Peninsula or island for new kitchen?

[Gini99]

Do you have any advice as to whether a peninsula or island works best for a kitchen in a large kitchen/diner open plan space?

We are in the process of having a lot of building work and will have one of the ubiquitous open plan rooms for kitchen/diner/social space (plus separate lounge and other rooms downstairs). I am trying to decide whether we should have a peninsula or an island dividing the space between the kitchen and the dining area. It is a reasonably large area so we can do either without too much constraint. I had originally wanted a peninsula i.e. a U shape, largely because I hate people walking behind me when I am cooking and would rather keep a clear division between the two. Our kitchen designer was very much advising me against this and said that most people much prefer an island, it creates a better room flow and that it can be designed so that it creates a psychological limit between the rooms so that people won't randomly walk behind anyone cooking. At the moment our downstairs layout is awful and the kitchen is a bit of a thoroughfare with doors to other parts of the house at both ends. which I find very irritating as people are constantly walking through. Though I guess that wouldn't be the case with a U shape.

Any advice very welcome!

[wowfudge]

If you have a long island in the right place, it will automatically encourage people to walk the other side of it to get through the room. We have a long island in our kitchen with the sink in it. Standing at the sink you face the entrance to the dining room. The oven is behind you.

[MissMillament]

I have a large island that divides the dining and the cooking space. I love it that way. Nobody walks behind me when I am cooking - I tend to prep on the surface directly opposite the cooker.

[Gini99]

Thanks to you both - would you be put off by a peninsula instead if you were looking at a house?

[wowfudge]

Would depend on the overall layout - our kitchen is long and a peninsula would be annoying as you'd have to walk round it rather than being able to get at things from either end.

[robinia]

I have a peninsula - deliberately designed that way. No problem with access to the kitchen and gives more worktop/cupboard space.
Have worked in a few kitchens with islands and found them annoying - I think because things are stored in the ends of them too. And people would sit on the ends in the way. With a peninsula people sit/stand on the other side of it. The kitchen area is more clearly defined.
I'm waffling!

[badgercat]

i have a living room / kitchen with a peninsula diving the room, works really well for us, I didnt want an island as I worried it would create a bit of a roundabout.

[namechangedtoday15]

Island. Why would you cut off access at one side if you didn't have to? It also means you need corner units which are (in my view) a complete waste of time.

[Gini99]

That's a beautiful kitchen badger cat. Yes very like that but probably a longer peninsula (maybe 1.5 to 2 times that length) and a longer/wider a room (so dining area in front of the kitchen and a seating area adjacent to that).

I think I naturally do want to block it off to stop the roundabout/make it more clearly defined and I'm worried an island won't do that. There is a chance we would sell the house in the next 2-5 years and I wouldn't want to put off buyers if islands are the usual choice.

[badgercat]

Thank you. Our peninsula is actually 2 meters long, looks teeny on the first picture but the kitchen section is 3m across the sink width and 5m along the cooker side. Be careful going too big as even with ours we find there's too much walking from station to station it can get annoying !

[robinia]

Corner units are better than no units at all if you have a lot of equipment. And you can get internal fittings which make it easy to access everything.

Islands only work if the kitchen area is very big because they do 'waste' the space that's used for the second access point. Too many islands are installed in kitchens which are too small.