To think kitchen Islands are the artex of the future?

[GervaseFen]

I was watching a home renovation programme and every time they stick these massive blocks in the middle of the kitchen before ripping out the walls to 'connect' to
the garden. This time the island was a huge rectangle and took up most of the room with a little table in the space at the end. I can so image the future shows having people walking around and identifying these as the first thing to rip out and exclaiming over how much space they gain.

We have an island and I love it. I think it does depend on the size of your kitchen though. We have a very large kitchen and have the ovens and hob on the island so we can cook facing into the kitchen which is nice and sociable. We have a bookcase on the side facing into the kitchen as I don't like breakfast bars and the kitchen table is nearby.

I would love a serving hatch with doors (maybe bi-fold ones to be trendy?)

@GervaseFen haha, yay I will keep my islands and peninsulas even if it does make me unfashionable future

in the *

The island is my favourite part of the kitchen!

It’s indestructible, means I’m not banished like domestic staff while I prepare food, gives me plenty of prep space, great for rolling pastry etc. People can sit with a coffee or glass of wine and chat while I cook/bake/make preserves etc. It’s sociable and lovely.

Ooo I love bi folds rather than having big clumsy doors in the way but my favourite is those doors that go into the wall and disappear, completed forget their official name

Sitting at a kitchen table is also sociable.

@WendyHoused

The island is my favourite part of the kitchen!

It’s indestructible, means I’m not banished like domestic staff while I prepare food, gives me plenty of prep space, great for rolling pastry etc. People can sit with a coffee or glass of wine and chat while I cook/bake/make preserves etc. It’s sociable and lovely.

You can still sit at the table though in a kitchen without an island and drink wine and socialise if you wanted.

OP I love being "connected " to the garden from my kitchen.

It's why we bought this house and our previous one 25 years ago.

I love the island in my kitchen.

Did people "love" Artex? or didn't it become popular because much less skill needed to Artex a ceiling than plaster one.🤔
So it was really a bit of a quick fix before it became the done thing.

‘Connected to the garden’?

You mean by doors or has your island some underground tunnel?

Hmmm. Not necessarily. But it depends on the size/space/layout

They've been around a long time. We bought our house 15 years ago and there were plenty of islands around then. But generally smaller.

I'm not a huge fan of islands that are for sitting around. They definitely don't substitute for a nearby kitchen table and chairs. And I do think they can be too big, attracting clutter and spreading people out too much if they are supposed to be social. I'm also not that fond of islands with sinks or hobs within them. I prefer those things out of the way.

I like ours. We didn't put it in. And these days it would be considered small. But it works well for us. It is just a food preparation/serving space. And because it is much deeper than a work surface means I have plenty of good clear space to work on. And nobody is allowed to put anything (other than food, plates) down on it. Handbags are swiftly moved! It also works very well to put serving plates/drinks/nibbles out on for a large dinner/party for people to help themselves. And it means someone can be opposite/next to me when I'm cooking without getting in the way. Which I mostly like.

You mean by doors or has your island some underground tunnel?

Read the OP. 😁

@Benjispruce2

Sitting at a kitchen table is also sociable.

This. It's quite amusing listening to tales of gathering round the island like cave dwellers round the campfire; while the rest of us have been doing exactly that (probably far more comfortably) round the table since time immemorial 😂

People do gather differently around an island because they are mostly higher - It is like a bar, people stand and sit at the same time. Not necessary to have seat.

It is different to a table. Not better just different.

Basically I think that for me if the island is too big to easily use the whole space when preparing/serving food then it is too big. But it is a matter of taste.

I hate open plan.

It looks gash and makes your house smell of food.

Ours is open plan and I detest it.

I love an island when it's done properly but I've seen so many in refurbished places where they're way too big/stupidly thought out.

Light, not really, as I'd have my back to them at the counter doing food prep. A table isn't a good height for food prep (for me, anyway, at 5'6") and I'd being bobbing up and down like a jack in the box if I was sitting at a table.

I love the open plan since we knocked through 20 years ago. I ran a catering business from home and could still oversee the kids' homework, have cuppas with pals and still be cooking for up to 9 hours a day. It worked well for me.

The kitchen table is great for meals, but less comfortable for food prep in my experience.

A table isn't a good height for food prep (for me, anyway, at 5'6") and I'd being bobbing up and down like a jack in the box if I was sitting at a table.

Same.

I have a table as well though. We enjoy eating around that too.

They are nice when in a suitable kitchen. Problems British houses are smaller than they've ever been and yet people seem determined to squeeze one in where ever possible.

I think like Bi-Fold.doors they will become like Artex in the future. The craze is here to stay for a while yet though, so I think by the time they go out of fashion the kitchens will be due to be ripped out anyway. Then they will be replaced by whatever the next craze will be.

I'm trying to think of an equivalent past craze. Maybe the early 80s tongue and groove timber kitchens or the oversized naff tiled 80s cooker hood. The tiles being horses ploughing the harvest or still life fruit and veg images.

An island is just a big counter that is not against a wall. I can think of two main reasons for having one instead of having an additional run of base units:
A) If you have a large open plan area that you want to subdivide.
B) If you have full height glazing on one wall and you want to do food prep with a view.

If the island is well designed and fullfills either of these purposes it will not date.

However if you have a small square kitchen with an island plonked in the middle for no real purpose, like any bad design, it will date.

Why do people hate bi-fold doors?

I'm neither here nor there with them to be honest.

(moving house and it's eye opening how passionate people are about other peoples kitchens/living space)

I'm having a new kitchen and have chosen to have a big table rather than an island. I was going to have the table made of quartz worktop to match the kitchen when the kitchen planner pointed out that it would be pretty much immovable if made of quartz (2m x 1m), unless I knew a lot of strong people.

I'm going to get a Formica table of the same size instead, with tiny castors in case I want to move it hopefully from a company called Rigg near Birmingham.

My kitchen would look really empty without it’s island. I don’t think they’ll date badly, they’re just more cupboards with a work top, no? Not much there to date, really.

@Chicchicchicchiclana

I actually wish I had a very small kitchen so that it could only be one person at a time in there, at a push two. I'm not mad about cooking but I absolutely loathe and detest anybody chatting to me while I'm cooking. I still have to ask my husband to go away (you'd think after 25 years he'd get it). If we have people over I try to serve cold things or things that are already in the oven when they get here. My idea of cooking hell is inviting people to a barbecue .

Hahaha.

Yeah. If that was my idea of hell, I'd have no friends and no husband!