purchased some Metro shelving and a Boos Block and put them together. The butcher block just rests on a cut up thin sanding pad placed on the top of each leg. But it's so heavy that it doesn't move around. From GardenWeb Photos Shelving like this is now available at the big box stores. Just be sure you get the heavy-duty variety if you are going to load it up. If you want shelving in something other than chrome (ours is a sort of graphite color), you can order it online, or go to a restaurant supply store. You could also put casters on the legs if you needed a mobile cart -- again, get the heavy duty ones. For ours, the shelving is 24" x 36"; the butcher block top is 30" x 36". But many other sizes are available. As you can see from the pix, this now backs up to small granite topped cabinet. But for 12 years, it was our only island. We love being able to prep/chop from any side.

We went through the same struggle with our kitchen (but our kitchen was slightly bigger and wider so we were able to accommodate a peninsula and we love the end result). In your current layout, a peninsula wouldn't work because where would you put the dishwasher? The island would be too small to serve its purpose. I would just leave it open (no island, no peninsula), to make it more open concept.

What is in the bumped out wall next to the fridge? Are there pipes and ducting?