Hob placement, kitchen island or wall facing

[vivimimi]

Hi all, We are renovating the kitchen and adding a kitchen extension. I'm in two minds whether to put the Cooker/ hob (gas) on the island/peninsula or the wall side. I like the idea of having the hob on the island so I can face the family living & dining area.

Till date I have always had kitchen with hob facing the wall hence always have faced opposite to my family and that has been a problem.

But I'm wondering about the practicality aspects such as smell/ odor ( we do asian cooking spices, curries etc); extractor fan; Under floor heating challenges (if any).

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks v much.

This is ours. Love the hob in the middle. Easier than a sink to keep clean and clear

Our hob is in the island and it's where I do all the prep and cooking. We have minimal worktop and thus minimal clutter. I love our design, everything is where need it and it's sociable. We are lucky enough to have a utility room to store bits we don't use often (pans, dry foods etc). We don't have an extractor above, we have a discrete wall fan above the wall cupboard. We don't have a problem with smells. 2

Thank you all. Thank you @fuzzymoon. Yes the worktop on the left is small, thats mainly because I put the hob against wall.

Here is another design we made. The downside on this one is that due to L shape we lose on the bifold doors (i.e make is smaller); DH is interested in full width bifold.

Third option if we keep (fridge, hob, sink) all in one line against the wall. Don't like the idea of having the sink on island, as I have to keep it tidy all the time (drying dishes etc).

The most recent one you've posted looks like the island is well out. We've only 90cm or 1m (sorry, can't remember) between the units and island. It works perfectly. Do you have a utility?

Actually, on second looks, is that a table rather than island? What room are around the kitchen? Can you switch the units to another wall? Do you have a ground floor plan so people can see the perspective? I'd go to an independent kitchen planner, personally.

here is the layout with labels

Personally I wouldn't especially if you have seating the other side of the island as people just get splattered on and danger of kids reaching across and burning themselves

Do you live somewhere sunny? If not then in a "normal" summer how often do you actually think you'll have full width bi fold doors open? Looks great in magazines but not practical in real life especially if it's your only exit to the rear garden ie so constantly having to fold/unfold etc

ivfdreaming the end door on our bi folds just acts like a normal door. No need to fold unfold every time we go out.

On the island. It's my absolute favorite part of my kitchen. I love to chat and cook. We have a downdraft extractor but in hindsight I'd go for a standard one in the ceiling (same as you have in the bathroom with a stronger motor). If you love to cook and entertain, it's a no brained

I have my hob on the island. I would never have it any other way now. Depending on what I’m doing I can stand on one side to transfer from hob to oven or I can be on the other side and using the sink. It makes cooking with the kids simple and easy too because they can stand on the opposite side to me.

Our hob is on the island, with an extractor on the hob. Our builder was dubious but our kitchen supplier assured us it would be fine, and it had been. We have induction hob so less worrisome for kids, there are splatters but no worse than anywhere else I think? I like facing our to the room when cooking, I chop beside the hob.

Personally I much prefer the layout of the first kitchen you posted, with an island with the hob on. The others don't look natural and I'm sure you can do a lot better with the space you have.

To be honest I'm not convinced these are great kitchen designs. I would really recommend visiting a second kitchen store for design ideas. You would be surprised what different designers see in a space depending on both their experience, vision and product range. A kitchen is a big investment, it is very important to get it right so its worth shopping around to get the best advice. Some people literally fit the components into the space others have really clever and innovative ways offering the best use of your space in ways that arent necessarily obvious. If you were buying an car you would look in more than one garage the same should be true for a big ticket item like a kitchen too.

Thank you all. @GlamGiraffe my experience visiting Kitchen stores is they ask me what layout I would like to have then they use that to calculate the number of units required. They don't suggest me a design.

May be I'm going wrong.

Well I've been to Magnet and Wren kitchens only. DIY-kitchens is not viable for me to visit, due to distance. I have booked appointment with Howdens next week.

Apart from these big names, I'm now planning to visit the local Kitchen stores as well.

If you like the look of the Bora hob but can’t stretch - Ikea have brought out their own version. Not as quiet but comparable to my (supposedly) ‘quiet’ Elica extractor.

@vivimimi neither of the designs you've posted on this thread have much counter top space for you to work on. Could you switch units 1 and 2 with the fridge freezer and then continue the run of units around the corner to where the hob is in the second design?

I realised that. We locked down on the full width bifold. Hence had to change the layout again !!!. Here is another version.

Its now a straight line kitchen with an island.

Now I'm struggling with washer + dryer.
option 1) Either put them under the island, or
option 2) create a space (stackable washer+dryer) on first floor near bathroom, bedroom; that will freeup some more storage space in kitchen, and will save me running up and down with laundry.

The bifold doors are causing you to have a lot of unusable space.

Islands need to be in very large kitchens otherwise they turn into a roundabout.

I'd go for the option of smaller bifold doors. The units going in an L shape. Kitchen table and a couple of casual small chairs for drinking a coffee and flopping in.

How often would you realistically open the doors? Which way does the sun come into the the kitchen? If I had them the kitchen would be unusable in the morning as the sun fills the back of our house all morning.

I have patio doors that open in the middle then can fold back each side. Normal size but we can have it completely open if we want. That's an idea.

We've currently got our job on the island. It works quite well as I have drawers directly underneath with pans, herbs, pastas etc. However, we're moving and are extending again.
I'm definitely going to budget to use Karen at Oneplan to design my kitchen and get our new one from DIY kitchens. I found howdens/magnet pretty useless and they just used our ideas!
I'm not a fan of a utility upstairs. In fact there's a similar house to ours up for sale and it isn't selling. I like to put a wash on early so it's ready to hang first thing. You couldn't do this if it was near bedrooms.

Hob not job!

Have you got a ground floor floorplan OP? I wouldn't have the washer machine and dryer in the kitchen, especially not with it being open to a dining and seating area. There might be some way if creating a separate ground floor utility room.

I've only just come across the thread but I prefer the original design. My sister had all the same reservations as you about having hob on island but ended up going for it 10 years ago with a powerful extractor and had no issues with extraction in that time. Extractors have since become more powerful so I can't see that being a problem. If the island is wide enough, splatter on other side is also not a problem - she has had young children who sit on either side

Completely agree with not having sink on island as would hate the mess in full sight.

We have first floor room with washer and dryer stacked and it is the best thing ever. Like you said, saves running up and down in winter and wet weather and when its hot, you would have taken washing down anyway.

In terms of kitchen designers, we've been to a couple of local independents and prefer them by far to Magnet and Wren. They have all had initial consultation where we discuss preferences then come up with a design which we refine. I initially was considering paying a separate designer but I have found 2 locals that I really like and will be choosing between them over next couple of weeks. They work out about 10% more expensive than Wren but the difference in service is immeasurable