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 knocked through dining room and kitchen to get the space.

@DancingCatGif

is it? really?

How many posters on this thread? 30? ( haven't counted) And even if everyone had extended or had a large house is that "a suspicious " amount?

Nah. Sounds a bit of an over reaction. tbh.

Depends on the space in the kitchen. I have a large kitchen with island plus extending table that seats up to 10 guests along with 2 sofas, so comfortable with my space!
I dislike breakfast bars and stools though but surely it’s all about personal preference.

I like islands placed in modern well designed large open plan kitchens, I think they can serve as a good room divider, storage and sociable space. I have however seen some totally dated and awfully placed islands that have no business being in the kitchen. My kitchen isn’t big enough for an island. It’s a long galley type kitchen with a square at one end. When we bought the house a year ago, a new kitchen had just been fitted. The amount of cupboards they had crammed into the space was totally overboard. There was no space for a table! We ended up ripping out some of the newly fitted kitchen cupboards to place a table! I did wonder WTF previous owners were thinking?!

@sunglassesonthetable

I'd say your reaction is a bit more over tbh.

People lie on the internet. It's hardly news, is it?

Lots of this has long since made a come back

It really hasn’t ,,🤣

And I really doubt anyone would lie about their island size,,🙃

@Bluntness100

Then you are very naive.

People lie about stuff like their children having cancer. If they can lie about that, you can bet your bottom dollar that they lie about stupid wish fulfillment crap like having a big kitchen too.

We have an island, not ever so keen on it but it was already in when we bought the house, I would prefer a table

Nope, long live open plan, islands and bifold doors!
Absolutely love my extension which pulled together a never used dining room (which become basically a junk room) and got rid of a dark damp patio area we never used to the basically ignored garden that became a jungle.
My bifold doors mean I look out onto to my now beautiful garden (because it has to be)

complete with veg patch (ok only 6 by 4ft but I mange to keep the slugs fed 😂).
So an island is the only way to get the work space needed to make any kitchen workable as well as meaning I'm not hidden away in the kitchen breaking my back bending over a kitchen table. Yes there's mess but that's just family life isn't it?
We kept as many of the period features as practical, fire places, cornice and chosen new additions, i e bifold that are sympathetic to the age of the property and in my opinion follow well.
So no as far as I'm concerned they can stay as long as they like, I'm never going back to dark pokey boxes where we all live our separate lives, I've seen the open plan, island loving bifold letting in light

Our house isn’t open plan and has a separate kitchen but still has an island, just because a kitchen is separate it doesn’t mean it’s small and pokey, we also have a dining room and small pantry

@MrsJamin

We have a peninsula, not enough room for an island. I bloody hate "breakfast bars" though - hate being seatede up that high, makes the worktop massively overly wide and the stools just look really messy. Very glad we never opted for breakfast bar for those reasons - they date a kitchen more than anything else. I've see some people have a breakfast bar next to a dining table... just why?? What a waste of space doubling up functions just like that. We have breakfast at the dining table - why people have to have a special area just for 10 mins per day is beyond me

We use our breakfast bar as a food prep area far more often than we use it as a breakfast bar. I do like to sit there sometimes with a glass of wine watching my DH cook. We wanted the kitchen to be somewhere WE could sit but not for the kitchen to be another reception room. We live in a 1930s semi and I think my kitchen has a deco feel about it which fits well.

I do it on the existing worktops.

You asked why having seating at the island is preferable to table. The answer was that dining table is different from worktop. Having a big kitchen island means I have significantly larger worktop area than the length of wall allows - plus I don't need to mind the cupboards overhead. Having a table instead of the island would not give me that.

Do some people have the sink and oven on different sides or something?

We have the hob and sink on one side, ovens on the other. It's a long fairly narrow kitchen, full height units on one side counter height units on the other. Also have a utility room housing the washing machine and dishwasher plus another sink.

I'm sure people lie about everthing, but isn't it likely that more people who have big kitchens and room for an island will be responding to this thread?

I suppose it depends how much you cook whether you want extra work surface, we don't much as there are only 2 of us so the island is a bit of an eyesore, a table would be nicer.

I don’t have wall cabinets so there is plenty of room to prepare on the worktops. My kitchen is u-shaped.

I’ve seen some badly designed kitchens - some with islands some without. What is certain is that a badly designed kitchen will never be desired by anyone.

People lie on the internet. It's hardly news, is it?

"Fake news strikes kitchen island debate."

🙄

*Things that are truly dated are coloured bathroom suites, Artex or woodchip wallpaper, solidly coloured (red, blue etc) or patterned carpets, certain wall colours like peach, magnolia or terracotta, feature walls with inexpensive big patterned (often floral) wall paper, carpet in the bathroom, orange pine furniture, farmhouse orange wood kitchens, short curtains, net curtains, plastic Venetian blinds, With wooden worktops, gas or electric fake or bar fires etc,

@Bluntness100*

I know 'looks' take time to filter down but this is the 3rd pink sink I've seen this week.

Ell Dec. Oct Issue

I was hoping to buy a replacement champagne coloured toilet cheaply for downstairs, as they are dated I thought they would be cheaper, they are more expensive than white ones.

We also have short curtains in the front room, long ones would look a bit silly as they would completely cover the radiator. Our house is probably full of dated faux pas

We have Artex in loads of rooms. And fake beams! (Obviously fake as they don’t go into the walls)
This is the least offensive Artex together with the Artex and tile combo that is the worst - it’s a bit of a project!

We have a reasonably large kitchen but we are not having an island - just a large kitchen table.

@sunglassesonthetable

*Things that are truly dated are coloured bathroom suites, Artex or woodchip wallpaper, solidly coloured (red, blue etc) or patterned carpets, certain wall colours like peach, magnolia or terracotta, feature walls with inexpensive big patterned (often floral) wall paper, carpet in the bathroom, orange pine furniture, farmhouse orange wood kitchens, short curtains, net curtains, plastic Venetian blinds, With wooden worktops, gas or electric fake or bar fires etc,

*@Bluntness100**

I know 'looks' take time to filter down but this is the 3rd pink sink I've seen this week.

Ell Dec. Oct Issue

The pink sink thing reminds me of the fashion editors who tried to convince people for years that skinny jeans were no longer fashionable and that bootlegs are back - but very few paid heed - bootlegs still look dated (unless you are Kate Moss) and people still love their skinnies (which were seen as a fad quite a few years ago).

I've never liked open plan. I hate that everyone is all in one space. I'm hugely introverted though and my dream house would have lots and lots of small cosy rooms and winding corridors with little book nooks, window seats and chairs tucked into corners.

I also don't understand the kitchen island thing. For the people saying their kitchen is huge and the island plus table fills it why wouldn't you have a kitchen table in place of the island (as an extra work surface and place to sit) and then put a sofa up the other end? Ours is similar in that it's an old cottage and the dining room is partially open to the kitchen in between beams on the upper part of the wall one side of the door way. So we have a kitchen table in the kitchen and a dining table in the dining room and then a sofa and rug and bookshelves and tv against the open beam. It's lovely to be able to curl up on the sofa with a mug of tea and flick through cookery books while keeping an eye on something in the oven. The dog likes to sleep there too as it's warm.