New open plan kitchen: is this safe? (breakfast bar containing gas hob)

[MamaChris]

We've moved into a new house with a very awkwardly laid out kitchen. We want to move things around a bit, and the best option we can come up with would be to have a deep worktop/breakfast bar containing a gas hob on the kitchen side (see pictures on my profile). On the other side of the breakfast bar is the dining area of a through reception room.

We are thinking of a deep worktop/breakfast bar so that the flames/hot spitting sauces are out of reach from ds as he grows up, but is that enough? Does anyone have anything like this and is it safe if you have kids?

induction hobs do sound like a way forward then. we've been trying not to lose cupboard storage by putting the gas hob against the only wall we've got, but would have to see examples of hanging an extractor in the middle of a room as our ceilings aren't that high.

It's actually very similar to our kitchen layout, which we planned when we had an extension. We have a big open plan kitchen/diner, the kitchen area is about 4 metres sq, with another 5 metres sq dining area for table etc.

The gas hob on the extending 'breakfast bar' bit as yours is. The depth of this worktop is 900mm, so there's 300mm extra on the 'bar' side, which has proved absolutely fine with ds so far. In fact that side of it is further away than the front of the hob, so it makes no difference whether the hob is against a wall or not - the potential danger comes from the front of the hob doesn't it. The only other thing we did (though out of style rather than safety!) was a recessed hob, so the chrome bit sinks into the worktop rather than sticking out.

We have a free-standing extractor fan which looks fine.

Btw after a year of having a breakfast bar which was never used, we ended up putting in cupboards underneath all the way along, which have been a much better use of the space. And DS (19 months) loves them!

Mamachris
If you look at my profile you can see some pictures of the hanging extractor. We dont have high ceilings either.

thanks for photos and advice about central extractor fan. As we have open plan living/dining/kitchen area, we were quite worried it would dominate the room, plus the fears about ds reaching up to boiling pots on a central island hob. So we've thought long and hard and worked a way to put the hob on the long wall next to the window without losing to much storage. Think this will work best for us, but the central island hob does look quite flash!