I don't care for it on either of those. you doing an island or peninsula? decided yet? plan on 2/12 post shows island...
one back a bit /summerfield shows a peninsula...

if anyone can sit up to the island I'd worry about them getting splatter with oil.
I think it's much more dangerous with kids around too.

would you have a 2 level if you did?

if you aren't getting one of those high powered cooktops/doing stirfry/lots of frying I wouldn't worry about a major hood for it either.

Steph- Thank you for the response. Have you had the cooktop on an island or peninsula? Was there not enough work space or just inconvenient?

I'm thinking about an island cooktop with a raised area, for the stools. I've been trying to get more light and views, into the kitchen work space, so I've been shifting the areas around, in the plan.

What do you think? {{gwi:2068149}}From Fairy tale cottage

Oh, here's my cut and paste of one of Summerfield's earlier plans...since I'm thinking about not having an upstairs bathroom, so (when the nephews and nieces visit) I think a master bath might be a good idea. {{gwi:2068150}}From Fairy tale cottage

And you've all seen my favorite kitchen...Laura Calder's blue tile kitchen :) {{gwi:1421809}}From Fairy tale cottage

Lavender_lass - may I ask what your reasons are for wanting the cooktop in your island/penninsula? Are you trying to create more counter space at your wall area? Do you wish to face your guests while cooking, like Rachel Ray?

I also considered this set up extensively when remodeling our kitchen. I had very limited wall space and didn't have any room for a range at all, so I thought about the island idea. Well, I finally decided to put the whole entire kitchen in a different area of the home rather than squeeze all the elements of a kitchen into my too small kitchen space I had formerly. I put my range against a wall, and still had an island, and I love my island so much for spreading out and prepwork and breakfast area for the kids, and I cannot imagine having a yucky stovetop of any kind on there all the time - in the middle of my island.

I had a friend once who had a cooktop in an island with a potrack hanging over it - her potrack was a greasy mess, so just consider that when you decide what goes above the cooktop.

It appears that you have room on your wall area for a range. Having your range near the sink is a benefit for cleaning, filling/draining pots, etc.

Have you tried the kitchen forum? I bet there is a ton of info there that would help you make your decision.

Steph and Homestylelisa- I think you both are right! After last night, I think I'm going to need to move the cooktop/range to the wall...with a huge hood/vent. My husband made fries (in the deep fryer) which are very good...but nothing like having the windows open, while it's snowing, trying to air out the kitchen.

So, new plan! I'll lose the little window, but the range is going on that wall...with the huge vent/hood and all future frying! LOL The wall oven/microwave are going where I had the freezer before (in the pantry area) and that will be the baking area. The freezer will be between the doors to the mudroom and hot tub.

Thanks for the input and I was X-posting on the kitchen forum, too...where they suggested a skylight or solartube, over the island. That would make up for losing the small window. What do you think?

I think a skylight over the island is a great idea! But also have some artificial light for night time, of course.

Also - is your range going up against an exterior wall? If ventilation is truly a big want in your book, if you vent out of an exterior wall instead of recirculating into the house, you will be a lot happier. And buy as much ventilation as you can afford.

(says the woman with a microwave/vent combo that is useless.)

I do not have good ventilation in my kitchen, BUT I am perfectly happy with our set up. Ventilation just wasn't a big concern for me, but I have read a lot of happy happy campers who invested in high end properly placed ventilation. Its all in what YOU feel is important, and your own personal cooking style. We chose to put our money into other kitchen amenities, such as my dual fuel range.

The range would be on the outside wall (on the bottom of the L) so easy to vent. Our venting now is awful (obviously, after the fryer incident LOL) so I'm looking forward to better ventilation!

I was planning to put two pendants over the island, so if I add a skylight or solartube, it would be in between them. I'm really trying to have a vintage look to the kitchen, but with a bit of a modern twist. Still working on the details :)

Sounds great! I have a soft spot for vintage things, but modern conveniences often make me think twice.

OT and for example:

We are finishing up a bathroom remodel right now - down to the last details. We have two bathrooms - one has a shower, one has the original clawfoot tub this 1900's house was born with. With 3 kids, most people would have ripped that old tub out and installed a tub/shower surround. Not me. We are sending off our clawfoot to be reglazed this month. :)

That's great! I'd like to do that, too. Claw foot in the hall bath and shower in the master bath. We don't have kids, but if necessary, we could put a bath upstairs, with the bedroom/attic space. Still debating about that.

Any pictures of your bathroom?

Not yet - but maybe I'll take and post some - I'll definitely want some help on the flooring and the fixtures for the tub.

I think you should post pictures!

The other change I've made is to take out the french door, by the seating area. Hollysprings said I didn't need it (on the kitchen forum) and I think she's right. I keep forgetting we can cut through the hall bath, so not all the laundry/hot tub traffic will be going through the kitchen :)

Sorry that I am late to the ball, but I thought you might enjoy hearing from someone with a cooktop on the island. Our is an induction electric cooktop, 36" with five burners that we got half off at a scratch and dent store. We have a downdraft vent that rises up about 8 inches. It does an okay job. We don't fry. We saute more often than anything, and sometimes if we get going a little hot, we do open the skylight that is above the island. We do not have hanging lights, just LED can lights, so there was no need to worry about the skylight getting in the way of centering hanging lights. The skylight is also great for when something spills over in the oven and we get smoke from that. A working skylight is a very good kitchen accessory, we have found.

In this photo you can see the island and the sink. The fridge is two steps to the right of the cooktop, then turn around and there it is. The wall oven is right next to the fridge, next to the sink counter run.

Here is a photo:

See our work area? It is all in that one corner of the kitchen. The actual cook can get to everything in a few steps. The folks sitting at the island are out of the way, but can get to the sink without bothering the cook. The fridge and oven is accessible by non-cooks, too, and they can leave the area without going past the cook. This set-up has worked very well for us. We were not fully conscious of the advantages when we designed this set-up, but are really glad that it works this way. My brothers in law and sister in law love to come over and make a meal with us and eat it around the island. We do pot-luck dinners and brunches and all catch up with each other as we take turns working at the cooking and sitting opposite the cook. All we really need to make it perfect is an overlay that can cover the cook top and give us a 12 inch overhang on the cook side of the island so that we can use the entire island as one big table when the cooking is done!

I designed the kitchen myself, using recycled cabinets from a house in Connecticut. I had several different set-ups as I worked on the design. Once I had the cooktop where the desk is now, between the island and the family room. That design had a small island only. Another design had the sink overlooking the family room, with the raised dishwasher next to it. We are so glad that we settled on the design we did. The desk overlooks the family room, and Bill can sit there and work on his computer while I watch something on TV and he can look up when he wants and see it, too.

Our kitchen would not meet the needs of a lot of people, but we find that it works very well for us. My only regret is that we have to use counter stools to sit at the island. I need a footrest to make that comfortable for me. My knees and hips do not like the tall stools.

[PS: I am working at getting excess grout out of the rope liner on the backsplash. Jim installed the backsplash last week for us, so we are one cupboard door and a few bits of cabinet toe molding away from having the kitchen done. It has been about two years since I started working on designing it, and a year and a half since it became functional.]

My mother-in-law has a cooktop in her island with a downdraft vent and really likes it. Her setup is very similar to your diagram. She cooks daily, but just for herself and my father-in-law. She recently replaced her two-level island with a one-tier version, and likes that better. I worry about it when kids are around, but it seems to work for her. FWIW, she had a tile countertop too. :)

I can only remember 1 rental house that had the stove on the peninsula. I didn't mind it BUT my kids were grown and gone. I worked a lot and didn't cook much then. It seems too dangerous to me with kids around to chance it.

I did read that you'd changed your plans and are putting it on the side counter area. I think that makes a lot of sense. At least you really only have one side of access to it to worry about.

on the skylight - my sister has a light or 2 up IN her skylight area. She said her dh had them put in there for night cooking. She thought it weird and so did I - they have about 13 of those recessed lights in their ceiling! Their builder did go nuts on the lighting in there...
OTOH - in areas with less sunny days than we have it might be a better idea!

my sister seldom uses the lights in her kitchen anyway (she doesn't cook anymore either) - many times when I go there to pick up leftovers (thank you sister!) she is roaming around in there wrapping up things and looking for those she already pkg'd for me and I can hardly see.

I recently bought a few of those divided plastic containers with lids for her to keep there to put the leftovers in. that cuts down on the tin foil and multi container use - lol! her dh is a good cook and i love being able to just heat something up in the mw since I seldom cook either. frozen dinners get old - there's a limited # of them I'll even eat! not that this has anything to do with your thread!

btw, nancy has a lovely kitchen! and her island is gorgeous. maybe she'll look back here and see that her pics didn't show up and she'll repost a link to them.

btw - couldn't you put the ovens face into the kitchen with the body of them set back into the pantry room? unless of course you want / need a baking area that is bigger.

My kids have never been barstool counter types, even when they were young but of course they aren't little anymore. My island has a gas cooktop with an overhang on one side, all one level. We have a Kobe hood above. It's just for people to sit and help me cook basically, the kitchen table is right there. I like it for two reasons. One, I'm not looking at a wall when I cook. Two, we can comfortably have two cooks working at the cook top, one on each side of the island. This really comes in handy on holidays and big get togethers. I bought a cook top with the controls that run along the side for that reason.

Thanks for the heads up, Steph. I can see the photos, but I did not know anyone else could not. Here is a link to my kitchen remodeling pictures. If you want to see just the finished (as far as it got that summer) pictures, skip to pages 8 and 9.

Here is a link that might be useful: Nancy's Kitchen

Nancy- Thanks for the pictures! Your kitchen looks great and so functional.

Bluebarby- Good point about cooking from both sides of the island. That sounds great, for the holidays!

Chompskyd- I'm glad you MIL likes her island cooktop...and the tiles counters :)

Steph- I've been thinking about whether it would be better to have the ovens face the kitchen or the pantry area. If they face the pantry, I can have some shelves/display on the kitchen side...but if they face the kitchen, it might be more practical. Then, I can use the island for everday baking and move into the pantry for bigger projects/holiday baking.

Here's my favorite kitchen (Laura Calder) with her ovens built into the wall. What do you think? I like that it's so handy to the island and the heat would be going into the kitchen, not the pantry...which is great on a winter morning. Especially if the wood stove isn't started, yet.

Here is a link that might be useful: Laura Calder's kitchen on Youtube

I drew up a quick layout, with the range on the perimeter and the ovens built into the wall, like in Laura Calder's kitchen. If I put the ovens there, I might add a piece of marble, to the wood top island. Maybe 30" x 24" closest to the oven, but still have wood for the stool area...since it's warmer to lean against. What do you think?
{{gwi:1651983}}From Fairy tale cottage

I still like the blue lower cabinets and black formica countertops for the pantry/utility areas, especially if the marble is on the island. {{gwi:1422941}}From Fairy tale cottage

Here's a quick 'cut and tape' of the entire house plan. I think the kitchen works so much better, out in the former porch. Didn't someone suggest this a long time ago, because it seems like it makes a lot more sense.

Waht do you think? Anything else we should change/modify? I'm so much happier, with all the sunshine in the kitchen...and even if we did lose the banquette, we still have the window seat :) {{gwi:1651984}}From Fairy tale cottage