Is this island strictly for sitting at or will there also be cabinets. What is the length of the side where the sink is?

Your layout could use help because your fridge is too far from your sink and stove. No appliance should be more than 9' from any other appliance unless you enjoy using roller skates.

Thank you. The island will have seating, cabinets and a 30” microwave drawer. The length of the side with the sink is 16.’ I did think about the distance of the fridge from the stove, but I’m torn — I really like the look of the fridge where it is now. Here’s a sketch of the layout.

Consider rotating the island 90 degrees -- seating would face sink and window, more pleasant. You can certainly widen it, and include a nice generous side overhang for your tall offspring!

Put the fridge on one of the other walls. Logically, the sink wall but I could also see an argument for having it near the pantry area.

reverse the fridge with the wide doorway on that wall..... that pulls the fridg over to the working part of kitchen, I'd place the entry to storage pantry on far right.....then rotate island to face sink wall with backs of seated people to pantry [two of them] Once you shift the pantry entry and move fridge out of there you can probably make the island bigger I would probably skooch the range closer to sink wall which will also help to tighten up the work zone. If you do skooch the range you could maybe reduce or eliminate or cut the depth of cabinets between range and butler pantry stub wall and then widen the island a bit more.......maybe put a stool on the end.

Consider hiring a kitchen designer or buying real comfortable running shoes.

You definitely need to move your fridge. If you have a kitchen designer they are not very good.
Aisles are measured from the farthest protrusion, so that isn't cabinet face. It will either be counter, sink, or a handle. That being said, 42" aisles are fine if they are measured from those, except in front of a fridge, and except for thoroughfares. I agree with switching the double doors with the fridge, or even better putting the fridge on either the sink or range wall.
I don't see the dimensions of your kitchen so I can't tell how large the island can be.

What room is behind the refrigerator?

Could you switch the island to that space? And put the refrig on the wall area near the pantry?

It looks as if you have a butler's pantry, so I'm assuming dining is to the left. This plan (right) puts the fridge farther from the DR entry, but it's more efficient for cooking. Island would be 52x72, with two seats on the short side. Make sure you design an adequate support system and electrical outlets before the installers show up. Seating requirements and clearances are included in the NKBA guidelines (link at end of post). Double doors could be moved to frame the range and hood as a focal point.

If you want the fridge, DW, and dish storage closer to the DR, and the windows have not yet been framed, range could go on the wall to the right with sink/window on bottom wall.

NKBA guidelines

New to Kitchens? Read me first.

Food for thought, but still get a kitchen designer that will design the kitchen to the way you cook.

Quick version of sink and range switched, prep sink added to island for better work triangle:

ETA, one more, with fridge recessed into pantry space, and windows on each side of the range. Hood is 6" wider than the cooktop, to help capture grease and steam that cabinets would normally help contain. Distance from fridge to range, and sink to range is slightly less than the original plan, but fridge to sink is a few feet less and island is not as much of a barrier. This plan provides space for a separate wall oven, or range could be more centered. With 72" island, fridge aisle and range aisle would be minimum recommended--a couple of inches less if appliance handles are considered:

You’re building so why only one dinky window? More natural light would be so much more inviting to a closed off kitchen.

Also wondering about the adjacent spaces and if the French doors can be centered on the wall - posting the whole plan would help.

I love it when @mama goose_gw zn6OH posts a revision that looks similar to what I ended up going with ! :) Listen to her advice...

Thank you all for your input especially for those who took their time with revised floor plans. 😀. We’ve encountered A LOT of delays due to the pandemic so we can still make revisions.

@mamagoose, I like the thought of moving the wide French doors to the center to frame the stove and hood. However, there would be no cabinets to the left where the fridge is currently per plan. As for moving the sink to the island, that one is a solid no for us. That was actually one of our asks from the very beginning. We had one in our old place and hated it. I’m a bit OCD and hate having water on the island and if dishes and such need to be dried, I hate leaving them on the island.

Regarding switching the stove and sink, my husband would like to keep the sink facing the backyard to keep an eye on the kids. The lot is 1.5 acres with mature trees and we’d like to take advantage of the view. @thinkdesignlive asked about the window. Right now, the plan is to have 7’ wide window on the wall facing the backyard. We don’t want a window on the other side as I don’t wanna see our neighbor 🤣. Do you think we should make the window even wider?

@User The sink on the island that @mama posted is a prep sink, not a dirty dishes sink. It's almost like a bonus sink that you get to use just for cooking and rinsing hands. It makes it really nice to cook especially if there ARE dirty dishes at the cleanup sink - then they're not in your food prep space. If you move the fridge you could put in shallow cabinets, almost like a built in hutch of sorts.

You could add some clerestory windows depending on your ceiling height on the opposite wall, which would let in light but not views.

The window above your sink is shown as a 3' window so this is an old print?

I know what a prep sink is, but like I said, I don’t want any sink on the island.

Apologies. From your response it sounded like you thought it was a cleanup sink.

Consider lots more drawers than shelves for better storage and accessibility.

Pullouts will be welcome in your kitchen too.

The Social Kitchen · More Info

Thank you, @decorenthusiaste. I agree, more drawers than shelves. We have a few pullouts with the current plan. Dilemma - if we move the fridge as what mamagoose suggested, I will lose a tall 24” wide cabinet with drawer pullouts that I wanted to use as a coffee station. I would also lose storage for my broom and mop.

I think you could still put coffee in the corner, if you want to. But you have plenty of counter space, I don't think you'll feel too cramped if you put it next to the butler pantry for example, where there's water.

You can find a place for a broom in your walk in, no?

Didn't have time to read all the comments, but Mark's sketch layout is a big improvement over what you have now. Perhaps a small desk could be added along the top wall adjacent to the French doors if wanted.

Agree about the kitchen designer.

Thank you all. If we go with Mark’s sketch, that would make the island 3’x6’ with clearance of 48” throughout. Is it a big deal if we make it 3.5x’ instead?

The sketch is meant to be conceptual, not taken literally but to be used to generate ideas and solutions. Cabinet depths and isle widths can be adjusted to meet your needs. There can be cabinets on the kitchen wall that are 24" deep, or 12" deep, or no cabinets; and isle widths can be adjusted accordingly. Appliance locations can be changed based on cooking flow, I just showed where I would if I were cooking in the kitchen.

A competent kitchen designer will be able to advise you in designing the kitchen to fit you.

If it were my kitchen, I think the footprint is bigger than it needs to be.

I would reconfigure the kitchen as below.

When we cook, we normally take food out of the pantry/fridge and bring it to the sink to wash. We then prep the food between the sink and the cooktop/stove.

Prepping for most cooks takes up 70% of our time. Actual cooking is something like 10% and cleaning up is another 10% nowadays with dishwashers.

Dishwasher would be between sink and fridge.

With the below layout, you now have the fridge nearer where it's used most and nearer the dining area where it's needed most too.

The stove is now on an outside wall with windows on either side. This allows you to look out the window as you prep your food.

If you make all your lower cabinets drawers, you can get so much more into the drawers versus having rollouts.

Where you had the fridge, could now be a coffee/beverage station or a prep space for the outdoor kitchen.

BTW: This is basically my kitchen workflow and it works beautifully.

This one is my favorite, from MamaGoose:

I'll tell ya why. :-) Feel free to dismiss my reasoning, if it doesn't apply. :-)

Kids can be supervised from the sink window *and* the window flanking the range. Super nice!

Kids can be noticed on that side of the house, if one escapes and ends up over there.

Kids can pass from the doors, to the pantry, to the fridge, to the butler's pantry, and get snacks/drinks, while staying completely out of the most dangerous zone of the kitchen by the stove.

The empty corner on the top left is a great place for an indoor tree. <3 (My lemon and lime trees are in my family room; I'd love for them to be closer to my kitchen, but the best light is in my family room.)

Good luck with your building journey!

Can you put clerestory windows above the kitchen cabinets on the neighbors side?

https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-kitchen-contemporary-kitchen-seattle-phvw-vp~64057895

Thank you all for your input. Lots of things to think about. Will update when I have news to share on progress. @onedevoteddame, I like the idea of lemon and lime trees. Unfortunately, we live in the northeast so it can’t grow here. I thought of growing them indoors and even thought of other plants (like indoor olive trees or calamansi which are small Asian limes), but I can’t keep any plants alive. I’ve killed about 100 stalks of bamboo the past few years so I’ve given up.

@thinkdesignlive, we don’t like the clerestory window. We think that a 7’ window which faces south should give us enough light. My husband is adamant about keeping the stove where it is so I would need to work with that. He doesn’t have many asks with this home building process after all. I think I will move the fridge to the side where the sink is and do narrower cabinets on the other two walls like mark suggested. I have a collection of plates. A lot. I can probably put them there.

You should be able to center those French doors then - and redo the pantry entry location so it doesn’t break up the run of shallow cabinets…please post your new plan when done. Good luck!

Oh and maybe pocket French doors so you don’t loose too much wall space on the family room/living room side?

My husband is adamant about keeping the stove where it is so I would need to work with that.

Why is he adament about that? What is his thinking?

@cpartist I wonder that as well. I kind of think whoever is cooking should get to decide how the kitchen is laid out. My DH deferred to me 100% on the kitchen in our design, since I'm the one using it. I deferred to his preferences elsewhere (TV is going over the fireplace). I guess if her husband is the cook, he should get the say, even if it's a less functional design.

@anj_p, that is a sexist comment. Rude.

I took it as a cookist comment and fine.

@User Not exactly sure why you think what I said is sexist or rude. But OK. I think I can be done here.

There was nothing sexist about anj_p's comment. Please explain where you think it was sexist to say that whomever does the cooking gets the say.

anj_p is a long time valued member of this community and I didn't think there was anything off color or rude about the comment either. Seems to me the person who's using the space should be the primary influence when it comes to designing the space. I recently designed a house for a "gearhead" and the wife wasn't "adament" about how his car shop should be configured. To be honest, it would be a little weird if she was.....lol.....

And it's interesting how the folks that have never contributed anything back to others who are building are always the folks that don't like some feedback. I guess they can't be bothered with being on the other side of providing design advice. And here's a lady who's benefited from a FREE design effort by a professional who's normally PAID to produce a design.