My current kitchen is HUGE, but it isn't as functional as it could be. Problems:
- It's a long galley kitchen with a penninsula/bar dividing it from the breakfast area. It's really more counterspace than anyone needs. I have cabinets galore, but I'd rather store things in a nice big pantry rather than in the back of dark cabinets. I have a walk-in pantry now, but it's poorly designed (and shares with the washing machine). Also, when you have so much space, replacing the countertops (or anything else) costs a fortune.
- The penninsula/bar is deep, and I can't reach the back corner; thus, clutter accumulates constantly. If I were taller and had longer arms, this might not be an issue.
- I have a desk, but it's in the middle of the counterspace. It would've been much better placed at the far end of the kitchen, out of the way. In our new house, I don't plan to have a desk at all; instead, I'm going to have a small study/computer room just off the kitchen. This is just personal preference.
- We constantly have school papers, mail, keys, sunglasses, you name it piled on the bar. No matter how many times I point out that we have a desk for these things, they end up right there in the middle of everything. Drives me nuts.
We're planning a house right now, and I've put a great deal of thought into the kitchen. It's going to be a 10x10 U-shaped kitchen with an attached eating area to the left of the kitchen -- not nearly so grand as the things some of you are describing. Details:
- The pantry is as important to us as the kitchen. You've heard that thing about how we use 20% of our stuff 80% of the time? Well, under that theory, we want a small, clutter-free kitchen that holds the 20% neatly, without stuff, stuff, stuff crammed into drawers . . . and a HUGE pantry for the occasional-use stuff. Our pantry/mudroom's going to be 14 x 8 -- it'll be the connector between the garage and the kitchen.
It'll have floor-to-ceiling shelves on one side, and in the middle of those shelves'll be a small (4 foot?) workspace -- a place to set down bags of groceries, to measure out a cup of flour, to let bread rise, to keep dessert 'til after the meal, to run a crockpot in an out-of-the-way place. In addition to food, I'll store my canning equipment, my platters, my seldom-used appliances, etc. out there too.
On the other side, it'll be mudroom: Two closets and an indentation for a short chest in the middle. This'll be a place to drop mail, keys, etc. I'm hoping that since we'll walk past this BEFORE we reach the kitchen, it'll actually work as a catch-all spot. One of these two closets will lock (for guns and other things that we don't want accessible to just anyone walking through).
Because the pantry/mudroom'll be much cheaper to build than the kitchen, this'll be a money-saver. Basic shelves don't cost what good-quality cabinets cost.
Windows in a pantry are bad (light is an enemy of stored food), so I want auto-turn-on lights in the pantry/mudroom.
- We have no desire for the 6-burner stoves or double dishwashers that some of you have described. We don't have any problem with our standard sized appliances. We are sometimes short on fridge space, so we may put in an under-the-cabinet drink fridge that'd open towards the eating area -- that'd leave fridge space for just food.
- I'm working through the details of the kitchen by imagining myself putting together a common meal. I'd reach here for the pots, fill them with water there . . . how many steps to the stove? Where do I reach for the spices? Where are my knives? If I'm serving a casual buffet, where am I placing the desserts? If I'm going to the refrigerator for a drink, where do I set my glass while I pour the milk? My husband and I tend to take turns cooking; we rarely cook together, but someone else might need to consider whether two butts'll fit into the kitchen.
- I want a pot filler above the stove.
- Rather than two wall ovens, I want the double-oven range that has a shorty oven above a full-sized oven. I think I'd like that because the shorty oven would heat up so much faster, and most of the time I cook "short things": pizza, rolls, casseroles. The double-oven range is more expensive than a standard range, but it's much less expensive than a cooktop and double ovens.
- I want drawers rather than standard cabinets. This'd make it so much easier to get to things in the back of the cabinet.
- I want few upper cabinets. I can't reach them anyway. Instead, the U-shaped cabinets'll be open to the eating area on one side. But I do want my upper cabinets to reach the ceiling -- no dust catchers up top, please.
- I want one big sink. I rarely wash dishes by hand anyway, but when I do they're often my largest pots or biggest pans. I have no desire for a sprayer; I've never used it in my whole life. I would, however, like to have a built-in soap dispenser.
- I'm planning to have an electrical outlet INSIDE one cabinet so we can have a small TV INSIDE a TV cabinet. I don't want anything at all on my counters.
- A sticking point: I can't see our new house kitchen in anything except white cabinets. My husband can only imagine it in wood tones. Gotta compromise here. While everyone else wants granite, granite, granite, I'm not so sold on the stuff -- for the kitchen, that is, I want it for my bathroom vanity. For the kitchen, I'm quite taken with the recycled glass countertops. I don't know what kind of backsplash I want, but I know that I don't want it to be trendy; I don't want it to look outdated five years after it's put in.
- I'm definitely planning a space for cookbooks in my kitchen!
Thank you! It's called batten board. Our fridge is Titanuim but the stove etc are stainless. Titanium doesn't finger print like SS. 
The counters are Silestone. It's from Italy, thinner than granite, smooth, and less shiny. But man, just as $$$. 
These don't show the dishwasher and cabinets behind the island. Your kitchen sounds great! 
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