Kitchen island-yay/nay, any regrets or tips?

[buckeejit]

Just that really-I've always been kind of against them as see them as being in the way but kitchen designer says would be good in our space & they get used & congregated around a lot.

I'd ideally like something similar on wheels that I could move out of the way if I wanted. Granted I'm not sure when Id ever need to move it, but on occasions when I want to flamboyantly dance around the whole area unimpeded, surely it's a good option?!

We're knocking down a wall between kitchen/diner so here's a badly drawn diagram of the space. L shape kitchen on right & adjoining far wall & dining table by patio doors in left bit of the room.

I reckon it's just something else to bash your hip on.

Why would people congregate around a kitchen island? I'm picturing geese straining their little goose necks to peer over it.

One on wheels will just end up constantly being shoved out of the way. Being fixed could give you years of glaring at it and hissing, "Why are you even there?" whenever you see it.

I'm not a fan.

Thanks kingjoffrey-Yes, I sort of feel that I'm getting pulled towards the mainstream fashion. Maybe I'll just construct a large area out of cardboard boxes & role play around it for a few weeks to see what I think!

It's a big room - you will doing a lot of trekking back and forth with an L shaped kitchen in that space. It's a similar set up to our kitchen and dining room and we have a shaped island with breakfast bar on two sides and the sink and dishwasher in the island.

Yes, do the box thing.

Count how many times a day you tut loudly while walking around the fuckers.

I got one on wheels made as it suited the space, it works really well for us and is often moved.

I have a kitchen island, it's this one from Ikea (not my kitchen though) I love it! It is a breakfast bar on one side so definitely does get congregated around and means I can prep food while chatting to the kids etc, you do need to have quite a big kitchen though, or as kingjoffrey says you would end up resenting having to manoeuvre around it. It also has handy extra storage (mine holds my alcohol collection )

buckeejit
That's exactly what we did before committing to an island.
We knew we definitely wanted one as we needed more work surface, but we needed to decide what size to make it - big enough to be useful, not so big that it gets in the way.
I sellotaped newspaper to floor to define area of "island" but it just got stepped over, so I moved the kitchen chairs into the space with boxes upended over them to create corners.
It was a really useful exercise in deciding on final plan.

We created the island out of Magnet units, got it put together with a carpenter, who then made a temporary top out of off cuts of MDF before we ordered a granite worktop.
Again this was useful as we were originally going to have a larger overhang to make a bigger workworface but living with the MDF made us realise that it would be too big.

We considered and island but opted for a big table in the middle

Here's mine in-situ pushed back against the wall, it usually gets pulled out when cooking and I'm not going to apologise for the mess.

I have an island in my drawings and I'm 90% committed to it, just having last-minute jitters about whether it's a good use of the space. I love the look of these big kitchen tables, but my island would have the sink, bins and dishwasher in it so fairly vital.

I regularly dance flamboyantly unimpeded round the wide open spaces of my island free kitchen, and love it. Considered an island, but decided against and glad I didn't get one.

This is all incredibly useful thank you. Love the moveable island & love the massive table-that's gorgeous!

Currently there's a wall in between my 2 rectangles & 4 weeks until it comes down so will feel the space better then!

They are so useful. Mine is big, but have had 3 different kitchens and have had an island in all of them. Children have breakfast there, do homework there, craft, one of us sits there in evening with glass of wine chatting if the other is pottering in the kitchen. Without fail, its where anyone sits when they visit, friend / neighbour popping round for coffee, really relaxed space for entertaining before people sit down at table for dinner. I would always put one in if you have the space.

I have one which is large (2m x 1.2m). It is just worktop with large sets on drawers underneath on one side and the other side has slim cupboards at the end with en empty section in the middle for stools to slot in. A bit like the pic attached. We have a lot of space round it (at least 1.2m on every side) and I love having the workspace. Everyone does congregate around it so it definitely can be a focal point of the room although I suppose it depends how big it is as if it's too thin people wouldn't stand around it to chat as you 'd be right in each others faces!

Oh yes tips! Hard to give tips if you are having one that moves! We have a pop up power point which is really useful.

We have recently put in a new kitchen including an island and we love it. We eat most meals around it and don't bother much with dining table. Our bin is in ours along with three drawers and a second cupboard. Have plug and USB port in it too so can work at it as well. I'd recommend it although we are fed up with pulling out the bin so would change that.

We have a massive solid island. It is drawers and cupboards on one side with stool seating for 4 on the other. DD does her homework there when I am cooking. She also tends to dump stuff on it, but she's getting better, slowly!

It has a marble top so all hot stuff can go directly onto it, I don't need chopping boards and when I'm cooking it's great for pastry and pasta! I use disinfectant wipes on it daily and a special marble spray once a week to keep the shine.

I love ours, but it suits the room/us. It would probably be too large for most people and I'd understand that.

(Excuse the sploge, this is when the room was cleared for decorating and the only 'empty' photo I have)

We have a large one also and it also houses cupboards underneath. It sits 6-8 easily and I love it. Very useful space and , importantly, ties the kitchen design together and makes it a unified space.

A friend has a smaller breakfast bar and hers is also fab, and is used for everything from socialising to meals as mine is, as well as working or whatever on it.

Exlt what floor is that?

I just measured ours and it's 1.3 x 1.8. The minimum gap from the side to other units is 1.5m so it's in proportion to the overall space, which is important unless you have a moveable arrangement. Ours was custom made by a carpenter to match the existing kitchen when we moved in. It's solid i.e. no breakfast bar seating element and has deep cupboards and drawers including two deep pan drawers opposite the dishwasher, so the plates and dishes can be put straight across.

Sometimes it can be a bit of a dumping ground, sometimes it's cleared for prep and serving and sometimes it's decorative with a central vase of flowers or fruit bowl. We have a lot of people come round to eat and drink here and it's the most useful space in the kitchen, especially when sorting out a full delivery of shopping or serving up.

We had one in our last kitchen too and it'd take some readjusting to being without one.

Dh really wants one so since I'm in between will probably allow him this 'win'!

Interesting to see how everyone uses them-would love it for sorting the shopping & have vases/fruit bowls on.

Bins seem a contentious issue. I've always had a big out one since uni days as am too lazy to empty more often! Will give the undercounter one a go though!

I usually have a large vase of flowers smack bang in the centre, a bowl of fruit one side and the biscuit tin on the other (although if I took a photo now you'd see that plus a pot of felt tip pens, a notebook, an artists pad and a box of 'slime' making ingredients courtesy of DD!)

@Ridingthegravytrain they are Travertine from Topps Tiles. Very durable but I do wish I had a darker colour - not great with a dog that liked muddy puddles!

Thanks. I'm trying to decide on a floor for our new kitchen that will absorb a lot of dirt. We have heavy shedding big dirty dogs and black slate heavily riven flooring currently. The bane of my life!

Don't you have to treat travertine a lot to make it durable (with sealants etc) or is it travertine look ceramic?

I mean absorb it colour wise, not as in a magic dirt eating floor 😂

So here's what my island free kitchen looks like. I suspect you would mostly choose to have an island, but I love the space. (I'm also lucky enough to have a big pantry, so don't need the storage.) I would second the under counter big bins.