kitchens with islands

[hilbil21]

calling all mumsnetters with kitchen/diners with an island! can you show me photos for inspiration? I've had a builder round today to discuss and he's said to come back to him with ideas, but I don't really have any so far!!

please help

I LOVE my island.. I had a kitchen extension done last year and doubled the space. I love to cook and it's perfect for food prep, plus I have two bar stools so friends can chat and have a drink while I get dinner ready.

That's gorgeous. We currently have a very narrow kitchen and a rather large dining room so we are looking to knock through. It won't be as big as yours but hoping to have sink and hob on island, units ovens and fridge freezer on one wall and then eating space on other side of island. Anything would be better than what we have just now!

That's a very nice kitchen Denman. Where did you get your units? Your colours/style are almost exactly what I'd like in ours when we open up our kitchen.

Thank you. My carpenter friend made them. Super cheap as MDF with a nice oak worktop! Whole kitchen inc fitting cost less than £3k!

This is what it looked like before and during knock through!

Even what you had before is a lot bigger than what we currently have! I would call ours a galley kitchen I guess. Terraced house built in 1939 big living room big dining room big bedrooms and bathroom but tiny kitchen!

Wow. I'm definitely going to look into getting a carpenter then. Looks great.

Hilbil21 , knocking through to the dining room is a great plan! It makes cooking so much less of a chore as you don't miss out.

Yes, carpenter all the way. It's amazing what they can do. He built it all off site then spent a day fitting it. I had to pay a plumber etc and did the painting and tiling myself but overall it still saved me lots of money. I was on a very tight budget.

I love it when it looks like this, not so much when the island is piled high with household paraphernalia :(

Your layout and plans sound a lot like what we did (except you'll probably be tidier , I'm not generally a slattern just not tidied up from tea yet)

Just some ideas

Ours is a peninsula rather than an island, but here it is anyway. The peninsula separates the galley kitchen from the dining area.

I'm definitely not tidy!!

A peninsula sounds like it might be an option too as I'm conscious of the island being too big and not leaving enough room for any sort of table at other side of dining room.

Thanks folks - definitely some food for thought

Out2, how do you find the sink in the island? It's on my list of possible layouts for our future kitchen if we ever bloody do it

I do most of my dishes by hand, so when standing at the sink I have a level view of the living room and TV. I feel like part of the family group even though I'm tidying (vs having my back turned to the action).
So I'm pleased with the layout, we built the home 2+ years ago and it isn't something I would change.

Does anyone have their hob and sink in the island?
If so, where do you do your prep work?
Our holders are starting on Monday and I'm still not convinced we've made the right choices vis a vis layout and appliances.

We currently have a main oven with a small oven/grill above and a separate microwave.
The new plan has a unit that has the main oven with an oven/grill/microwave all in one above it. I'm starting to get nervous that I will regret this.

If I do a roast I'm sure I use all three at the same time
Will I just adapt or am I made to have less appliances in the new kitchen?

We have a peninsula, I was going to say before a previous poster that you should probably measure up for an island as they only really suit very large spaces. We just have worktop on our peninsula, and no overhang for breakfast bar as we just have a large dining table so no need for the extra seating.

Love my island! I decided to have it as all workspace which I prefer and it's a bit of a gathering/social spot in the house.

This is mine. Such a social layout, I love the island. Children eat breakfast there / do homework / sit and chat whilst I cook etc. And when we have friends round, its brilliant.

Ours was finished just before Christmas! Will try and get a pic later but we have fridge, sink and cooker along the back wall with a dishwasher in the bottom of an L shape at the end under a window, so the island is just worktop. Works much better for us than having the sink or hob there as I don't spend much time at the sink and I'd rather have any bits of washing up / dirty pans out of the way rather than in the middle of the room. It's really nice just having a big stretch of worktop to spread stuff out while looking into the room - dining table is on the other side of the island, and living room opens off dining room.

For your space, would no island work better, with a larger main table in that space?

That way you can use table for prep also on one side, and then you aren't squeezing in table and island. Where table would have gone there might be space for an additional small sofa or storage

I agree with slice of lime. Definitely don't have both sink and hob on there. Just hob if anything at all.

Here's mins, just having floor redone so excuse the mess and stuff on worktop

We have the sink on the island but offset to one side. I definitely didn't want the hob on there for all sorts of reasons - mainly safety as the children sit at the island pretty much continuously, I didn't want to be cooking in front of people with steam or fat spitting at guests, extraction is more awkward over a hob and I didn't want a cooker hood / chimney in my eyeline (over the island). We don't tend to wash up much (it all goes into the dishwasher) so don't have a sink of dirty pots.

Does anyone have their hob and sink in the island?
If so, where do you do your prep work?

Hob was on peninsular in last place. Loved it. Did prep work to the side and could just knock off veggie peelings into the bin that lived there. Rounded overhang to the side and front.

I have a 1930s house and we have it knocked through and the whole thing extended by 3m. I'd say if you don't extend and just knock together you will struggle to fit an island and a table. I'd do what a PP did and have a big table in the middle instead and lots of units around the outside.

Currently almost finished renovating another 1930s house to move to and we are putting an island in (as we speak) and there again is no room for a table as well really. We have extended back to have a dining area in the same room.