Move (4) upwards some so its light isn't blocked by the top of the fridge. Maybe split (1) into two cans placed horiontally about 2 feet apart lighting the largest, most-used section of countertop - let's call these (1) and (1 1-1/2). Main thing here is to have four, not three, recessed lights for the back counter - two on the left, one between the sink and stove, and one to the right of the stove. This will illuminate evenly and reduce shadows in the crucial sink and left-of-sink workspace area. Light (6) is fine as long as it's supplimented by undercounter lights so you don't get shadows, which it will be since over-the-range microwaves have a light or two underneath to light the cooktop (but for the microwave, you would be better off with a non-range-hood over-the-countertop model that doesn't needlessly include an exhaust fan, like the Sharp R-1214: These have more room inside, yet are only 24" wide rather than 30", so the hard-to-reach cabinet above the MW can also be only 24" wide, allowing the more useful adjoining wall cabinet to the leff to be a half foot wider whilst remaining the same overall width for the right and left wall cabinets combined. And the microwave controls are easier to reach with all the buttons conveniently placed along the bottom. You'll want good general-purpose lighting fot the corridors that run between the counters/walls and island, perhaps LEDs, under-soffit LEDs or fluoescents, or some other onobtrusive edgelighting. Can the outdoor entry door near the stove be reversed in swing direction? As it appears now, someone entering the kitchen thru that door could startle someone holding a pot full of hot food in front of the stove, or at least the cook could get in the entering person's way.

Thanks everyone! Jillius I love the closet pantry! Thank you for taking the time for additional options. I have thought long and hard about the layout and different options. Here is where we are after speaking with my hubby: 1) We would like to keep the sink where it is and have a nice focal point with the wall hood. We are doing a similar panel treatment to our fireplace and will carry this design into kitchen. This area will be bumped out a bit. We want to keep the sink view. It's the only real view we have of our side yard, rose garden (when they are alive and blooming), pool with the sound of trickling water and a place to see the kids if they are swimming out back. We have plantation shutters and sectional in living room so no unobtructed view like we have in the kitchen. Also, the back wall away from anything else is ideal spot to cook for us. We don't want gaps in the wall cabinets to add more windows on the back wall next to cooktop. We have 9 ft ceilings and the space isn't as closed in and dark as it appears in the pictures I snapped at night with my phone. We do not want a bulky fridge in the path near our patio door. Need some free space just to maneuver in and out of patio door from pool. Don't want to move the patio door either. 2) expansion: we would love a larger island. Seating is not necessary. If we were to expand, we would rather take out the buffet in dining room. We need to see if there will be structural limitations. The expansion into the side yard will cramp up the pool area too much. We would rather take the 19" from the dining room buffet assuming it won't obstruct flow of dining table. 3) we are willing to give up the desk area and see if we could move things down and open up the entry to dining room by the corner side. This option would leave us having to go around the family room when we come in from pool to shower. Ideally, I'd like to add a shower in the yard so this will only be a short term inconvenience. If we can't move the opening, we would like to see what else to use that space for. I would love some sort of nook seating. Would have to see what creative solutions we can come up with. Ann I would love to see pics of your pantry! Pantry: we love the closet pantry idea. Where and how to fit it in will depend on overall layout we choose. 4) without moving sink, we are exploring prep sink options. Ideally need a small garbage, soap and place to hang towel for this to work. 5) cabinets and storage is where we need to be careful to have adequate storage so we aren't tripping over each other. Right now our dishes are stored in the large drawer under cooktop because that's the only place they fit (cabinets have middle bar). It's a pain and we need to make sure our cabinet design solves all our storage and flow issues if we are keeping the u shape with island. 6) we find this plan really interesting except for the sink location. I wonder if a corner sink with a small end cabinet can work with this layout. Basically an l shape with a corner sink. I guess a g shape I think I have addressed everything that has been presented. Thank you all for your time and thoughts on this. We need to do some more research and see what options we have construction wise! And then weigh whether it's worth the cost.

If you want an entry area, put up a wall and have one. We have a home now where someone knocked out the wall between the nice entry and the living room and we basically put the wall back with a shoe bench and shelf arrangement (freestanding because we didn’t want to do construction work) because it just flows better that way. We also just looked at another house which we decided not to go for after much deliberation in part because if we opened it up to get much needed space, we’d end up with a big box with the front door entering right into everything, like a small apartment layout. Houses, especially houses with kids and lots of visitors, need some way to control the flow of traffic and direct people to where they should take off coats and boots and what have you. If you have room for a mud room, great, but if not - entry area is a necessity, IMO. And people are going to be beyond bored with HGTV style everything probably sooner rather than later - next year or the year after it’ll be some other designer and they will be putting walls up because everyone is sick of open plan and always being on display while cooking. If this is your forever home then do what you like and what feels good to you, not what’s popular on HGTV. (If you were going to flip the house then I might be saying something different.) Personally, if my front door were that close to my kitchen, I’d really really really want some kind of wall for privacy. Who wants all your mid-meal cooking mess to be on display to anyone who comes to the door?

@Buehl, @ulisdone: thanks for the great replies. For reference, the distance from the edge of the countertop to the island in the current 1989-built kitchen is 40" by the window and 40.5" where the rangetop will go (a downdraft cooktop is angled in the corner of the L, which is a huge waste of space). The aisle measurements in the photo are a bit out-of-date -- they're from the first posting. The software I'm using really doesn't want to measure countertop-to-countertop so I figured what it does do is standard and I just mentally subtract 1" of overhang on each side, not 1.5", which seems like a lot -- is that standard for quartz countertops? The current measurement (countertop to countertop) from sink to island is 44-3/4 and rangetop wall to island is 40-1/4, about the same as we have now and 2" less than ideal. Also, the rangetop sticks out a bit further I'd love to move the island further from the rangetop (window seat to island top is about 47") and the issue is with the flooring -- Amendoim (aka Brazilian Cherry) in a size and height that's no longer available and we have exactly one 22 sq ft box left. It runs perpendicular to the rangetop, so to move the island towards the bay window, we'd have to fill in with a bunch of short pieces. Maybe our contractor has some suggestions, or maybe moving it down towards the window exactly 3.25" and filling in with a board the long way under the toe kick would be ok. We are kind of assuming they can remove the existing cabinetry without wrecking the floor, otherwise it'll be something else to deal with. And we love this floor. The seat on the window side of the island is for my wife. She would like to sit in the kitchen and be able to see the TV without straining her neck, so we asked the original designer for a solution to provide 1 or 2 seats on the window/sink side of the island. At this point, it's just the two of us (kids grown and moved out) so the design factors are both our comfort along with future-proofing or we'd only need 2 seats. We do expect to be here for at least another 10 years. We also keep going back and forth with trading the location of the refrigerator and ovens: I agree that the refrigerator is more practical on the non-window wall as far as opening and usability goes, but it makes the line of the upper cabinets look odd. This is from the original posting but I'll repeat it here: That supporting wall to the right of the fridge sticks out 2" into the room, so the refrigerator has to be moved to the left to allow for 110 degree opening. I stuck a 6" pantry pullout there but our contractor/cabinet maker will have to tell us if that's practical. or if we move the fridge to the right and leave just the 2" of clearance and expand the drawers or move the rangetop and upper cabinet down a bit. I figured considering a pullout here would be wide enough for cans and peanut butter. It's the cabinet over the fridge that just looks a bit odd. For reference, here is the other wall: This version of the island has seating for 4 which is enough,but doesn't have the big, deep 36x36 island drawers on the sink side, which are 24x34 here. Is this a better layout overall? Here is a west view. This has the island centered on the bay window, which is where the current island is as well. I moved the island to the left in this view to increase the space when the refrigerator was on the sink wall so it was no longer centered and that looked ok (the flooring strips can be inserted on that side). There will be a toe kick and paneling on this side of the island as well but I can't get the program to draw that. Regarding the appliance sizes, The difference in the appliance prices between, say a 36" and 48" rangetop or a 42" vs 48" fridge is nominal and they've been ordered (2 month lead time). I am curious about your comment about the hood -- this is what the original kitchen designer specified and we all agreed this was more elegant and spacious than the blockier commercial-looking range hood that takes up the entire space. I'm curious about what you'd recommend instead. Something with glass? Or a cabinet running across the top? We also aren't wedded to the door styles, so I'll try a rendering with slab cabinet doors. The cabinets are going to all be custom (a benefit of using a local cabinet shop), so we can do pretty much whatever works. We meet with the general contractor/cabinet maker in 10 days or so to finalize the plans and actual measurements, and I'm sure he will have some suggestions as well. Thanks for the measurements -- I've printed those and will use them to see what works.