@User I applaud your steadfastness in the face of the repeated, petty, arrogant, argumentative comments posted here. People ignore the questions we ask and take the opportunity to put others down, that's all it amounts to. Regarding your question about the general issue of food safety, surface/air contamination, and how an open v. closed kitchen concept relates to that, I would offer the following perspective (I am a physician, practicing for 32 years now...) Science and clinical studies are very useful for some things, but there are many questions for which science and a quantitative approach are not really needed. Regarding cleanliness, there are huge subjective components to this...everyone has a different idea of what clean means, and has a different level of comfort. It isn't really important if some clinical study measures bacterial levels as "safe" if you aren't comfortable in that environment. My feeling as a physician is that worries about food safety, bacterial and viral illnesses, and so forth are in general a bit over-emphasized today. I think we are healthier when we are exposed to more pathogens, not shielded from them. Our immune systems "like" the challenge of defending us, and they get better, to a point, the more they are challenged. Regarding the specific question of design, my feeling would be that a closed kitchen design would, most likely, be a potentially cleaner environment for reasons you mention: less cross traffic, less chance of people dropping dirty shoes or handbags or whatever in the kitchen while passing to other locations. Ventilation could be inferior in a closed design, but this is easy to mitigate. Now, whether the "dirtier" open design has any clinically significant or important effects on the real world life we live in our open kitchen, I don't know. I think people should design spaces in a way that makes them feel happy and joyful. When choosing between whether to follow joy or shield against fear, I always try to follow joy. Ok, I'm finished philosophizing for the day.

You’ve made charming choices! The island lighting is perfect. One of my favorite moments is the curve of ther counter stools repeated on the mat for the dog bowl. You must be thrilled with the outcome. I’m looking forward to seeing the custom cabinet doors and a light without glare over the sink. Nice!! I always like to see the before and after right next to each other.

Are you replacing the floors, or do you have extra flooring? If not your new island would have to cover all parts of the floor the current island does (unless you are so lucky that your flooring goes under your cabinets. Ours did not.) I would look at your corner pantry and make sure that you are optimizing storage there, or consider if that space comes in play in your renovation. At the far right end, rather than open shelves, I would suggest another cabinet as I feel you have very limited storage space. I would consider losing that window on that wall in order to get more storage.

While US 18 inches is common, I think it looks a little squeezed, especially if you have high ceilings and tall uppers. If you’re tall enough, I would do more space between the counter and bottom of upper cabinets.