Makes me think of those new super-strong metal constructs so light that they can rest on a ball of fluff. I wouldn't be surprised if someday we do have sheer shear walls. Bet your architect would be bouncing off the ceiling with the possibilities, Nicekato. :) Seems to me that interrupting the view lines down the house would be...unfortunate. To put it mildly. They're obviously a major design feature, and keeping the kitchen in its own carefully defined space is critical to its success. Working within the space you have, it looks as if your counters are about 12' long? The whole work area of the kitchen about 12 x 16, not including the storage to the left of the traffic/view way? That's a pretty decent space. The trick is massaging this to achieve really good function while still retaining an artful balance. You may have to accept aisles that are striking you now as a bit narrow. In a very spacious overall design I don't think it will look cramped at all. Certainly the room is not small, even before considering what glass on both sides and views sweeping through in both directions does for it. Regarding losing seating all along the island opposite the stove, have you considered HOW you would lay out replacement seating in the nook, taking into account both the sliding glass doors and the need to keep furniture out of the traffic/view way? How many people would you want it to accommodate? Better start drawing stuff in to scale, because the answers to these will determine IF you can do without stools at the counter. FWIW, I suspect people would want to come sit with the cook, at least to the sides of the stove, when great things are happening. I'm also sure they'd be perfectly happy anywhere within chat distance, with the option of strolling over to watch now and then available. That terrific stove is currently nicely positioned to allow others to see the cook at work. Is entertaining friends by cooking a function that needs to be kept at the top of the priorities? Would you be as happy, say, if the stove were on the lower counter facing the wall? Just musing a bit about the overall layout, how about removing about 3' from the left end of the middle counter to "connect" the 3-counter system? A 9' counter is still quite long, and this would allow the cook(s) to move quickly back and forth across the cooking space with spillable, especially hot, items without worrying about colliding with passersby.

I'm glad you've gotten the prep sink closer to the cooktop, where it is needed. However I am concerned that now your main prep surface is actually around the corner from the cooktop and at least 7-8 feet away. That would be too far for me. Picture yourself standing in center of the island, just opposite the center of the clean-up sink. You've washed and cut up some veggies to add to a pot on the stove, you have to turn left and walk around the corner of the island to get to the middle of the cooktop. If you turned the island 90 degrees (so stools had their backs to current fridge wall) this would be improved. This would be an even better design if you also moved the fridge to the place of the 40" cabinet shown in grey to the left of the doorway at the bottom right of the picture. Functionally then you would move from the fridge (and also pantry) area in a straight line to the island/prep counter (with prep sink). Then you could just pivot around to the cooktop and wall-oven with the ingredients after prepping. You'd still be facing your seated companions. The clean-up zone corridor wiould still be outside the protected cooking aisle, etc. I think the problem with large spaces is often the temptation to spread the work zones out along the walls like they are in much smaller spaces. The result is just a ballooned design, making the kitchen too spread out. Think about how this works in other rooms. Take a living or sitting room: really big rooms don't just have their furniture ranged against the walls as smaller ones often do. Instead they have two or more clusters of seating arrangements, within each the elements are comfortable distance for the activity taking place - usually conversation and socializing. In a kitchen the activity centers also need to have fairly similar spatial relationships, even if the room is large. Large rooms just allow more clusters. But you still need to have the standard proximate associations within those clusters of the individual components. In this case: close access to where the food is stored > surface where it is manipulated (prepped), preferably with easy access to water for washing it or prep-soiled hands > cooking appliances (ideally also with easy access to a water tap, I like the prep sink to do double duty as the cooking zone's water point for economy and simpliicty). This is one reason why when I see a design (not yours!) that has the wall ovens across the room from the cooking surface I just roll my eyes. Who wants to carry hot pots from one area to another? Not me! If you turned the island as I suggest this efficiency would be achieved quite easily. And even though the food prep/cooking cluster or zone is concentrated around one axis, you aren't going to feel it's cramped because of the overall size of the room. I think it will just feel right-sized, not over-sized. HTH L.

Can your fridge door hinges switch sides? Most can. If so, I suggest you consider a cabinet between the wall and the fridge to allow the door to swing fully open with the hinges switched. It will make cooking more efficient if the door swings open to the side of the kitchen where you're actually working instead of having to walk around it. I'm not sure how wide the cabinet needs to be to ensure the door fully opens but we can probably help you find that information if you're interested. Personally, I would find that really aggravating. I really like your plan. I can't comment about the 36" vs. 30" range because I've only had 30" and they have always worked fine for me even though I cook a lot. Maybe if I ever tried a 36", I'd never wanna go back so maybe that's best, lol. I do want to inform you that it's suggested that your range hood be 6" wider than your cooktop, 3" on each side. So you would need to redraw your 30" range option with a 36" hood, and your 36" range with a 42" hood. Of course, this starts increasing expenses so you might want to factor that into your decision. This is because a range wider than a hood captures more smoke, steam, grease and odors. The laws of physics are that these broaden as they rise so a hood the same width as the range doesn't fully capture them. Your kitchen will smell cleaner and actually be cleaner without you having to clean the cabinets as often when there is less grease floating around.

It would be helpful if you post pictures of the space taken from all 4 corners.