A few questions about architect's drawing, your planned use of the area, and your use of the kitchen. 1. What are the shapes numbered 13? My best guess was skylights. 2. What do the areas bordered with scalloped lines indicate? No guess here. 3. I assume the squares in the breakfast room area indicate a coffered ceiling. Is that correct? 4. In your plan, does the ''desk'' match the kitchen cabinets? 5. Do you cook a lot? Do you prepare large meals? Do you want to? The usable kitchen area if you do not use the bottom wall is only about 12 x 15. That isn't tiny, of course, but neither is it spacious, especially when it is limited to only two usable walls. I hope someone can see a better way to make use of this expansive area. If you answer these questions and Marcolo's, it may help GW's outside-the-box thinkers come up with a great idea.

Your plan is well nigh impossible to understand so we cannot comment on it. Do you have seating at the island plus a table in the kitchen plus a huge dining room right next to the kitchen? That's a triplication of what is needed and a waste of space. And yet, you have only one dishwasher, and for a kosher kitchen, that is unduly burdening yourself. You need an extra large fridge and freezer if you are going to be entertaining the number of people that can sit at your dining table. And maybe even a second unit in the basement. What is that blue room opposite the kitchen table? Do you really want 6 burners on a 36" range? Isn't it more important that the individual burners are far enough apart to accommodate your really large pots and pans? Maybe 4 burners and one in the middle would work better for you? Have you thought about a warming drawer? Sabbath appliances? If your dining room will be used for classes, do you need bookshelves in there? If so, does the room need to be wider? Do you want to put in a wet bar at one end to use as a washing station? Because you know you don't want 16 people traipsing through your kitchen!

@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 The aisle measurements in the photo are a bit out-of-date -- they're from the first posting.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.

Thank you so much to everyone who has taken the time to add their suggestions/thoughts! My husband is taking an entirely hands off approach to this remodel so it's nice to have others weigh in with their expertise and advice since I have no background in home improvement! HU- 187528210- I definitely see your point about moving the fridge to the left to make a tighter work triangle but I do agree with chispa that moving it to that location might interfere with the doorway to the laundry/mudroom. decoenthusiaste- Thank you for the diagram! It helps to see the triangle with measurements included. I did try moving the range and ovens to where the refrigerator is in one iteration of the design but worried that if I kept it there, it would be an issue if the oven door was open when one of the kids was running from the mudroom into the living room (behind the north wall). I also thought it would be nice if the refrigerator could be more easily accessed from the dining and living areas. palimpsest- You're right, a couple extra steps beyond what is recommended hopefully won't make too much of a difference! And as I said to decoenthusiaste above, you totally called it on the limitations of the range and ovens being relocated to the wall where the fridge is! kevin9408- now you've got me feeling insecure about my "kitchen desert!" lol Early on I had considered doing an island but, like I mentioned in my original post, I decided that keeping my kids on the perimeter of the kitchen while I cook might be preferable to having them in the kitchen while I cook. I've also seen so many gorgeous kitchens with islands but always think, "man, what a pain to have to walk all the way around that island every time you need to get something out of the fridge." Maybe there's an island solution to both of those problems that i haven't thought of but so far I haven't been able to make it work in my space :( Perhaps a mini island in the middle? Like a lone palm tree on my desert :) H202- Thanks for keeping it real. You are also right, it is so easy to get caught up in these details during the design process that become complete non-issues once the job is complete! I probably won't even notice the extra few steps to the fridge! But I gotta say, now I don't know if all of the wasted space in the center of the kitchen that kevin9408 pointed out will be something that looks particularly odd and bothers me when it's done. Will try to keep your wise words in mind though and move on:)