Confused about choosing the right kitchen island? These helpful tips from Laurence Pidgeon, director of kitchen and bathroom specialist Alternative Plans, will help you to decide:

1 – Islands are a good solution for large rooms as they can be used to divide space and functions. Typically the island will have two distinct sides: cooking and social. The design of the island will reflect these functions so that the cooking side may feature the hob, preparation sink, chopping board etc while the social side may include seating, book shelves, drinks fridges and such like.

2 – The most efficient design for a kitchen is a galley layout. An island can be used to create this in a larger room, with a bank of tall units housing appliances such as fridge/freezers and ovens against the wall, and the island providing the work surface and cooking zone. If an island has a large perimeter, you don’t want to position things you need too far away, otherwise you will spend half your time walking around the island. Work zones in the kitchen should feature all the essentials close at hand: hob, oven, sink, dishwasher, fridge, etc.

3 – The advantage of the hob on the island is that it is more theatrical and sociable as the cook is facing their family and friends. The disadvantage of the sink on the hob is that you may end up ‘presenting’ the washing up to your guests!

4 – Ergonomically, there is an argument for having different levels for different functions (higher for the sink, lower for the hob) but personally I prefer islands to be all at one level as it provides continuity of workspace and works better visually. You can enjoy the benefits of both by having the workspace along the wall at a different level.

5 – The length of an island depends on the functions that are going to be included: if both cooking and washing are on the island, it should be a minimum of 3 metres long to provide enough workspace for each of the functions. The island can be smaller if it is just for cooking. In my opinion, an island should be no deeper than 1 metre, otherwise it will be difficult to reach across it and to clean.

020 7228 6460 | www.alternative-plans.co.uk

Posted By: Laurence Pidgeon, director for Alternative Plans