I've seen lots of islands with a combination like you've said. What jumps out at me is that you want to store things like seasonal platters there, though. Those tend to be large--would yours fit in a 12" cabinet? A 12" cabinet is usually not 12" inside. Usually it's 12" from the wall to the front of the cabinet box (not the door), meaning that the inside space is roughly 11-1/4", which may be too small for what you're thinking of storing there. Or, perhaps not, but I wanted to point it out, just in case!

We have an island with 12" cabinets on one side. I keep seasonal things in that side that I don't need often. We also have a wine rack in the middle. The cabinet door on the right is a fake because there are drawers on the adjacent side. We now have a glass bar top on the side you see with the stools.

I have a peninsula just installed with 12" on seat side. On the short side I have table linens, vases, extra canned food, and pitchers. This will work fine for me. Granite install next week. Kalapointer, I'm wondering about your over hang. That's my current dilemma, how much? good luck Sue 2012.

We're planning on doing something similar since our island is so wide. One side of the island will have 24" deep cabinets and the side with seating will have 21" deep cabinets. I am thrilled to have extra storage wherever I can get it. I honestly don't know what I'll store in there, but it will obviously be stuff we don't use too often.

We plan on doing this as well as we won't have upper cabs in our new build.

We saw this at a new community - they did it on all of the model homes and had seating as well. Super functional for things you don't need everyday like holiday china, silver and more. I wish I had pictures to show you. If I go by there next week, will stop in and take a few pics for you.

Thanks for the responses. I would love to see more pics.
AS far as my overhang, it will be between 10-13". I am still in the "figure it out" phase...boy this is a long phase.../:) I want the smaller side to look like paneling. No nobs or handles. The door would open from the bottom.
I think it makes sense. My husband is worried it will be kicked and scratched. My current penisula doesn't look bad after kids and 20 years so i don't agree with him.

Two more...

In our last house, we had a section of lowers under a pass through window that was the only good place to add seating in the kitchen. We had 38" tall counter and 14" deep cabs with an 11" overhang. (With that depth of overhang, I sat sideways most of the time because my long legs didn't fit.) The cab was nice for extra storage for not frequently used items. Our cabinet maker made the doors look like panels and they had a hidden recessed finger groove at the top of each panel that allowed them to be opened easily without a knob.

In the new kitchen, we will have an 8' x 50" wide island with seating on 3 sides at one end. To support part of that seating section, we will have a 20" wide x 14" deep cabinet with a hidden door. That still leaves us with 18" of overhang on all 3 sides for knee space.

I like having the extra hidden storage, but I would want a minimum 12" overhang (more if possible) if you plan on sitting at the counter for long periods.

I had 15" cabinets placed behind the standard base cabinets in front. I measured the width of the largest appliance I wanted to fit there and then made sure the interior would hold it. I am going to have the slab overhang for the seating. I am putting things like the mixer, bread machine, ice cream machine, pitchers under there. I think platters would be too wide.

Here are a few more islands with seating on the end.
maybe these can help too.
~boxer

We have cabinets on both sides similar to what you're thinking of. Our island base is 8' by 36" with a row of 24" deep cabinets on the kitchen side and a 12" deep row on the family room side under the seating overhang.

Rather than having all the doors under the seating overhang, we put a 24" deep 12" wide cabinet on each end facing the side of the island. We put dividers in the bottom of one of them for storing our baking sheets, cookie sheets and cooling racks and a pull out above where we store some baking pans on their sides. In the other we have 3 pull out shelves.

In between those, we have two 24" wide 12" deep cabinets. We thought we would put seasonal or rarely used items in them, but one of them we ended up using to store boxed things like crackers that it is nice to have closer by than the pantry. It works out well having them in the shallow cabinet - easy to reach down and grab something.

Thanks Everyone for all the great photos.
I will be adding both sides of cabinet to the island. I wasn't going to add handles to the smaller side and just have recessed finger groove but looking at the pictures, handles could work.
My island is probably going to be 36x7-8 feet.
I didn't realize all the planning it takes to redo a kitchen.
I am still in phase 1 of 10. I have been in phase 1 for three months :).

Sure. This one is 9' long and a little over 4' wide. 24" & 12" cabinets, plus overhang.

Dirty Side shot:

From the back - no handles needed.

Kitchen side:

FYI...if you have 23" deep cabinets on one side and 12" deep on the other, you will have an island 38" deep, not 36". You need to account for the approximately 1.5" overhang all around.

Are you saying that you intend to have seating at the island with just the 1.5" overhang? I hope this is just for "emergency" or very, very brief seating - it will be very uncomfortable for anyone to sit at a 1.5" overhang for longer than a few short minutes... Do you have sufficient aisle space on the seating side? With no overhang, you will need even more aisle space b/w the island and whatever is behind it.

But, you say:

"...The base of the island will be 36". i want to have the main side of the island with 23" of cabinets depth. The other side with about 12". The 12" side will also be the seating side. . The idea is to keep seasonal platters, things not needed on a daily basis there..."

and

"...My island is probably going to be 36x7-8 feet..."

and

"...AS far as my overhang, it will be between 10-13"..."

The last statement above contradicts your statements that you will have a 36" deep island with cabinets on both sides...If you have two sets of cabinets + a 13" seating overhang, then your island would be:
1.5" overhang + 23" deep cabinets + 12" deep cabinets + 13" overhang = 49.5" deep island.

Note that the minimum recommended seating overhang is 15" of clear space for counter-height seating. If you cannot fit that plus sufficient aisle space behind the island, then perhaps your kitchen is not big enough to support an island or an island with seating.

I know it's not the popular thing to say here b/c so many people are insistent on islands regardless of appropriateness (islands are the "in thing" right now), but I feel we are doing you a disservice if we do not at least point this out to you. The final decision is up to you, of course, but you should be armed with all the information so you can make an informed decision and so you know where you're compromising.

Good luck whatever you decide to do!

We did what I think you are referring to (although we do have a range in there too). But drawers on one side on either side of the range. Then I have 2 12 inch deep cabinets on the other side. One of those is actually accessible from the end of the island and i store my trays and cutting boards in those. The other is for the outdoor glasses and plates. Then next to that is room for 3 small or 2 large stools as well as one that wraps around the other end. I love having seating that congregates at one end. Much nicer to let people look at each other while they talk, I think.

I didn't understand your question at first but then I realized that I have this scenario. We did the standard 2 ft deep drawers on the aisle side of our island and then a 1 ft deep cabinet on the backside under our overhang. I also have 15" of overhang for stools, which haven't come in yet but I dont think kicking will be a problem.

We are still in remodel and using our kitchen, but this is what I have. 34 inch drawer kitchen side, with corner lazy susan, seat side 12" with granite overlay hopefully installed next week.

OK, I think what sue2012 is saying is that the cabinets that make up the island will be 35" deep (23" + 12") (she did say 36"?), not necessarily the island as a whole...although that does seen to be stated as well.