If you were to turn the island 90 degrees I don;t think you would gain anything and you would lose two things - aisle width and island size. You can't put the island any closer to the sink wall because you don;t want anything getting in the way of the 12' trek (sorry) between the fridge and stove. If you move it closer to the sink wall the island becomes a barrier to the pathway between the two. Your aisles widths would also be narrower. Currently they are 4' wide , now you could go to 42" (3 1/2' wide) but that only leaves you with an island length of 5' long x 4' wide (maybe you can go to 4 1/2' wide). You don;t want to go any wider because it becomes difficult to clean the middle of it - it's a long way to reach. However speaking of island size - You have it going beyond the reach of the kitchen - does the right side line up with something (not the overhang part but the cabinet bulky part of it) or is it just hanging out. If not I would shorten it so that the bulky part of the island (not the overhang part necessarily) lines up with the end of the oven/microwave. Is that maybe 6-8"? Now, if you moved the fridge over, which is wider, you probably wouldn't have to do that. If your wife is baking there - everytime she has to go to the fridge she has to walk arooouund the island and 8' to the fridge rather than just turning around to get eggs, butter, milk, whatever. What is the alcove on the sink wall with the window? Is that a lower counter or a window seat? And what is the drawer configuration at the end. Is this a coffee/drinks bar? (Prep sinks don't have to be very big, but, I know how you can get image of what you're kitchen is going to feel like and be like and if no prep sink - so be it.) With respect to the fridge - you can, which you probably know, put panels around it so that it is encased with your selected cabinetry if you move it to the end of the stove run. I'm just throwing out ideas because sometimes we can get stuck in a box and need someone to push us out of it.

I like the way Trance shows your bed on the window wall w/o the heater. But I have a couple of options, and will also ask a couple of questions. 1. Do you use your chest as a 2nd end table? 2. What size are your speakers on either side of the TV? 3. Is the endtable speaker a really small one, which I think it to be? Ok, now for what I consider as worth a try anyway. 4. Turn your bed on the diagonal in the corner between the two windows. This will create a vacant corner where you can then hide some long term storage items that you do not access often. When I did my room that way, I put about 5 fixed-louver door-height shutter panels behind the headboard, and hung a couple of pictures on there. 5. Put the CHEST over there where Trance shows it, NW wall. 6. Put the end table on the opposite side of the bed, close to the SW window. 7. Hang a sconce or a shelf above the end table, then place that small speaker on the sconce (keeping the power cord etc as hidden as possible.) 8. Replace that closet door with a pair of bifold shutter doors available at Lowes/HomeDepot, made by JennWeld I think, cost about $80 and they come painted white or unfinished. We used those, without the tracks, and just hinged them to the door frame like a regular door. You might can LEAVE the TV where is presently is, but experiment with moving one of the speakers over to the tub wall. Is that media stand really necessary? And do you expect to change out your TV for a flat panel any time in the (near) future? Of all the space saving ideas, that will help the most. And if those are big honking speakers that are floor models, can you perhaps turn them on their sides and put them on the wall above the TV and the closet door? Considering that this will reduce the items on the floor, it will appear much more open. Just make sure your headroom is adequate if you are tall. What ceiling heights do you have in this apartment? Do you own the house, or just lease this apartment? If leasing, would there be a restriction on any architectural changes, like hanging shelves or changing the closet door? Here are the bifold doors in my house:we used two pair though for a wider closet. And here is the corner bed arrangement. We had just moved in and I forgot the shutters were not up behind this bed. I used the same placement behind another bed, but those pics are not on my computer. So sorry. It looked beautiful, and the shutters hid all the rods/reels/lifejackets/tackleboxes. This bedroom is 11.5 x 11.5 and not much different in size from yours. AND, wall mounting your TV with a "floating" shelf beneath it would look something like this: our TV is 37" flat panel. The floating shelf holds the DVD player, the cable box.

I usually like banquettes when they are tucked into a corner, not free-floating. I think in this case I would flip the kitchen layout significantly. Here's one idea: I tried to draw squares of roughly 24"/side for each seat at the banquette & put a good size table in the open space. The door(s) into your office/ex-DR could be a pair of french doors, maybe 4' wide in total, set on a diagonal to clip the corner between the end of the long banquette seating & the wall between the DR & LR. I think this would give you good counter space & plenty of lower cabinets in the kitchen, but you would be short on upper cabinet space b/c you'd only have from the door to the laundry to the window (over the sink, which doesn't have to move). The stove would need to move, as would the fridge. For the peninsula between the kitchen & den, you may want to have it extra wide (I tried to draw it wider than the other base cabinets). If you used a 24" base & backed it with 12" or 18" cabinets that faced the den, you'd have storage for video games, books, board games, etc. This is just one idea, hopefully it sparks other (better) ones.

Based on what you said, I would probably divide the room like you have it now and have a reading/seating area with your chairs by the big windows and a dining area where your tv and chairs are now... if it's not too much trouble to remove the built in or turn that into a built-in China cabinet. I'd move the TV and sofas into the darker current dining room. The current dining room would make a nice, quiet place for movie nights and keep your fabric sofas from fading more. If you have two totally separate seating areas you could even have more than 1 tv since you wouldn't have 2 competing for sound in the same room. This is good if there's more than 1 person in the house arguing over what to watch. It would also bring your dining area into the open concept great room which makes entertaining easier and keeps guests together near the kitchen for easy socializing. It never hurts to move the furniture you have and live with it for a while to see how you like it. You can base final furniture replacement decisions on if you like the different configuration or not.