Kitchen layout #1

Kitchen layout #2

How many people are going to be cooking in the kitchen at once? I can understand why you might want a sink in front of the window, but your second plan seems like one or two people will be running in a pretty big triangle from stove to sink to fridge, while the first layout keeps a pretty compact work triangle which would be great for one cook.

Since you have that nice big bay window, plus windows next to the range and open to the great room, it seems like layout #1 will still have lots of light and feel plenty airy.

I think the "sink in front of the window" concept also harkens back to a day when the dishwasher was the person standing in front of the sink for quite some time washing by hand, staring out the window...maybe not a realistic way of how we do dishes any more? I feel like layout #1 orients the cook/dishwasher to the social action at the island, the breakfast table, or the great room.

I also think layout #1 gives the island more purpose. You have plenty of sitting space between the island and the banquette....if the island is empty, I wonder whether one or the other will end up not getting used as much in favor of the other.

If budget allowed, I might put in a small under-counter fridge and a small second sink with water filter for getting glasses of water in layout #1 down by the banquette. So there's a primary work zone for the cook and a secondary snack/drink zone for people hanging out at the island or the banquette so they don't have to get in the way of the cook.

HTH!

Option 1 has swathes of counterspace, but not a lot where you need it - next to a sink. Putting the cleanup sink in the island means that you are putting both dirty and clean, drying dishes on display to your great room. Option 2 has a very, very, very long path from range to fridge. Do you really want to be walking 16'+ every time you need a splash of milk or a bit of butter?

Here are a few options for you. I prefer the last two. In all of them, you can take or leave the pantry / laundry room changes (ie, doors), but I would want to be able to more easily access at least the laundry room from the kitchen instead of jogging all the way around to the entry by the garage. In doing this I've eliminated the corner cabinetry because you already have a lot of storage and counter. You have extra counter in the butler's pantry, plus the pantry storage, so should be fine to eliminate. Also, corners are dark to work in and corner cabinetry is expensive and not an efficient use of space.

You also don't need to widen the windows as I've done in the last two, but 2' wide windows are not very wide, so I would go to 36" at least. Note that with the wider windows, if necessary, you can center the faucet on the window even if the sink is not, and if it's an undermount sink, it will fool the eye into thinking everything is centered.

Also.. make sure you have enough walking space between the island and the breakfast table. I can't tell if that 3'1" is to the back of the chairs (which means there's another 18" to the edge of the table, making it 4'7" - plenty of room), or if it's only 3'1" from island edge to counter edge.

If it's the latter, that's too tight - see NKBA guidelines below.

To alleviate that, you can A) make the island smaller, or B) use one of my latter two layouts, but remove cabinetry on the kitchen's bottom wall and cut that stub wall back, and slide the island down.