Gardenpixie, I just looked at your layout and actually your island is basically in the same place as mine. My cooktop is where your sink is. Where your patio doors are is where I enter my kitchen area. That is my doorway that I reduced from 6ft. 10 in. to 5 ft. to make my kitchen a little wider. Where you are putting your pantry wall cabinets I have a bumped out sitting area. Any way, I think you will like the new layout but maybe you should make you're sink dishwasher aisle a couple inches wider since you will do more work on that side of the kitchen/ island than the pantry side. I think you will like having all the drawers in your island. I have drawers across the aisle from my dishwasher and it's great to have one of those drawers for dishes. Makes loading and unloading so easy. Today I copied breezy girls idea for a spice storage drawer and I really like it. Just wait til you start using those drawers, you will wonder what you did without them So good luck on your kitchen remodel.

Actually MUA is not required by Code everywhere, only some areas. Regardless of Code requirements, the OP needs to do MUA with 1200 cfms because that much suckage carries with it the risk of sucking back CO into the house, i.e. backdraft. It's a serious risk because with that much cfms pulling air out of the house, other exhausts will be pulled in, like from the water-heater, furnace, chimney and dryer vent. That backdraft is bringing poisonous carbon monoxide into the home. You can get away with no MUA with an exhaust that is 400-600 cfms and if your house is drafty and not a newer super-insulated house. But not at 1200 cfms. At 1200 cfms, cracking a window will not be enough. You will need to install an MUA system. Either add that to the expense of your renovation, or choose a different cooking setup. People not willing to install MUA is a main reason why people forego the 60" ranges and their exhaust requirements, and opt instead for a 36" rangetop and separate ovens.

Thank you all, for commenting! You've given me some valuable things to think about! I think I've settled on a few points to help me make some decisions: 1) I can't decorate the room based on one piece of furniture, specifically, the table because it will eventually have to be refinished. (We plan on using it as an everyday table/harvest table.) 2) I have to be careful of making the room too dark. I've spent some time thinking about this and I think, in the end, what I really want when I'm done is walnut cupboards. I think I'm going to start with that point and look at some floor colours and counter top which will compliment walnut cupboards. So, although I'm back to the drawing board to choose some colours, I'm going to try a different approach. Trying to match/compliment the table only resulted in me having to possibly not have some colours that I really wanted to begin with. This is a huge reno for us for many reasons, so I'm trying to take my time and make sure that I get the look I really want. We plan on living with out choices for 10-20 years (minus paint!), so I need to be 100% sure!! :)

No kitchen designer here, we did a full home remodel with no designer. It took some time for me to commit with the kitchen stuff, I also knew I wanted white shaker but after having it in 2 prior kitchens I was open to other looks too. I ended up with navy blue lowers and white uppers after seeing the navy in a showroom. Also opted for the kraftmaid sonata door at the last minute after seeing it in person in lowes. It's shaker with a little something extra. We also used a home reno app on the ipad to see different layouts and posted on here as well as instagram for advice. Once we had a layout we liked we got 8 different quotes, some online that came with a free layout/designer, big box stores, ikea, costco, etc. Our kitchen designer at lowes was fantastic.