Do you have a sketch?

Here is the current floor plan...thanks in advance!

How often will you use both? How do you prep? if you like tossing things in the dishwasher while you prep, then one prep dishwasher and one cleanup dishwasher makes sense. If you want to consolidate cleanup, put both on the window sink. the island sink in your layout should be mostly for prep.

Were I lucky enough to have two, I would fill one and run/empty the other. That would be great at dinner parties, because you could be running the dishes from the first course, and still have somewhere to load the main course dishes. It would seem inefficient to have two dishwashers half full with dirty dishes.

I would want them on either side of the main clean-up sink, because switching from one side of the kitchen would be too complicated for me.

Mine are flanking my cleanup sink, and I really like that. I like filling one up completely and then moving on to the second, and if they were separate, I feel like that wouldn’t happen.

IMO I never like a sink directly opposite a cooking space so I think to put a DW in the island would only add to that poor design . Use thet sink for prep and the other for cleanup with a DW on either side. Have you looked at DW drawers , friends of ours have them and for their life style they are prfect. I run a catering biz from my home I have only one DW it is a Bosch with a quick wash cycle that takes 20 minutes I use that but there are times when I wish I had done 2 . When we entertain that quick wash cycle does the dishes in between courses , ( we do a lot of gourmet dining with mutliple courses.) I think if you need them do them but DW sitting and not used often do not last long since seals dry out if not used. My Bosch is 13 yrs old and honestly the average # of loads per day is probably 4 not one issue in all that time

Seeing you proposed layout, I can definitely see the advantage of a dw by the island sink. If you often eat at the island it's very convenient to have the dw right there by the dirty dishes. I would see the second dw as more of an overflow. Or as one that a second kitchen helper can load dishes at the same time in their own dedicated clean up area.

I'd flank the clean-up sink with the DW's, but from the sketch, I'm not sure which is the clean-up sink. I guess DW location will be the deciding factor?

ETA, if you could live with the perimeter sink not under the window, you could center it between the windows and make the top wall the clean-up zone.

I don't mind an island sink centered on a cooktop/range, since most prep is done to the side of a sink. Unless your island sink is a work-station model, I don't think you have enough prep space on either side, so in this case, I'd recommend putting the small sink there or making it off-center.

Thank you everyone for your helpful replies! My architect is coming by tomorrow to fine tune some things and I will run these ideas by her. My husband I often prep together at the existing island, which is small and doesn't have seating. We are still planning on prepping at the island, but now with seating we will have dinner dishes, too. @Patricia Colwell Consulting, I agree about the redundancy of 2 DW, but this is a battle I can't win! We do have 4'4" between oven and sink, so I think we will have enough for cooking and prep - but that is a good point. @mama goose_gw zn6OH, if I put a 30" sink in the island that would leave me with 33" on either side for prep. I can go smaller, too. @lucky998877 - We are very excited about the wine room! Nothing fancy, but it will do the trick.

36" is the minimum space recommended for prep so i would go with a much smaller sink. if you both prep at the island, do an 18" sink and give yourselves an extra 9" each. No need to do cleanup there just because you have seats at your island. in my house, the dinnerware dishes are the easiest ones to cleanup. it's all the cookware and prep tools that take the most effort.

There was quite a bit of discussion on this topic a few years ago. When all was said & done, the consensus was to put both DWs next to the cleanup sink.

First, that's where most dishes will be coming from and, most likely near the dish storage where most clean dishes will be put away.

Second, if clean dishes are still in the DW and you need something from them, you end up running around the Kitchen trying to figure out which DW the item is in. You may plan to only put certain things in each DW, but the reality is that things will be put in whichever DW they fit or is closest at hand.

I agree with Mama Goose -- move the DW off the island and onto the perimeter. The perimeter sink should be your cleanup sink & Cleanup Zone, not the island. The island should be reserved for prepping.

This will keep the dirty dishes from being front & center and on display for all to see as well as keep them from being "in the face" of someone sitting at the island.

I worked up a layout with some tweaks, but Houzz won't let me post a picture right now. I will try in the morning. Houzz seems to be having issues tonight. It's not just your thread, it's all. I've been trying to post pictures on other threads and they're not posting on them either. (It's also probably why anj_p's post appears three times...even text posts are having issues.)

After reading a lot of old posts I decided to flank our cleanup sink with both DWs. It makes it much easier to juggle items between them when we are loading both at the same time. Installing the second DW is one of the best things that we did in our remodel, saving us countless hours at the sink. I don't think that you will regret it.

Most of our prep and chopping takes place over a 30" workstation sink across from the range top. The mess goes right into the sink and the counters stay much cleaner. It is an easy pivot to the range top when I am adding chopped items to a pot. You might want to consider pulling your island a bit closer to your range which will also give you more space between island seats and the table.

@wilson853 I completely agree on pulling th island closer to the cooktop! The architect has it drawn as 5' and my husband and tried that distance working back ti back and it seemed too far and extra steps. Having prep adjacent and a quick pivot to the stove will be wonderful. Workstation sinks are new to me! Which one do you have? I could goes wide as 36 that is necessary. Thanks for your suggestions!

@Lisa C, I purchased the 30" double-ledge Highpoint sink along with the bottom grid from Overstock so that I could stack the cutting board and colander over each other. The same sink is also marketed under Nantucket and Houzer. It gets daily use and has held up very well over the past four years. The poly cutting board that came with the sink handles 99% of what I do. I use flexible cutting mats over it to keep it in good shape. Here's a bigger board that fits the bottom ledge - great for messy jobs like this. We also have a couple of wooden boards that we use for cutting bread and carving meat. It is much more stable to cut a loaf of crusty bread over the sink and brush the crumbs into the sink. I did not like the heavy colander that came with the sink so I replaced it with an expandable one that fits either ledge.

OK, Houzz appears to have fixed their issues. Here's my idea that has a few tweaks, similar to Mama Goose's btw.

Note that if you pull the island closer to the cooktop it will start becoming a potential obstacle to the Cleanup Zone / sink along the right wall. It looks like all that's on the top wall b/w the cooktop and sink is the Pantry, so it might only be an issue when using the ovens.

You will also have to move the 4th seat back to the long side since the aisle b/w the wall stub on the left and the island will be too narrow for seating. Unfortunately, that brings you back to diner-style seating (eating with strangers effect). When you have more than 3 seats, it's best to try to get at least one seat "around the corner" so you aren't all sitting likes duck in a row -- similar to counter seating in a Diner where people want to look straight ahead and not look/converse with the people next to them.

I pulled it closer by 6" and reduced the island by 3", so you have a net gain of 9" behind the island.

The island is 63" deep....it's actually 3" deeper than I generally recommend. 30" is usually the maximum most people can reach for wiping down counters, etc. So, double that (60") and that's the maximum depth of an island -- assuming you plan to clean the center! :-)

Do you and/or your DH have long arms and able to easily reach 33"? If so, then 66" deep island will work for you.

Another vote for both flanking the cleanup sink. I currently have them separated (prep and cleanup) and it’s a nuisance. When one fills up, I have to cart the dirty dishes over to the other in a bus bin. I’ve noticed people instinctively drop dishes near the clean up sink and keeping track of which dishwasher we’re loading at any point gets old fast. ending up with 2 half full dishwashers happens, especially with guests.

Thank you to everyone for your suggestions!

@Buehl you have given me a lot to think about - I have never been too happy with the diner seating, but couldn't figure out a way around it. Could I take your suggestion a step further and have 12" knee space all the way around the back? I attached a sketch. Would I need leg supports on the corners? The plan for the top is quartzite. This does end up being 63"deep, but it will work for cleaning.

To accommodate the DW on each side of the cleanup sink, I moved the pantry wall 4" back. I will have 44" of interior width, which is tight, but plan on using 14" shelves on back wall. I have room for deeper shelves on the right side of the pantry. I'm also planning on a pocket door.

Buehl - I love and agree with your design diagram. I have 2 dishwashers and they are both near the cleanup sink. My island sink (18x14) has a 12” single trash can to the left and trash can size is perfect for second trash. Sink could be a bit larger though. I like having a larger prep area in the island; would not want a large island sink at the expense of prep area. We have 4 ft between island and cooktop; it’s perfect for my husband and me.

Seating on the island...

The minimum overhang for counter-height seating is 15" of clear leg/knee space, not 12". For each side you want seating, you will need a 15-inch overhang. (12" is the minimum for bar-height seating, that's 6" higher than counter-height.)

However, if you have seating on a work aisle, that aisle will need to be at least 54" wide (with 60" better). So. if you're talking about seating on the side that shares an aisle with the cleanup sink/DWs/ovens, you will need to increase the aisle to at least 54", which means reducing the overall width of the island by at least 6".

Regarding linear spacing, you need at least 24" per seat at the island. Keep in mind that two seats cannot share a corner as two people's legs cannot share the same space.

I have had 2 DW for the past 23 years. And yes, it's great, and no there is no right way to do it. With the way DW are today, you don;t need a sink at all. One of mine is next to the sink, but the other is not.