Calling all kitchen princesses, need your help please re Do and Don'ts in kitchens.

[VinoEsmeralda]

All being well I will be having a new kitchen in a house we just had an offer accepted on!

I'd like an island in the kitchen facing the table but not sure if I should put the hob with extractor and/or the sink in there or nothing at all and have those on the side instead? Personally was thinking of putting the dishwasher and the tap/sink in it and have the cooker with extractor in the side.

Just wondering if anybody has any Do and Don'ts re appliances and islands.
Many thanks!

If you can get taps with long handles so you can turn them on with your elbow instead of getting food/dirt on them if you need to use them.

Have a thought about what you'd use most and where you\d like to look, what you like to look at, who you want to talk to.

Also have a look at some old Good Food Magazines as they do a feature each month on different kitchens that people have, do's and don't etc as well.

If the Island is big enough have enough space for a couple of stools for people to sit at and talk to you.

Don't put your hob there - it's too exposed and the extractor fan will make too much noise in the rest of the room. Put a sink at one end of it so that you have the rest of it as good worksurface space. Put sockets in one of the vertical sides so you can use food processor/mixer etc on it. If possible, have it two units deep so you can have kitchen stuff/appliances at the side facing into the kitchen area and general/toys storage on the other side. Put dishwasher underneath it so that you don't stack plates and utensils in the sink. Have sink, cooker and fridge within 1.5m of each other so you don't spend your whole time walking from one to the other. Have lots of tall cupboards for storage. Pay really good attention to the lighting - nothing worse than trying to chop an onion if you end up always casting a shadow over it. Do not use laminated wood/stone surfaces (they look crap).

Thank you paranoidmother and lalalonglegs sorry for the delay but DD managed to cut & bruize her gums and has wobbly front teeth so spent most of the afternoon at dentist waiting to be seen!

Wouldnt have thought of sockets, good idea! And yes the kitchen/hob and sink will be very close as although I dislike my current small kitchen, the good thing is that everything is at hand IYSWIM

Lighting - yes a friend of mine had her kitchen done and didnt get that right as when you sit down you are 'blinded'by the under cupboard lights.

Was thinking beech block as work surface with cream units and slate floor plus possibly brownish/red wall tiles...

We have a kind of island - but with a 20cmor so upstand - so when you are on the other side - you can't see the mess. It then lends itself to the bank of sockets I needed for all my 'stuff'