You guys didn't scare me away, LOL! All very good advice, and definitely a lot of solid arguments I can bring to the designer and MSO and convince them to drop this idea. It's starting to sound like the sink & prep area should be in front of the window, and the range should be either on the side wall, or on a center island that would need to be built (yay, another thread topic). palimpsest, that's actually exactly what the folks on Houzz suggested - hang an island hood in front of it. Pic attached. northcarolina and cstr, I agree 100%, just wanted to get a 2nd opinion. livewireoak and glitterandguns, good points about the time spent on various activities - also something to bring up as a counter-argument. marcolo, that was pretty damn hilarious, thank you! :) :) :) remodelfla and kitchendetective, that was some pretty impressive "detective work"! I like the concept, but unfortunately there's just not enough space to set up something like that, and anyway, it looks like we'll be scrapping the whole range-in-front-of-window idea altogether. Problem solved, it seems. Thanks a lot, everyone, for your VERY useful commentary!

These would certainly liven up a room and give it a unique personality, and you could use them as inspiration pieces by pulling out colors from it for the rest of your decor. A very creative idea!

How fun is that! I'll keep in mind . . . DS just moved from 5 rooms, 3 closets besides the bedroom closets, (2 roommates) to a studio with one closet. No room for a unicorn lol. It will be challenging to give him gifts this year: gift cards, public transit cards, theater tix will be in order, I guess.

While we wait forthe paint gurus, my only suggestion would be to paint the house one color only. not a fan of two tone for this style home.