Attached is a copy of a layout example Home Depot did for me several months ago. The idea included a range, paneled dishwasher, large sink (maybe farmhouse) with two sections, a counter depth fridge, and a microwave drawer in island. I wish I could have done cooktop and wall oven but there is no space. Please note the ceiling above the kitchen area is 7' due to a soffit. The contractor said he may be able to raise it 2-3" at most. The area in the breakfast nook including where the fridge will be has an 8' ceiling. The pole currently in the room will be gone. The door to family room will get bigger and move over. The fridge will go where the doorway currently is. The two cut ins in the breakfast nook will be gone to give more space in nook. The two current pantry closets will be gone too and bathroom/kitchen wall willl move forward towards those lengthening that wall. That will give more space on that side of the L as well as the ability to make a full bath.

Surrounding areas

Seating on the right side of the island will be next to impossible with only 41" to the refridgerator. In fact the end at the stove is too toght as well. The left side is barely the minumum width. Overall way to toght, too much going on and you really do no have room for that large of an island.

The full bath behind the kitchen is a NEW bath?? No....: ( At the very least, the entry to it is on the wrong side. The only island that will work in that kitchen is 24 inches x about 60 " no seating..your clearances are too tight.

IMO an actual to scale floor plan with nothing in the space then we can help. But IMO you do not use your architect or HD but an actual independant KD. Do you need a breafast room woulf be my firs question and of course lighting is how you brighten a space . Why the low ceiling in the kitchen space ? Did you get a structural engineer to decide how to remove the pole ?

• The full bath behind the kitchen used to be a powder room. We are extending it to be a full bath. This bath is the permanent bath of my in-laws who live on this floor. The door has always been on this side and they prefer it that way. I wanted to get it switched to other side but they feel they wouldn't have any privacy that way. They don't want to enter exit from the bathroom facing the living room. So unfortunately that is going to stay as is.
• there was no intention to have any seating anywhere but the on the island except the wall side (opposite fridge/sink wall)
• need breakfast area to eat, we are a family of 8 and have always eaten in here
• low ceiling is because all the hvac and plumbing is there; contractor said he can move it up no more than 2-3 inches at best
• The architect and contractor have already figured out how to remove the pole and support it with a beam; building code approved the plan

The fridge is on the sink wall - not behind the island seating.

I'm having trouble figuring out traffic patterns. Are your inlaws in the bedroom marked ex. bedroom? Where are the other bedrooms?

Exactly @blfenton - and the island seating wasn't meant to be permanent seating. Just some stools tucked under when needed. I really want a decent island to be able to prep and entertain and use as storage. Funny thing is I used an independent kitchen designer too who was making the island 7'! Was hoping to get at least 3' x 6'

@blfenton. Yes they are in the bedroom marked EX bedroom between living room and family room. It used to be a study but we converted it when they moved in. The rest of the bedrooms (5) are on the upper level. My in-laws traffic pattern is basically to use the family room as their seating area and access the bathroom through the kitchen. The rest of us use the two bathrooms upstairs. I currently have a big table in my breakfast nook where all 8 of us eat together everyday.

With the exception of the aisle in front of the range, I am not sure why people are saying you do not have enough clearance. 42" may be the minimum width, but it is within design parameters. My suggestion would be to shorten the island to at least 6'6" to increase the aisle by the range to 42" . If you want to make the island a little bit narrower, you could use vanity base cabinets instead of kitchen base cabinets and gain 3" between the sink and refrigerator wall and the island. In my opinion, 36" behind the stools is plenty of room for people get through.

With your large family, do you have enough storage? For my small family, it would be cramped. I would elect a floor to ceiling pantry wall where the current refrigerator is located and restrict seating to the kitchen table.

Notice we are focusing on function first. Once you have a layout that really functions for your family, then colors, finishes, hoods etc come in a little later. But the finishes in the kitchen will reflect the light from the dining nook and (along with a great plan for better lighting) give you a bright kitchen, without considering changing the slider.

@jenny if you look at the blueprint, you'll see an 8x10 room off the laundry room. That is currently a storage area in our garage. We are opening a door to it from laundry room and walling it off the garage. So we will have an 80 sq ft space with a fridge, closets, upper/lower (or full) cabinetry for pantry/extra storage!

I also want to make sure the island isn't so long as to crash into the breakfast nook seating.

This is the only way I have able to make it work so far.

Can I center a 6 foot table instead and have bench pushed up right in front of window? May be too tight?

I'm thinking that we won't be able to get away with more than a 3x5 island. That size island would end right before the fridge just around the place the ceiling height changes so that may look most balanced too. And it won't crash into the breakfast table. I think anything bigger may overwhelm the space and impede flow.

I do think you could have a bench and a 6' foot table.

Or, if you are open to something outside the box, you could place your table up against and perpendicular to the window.

I would also reconsider the distance between the island and range. I think you would be much more comfortable with 42" there. There will still be enough room to do the 3x5 island.

With 8 people in the household, I sure as heck would not skrimp on aisle width. Unless you can tell me that only one person does all of the cooking & cleanup. And with that many people in the household, I would not want any island seating in the kitchen.

So two are elderly and would need never sit at an island and one is off to college in a week. We typically have two people doing the cooking/cleanup.

So if I didn't do island seating are you saying I should do a 30" x 60" island? I wanted to have some seating there since I can't fit an 8 person table.

I think you could fit a 7 ft table, comfortably sitting eight, with the long side parallel to the slider. You'd have a bit of a choke point at the refrigerator, but you would have the wide open kitchen, with maybe a butcher block in place of the island.

@Jenny? Are you saying to get rid of the island altogether? We were planning to use that for prep, entertaining, and holding microwave drawer. When you say "parallel to slider" you mean to put table perpendicular to window?

In my house I would get more function out of a butcher block for prep, a set of lower cabinets between the laundry and the slider that would act as storage and buffet, and the table perpendicular to the window, and more on the left side of the room, so leaving enough room at the corner near the refrigerator. That would give more room for seating and circulation but less room if for people standing around snacking in the kitchen.