Your guide to Kitchen Islands

The purpose of your island is another significant consideration. It can serve various uses, such as food preparation, cooking, entertaining, room division, or cleaning. Determining the primary function early in the design process allows your designer to plan accordingly.

Here, we have listed some of the most common uses for and some useful tips and ideas for each.

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Food preparation

Think about the equipment that you use regularly and plan the storage under the island to suit. Knives, chopping boards, food processors, herbs, oils, mixing bowls etc should all be kept within easy reach.

Remember to have side mounted or pop-up countertop electrical sockets for your small appliances. Another thing to consider is having a wooden butchers block inset in the worktop?

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A small prep sink for rinsing and washing foods may also be a good idea, if space allows. Just remember that services (water and a waste pipe) will need to be brought across to the island. Water supply is under pressure and normally uses narrow pipes but waste water is normally the challenge. Waste pipes are 40mm wide and need to have a fall on them to drain the water away. Few people realise that the 40mm waste needs to increase to at least 50mm if it goes under the floor. This is to prevent blockages that would be hard to get to.

Cooking

Installing your hob on an island is a great idea. You can interact with family and friends whilst cooking a meal rather than having your back turned to them. This is also useful if there are two or more people in the household who like to cook together at meal times. There will be a significant amount of preparation equipment needed in the island. Things associated with cooking – utensils, pots, pans and perhaps the odd recipe book will need a “place to live”.

Consider using drawers under the cooktop for easy access to heavy pans and all your utensils.

Entertaining

You may like the idea of having a central ‘social hub’ in your kitchen for entertaining which includes, seating drinks, snacks, crockery and glassware. Plan adequate storage under the island to accommodate what you need. Drawers are ideal for storing stacked crockery. You could plan to include a drinks / cocktail station with a fridge, wine cooler, wine racks and even somewhere for your cocktail umbrellas.

For breakfast bar stools, remember to allow 600mm width for each person.

Room division

A kitchen island is a great way to divide areas within an open plan space. If you have a kitchen / living area, the island can act as a physical marker between both zones. You can create an attractive focal point at the rear of the island using feature units and lighting. Or perhaps something more creative like backlit glass or a stylish fretwork panel.

Cleaning

The island in your kitchen may serve as the area reserved for cleaning. It houses the sink, dishwasher, bins, and all of your cleaning products in one place, making washing up and clearing away the daily rubbish and after meals easy.

Having one central workstation facilitates the process. This is particularly relevant in open plan kitchen/dining rooms. You can easily transfer everything from the dining table to the island before loading the dishwasher and clearing everything away.

Source: https://gardencourte.com
Categories: Kitchens