Kitchen Islands

Haircut · 17 Nov 2013 at 15:49

So, I'm currently attempting to plan a new kitchen with an island and would like a few thoughts on my ideas so far.

The room itself is 4.8m x 3.4m, so is a decent size and I would like to create a kitchen diner within that.
I'm a keen cook and want to have all the stuff that goes with that, big American style fridge, double oven, good hob etc. so have been having a play about with things to see how it would fit and having an island gives enough space to fit everything in, but I'm not sure of the practicalities of it.

The bit given over to being the actual kitchen rather than the dining area is 3.4m x 2.7m and in that I've got planned a U shape kitchen with the island in the middle as per the plan below.

With this I've gone for an island that's 100cm wide, by 120cm deep. Given that I'll lose 60cm depth from the work surfaces around the edge that leaves 60cm around each side of the island and a maximum of 90cm around the front. The front seems fine, but I'm not sure if 60cm around the sides is too little?

As per the plan I'd likely have the hob on the island. You can get decent 5 burner hobs that are around 70cm wide, so it would leave approx 15cm on each side of the hob and then the space at the back.
One of my concerns is that I'd want a bit more space around the hob itself, as I can image you'd be back and forth quite a bit to the main work surface chopping things up, then adding them to pans etc.
Does anyone have this sort of arrangement and if so, how do you find it?

I'll obviously speak to a proper kitchen designer in due course, but some opinions from people here would be appreciated too.

Shaz]sigh[ · 17 Nov 2013 at 17:32

600mm around the sides is far too narrow. You'll bump in to people and given that a standard 600mm unit doors are 596mm you'll have no space to do anything of any use.

Ronty · 17 Nov 2013 at 18:37

As said 600mm is too narrow, doors and drawers can hit each other and it will make it feel incredibly small, not much fun to cook in.

Why not have a unit returning into the kitchen from where it looks like you have a breakfast bar to give more worktop space, have the sink next to the fridge and the hob where the sink is in the centre of that run of units?

Haircut · 17 Nov 2013 at 19:07

Yeah, after I posted the thread I did a bit of measuring and realised that those dimensions wouldn't quite work!

To be honest I'm not sure you'd need a breakfast bar at all with having a dining table right next to the kitchen anyway.
I'm now thinking about foregoing the breakfast bar and having the sink by that bit with the hob against the wall where I've got the sink in the picture above.

MikeTimbers · 17 Nov 2013 at 19:09

Islands only work in kitchen showrooms and huge kitchens.

Indie · 18 Nov 2013 at 12:20

Looks good, not had one myself but me and the missus have been tempted with putting on in ours. quite large, 22ft by 15ft IIRC. Wouldn't know where to start though!

Lopéz · 18 Nov 2013 at 12:34

My in-laws have a very generous kitchen and even then, all the island seems to do is get in the way. The only time we use it is to sit down for a quick drink, and then the stools get in the way because you can't fit between then and the units. I wouldn't bother personally, definitely not in a kitchen the size of yours!