As a full-time house flipper of higher end homes, I've seen all types of design challenges. Often, my job is to remove or mitigate bad design decisions, where possible. Personally, I believe that a main sink in an island is a really bad idea in most instances, however, there are times when it's the best fit. Doing dishes is a necessary and sometimes mundane task. Having good sight lines to either look out the window, see a TV or being able to interact with others may be an important consideration. Reversing this we're really saying: Try not to put your main sink against a boring flat wall if it can be helped. Pick a more tolerable spot. Designers love the look of a sink in the island, but one must ask are you building a "show kitchen" or a "working kitchen"? Look at all of the empty show kitchen pictures in this thread. We only seen one instance of a kitchen in use. If you search for the pros and cons of a main island sink, you'll never see the designers mention the word "clutter". Let's address clutter around a working main sink. Dirty dishes need to go somewhere. Drying dishes need to go somewhere. Either you care about clutter or you don't. If you don't, you have many more options available. All main sinks have a clutter issue, so your next question is what are my clutter sight lines? If your island opens to your main living room, do you want these dishes always prominently displayed for you and your guests? A common configuration for adjoining living areas is to reduce the visibility to the working areas, while still keeping the openness. This is often done by using a 2 tiered configuration - an upper bar top and a lower working surface. The upper tier's job is to hide the clutter from the living area and then bar stools make that counter top usable. If you have a galley kitchen, or an otherwise isolated kitchen space, then the omnipresent clutter is not as much an issue. There is some expectation that there will be dishes in the kitchen and if you are outside the kitchen, it's not visible. Clutter in working kitchen is expected and frankly not the issue being discussed. Most of the time, the kitchen is idle (not working) and yet there may still be dirty dishes or drying dishes out. What are your sight lines and do you care? A technical note for any potential home builders. All sinks need a viable air supply, which is typically a vertical vent stack in the wall that protrudes thru your roof. When putting in an island sink, a vent stack is not possible. Search for "kitchen island plumbing loop" to see pictures.

Ohhh...very useful discussion (thanks MrsPete!). I'm in San Diego and want a pass-through window of some sort for year round outdoor dining - I've been stuck on how to implement. I know I want the window down to the counter (thermal break concept noted). I plan to use a white quartzite inside and would prefer to use the same material outside as this ledge will be under an upper deck (I've heard that some white quartzite might discolor over time in strong sunlight?). The planned window, on the west wall, would be adjacent to an outdoor dining area in our side yard. Beyond that is the pool area (our house is sort of in the NE quadrant of the property with most space in the S-facing back and W-facing side). We most definitely want a window rather than a door (there are also doors on both walls, outside of kitchen area) because I want to be able to quickly hand out marinated meat for grill, finished kitchen items for outdoor table, or snacks to wet swimmers without actually having to walk outside. Speedier distribution means that something warm is likely to stay warm and the workload is properly distributed so that the cook only cooks and others set/clean up. Nano windows are too expensive. Sliding windows are a contender but I'd prefer to have the entire width open. We are all tall (mom is 6' and I'm likely to be the shortest in 4-5 years), so double hung windows might have us all bending down awkwardly to the openings. I'd like to find a casement-style window that can open all the way back to lay flat against the outside wall. Most casement seem to open only about 90 degrees (if that), which would put glass right out into a walkway. I'm not so concerned about the screen as the breeze comes in another direction so I'd usually have this window open solely for distribution. I do plan to blatantly steal Scrappy25's sitting bay with double hung windows/ledge for the south wall of the kitchen. It will be primarily for sitting and views outside (no cabinets on that wall), but will serve a quick pass-through if something is needed in the back yard... oh how I love Gardenweb and all you wonderfully creative people! Can't wait to hear what else comes of this discussion...

If you only have one and you don't compost - put it on the Prep Sink. That's where you'll be creating the most "leavings". If you compost all food scraps, then it may not matter. We don't compost and I made the mistake of ignoring the advice here about putting it on the prep sink. We originally planned for two, but my DH was in a cost saving binge and decided we only needed one - and he wanted it on the cleanup sink (his sink!). I regret "giving in" to that - if I had it to do over, I would have fought to either keep two or tell him since he wanted to give up one, he could give up his! (He deferred to me on most things, so I got my way in probably 90% of the remodel, do I don't begrudge him the GD too much - unless I'm in the middle of a big cooking project!) Next house, they both get one, assuming WV allows them on septic! We do have the InSinkerator Septic Assist model - in our current MD county, you can have a GD if it's designed for septic systems.

Thanks all. It is not going up against the house, but rather on the opposite side of the patio by the entertaining area. This has been reviewed by our landscaper/bbq designer, so not sure of the construction issues you mention. The fridge will really just be used for drinks, so mostly be used by guests, which is why we have placed it close to the outside and out of the way of the griller. Patricia Coldwell, I get your point, but that's why we placed the grill as far from the seating as possible. But I've found that even inside my house or when we grill with our standalone right now, everyone wants to chat and hang out next the cooking- maybe my family and friends are weird :) You think the walkways are small? I measured and they are a similar width to inside my kitchen. The counter on the side opposite to the grill is raised so that we can put food there (might not be obvious from the drawing)