I actually like the layout you have now a lot, although I would swap the trash and DW positions, for better prep workflow. It gives you reasonably ample amount of prep counter between the sink and range, plus the island behind for additional prep space.

What if you put a prep sink in the island, next to the ice machine? Dish-washing clutter stays out of the social zone. You can prep food while you chat with friends, and when you are not prepping the sink is useful as a beverage station.

agree with mcarroll16 re: swapping trash and DW

Is that the fridge to the right of the range? I'd tuck that in the bottom right area of the kitchen. It's closer to the family room and without it on the back wall your range hood will be the star of the show.

Is it not possible to raise the sill height of the window in the recessed porch area so you can achieve a continuous L of counter top on the perimeter of the kitchen?

Actually move the sink/dw down to where the stove is and then place the oven where the sink is now, so you will then take food out of the fridge, move it to the sink to wash, and then prep between sink and stove.

PS fridge right now is in a good position next to dining area and out of traffic area

You say you entertain and were adamant no sink in the island, then you put the DW there, forcing the sink there too? I think you were on the right track with sink and DW against the long wall. Will you be able to reach the middle of the island to rollout your dough and clean it? Have you thought about facing the ice machine towards the dining table to keep traffic out of your work area. Is the counter at bottom right the coffee bar? It may be an alternative spot for ice machine?

Why did you decide sink in island? Do what cpartist said! with prep sunk in island. then you have cleanup area and 2 great prep areas. agree to no clean up sink in the island - sometimes you have to but you don’t which is wonderful!

I think the ink on the long wall was the right palce but the trip from fridge to sink needs to not past the range. BTW the potfiller IMO is the most useless thing in a kitchen . If cooking huge pots of pasta on a daily basis is part of your life then put the sink next to the range makes so much more sense . The boiling water still will need to be carried pot filler or not.Swith the sink and range placement and no sink needed in the island. Use all drawers for base cabinets and make them all useable as drawers not pullouts behind doors. I am left handed have had my DW on both sides of the sink it honestly has never bothered me either way. I have a pullout trash under my sink with recycling in the back bin and trash in the front and a small compost bin under the sink too. So where the trash and compost go is right next to the are where I prep.

I do not like cleanup sinks in the island. It does not work for the way we use our kitchen. We have a prep sink in our island and that is where we prep. Cleanup sink is on another wall. We have many items that we do not put in the dishwasher so we have drying mats out where we place these items until we get around to putting them away. This would not work out well with the clean up sink in the island.

Is this a door?

We have our main sink in island and it works very well for us. I would rather be cleaning or washing up facing the crowd than a wall.

Why did you feel you were forced to put the sink in the island? Since it was a high priority to not have it that way--I agree you will regret it MIGHTILY for all the reasons you didn't want it there. I can see how one would want to face the crowd while washing dishes--it's probably why 90% of the time the sink is under a window, but no one wants to watch you wash dishes. This is one time the raised counter makes sense. No one can SEE the mess from the other room or see you scrubbing pots, but then your work area is cut down even more. No pot filler. It's the HOT WATER that's dangerous and more heavy once the pasta is in it, to carry!! Even if I made pasta at every meal it just does't make sense. Water source in two different places is a HUGE waste. Get yourself a decent sink--mine has three compartments. There's always room for anything and everything that needs doing all in one place. When we have many cooks in the kitchen it is not the sink that crowds it is the lack of counter space to work at.

Food for thought ( :

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Thank you all for the feedback and suggestions! I’ll try to answer all the questions in this follow up post. The windows in the kitchen are placed there because of the exterior that I chose (see below). However, we are going to put the pantry along that wall and add in an office (see below).

It isn’t friends or family who will be turned off by clean up or dirty dishes. That is all me! There are times when there are dirty dishes in the sink, the stainless steel grate is gunky because it hasn’t been scrubbed down and cleaned, the faucets need to be wiped, etc. I feel like if the primary sink is in the island, it will be on display for everyone to see.

The draftsman put the pot filler on the plan. We have no plans of installing one. I plan to put in drawers instead of cabinets with pullouts. We have that now and I love them!

I like the suggestions of a prep sink in the island and the primary sink along the wall.

Any more suggestions now that you see the revised plan?

Having the sink in the island would make your work triangle smaller, which is more efficient. But there's noting wrong with your current layout. I do agree that having the sink closer to the fridge is ideal.

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I prefer the narrower doorway to the pantry and the fridge location in the original layout, but with the dishwasher-clean up sink-trash to the left of the range.

It so depends on how you like to do things.

I do a lot of chopping and a messy part is the bits that may fall off the cutting board. I prefer not to have to pivot to stove while carrying chopped things so my ideal prep zone is between sink and stove- wash, chop, dump. I have tgat currently but the counter span really needs to be a foot longer, but no hood way to change that.

I think I understand about prep sinks in islands, but then don’t you need a garbage disposal for both sinks? I compost most everything but it’s the little bits I send down the drain. I suppose I could use a mesh drain guard but I find those and sink get so grimy even with frequent rotation into dishwasher.

I spend more time prepping then washing dishes. I like prepping at my island where I have lots of space and I can still converse with people while doing it. We clean up as we go so after a meal there are only a few things that need to be washed that don't go in the dishwasher. I'm not looking to converse while washing dishes after a meal. And yes we do have a garbage disposal in both sinks.

My house has nearly the same layout as yours, and here's how we designed the kitchen. I, too, wanted the island just for conversation, food prep, family-style buffet set-up, and so on. The base cabinet order from the far wall is: warming drawer & drawers, more drawers, DW#1, sink, DW#2, garbage, spice/oils, 48" cooktop, drawers, double ovens. The microwave and a second warming drawer are in the island, as well as additional drawers. There's 48" from perimeter cabs to island and also 48" from F/F to island. No pot filler. :-)

Obviously this is just a rendering and some of the odd lines (especially on the island) won't show in the final product. The F/F has a trim pkg that the rendering software couldn't manage, either.

Once again, this is not a question of right or wrong, better or worse, but rather of PREFERENCE. For every person here who says “no sink in island, ever!” you will have one saying “I love my island sink”. Only YOU know yourself and what will work for you, period. As to dirty faucet or sink grate etc: it will only require a small adjustment of habits, a bit more wiping, and life is good. (I wipe my faucet down after each task, such as washing up…..no problem whatsoever, takes seconds. Grates are easy, too, and you can do the underside once a week…..done.) You did not ask about this, but since your sink in either location will be so close to the range, you really don’t need a pot filler…..a couple of steps and you’re at the sink, where you’ll also be draining your pasta etc…..no problema! Pot fillers are definitely “en vogue” and most fancy kitchens have them, but they get dirty from cooking and will look worse than your island faucet. Just MHO, of course.

Adorable exterior! Layout looks efficient. Will you have enough uninterrupted counter space (4 ft) for prep? Looks like prep has to be done between fridge and sink and between microwave and cooktop? Pantry room seems to waste floor space…how about instead of walk in pantry, you have bypass doors and shelves for food storage on side hidden behind the fridge and other side is open to kitchen and continues the kitchen counter as a butlers pantry with small appliances on counter, storage for linens, seasonal decor, etc?

How many in your family? Do you want 5 folks lined up in a single row making conversation difficult (but easy to place an order if you are in a diner!).

Consider making the seating wrap around the corner to invite conversation where folks can talk to one another - that can move your seating to one end, and then you can have your prep sink at the other. Still have cleanup around the perimeter.

If you cook, you would never consider sink on this wall… Sink in the island with trash on the left and dishwasher on right would give you not only a perfect work triangle an opportunity to look into your living room and not the wall when you doing dishes but great counter space for your work.

You should not be immediately facing a wall when working at a primary kitchen sink.

@Mark Bischak, Architect Why should a primary kitchen sink not be facing a wall?

The house is very lovely, esp. in the farmhouse iteration with the rustic wood on exterior. I know why they placed the porch doors in the kitchen, but while it looks nice from the outside, it does cut into the kitchen space. One other thing: our last house was similar in that the major rooms were open to each other, had high ceilings etc. It was very weird and annoying (esp in the beginning) to experience so much echoing in that house….if your tv is in the great room, you won’t be able to hear much…..it took us ages to get used to it. (And yes, we had rugs and furniture, later even drapes.)

Because when you look up from working at a sink located at a wall, you will see a wall.

When you look up from working at a sink located at a window, you will see whatever there is to see outside the window.

When you look up from working at a sink located in an island or peninsula, you will see whatever is beyond the island or peninsula.

I find looking at a wall gets old quickly.

That is one reason designing a home to fit the site is so important.

You can do much better than that houseplan for a 1M build. WAY better..

I typically help folks with kitchen remodels and sink location is sometimes a form versus function decision point with compromise.

With new construction I'd appreciate a sink at a window. Unfortunately, it seems a lot of new construction has no kitchen windows and forces the decision between wall and island. For the way I cook, I'd choose the wall because I prioritize continuous counter between sink and cooktop; I don't want an aisle separating the two ever again.

Something to think about... Having the primary sink in the island allows you to face your guests. If you have never had an island kitchen, you might not realize that guests tend to congregate at the island. If your main sink is not in the island, last minute preparations will be done with your back to your guests. I am in the midst of a complete kitchen redesign. My original design had the small sink in the island and I found that to be something I did not like at all. My current design has a large workstation sink in the island and a small sink at the window where the large sink used to be. Below is a rendering of the new design.

I like your original plan. However, I have a smaller prep sink on the island (with disposal). I do all my food prep there and can be facing my guest while prepping a meal. Dirty dishes behind me in the big sink. I’ve done this is several homes, including a B&B - my guest said they felt like they were watching a live Food Network show!

@cdm4199, Do you need a mud room off the kitchen? Off the back porch? Laundry room? You don’t want seats in a row at island?

Here is a possible layout to let you be part of the DR/Great Rm action without a sink in the island, plus island seating not in a row

Would they not just sit at dining if they didn’t want to be five in a row? We are a family of five who rarely all sit in a row but every single morning up to four of us do with breakfast and every night my three kids do for homework. We eat together at the dining table for dinner which is right beside the kitchen. I would never want a second table

I'd prefer the sink in the island. Why? Because it's much better than facing a wall while you work at the sink. If you don't want to have dirty dishes "visible", get a cutting board that can cover the sink when you want.

I'm very solidly in the no-five-in-a-row island seating, especially since you have a nice table only steps away.