Am I the only person who doesn’t like kitchen islands?

[VenusClapTrap]

Currently in the middle of redoing our kitchen. Quite a major job involving taking walls out and so on. The kitchen will be quite big. Everyone and his dog is asking “Ooh, are you having an island?” and then reacting with surprise when I say no.

Am I THAT odd not to want an island? I don’t hate them in other people’s houses, I just don’t want one in mine. I prefer to sit on normal chairs round a normal table, than perch on a bar stool at something that doubles as a kitchen work surface. And I like rooms to feel spacious - I find islands get in the way, as you end up having to walk round them all the time.

Anyway. Just wondering if I’m alone!

I don’t dislike them generally, but I think they are often put into kitchens that are too small for them just because people want them, so they aren’t big enough and don’t leave enough room around them.
(This is similar to my view on en suites - fine in general but are often tiny rooms squeezed into houses where there is no space)

@Roussette

Gosh... who doesn't like an ensuite?

Loads of people!

I have no desire to hear my beloved emptying his bowels 6 feet from my head when I'm trying to enjoy a lie-in. And I'm sure he feels the same way about me.

I don’t like them, I generally don’t like modern status kitchens.

Prefer a big table instead

I hate spotlights too. Islands. Gloss this and that. Steam woks. Microwaves I am either a Luddite or just someone with old fashioned taste

I dislike islands and peninsulas in the kitchen, my mum had an island and when she was ill in hospital and I cooked for my Dad, I spent more time traipsing around that blooming island than actually cooking. Even more than that, I hate hobs and/or sinks on them. I'm not the messiest cook in the world, but good grief, the mess and splat seems to go everywhere, plus a hob on them is downright dangerous if you've got kids perched there whilst you're cooking. And I hate perching on bar stools/bar chairs too. But I can kind of see the point if you have a massive space that looks kind of empty in the middle.

There are things you learn as you age, and mine is that my 92 year old Dmil can sit at our island when she couldn't at a dining table. Honestly as you get older it's a revelation when you realise the things that did your head in are of real use to proper elderly people.
My lovely MIL has her 93rd birthday soon and said how much she's looking forward to her birthday party so she can see her gggrandaughter toddle round our kitchen island with the pram her great great Nana bought for her. 🥰. Without tall bar stools and an island she'd be stuck at home instead of surrounded by family who love her, giving her the opportunity to see three lockdown babies who she's adored from a distance finally meeting each other. I can't wait 😁

I don’t mind them but I’m glad that the previous owners of our house didn’t put one in when they refitted the kitchen and we have space for a big table instead. We have a dining room table too but the kitchen one is really useful and suits the style of the house.

Awful things. And as for en suites - fabulous particularly when that’s mine and DH has sole use of the cloakroom (he’s only allowed to use the en suite for showering and teeth brushing) 😆😆

ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba

😁

Hello . I’m good thanks !
How are you?

@inappropriateraspberry

I don't like them or see the point in them. Ditto breakfast bars. If the room is big enough to take that, it can have a proper table and chairs. And both is just pointless. I wouldn't sit on a stool when there's a chair and table available, and quite possibly a sofa as well!

I think most people use kitchen islands as a spacious prep area rather than for eating meals. I can’t imagine prepping food at a dining table.

I have an island with a lower table attached with proper chairs to get the best of both worlds. And the island is on wheels, the lower table fits into the higher island and it can be pushed to the side of the room if we want to have the table in the middle instead.

I prep at our kitchen table - I get to sit down and it’s covered with an oilcloth and so easy to wipe down and for the children to eat at.

A sturdily constructed (and therefore soundproof) en suite is a good thing. But some of them feel like a carboard box that's been shoehorned in to an already quite small space. I don't want to hear anyone's farty evacuations when I'm reclining in my chamber.

Really don't like kitchen islands. I wouldn't be able to cope with not being able to move it aside when I mop the kitchen floor . Also dislike decking, awful stuff - just putting that out there!

delete bloody hell - ‘kitchen islands - the human rights angle’. (Right to a family life).
Have fun and great image.

I'm not a fan of sitting on stools at a piece of worktop. Especially in am open plan kitchen/dining room, why sit precariously on a stool when there's a lovely table and chairs just next to you? I didn't like breakfast bars with bar stools in the 80s and 90s either.

An island doesn't have to mean seats at a counter though. An island is just a section of worktop that isn't positioned against a wall. You can use it any way you want.

We're having one, but there won't be any seats at it. It'll basically be a prep area with a couple of kitchen cupboards under one side and shallow cupboards the other side which are replacing a sideboard we had in the old kitchen. We want an island rather than a - what do you call it, my mind's gone blank - headland/promontory/isthmus?* Our reasoning is that having a space at both ends of the island improves circulation, makes the surface more flexible, and works well in the space we have.

*Oh yes! A peninsula!!

I hate them!

I have no desire to hear my beloved emptying his bowels 6 feet from my head when I'm trying to enjoy a lie-in

We're lucky enough to have a big main bedroom and having an ensuite is like just a seperate bathroom!

p.s. I've sat at my island for hours tonight.

must go to bed soon but just finishing

I don’t like them. And I think i it looks strange to have seats around an island right next to a table personally. Reminds me of our old school science labs with work stations dotted around the room!

Not keen either.

They look like big blocky obstacles as you enter a kitchen. A table is much nicer and homely because it’s a lower height so you can see what’s behind it better so the space feels more open.

Our kitchen is a good size but the built-in oven lines up with it so no-one can get past. Even with door to oven shut we cannot pass each other easily. Was brand new when we moved in and they moved the sink from side window to big back window which would make a lovely dining alcove because of the views of the hills 🙄

I think they're a waste of space. MIL fills her house with furniture. I don't get it. She has a lovely big house but it's so full of furniture you can barely move in it. The island is huge and fills her whole kitchen apart from a little corridor all around.

I like a kitchen table so much that I have crammed one into my tiny kitchen, along with two chairs.

I hate barstools with a vengeance ever since I almost came a cropper getting off one while 8 months pg many years ago.

Fine in extremely large kitchen diners where they fill a space giving useful storage underneath and zone the kitchen section before the large dining section with a big table and perhaps sofa seating area as well. But they must have the top much bigger so that proper chairs or stools fit underneath with your legs.

They look awful and are hopeless where the space doesn’t really allow for them and a kitchen table would be a better option.

No. I always think they either look crammed in and take up valuable space or would be better replaced with a table and chairs - friendlier, somehow.