There are solutions. If you're concerned about your children operating the burners, you can get a cooktop with a child safety lock, which the child probably can operate if they're at all clever but which will slow them down. Also, you can get a vertical frame to place around the cooktop to help keep fingers from getting in the way. I purchased one at IKEA (not going to link it; it's a pain to find on the website). I haven't tried it yet; so I can't tell you if it actually works, just that it's out there. The bigger issues, described by previous posters, are boil-overs and popping grease. Will you have any sort of a lip on your cooktop to keep boil-overs from oozing across the counter and into the abyss? Also, I know from personal experience that splatters can fly fairly far. We're building an island with a cooktop and seating right now, but the seating is at a raised bar. That said, there's still the possibility of a child climbing on top of the bar or over-reaching from across the bar and tipping over it. Hth.

Maybe I'm missing something implied by the terms being used above, but halogen lamps _are_ incandescents. Typically iodine is used to recycle tungsten back to the lamp filament. This accomplishes two things: longer life at the same filament temperature, or higher filament temperature at the same life, or some combination of these. In the typical design, the color temperature is set higher, putting more of the lamp output into the visible spectrum. This improves luminous efficacy. Less heat needs to be generated for the same illumination level. In other words, given a 75R30 regular incandescent flood lamp and a 75R30 tungsten-halogen [incandescent] flood lamp, both will use 75W of electricity, and both will put 75W into the environment through radiation, conduction, and convection. The tungsten-halogen lamp will provide more visible light. If one dimmed it down to the same illuminance as the regular tungsten lamp, less heat would be added to the environment. kas

@Sophie Wheeler -- Thank you for taking the time to offer your advice on how to better improve the flow of the kitchen. It is very kind of you to help others. Our cabinets are already ordered so it is too late to change layout. In any event, I think with all choices there are trade offs. When my neighbor redid her kitchen and implemented the design you suggested, she lost her pantry --as Tina Klucsik suggested would happen. She now uses a closet under the stairs as her pantry. I prefer my pantry in the kitchen. In the 12 years I have lived in this house, I never once thought I wish I had more prep space. Actually, I think I have only had three complaints about my kitchen. 1) I hate the shutters over the windows by the kitchen table -- I like bright, wide open windows. I was always afraid to take them down because we have shutters everywhere in the house. (They were here when we moved in.) I have decided to go crazy and remove them. 2) I hate the clutter on the kitchen island. So I studied what exactly gets put on the kitchen island and designed storage options to accommodate that. Fingers crossed. And 3) I wished we had a couple of seats at the end of the island. So we are adding that. I know we can sometimes be surprised with things we didn't know we needed. When we bought the house, the folks who lived here before left the granite top kitchen table -- it is so heavy it was too expensive to move to the East Coast. I kind of thought the granite top kitchen table was a little strange (never having had one before), but now I can't imagine having anything different because it is so unbelievably durable and everything just cleans right up. (Finger paint, spilled easter egg dye -- you name it!) Also, it doesn't get scratched and it doesn't get water rings. That is a long way of saying I really appreciate folks sharing their wisdom and introducing reluctant remodelers to new ideas.

Claire..their is no choice...the boxes they said are 24” apart and the pendants are 11.5...and the island is basically 8’ long..so that is the reality of the measurements given....the sketch is how it will play out as stated by homeowner....I am not adding what I would do it is they way it will hang without our input...