Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Here's hoping I have a brand new kitchen for next Thanksgiving, its when we're doing this kind of cooking that my current kitchen's dysfunction truly shines though!

I've decided on the general layout I want for the new kitchen in my space and now I'm working on the details. Sorry I have to post a photo of my drawing. I keep trying to scan it and it just won't scan clearly. It's a large piece of paper the architect left me to play with, and the tic-marks just won't scan well. Anyway, every tic-mark is 3". The island will have the sink (33" base, 30" single basin probably apron front sink), dishwasher (24") and a trash bin (18"). To the left of the island is a sliding door to our deck/backyard. It's the only back exterior door so it gets used a lot and we will be building a coat locker/bench system in that top left corner. I looked into what I could build in that space and I'm confident I can keep anything I build there to an 18" depth or less, so I'm not going to spend anymore time on the lockers for now since they will be the very last thing to go in and just reserve 18" for them.

Here's my drawing (just noticed I wrote the wrong size on the trash-bin to the right of the sink, should say 18" not 33") and my comments below:

So my distances:

1) I have 48" between the island and the back counter. I'm pretty comfortable with this, I currently have a table where the island is now and it's generally 4' from the counter (sometimes it inches closer) and I never feel like it's in the way, even when my husband is in the kitchen with me. and I think 4' would allow someone to be prepping at the back counter and someone else to be standing at the sink. Potential problems: You can see that if the dishwasher door is all the way down it would stop the freezer from being open 90 degrees, however we're just not in the freezer much, mostly people would be there getting water and could stand off to the side if someone else had the dishwasher door down. If everyone thought it would be a big issue I could slide the island back 3" but then I'd have to shorten my overhang by that much. The other thing I don't know is what if I had drawer base cabinets or pullouts on the back counter, how far do they pull out and would they clash with the dishwasher being down? Currently there is 1' 9" before you'd run into the dishwasher door and the furthest any of my current drawers pull out is 1' 8.5" I may have to revisit this after I figure out what cabinets I want on the back counter, but trying to make sure that I generally have enough distance right now.

2) There is 36" between the back corner of the island and the area I'm reserving for coat lockers and bench. I think this is fine. I realize if someone is sitting near that corner of the island that it may block the opening somewhat, but we basically have that same situation right now with a table there and the refrigerator is currently where the lockers/bench will go and we haven't had an issue with it (my son is sitting there now with his chair way out and I measured and there is about 2' behind him and my husband must have just walked in behind him as he just came in from out back). It is probably only once a year we would have enough people here that it could be congested but I feel like its worth dealing with during those rare times to have the longer island overhang. The most common use I imagine for the overhang is my kids sitting there doing homework or drawing while I cook/clean. Since there is a sink there I want enough area for paper to be spread out and not be getting wet. I could shorten the overhang up to 6" if I'm convinced the 36" opening isn't enough but I can't see it right now and prefer the longer overhang.

- The distance from the sliding door to the island is set at 57"-58" (trying to account for the lip of the island). I've moved our table as close as 4' from the door and while it's technically enough room it feels crowded. I like it 5', that feels like plenty of room to walk in and it also keeps the area in front of the refrigerator and pantry mostly open, so I cheated it a couple inches closer to make room on the other side, but I don't think it would be wise to move it over anymore.

- To the right of the island I have 38"-39" between the island the and side counter. I'm most worried about this distance. Currently the area between the table/chair that is there and the box that houses my dishwasher which is my junk collection area right now is 36" and we never have a problem with it, BUT it's just a walk through area right now, if I put a counter there I'll probably put the coffee machine in that spot and now it's place where people will occasionally stand. However, the cook is not going to need to walk that way while prepping, and with the pantry/fridge on the other side of the kitchen people coming down for a snack/drink can just as easily walk around the other way. Does everyone think this will be enough? I currently have an 18" trash pull-out slated for there. I mostly want 18" to try to get a little symmetry around the sink, but I could shave off 3" and put in a 15" one. I've already shorted the island by changing to a 33" sink base, I considered 30" and 27" sink but that really seems too small to me. I like BIG sinks.

How do these sound to everyone? Am I forgetting something big?