We have main sink and dw in a large island.
Most of my kitchen time is around the sink, and I can see what's going on in the house.

When we had a sink looking out a window, my back was to the folks in the room.

(Can you tell that DH is not a kitchen person?)

In one house, our dw was _not_ adjacent to the sink. It was AWFUL. Not to be recommended.

I would only want it if the sink was also in the island. Have a friend with the DW away from the sink and she might as well mop the floor everytime she loads the thing. Another friend's is in the bar perpendicular to the sink area. No room for her legs when the DW is open and trying to be loaded.

We have remodeled two kitchens and both times I have chosen to have the DW in the cabinet directly to the right of the sink. I prefer loading to the right. A small thing, but it adds up when you do it a couple of times a day. Going to the left feels unnatural to me. I also like it close because I use some large, heavy pots and pans.

I think it's more important to have it close to the wet, messy stage of loading, than the dry, clean of unloading.

Gloria

I also think it's more important to have it near the sink...you might have your sink in your island?
Maybe you can keep the dishes in the island?

As long as you have 21" on one side or the other to move around and the door opens ok then go for it.

Would you have cabinets close to the DW? Since you have to open the DW to unload it, it probably doesn't matter if the cabinets are across the aisle, but further away is a nuisance.

Our DW used to be in the corner of an "L" without upper cabinets on either leg. That made unloading a big job, and it was rarely unloaded before the next load of dirty dishes had already piled up. Considering how often dishes are used, it was far from ideal, and fixing that was one of the key improvements of our new layout.

Do you eat in your great room? We now have our DW, raised, at the dining room side of a run of cabinets and drawers that hold all our every day dishes and even some of the good ones. We love it. The raised DW helps hide the clean-up sink from the diners, and having the DW right there makes loading it a breeze. And having the cabinets and drawers close by makes unloading a breeze, and goes a long way to preventing piles of dirty dishes.

Thanks for the help; the kitchen is the last part of the remodel; and we are getting anxious to be back in the house instead of in this apt.I think my mind is getting to be a blank. We are stuck with the same footprint of the kitchen. We will gut it and put in new cabinets but we are trying to do something different because of previous roadblocks. Everything else came out fine.
Living (I don't know what to call you for short) I would like to eat in the great room, I don't understand what you mean by a raised dishwasher. Do you mean a higher section of a bar conceals the clean up sink? I could put a dishwasher and sink at that end but then it wouldnt be near the stove,
I agree with you Gloria, I would like the dishwasher near the sink. DH got a portable dishwasher for this apt. (I feel like Barbie with one of her little appliances)you can roll it around, and I end up bringing it to the sink to load.
Does anybody have dishes and glasses in a pull out drawer since I don't have room near the sink for upper cabinets?
I have seen them in magazines.
marge

we have those available through either kraftmaid or Thomasville (I forget which) at HD. I saw them the other day when I was leafing through a catalog at work, may have even been rev-a-shelf. What a great idea. Who is doing your cabinets?

My everyday plates and glassware are in a pull-out cabinet. I took the uppers out of our kitchen since it felt so closed in. These cabinets are 11" wide and originally made for canned goods. It has worked out great. I just slide out the cabinet and load directly from the dishwasher. My kids can now get all of the stuff they couldn't reach in the upper cabinets.

Gloria

Right now, my dishwasher is about 3 steps from the cabinet where the dishes are. I guess it would be nice to have the dishes right next to it, but the few steps aren't that big a deal. It still takes just a few minutes to empty. It does make it awkward for anyone else to work in the small kitchen while the dw is being emptied.

Here's an example of a raised dishwasher in my house under construction. It's a foot above counterheight, to make loading easier. That extra foot is continued behind the sink to make a bit of a divider between the kitchen and living room. I plan to keep all my dishes in the tall cabinet a few feet away to the right. I wanted room for all my special dishes to be easily accessible. I may rethink keeping the everyday things in the cabinet just to the left of the dishwasher.

I love the way everything ties together in Liz H's raised dishwasher arrangement. My layout is similar to hers, separate prep sink and all, except that I have a full wall between kitchen and living room. As much as I love her open look, after years of having dish storage at a distance from the DW, I wanted upper cabinets near it. Also, although our DW is raised only six inches, it's enough help for our backs while higher would probably be a problem for me (I'm 5'2") if and when we get dish drawers. The countertop is likewise raised six inches, which makes it bar height.

we have a dishwasher at the end of our island and the island has a prep sink and wd in it. the main sink is one one side of the kitchen. works really well. i wouldn;t change it for the world.

Beautiful kitchn Liz, I never thought of raising the dishwasher. Thanx. I'm 5'9 its a wonderful idea.
Gloria, I'm glad to hear that the drawers for dishes idea works.
artmom--we are getting Diamond cabinets, they have lots of insert ideas. Have seen their cabinets in lots of homes. Nice

livingthedream & marge, it's no nice to hear that about my kitchen! It's been designed for well over a year. Sometimes it feels like the building process will never be over, so any kind words are a real balm right now.

I can relate to "after years of living...", but in my case it's with my kitchen so shut off from the rest of the house!

There are some mornings my back really looks forward to that raised dishwasher. Since we don't intend to ever move from this house, I'm sure that when I'm old(er) and gray(er) I'll really appreciate it.

We put a dishwasher in our island. Our counters have a 12" overhang, therefore we needed to have a backup panel installed. My question is, I noticed its flying in the wind so to speak. Should he have installed a piece of wood the dishwasher so the he could have glued that section of the back panel instead of it being loose?? It's still fixable since the kitchen isn't done

The Kitchen Forum is where you want to post your question.

I'm a little bit late for this. We had both our kitchen sink and dishwasher in the island in our last house. This may not be a problem for you, but for our family, the island was always cluttered because the dishes were set there until they were put in the dishwasher or hand washed. We had an open house plan so that;s oneof the first things people would see when they walked in the house.