I've owned and lived in 11 high end homes in my life. All of my kitchens have been very nice. I have to say, in my opinion, having a large long island with a cook top and prep sink at the ends of the island with a prep area between them is by far the best design I've ever used.
I love to cook, and I find that I use the prep sink then place all my ingredients next to it, prep my food, and then just move it along to the cooktop. Keeping everything on the island keeps me from dripping liquid on the floor because I'm not moving from one side of the kitchen to the other. Think of cooking like an assembly-line - it's far more efficient to have everything in front of you, allowing you to move side to side instead of turning around and walking back and forth.
I see people complaining about ventilation. This is a non-issue if you plan properly and use your funds where it counts. Invest in a large beautiful hood, if you can, you can use it for lighting, venting, hanging pots, and to make a statement. If this isn't practical, invest in a good down draft. Wolf makes some good ones that come up decently high. If you keep the filters clean, it works just fine. Don't cheap out on the vent. Plan ahead - yes the down draft takes up a lot of room in the cabinet, so make the island extra deep - instead of 42" make it 48" or 52". You can then place the exhaust venting the back of the cabinet and have a full side cabinet for pots and pans under the cooktop.
Another thing to think about - if you're like me, and you love the process of cooking, and use it for stress relief and to have fun - it's far more fun for me to work at my island and be able to look into the rest of my house or talk with my guest. To the poster that says "Real life cooking isn't a TV show" - I say, you're wrong, it absolutely can and should be! If you have a well designed and organized kitchen then the cooking process is far more fun and everything can come together just like on a TV show! I love to cook for my friends and family - and they like to watch and participate. I HATE spending time over the stove only to look at a boring wall, and have everyone and everything I want to look at behind me! If you're going to spend a lot of money on building a kitchen - try to maximize value - a stove costs the same no matter where you put it - so put it in a place where you have a view and can interact with guests. It's worth the extra plumbing / routing, in my experience.
If you're going to put your cooktop in the island, I recommend Wolf 36" Induction. It looks great, simple and easy to clean, and it's reasonably priced. Since an island is usually the focal point of a kitchen you'll probably want something easy to clean and streamlined.
Other suggestions that make a huge difference in enjoying your kitchen:
Sinks! Buy deep sinks! Shallow sinks cause water to splash up and splatter on you, the floor, and counter. Buy 1 large sink, stay away from stupid partitioned sinks. They are useless. Put a disposal in every sink.
Faucet - Buy a tall swan neck faucet. It allows you to get tall pots under the faucet, and they look nicer.
Refrigerator - PLEASE make sure there is enough clearance on each side that you can open the doors fully! I've seen so many kitchens ruined by poor planning - throwing the refrigerator in a corner and then not being able to completely open the doors. It will annoy and frustrate you forever.
Corner Cabinets - invest in good corner cabinets that give you access. Don't cheap out with ones that go back super far but only have a small door. You'll waste so much space. Uppers - just do open floating shelves or a 45 degree cabinet - you'll get much more usability out of it, trust me.
Tall Pantry - I've always put a tall deep pantry style cabinet in my kitchens. I use these for all my cooking pans, dishes, and gadgets. Trying to cram a large oddly shaped kitchen aid mixer in a regular cabinet is difficult and wasteful. My large le creuset pots are difficult to hide away in a regular cabinet. The juicers, Vitamix, Sous Vide cooker, etc... are all so much easier to store and access in a tall pantry style cabinet. I had a house with an extra deep one because the doors were had 10" shelves build into them. I put all my cans and boxes on the shelves that were attached inside of the doors, and placed my kitchen gadgets and pots and dishes on the shelves. The best design I've ever seen. Kept my kitchen clutter free and left my cabinets uncluttered, and reduced my need for upper cabinets which gave the kitchen a very open airy and clean look.
Pot fillers - Pot fillers are a stupid waste of space and money.
Focus your money on what you'll use the most. For me, I've always spent more money on the dishwasher, cooktop, sinks, faucets, lighting, venting, and good cabinet design. Countertops are easy to change - don't spend a fortune on them. Super high end refrigerators (Sub Zero, Miele, GE, Kitchenaid, etc...) are almost never worth the price. They are ridiculously expensive to buy (8k-16k), and when they need repairs be ready to blow another $500 - $1,500 per repair. You can buy 3-4 of the best / newest LG's or Samsung refrigerators before you spend the same on 1 Sub Zero. High end ovens hardly work any different or better than mid range ovens. Go with mid range.
SHOP AROUND! I've seen so many items at Kitchen and Bath stores available on Amazon for literally 50%-70% LESS! These stores like to play games by changing the name of the item or using different SKU's but if you find the manufacture and search a UPC or the correct name, you'll find the items online for significantly less. I saved almost $10,000 by doing this!
Do your own shopping! Designers and contractors will want to do it for you - sometimes they'll say you'll get a discount through them. Be careful! If the store can afford to pay them commission, and give a discount to you then the items are ridiculously over priced. See if you can buy it direct online. I have an Amazon prime Visa card. I buy as many items as possible through Amazon and use my card to get 5% in amazon credit back. When I'm almost done with a remodel, not only did I save a huge amount of money on supplies, I typically end up with a few hundred to thousand dollars worth of credit and I can buy a dishwasher, or new toilet, or something I wasn't originally planning on buying with my credit. You'll come out way ahead.
Remember, designers can be helpful, but they like nice things- which is why they work in design, but they want nice things for themselves and they want to charge you obscene amounts of money for a fairly basic skill and poor value. Personally, I've found that your resources are better spend on finding a good builder / contractor with a great reputation and then working with an interior design student or a friend that has a good idea and has done some remodeling themselves. It's really not that hard and should be worth your time to learn about the process and resources. Houzz is an excellent place to research. Youtube is also a wonderful place to research and learn.
Don't let the designer or installers talk you into what's easy for them! Push for what you want! It's your kitchen, you have to use it, and in my experience professionals in this industry are super lazy and greedy. Trying to charge $125 / hr to do something that most people can do themselves. They always want custom when there are so many high end standard options if you spend a day online researching. Don't let the installers / contractors push you into what's easy for them - they almost always have terrible taste.
Anyway, from someone who's had at least ten 50k - 125k kitchens - I hope this helps people on their kitchen journey.
Q
Good practical information.
Q