The corner seats on the island doesn't seem to work. I think you should consider an L or have shallow cabs on the short leg of the U.

Eliminate that left leg of the U entirely. It's no man's land right now, not useful for anything.

Sena and Sophie,

Thanks for the comments, but I don't know if we can eliminate the U completely due to the adjacent stairway. I also thought we would need the additional cabinet space on that shorter leg.

If you can't eliminate the other leg of cabinetry, cut it back as much as you can, and then use the space for a "hutch" dish storage cabinet to the counter. It's in the perfect location for that, and it could be the shallower 15" depth, which would give you better clearance around the island. The counter space there isn't in a useful spot, so it's perfect for storage.

Live_wire_oak,

That leg is cut back as far as possible to maintain the wall between the stairway and kitchen. Great suggestion for the hutch!

Anyone else have feedback or ideas on how to configure the cabinets on the other 2 walls? Was thinking about drawers between the fridge and range for pots/pans/etc. To the left of the range, I thought the base cabinet could have dividers for baking sheets, etc and the upper cabinet could have a pull-out spice rack, but we are new to this and open to suggestions.

just make the left shallower. use glass in upper doors if you want. the uppers can merge into the lowers like a china cabinet. It'll be close for unloading the dw too.

Use as many drawers on the lower as possible.

What if you flip the dining room and kitchen? Then you don't have to work around that stair wall. Just an idea :)

If this is a possibility, we could come up with more kitchen layout options that would work in that space...and it would give you more sight line/access to kids in great room.

And the kitchen could have windows over the sink, looking out to the back...or range with windows on each side and prep sink on island. The clean up sink doesn't have to have a lot of windows, since dishwashers mean we don't spend that much time in front of the sink. Or cute prep sink next to range (bottom photo) with clean up sink on island?

I'd set up that left leg as a baking center.

Lavender and I cross-posted. Will check out her floorplan suggestion.

Oh, I agree with the baking center and/or some dish storage on the left side of the U. I wouldn't want to give up that secondary prep space for the world. I love counters, lol. I'd consider some dish storage on the end of the U, closest to the island seating, and a "baking center" area closer to the corner. You could put a coffee/breakfast snack area there at the end of the counter run, which would be convenient for access from the island seating. In fact, I'd consider putting your MW drawer on that end of that little run. That'd get it away from the sink zone, and would make that spot into a nice little "snack zone".

You've got space for both on that U, especially if you keep your dish storage in regular cabinets (not a hutch that goes all the way to the counter.) You could even do some glass uppers there towards the end if you have need of "nice dish" storage and/or stemware.

I think your new layout looks great. I'd just suggest that you'll only want four seats at the island, most comfortably one on the short end and two on the long side. (The two corner seats share knee space, which won't work.)

Here's an idea.