I would not close off the current entrance. There have been many threads on this forum from people trying to figure out what to do with their corners. If you decide to go with the 'L', I would not angle anything in the corner, as it is a huge waste of space. I think that the 'L' also makes the kitchen look smaller than it really is with the tall items crowding the range. I like the entrance there as it allows the kitchen to breathe. Functionally, I think it makes more sense to 'zone' your kitchen and put food storage together on the shorter wall to the right of your entrance. I would flank the refrigerator with pantries or pullouts and place a MW drawer across the aisle on the short end of island. Although it sounds like a great idea to have the frig near the dining space, it is not necessary. I had that in my previous kitchen, and there was just too much going on in the same space with my cooktop. Snackers can then get to the refrigerator and MW without traipsing through your cooking zone. It's also less steps when putting groceries away. I would use a range and as many drawers as possible on the long wall for all of your cooking needs. By eliminating the refrigerator and double ovens you would have a very spacious look and a tremendous amount of storage and prep space. Dirty plates will be coming from your dining space, so I like the DW on that end of the island, with dish and cutlery storage either across from or next to the DW, making it easy for someone to set the table without getting in your way at the range. I would also extend the island and make it as long as the range wall.

Great, thanks! I would use a round table that can extend to oval when you have company in the dining area, right over near the kitchen. One chair backing into the corner, rather than a chair with its back to the kitchen door. The desk can stay right where you have it in this photo. Sofa on the wall with the windows with a side table at each end. Two chairs across from it with a table between them. I sketched a pic but can't post comments on my phone, boo :(

1) wall may be structural 2) you may have to replace all the flooring if you remove it, unless you have more on hand 3) I'm confused, because it looks like the dining room is already in the main space, up by the kitchen/window where there's a chandelier hanging down. then I see two ceiling fans worth of LR space. the more enclosed room to the left looks like an additional/separate room, maybe intended as an office, or as a more enclosed space (family room) for TV watching. if you open it up, you need to think hard about where you are going to put the TV with furniture facing it, and how you will subdivide the rest of the space. If you can draw a sketch of the floorplan, with measurements, including things like whether there's a closet near the front door, we might be able to rough in some different arrangements to help you visualize what you might be able to do with the spaces. It's a bit too hard in the abstract to tell whether this is all one big seating space, or whether it's big enough for an entry zone or game table and a separate conversation area, and what would happen if you added in yet more LR space...

@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.