If you’re renovating your kitchen, a kitchen island is a very popular feature to add. The island has become a vital part of the modern kitchen—the 21st-century equivalent of a hearth. Kitchen islands offer additional counter space for prepping and entertaining, and they’re relatively easy to add without majorly disrupting your kitchen. If you’re looking to upgrade your kitchen, this guide features pro tips on how to build a kitchen island according to your tastes and preferences.
Why Add a Kitchen Island?
Kitchen islands are incredibly functional. Because they can be accessed from all sides, they’re ideal for a variety of kitchen tasks. A well-designed island offers a place for people to congregate while at the same time separating those who are cooking and cleaning from those who are just hanging out.
A modern kitchen has to accommodate multiple cooks, kids doing homework, and party guests. An island can help a dated kitchen better fulfill all these demands. These freestanding pieces instantly become the focal point of a kitchen because they can have the look and feel of furniture.
When planning an island, here are the key points to consider.
Uses for a Kitchen Island
Islands can take up a significant amount of space, so they must function optimally to justify that footprint. Here are four uses for islands and a few items to keep in mind when designing your perfect kitchen island.
Cleanup
If the primary use for the kitchen island will be cleanup duties, consider the following:
- Maintain clearance for the dishwasher door in the open position
- Add pull-out garbage and compost bins next to the sink
- Ensure easy access to dish and silverware storage
- Include storage for dish towels, dish soap, etc.
- Dual-height counters can hide dirty dishes from view
Food Prep Space
If you see yourself preparing feasts at your kitchen island, don’t forget to include these components:
- Outlets for small appliances
- Refrigerator and cooktop
- Access to compost bin or disposer
- Prep sink and butcher-block countertop
Cooking
Love to cook? Incorporate the following items on your island:
- Heat-resistant countertop of stone, tile, or metal for hot pans
- At least 18 inches of space on either side of the cooktop or range
- Overhead vent hood or downdraft fan with a second exhaust fan in the ceiling
- Raised eating area out of the range of spatters
Informal Dining
An island is a great place to entertain guests. Remember these tips for maximum comfort:
- Counter height and width should be designed for standard-size chairs or stools
- A softly contoured edge profile is the most comfortable for leaning on
Considerations When Building an Island
Kitchen islands come in many shapes and sizes, with plenty of opportunities for customization. Here are some of the most important considerations to keep in mind when building your kitchen island:
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Size and Placement
Shoehorning an island into a kitchen that’s too small is a mistake. At a minimum, an island should be 4 feet long and a little more than 2 feet deep, but it must also have room for people to move and work around it. In spaces where you won’t be cooking, 3 feet is the minimum recommended clearance between islands and cabinets. You should also have at least 3 1/2 feet clear between counters or appliances where you cook. Remember, these are minimums—it’s better to be more generous if your floor plan allows.
Lighting
Where you have activity, you need light. For islands, that means dedicated lighting—you can’t count on ambient light to illuminate your workspace, and you don’t have upper cabinets to hide task lights, as you do elsewhere in the kitchen.
As with most task lighting, you want the light to come straight down onto the island. The most common choice is recessed lighting, which is relatively easy if you have standard-height ceilings, but can be trickier with high ceilings. If the distance from the countertop to the ceiling is greater than 6 feet, you’ll need to use fixtures or bulbs specially designed to project light down rather than spread it out.
Pendant Lighting
Another option is pendant lights, which hang from the ceiling. Be careful with these, though. If they’re the wrong height, they can either block your view from the island or blind you with a high-intensity bulb shining directly into your eyes. Whatever type of lighting you choose, make sure it can be dimmed when you don’t need maximum illumination for working.
Storage Space
You can gain valuable real estate on both the “working” side and the “public” side of an island for storage, which is a critical need in kitchens. On the public side, take advantage of shallow cabinets installed back-to-back for serving items—like napkins, cutlery, and platters—that don’t need to be in the food prep area. On the working side, make sure there’s enough storage for pots, pans, and spices. The space under cooktops is great for deep drawers for pots and pans. Think twice about installing a hanging pot rack, however—these won’t hold deeper pots or lids and can get in the way of your view.
If it’s a prep island, include storage for knives and small appliances like mixers and food processors. For these, you could consider appliance garages or pop-ups—platforms that swing out from behind a door in the island base. Make sure there is also convenient access to garbage and compost bins. If the island is going to be dedicated to cleanup, you’ll need a place for dish towels, detergent, and brushes.
Undercounter storage space is limited on islands with a sink and/or major appliances like a dishwasher or oven. The same is true for cooktops with downdraft fans, which require the machinery to be stored in the cabinet below. One way around this is to use the ends of the island. Round ends are perfect for lazy Susans, and almost any island end can accommodate open shelving or a shallow cabinet.
Vent Hood
Ventilation is a safety essential. The most common solution for ventilating an island dedicated that’s to cooking is to install a downdraft fan behind the cooktop. In some cooktops and ranges, this can be incorporated into the appliance. That solves the visual problem of an overhead hood messing up sight lines.
However, even the best downdraft fan is not up to the worst cooking odors. If you really want to clear the air, include a second exhaust fan mounted in the ceiling. This will also help limit the amount of moisture condensing on the inside of your windows in the winter when you’ve got stews simmering or pasta water boiling.
The other option is an overhead hood that extends up through the ceiling. Because it’s exposed on all sides, it must be completely finished (which can be expensive), becoming a dominant design element of the kitchen. You can opt for manufactured versions or get a hood custom-built and finished in just about any material. Just be aware that the mass of a hood, placed low enough to be effective, could ruin the joy of having open space above the island.
Counter Height
Dual-height islands can create informal eating areas, hide dirty dishes, protect noncooks from splashes and splatters, and make kitchens more interesting. You can make an island “disappear” to anyone not working in the kitchen by extending the “public” face of the island—the one that doesn’t face the kitchen—4 to 6 inches above the countertop and covering it in the same surface material as the rest of the interior walls.
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The height of your island’s eating area dictates the type of seating you’ll have. A 28- to 30-inch-high counter works best with a chair, a standard-height 36-inch counter is served best by a low stool, and a 42- to 48-inch counter requires a bar stool.
Our Conclusion
A kitchen island is a great way to optimize space in your kitchen and bring an older kitchen up to date. When building a kitchen island, these considerations will help you make the best decisions for your kitchen to maximize space, storage, and utility.
Resource
Architect
Duo Dickinson
Madison, CT
203-245-0405
duodickinson.com