Is a kitchen island in your future?

Kitchens designs that feature islands are in high demand and there's no end in sight for their popularity. In this post we expolore some of the design considerations that go into the decision of whather or not an island will wirk with your kitchen design.

Islands work best in a kitchen design when they have a job to do. Most often, this mean that the island will have either a sink or a cooktop integrated into the top of it. Since in most cases, islands have sinks in them, it is a logical step to position the dishwasher to the right of that sink.

There are some rules pertaining to a sink's function that come into play here. Similar rules come into play when an island features a cooktop but for now we're going to talk about sinks.

A sink is most functional when it has a minimum of 18 inches out counter to its right and left. Since dishwashers are 24 inches wide, including a dishwasher in an island design keeps you covered on one side of the sink. On the remaining side of the sink, most people opt for either a pull out trash can or a bank of drawers. Since we need to get to 18 inches, either of these options will work so long as the cabinet used are 18 inches wide.

So since all of the parts together measure 81" inches, that's what we consider a small island. It's fully functional and any other options added to it will make it larger. To revisit how we arrived at those 81 inches, here's the math. The island starts on the left with a 3" wide refurn panel, then the 24" wide dishwasher, then the 36" wide sink base and finally, the 18" wide pull-out trash can.

So far as depth goes, base cabinets are 24" deep and the back will need some kind of a decorative panel to cover it. In this case, we used a wainscot panel at 1" deep. This gives us an island with a footprint of 81" x 25".

Counters extend around an inch over each side and a typical overhang along the back of an island is between 12 and 15 inches. As you can see, this small island keeps getting larger. For the sake of this exercise, we're going to say the bar overhand on the back of this island is 13" deep.

So when we include the counter, this island's foot print is actually 83" by 39".

Since the minimum allowable width for a pass-through is 36" this small island takes up more space than you think. Even though 36" is a minimum allowable amount of room, we prefer to go with more space than that, usually 39" or 42" --48" if we can get it.

This diagram shows the actual amount of space required around our small island that actually measures 81" x 25" but in reality, it requires a space between 155" x 111" and 167" x 123".

Islands are a terrific addition to a kitchen design, but they do require a bit of planning to pull them off effectively.

Knowing how to put together highly function kitchen designs is one of the things that sets us apart at Kuttler Kitchens. We'd be glad to evaluate your home's plans to see if there's kitchen island in your future. Give us a call and see.