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.

I bloody love the wood burner but can easily see DCs generation ripping them out as they think they are ugly / want to remove the chimney breast etc

Bucket

*I am looking to buy a house now and know lots of people looking to buy houses right now too and the things I/they don’t want:

• rooms knocked through into one huge space. Give us individual spaces where we can escape and get peace!
• kitchen island (for the sake of it, if it is a huge kitchen it works)
• bifold doors
• grey kitchens
• high gloss kitchens
• metro tiles
• grey everything

All things that are hugely dated*

Smug?!!

Except whatever you and your friends choose now....will also be dated in a year....😂

We have two wood burners, one of our best buys, one in each living room. We live in an old listed building with drafty windows and are self sufficient on wood, so it’s fantastic to heat the house on a cold winters night,

Everyone who visits loves it when we have a fire going too, there is something very relaxing in sitting in a cosy room with a fire, glass of wine,,when it’s cold and blustery out.

I clearly don’t socialise with rhe type of folks who take issue with kitchen islands and wood burners..🤣

I love my kitchen with island but can so see what you mean. The biggest problem I have with it, is the so called triangle - everyone wants to be there and the island makes it even more difficult!!

I was tempted but went for a big table instead
Don't regret it at all

Only useful if you've got a massive space, but I also wonder if these will 'date' in the same way as 'feature' walls, laminated floors and white gloss kitchen cabinets with no door handles, etc.

@LightAsTheBreeze

En-suites are a strange thing especially in small new builds that have the bathroom next to the main bedroom anyway, and usually a cloakroom downstairs, it's just a waste of space which could be used for storage which is usually sadly lacking. I think they are probably more likely to go out of fashion than islands which are mostly in large kitchens.

Completely agree. Given the choice of a dressing room with loads of storage or an en-suite, I’d take the dressing room in a heartbeat.

Bluntness100 same here. Our visitors absolutely love it when the wood burner is lit. Ours sits in a massive inglenook so it doesn’t exactly dominate the room.

I am an MN cliché as we have a big kitchen island and predominantly monochrome rooms. I am often asked for design advice from friends, so it can’t be too awful 😂

Depends on the size of the kitchen. I have both an island and an 8 seater table. Still plenty of space for people to walk around and the island is very sociable as our hob is on there so we can cook and talk to guests when we entertain. As for log burners, we live in a rural area which is prone to power cuts in bad weather. The log burner saves us from freezing to death!

Now I want a wood burner as well as an island... Suggestible or what? 😂

@sunglassesonthetable

No house I buy is ever going to be 100% to my taste but I’m not paying extra money to buy what am estate agent determines as tasteful, to then have to spend £30k+ to strip it back.* * Course not. That would be daft.

But it might take a long time if it's kitchen cupboard door colour and tile type driven as opposed to just structural choices.

I understand the feeling though. The last few times we've looked for a house we saw quite a few where it was obvious that they had been fairly recently renovated to make them more desirable. Usually in very trendy things that didn't appeal to me.

Of course you paid for it, so it wasn't like tearing out something needing real updating where you pay less so at least have more cash to update with.

That being said I'm often surprised by the lengths people go to with regard to decorating, I've heard of people who won't buy a place painted with colours on the wall! Or worse, who get turned off by the furniture of the current owners.

Doesn’t everything date though? Does it really matter what the fashion is in twenty years? At that point you’ve a twenty year old kitchen which needs replacing likely. Same as your flooring, or wall coverings.

I can’t see how I could ever be remotely bothered if my island was dated in twenty years. By very definition it would be as it would be twenty years old by then.

We are having this discussion on the bathroom, bath or no bath. We are putting one back in, but we don’t have baths as a family, and are doing it for resale purposes. However when we come to sell, I’m hoping it’s at least fifteen if not more years away, so it will need redoing by then anyway. It will be dated by its very age. So I don’t get the point.

And I don’t get the point of if something will date in twenty years or so. Because by then it’s dated anyway, but things like islands etc have been about for ever..

Ours seems to devour wood and not give out very much heat. We can only fit in very dainty and expensive kiln-dried logs, and it needs constant replenishing even with the damper mostly closed. We're probably doing it all wrong, but it can easily get through an £8 sack of logs in one evening, which seems pretty poor value to me. It doesn't heat the room all that well for the £8 either! I probably need to go to woodburning stove school to learn to love mine.

Love my kitchen island - used all the time BUT my partner is going to put it on casters soon so it can be moved out of the way when more space is needed.

I put an island in 20 years ago and would never get rid of it - so useful!

And no not smug. Most people I know have those things in their house and they love them, good! I’m pleased, I’m sure they are living happy lives with their choices and I don’t judge them - unless I’m viewing the house.

Yes of course what I want will be laughed at by other buyers in 10 years, to quote Peep Show “you buy classic but classic keeps changing”.

I don’t judge the way people live until I’m there expected to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds.

I'm struggling to see why this is preferable to a table, tbh..
Because when it's not used as table, it's a massive work surface. I don't want to chop or knead on my wooden dining table.

Property programmes have a lot to answer for. OP is not unreasonable.

@GoatCheeseTart

I'm struggling to see why this is preferable to a table, tbh.. Because when it's not used as table, it's a massive work surface. I don't want to chop or knead on my wooden dining table.

Neither do I. I do it on the existing worktops.

I totally agree with you, especially when there is hardly any space in the kitchen and not enough space to fit a pair of legs under the area designated as “breakfast bar”

I s want a pantry in my 20’s I had a huge old pantry, the house had no heating and nearly froze in the winter , now in my 50,s so miss the pantry !!!

Massive work surface to chop on and prepare food. Plus storage underneath. Counters stay nice and clean they are white.
Kitchen island is like a chef’s work surface. Love it.

Plus nice big kitchen table at the other end of the kitchen. If the space allows it’s not either or.

I don’t understand about this ‘perching’ on Bar stools with dangling legs. Why would you do that? Mine are padded with high backs and a foot bar - just like tall dining chairs really. I tried all the bar stools in JL and most of them were bloody uncomfortable though. We don’t eat at the island - apart from crisps and occasionally breakfast. We’ve only got two stools at one end and they’re for one or two people to sit on while someone else is cooking, although it’s actually more comfortable to work here than the kitchen table, more of a desk height when on the stools.

I am one of those who generally hates an island ! I have removed one from a kitchen before. It’s often not so much the island itself but what those who get a big island also do to the rest of the kitchen !
Just not my thing.
I do understand their utility.