The kitchen island is a late addition to the modern kitchen. Neither Margarete Schutte Linhotzky, credited by many with inventing the modern kitchen, or Lillian Muller Gilbreth, proponent of the ‘work triangle’, saw a starring role for a kitchen island. Today, however, the kitchen island has become the holy grail of aspirational kitchen features. And rightly so.

Of course, we would argue that the kitchen is the single most important room in the home. It is, after all, where most families spend the largest proportion of their time. A place to congregate, socialise, increasingly work, and of course cook and eat. It is therefore natural that people wish to make the experience as comfortable as possible for both the cook and their cheer squad.

There are a number of considerations when thinking about what type of island, if any, will work in your space.

Do you have enough space for an island?

Arguably the biggest failure we see in kitchen design is people trying to cram too much into one space.

For those wanting counter seating, your island ideally needs to be 1 metre wide as an overhang of 400mm is needed for comfortable legroom. An island narrower than 900mm is going to feel undersized, but if this is all the space available you could consider creating an overhang on one end of the island to tuck counter stools beneath.

If you'd like a stone worktop, such as marble, do bear in mind that three metres is generally the largest length for a single piece of stone. Alternative materials, such as concrete or terrazzo, would be a way to avoid having joints in the stone.

In a kitchen diner, an unusual yet practical space-saving option might be to create a banquette seating island. Below is an example of a recent one we did at Highgate.

Danger, chef at work! The art of zoning.

There’s nothing worse than having to politely dance around guests while trying to prepare a feast.

Acting as a divide between those at work and those at play, a kitchen island offers a perfect way to zone different spaces within a multi-purpose room.

At Vardens, we designed a kitchen/diner/sitting room in a small open plan loft space. While there was no room for an island, we did manage to include this little peninsular to act as a divide between the kitchen and the living space as well as serving as an additonal prep space.

At Cambridge Gardens, the island doesn’t serve as a seated counter, but this large slab of marble acts as a both a physical and a visual barrier between the social space and the kitchen workspace.

Functionality

The last practical issue to nail down before the exciting elements of designing an island can begin is the functionality of your island. Will your island house a sink, hob or dishwasher? If so, there will be practical elements to consider, such as ducting, water supply, and drainage.

At 6ixteen, the island has no appliances (though it does have a beautiful built-in herb trough!) which enabled us to place it on wheels so that it could be pushed around the room. This meant that the kitchen space at this versatile property could quickly turn into an entertaining space, or even a dance floor! Similarly at Herondale, the focus of the island was to create seating so that the family could socialise while cooking.

For sociable cooks, a hob on the island will likely be the choice. In this instance you won’t want an overhead extractor hanging over the island and creating difficult sightlines and issues for lighting. For this reason, we love Bora hobs with their inbuilt downdraft technology. And if you’re a chef who likes to create a bit of drama in the kitchen, check out their teppanyaki plate.

And finally for the fun part; materiality and design

The island is an area to inject personality, soul and drama to the room. We are big advocates of mixing materials to create contrast and depth of interest in a space.

In the kitchens above you will see how a dramatic waterfall edge on an island creates an instant feature.

The opulance of natural marble is gently muted and grounded with the use of rough-sawn timber on the island cabinetry at Lilleshall. The timber is lightly stained to offer tonal harmony, with the brown hues in the stone offering the island a balanced and cohesive identity.

In contrast, at West London, where the kitchen shares similarities in terms of tonality, layout and materiality, wrapping the island in marble created a very different vibe.

While the majority of islands sit on the floor for the practical reasons mentioned above, raising an island up on legs is a nice way to create a sense of flow and space within the room. At Hampstead Village, you can see how elevating the island accentuates the feeling of space you gain from the high ceilings. Yet at Soho, where the celings are low, offering a view underneath the island moves the eye horizontally across the room to give an illusion of space.

We couldn’t write about kitchen islands without touching on one of the latest trends in island cladding… fluting or ribbing depending on who your speaking to. It’s a bold statement and one that will be with us for a while.

And finally, don’t forget lighting.

You will need both task lighting, most commonly by way of spotlights, as well as ambient lighting. Nothing worse than sitting down to a meal and feeling like you’re stuck in a floodlit office canteen.

Elegant and pleasing to the eye, three hanging pendants over an island are a staple of a reason. For those minded to do something a bit unexpected, we love a single statement chandelier hung off-centre over an island. And if you’re looking to stay on trend, a clean simple track light with dimmable spots which can act as both ambient and task lighting looks sharp.

We hope we’ve managed to offer some inspiration for your next kitchen island project.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch should you have any comments or questions and do follow us on Instagram @blakesldn if you don’t already do so.

Back to Basics: Kitchen Islands

A designers Xmas wish list 2021

Project in focus: BASKERVILLE