Your current layout appears woefully short on continuous counterspace. It does not have a long enough span to set down a large pan and bowl and plate up 4 dinner plates. Or to set down a mixer and 2 cookie sheets. Where do you anticipate eating on a daily basis? Your kitchen is quite large, but does not have the functionality it should due to most of its square footage being walkways. If that were my space to work with, I would rotate the island 90 degrees, make it larger, not have the prep sink centered, but have it across from the fridge, have the island surface all the same height, have the "work" side of the island rectangular, and perhaps do a curve on the seating side of the island. Or do all of that with no curve and no stool seating, but do a step-down counter off the island with 2 chairs on the short end by the stairs.

Thanks for all of the ideas!!! I knew I'd find some good advice on GW. Let me address the tv issue. We like its present spot (but can move it down) because you don't see it when you walk into the room. The cable box and DVD player are stashed in the closet directly behind it so no media console nor visible cables (the tv will be moved over the ones in the photo) neither. In our last apartment, the tv took center stage and we definitely watch tv less now. If it were smaller, I think it could go elsewhere and not be such a focal point, but a 46" tv is not so easy to work with. Here are extra photos give you a sense of the rest of the space. That is not a clear table, we haven't gotten our tabletop yet! LOL In the corner, we've put stacked chairs and a media console temporarily. We are planning to put an upright piano here. Tibbrix - interestingly, the glare hasn't bothered us. Maybe because it's winter and often overcast and snowing? But once we get our window treatments, we'll just close them to watch tv. That particular window is quite small and doesn't have a great view. The view's actually great from the kitchen and dining area! I think we're okay with losing the view from the living area. Aside from the glare and loss of view, do you see anything wrong with having the sofa with its back to the window? Olychick - thanks for "validating" my sofa and its placement! I've been back and forth about it, sometimes I think it looks great in the space, other times I think it's too big. I think your idea for tv placement is interesting and could work if our tv were smaller. Ours is such a behemoth... Celticmoon & Camlan - I saw in another apartment something along the lines of what you both suggest. They utilized the back 2/3 by the window as their living area (two sofas facing each other) and the remaining front 1/3 as a kids' play area. There was no tv to contend with. I thought this looked great, but couldn't think of what we'd do with that extra space. Your suggestions are definitely giving me some ideas though... Teacats - you said to float the chair under the mirror. Where would you put the mirror? I thought about a sectional, too. The only thing is we would want it to be flexible in that it can be rearranged to a different configuration for a different space. We may live here for as little as 5 years. Everyone's ideas have been really helpful! I'm planning to move the sofa with DH this weekend so that it faces the tv. I'll try it out both 2/3 of the way back and all the way back and let you know what we think. I have a couple questions for now - 1. Mirror being too high. Our sofa back is only 31" high and if the mirror is hung much lower, you could see the reflection of the back of our heads when we're sitting there. This is weird to me. Another reason I hung the mirror high is because I read that with low ceilings, you want to hang mirrors/art on the high side because your eye gets drawn upward, which makes the ceilings appear higher. What do you all feel about that? 2. One thought I'm having is to put a different kind of seating where the chair is where DH and I could sit together to watch tv in its current position. It'd have to be big enough to accommodate both of us, but not a full-on loveseat, which would not look right in the space. Something sized between a loveseat and a lounger. Should have a back and arms for comfort. Does what I'm picturing exist outside my mind?

No changes to the windows: Click to enlarge I wasn't sure about some of the measurements, so this is a rough estimate of cabinet widths, and there are no uppers. Having only one wall of cabinets plus island, I put the fridge (36", might be room for 48") near the DR, with a range. Alternate plan would be to extend the wall beside the pantry and put the fridge there, with the wall ovens where the fridge is drawn, since you don't want an UC oven, but that would make the island somewhat of a barrier. The fridge could also go in the middle of the pantry space, with pantry cabs on each side. ETA, I'm not sure if the fridge would be close enough to the island for landing space. The 30" pantry could be an upper with base, or a tall cabinet on the counter, with landing space in front of it. Blank space m/l:

Overall this looks nice! Just a few small things that you might want to consider. The master bedroom door opening could be reversed to open against the bath/closet wall to improve flow. The middle bedroom also has this configuration. You could also combine the laundry room (using a stacked washer/dryer perhaps) with the bathroom next to it, and this could give you more room in the master bathroom, perhaps for a double sink/vanity. I think it also might be less expensive if you have all of the plumbing in one wall (toilets and sinks back to back on a common wall), but I'm not an expert on that so you could check with your contractor.