Kitchen Islands

[MaliceInWonderland78]

We're about to refurbish our kitchen following an extension. We've pretty much decided where everything is going; however, we're having slight reservations about the kitchen island. The over all dimension (as it stands) will be 10' x 4' This would leave a 5' (60") gap between the edge of the island and the worktop/units on each of the sides.

Having looked online, the general consensus is that the should be 3 to 4 feet around the edge. I know you wouldn't want any less than that, but is there a chance that our Island might somehow not be in proportion?

Interested to hear how much clearance others have and what the practicalities are. The cost of this project (so far even) would embarass an African Dictator, so we need to make sure we get it right.

TIA.

Minimum 1 m between island and worktop. 1.2-1.3m if there is a sink on one side and hob on the other side of this walkway.

A good designer will take this into account while designing your kitchen.

My sink is set 100mm out from my line of cupboards and at this point it is 1300mm to the island. The standard width of work surface is 1400mm to the island. 1m is too narrow in a large kitchen. My island is nearer the kitchen units than the glass wall on the other side of the island and I think you do not want a huge gap. I think all kitchens are now metric so your gap would be approx 1500mm. Your island is a similar size to mine so I do not see why this would not work.

ours is such that the drawers in the main units (60 cm deep) and in the island (30 cm deep) can both be open wide and you can still walk through : less than that distance would drive me potty

Thanks All. It sounds as if it should be o.k.

We haven't used a designer (the architect did include a broad design for the purpose of submitting the plans) but we think we've got something workable.

If anyone can think of anything else they'd hae done differently, then I'd be pleased to hear it.

Milly Do you have stools on the non working side of your Island. If so, how many?

No, I have cupboards back to back and one of these houses the water softener. The gap in the middle of the island (200mm) houses the electrics and two pop up sockets. These are absolutely vital. I also have the hob in the island as well as a second sink. We have 4 bar chairs around a circular " table" which is wood and this is offset and attached to the end of the island. Too much granite otherwise ! I could have had a granite breakfast bar on the other side but this would have made the island very wide and we had enough length to put the seating on one end. We use it all the time so it really was worth having the seating.

Have a look at the Cotteswood Kitchens web site and the recently completed kitchens. You will find mine (I now have white wooden chairs and not the black ones)! Shaker Style - just to give you a clue! There are loads of examples with Islands.

Thanks for that Milly The kitchens look great. We've run a ring main to the island and also two 2 x 6mm cables for an oven/induction hob/hot water tap not sure we'll bother with that to be honest. Probably slight overkill, but we thought that it was better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them. We've also got drainage and hot and cold water feeds going over.

Good to know that you're using the seating. We've never done a kitchen on this scale before. Whenever we've done our previous kitchens the layout was broadly dictated by the size of the room and the layout of the services.