KITCHEN RENO CROO: How big of an island should we have?
- Thread starter Samcanadian
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Well don’t be like that. I didn’t mean to be so abrupt. I just really want to work with this layout and we really want to keep the sliding doors. They’re super cool, give a great MCM feel to the house, and they give us hard decisions to make.
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It will become a catchall for items in the house that don't have a regular home.
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You will have two spots to prep food rather than just one. If you cut 30” off it will hold large dishes and pots to be washed next to the sink and that’s it.
I'm not saying they aren't cool. What I'm saying is, the amount of cool they give isn't worth the cost of what you can build without them.
Part of my professional training has always been learning how to cut things I really like because they ultimately prevent the project from being more successful.
Cutting things is the hardest thing to do.. But also the best.
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cctyler
Mornin'
I gotta butt in now.
Sam, you sell product to million dollar clients and you didn’t pick up the name of an interior designer along the way to help you make these decisions!
Can’t go with the big island unless you do some structural work and remove that wall.
C’mon man, peninsula style/galley kitchen doesn’t work with that layout unless you remove the doorway. Which you can’t/shouldn’t.
Sam, you sell product to million dollar clients and you didn’t pick up the name of an interior designer along the way to help you make these decisions!
Can’t go with the big island unless you do some structural work and remove that wall.
C’mon man, peninsula style/galley kitchen doesn’t work with that layout unless you remove the doorway. Which you can’t/shouldn’t.
cctyler
Mornin'
🤣
Which reminds me, I need to check out the showroom.
My concern is the flow/walkway from hauling groceries from the mudroom to the kitchen. You’re basically cutting through the living room rather than the natural corridor along that wall/hallway.
You’ve got lots of storage/pantry area around the corner. What’s the length of smaller island?
I did say that, actually. Look + functionality isn't ideal. Peninsulas are typically what most people will remove from a kitchen renovation because that's just how most big box builders arranged their space planning (ie, it's lazy). If you don't want a beam, I totally get that, but peninsulas are a style that seem to not age very well and in this case, your garage access to the fridge means you have to walk around one way or the other to drop groceries.
You are also limiting access to a full 4' of counter edge by pushing it all the way to the wall. Even if you have an opening in the wall, on that side of the island, you're losing the edge between the island and wall as prep space. You are undervaluing how much 4' of counter space accessible right next to the refrigerator will be. I do 90% of my prep on the short edge of my island across from my fridge. Rice cooking out on the open island. Instant Pot, too. I don't have upper cabinets getting steam blasted on them, etc. eventually ruining them.
Do you really need a second sink around the corner from the cooktop? That's eating up counter space and is largely unnecessary if you have a big enough island sink, imo. If you want to get water to an espresso machine, consider a pot filler/hot water tap right there.
And what is the cabinet taking up the counter space on the left side of the range?
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Why not put a bunch of smaller islands all over the kitchen area and make it an archipelago
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Think proportion, too. ‘Kitchen islands should take up between one tenth to one fifteenth of your overall kitchen area,’ says Volodymyr Barabakh, co-founder and project director of Fortress Home (opens in new tab). ‘You therefore generally want to err on the smaller side in comparison to your overall kitchen floor space. One fifteenth of your overall kitchen floor space is what you want ideally.’
Option 1 is 40% of your kitchen area. It's absurd looking to be that big
Option 1 is 40% of your kitchen area. It's absurd looking to be that big
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Agreed, if the wall wasn't there I'd go with the full size.
I would explore beefing up other walls to allow that to be not structural, but the cost would probably prevent me from going that route. You can try just like two pillars going up to create that support, but I think even then it may still feel disconnected.
i voted the peninsula but i think i like the island idea with the fold down part to make it a peninsula if you need the extra space for something that someone suggested is prob the best idea
also personal taste, i hate sinks in the island, wish the space had a diff option for that
also personal taste, i hate sinks in the island, wish the space had a diff option for that
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Same. We just don’t have enough room though. I prefer sink on the island vs cooktop though
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That's true, but that's literally any flat counter top space, anywhere. Our last kitchen had oodles of counter space and it still collected stuff. That's a me problem though, not a kitchen problem.
I'm not necessarily sure this applies to kitchens and houses tbh. I get what you're saying though.
So this might have been a mistake in the pictures I originally posted, or you might have sussed it out already...but the two floorplans show a set of sliding doors in the closed position. Those doors will be open 99.9% of the time. Since they're open, I honestly don't feel the flow suffers that much. Coming from the mud room to the kitchen, we'd have to walk around the island with groceries anyway, and it's literally zero extra steps. It's only a form problem, because we have a wall at the end of the island rather than an opening. It's my take that even if the wall wasn't there, the flow isnt' impacted at all.
Using your example of yours and @DasVWBabe with the Groceries coming from the mudroom, what is the biggest difference between these two options?
1. Red is as we have it now, with our existing plan.
2. Blue is with removal of the wall the peninsula is anchored to.
I'm still not getting why it's lazy or how we are saving space by turning the peninsula into the island. I totally understand the visual aspect, and how the wall is sort of making it seem like you're walking into the dining room to get to the other side of the island...but you're literally not taking any more steps (maybe 1 or 2) than if the wall wasn't there. We would never skimp on the size of the island if the wall wasn't there, so why should we cut off 15 square feet of counter space when you're not actually saving any steps?
As far as the 4' of counter space, I don't think that matters. Prep will never be performed on that side of the island, at the short end. I get what you're saying, but if I'm prepping at that side of the island, i'm prepping from the long side, not the short side. I'm closer to the fridge, sink, cook top, etc. I'll literally never stand at the end of the island to prep. Also, if you're cutting off that 30+ inches, you're effectively losing ALL prep space that you'd have right near the fridge. How do you reconcile the "less prep room argument" with recommending shaving off 30 lineal inches of a 4' deep island? Not only that, but you know how cooking is. You have a large pot or a large pan, your sink is filling up...you need a spot to put things temporarily. They're definitely going next to the sink on that side, so if you cut 30" off, you're left with a dishes-only area. Lets face it, nobody'll be prepping from left of the sink (Kitchen view).
And that's a great question about the sink. We have it in there right now because we had a coffee center at our last house with a small sink next to it, and we used that sink so much more than we expected. What this model doesn't show is that we're likely getting rid of that cabinet next to the counter top.
Here's version of the "Small" island with the X'd out cabinet we likely won't have in the final version.
We have 205 square feet in our kitchen. This is what one 15th of 205 square feet looks like.
Volodomyr Barabakh probably has a ton of great ideas and guidelines, but i'm not sure if this is a real sharp one. not for this application anyway.
Edit: the island's going to be more like 4'-0 x 12'-6". We narrowed it a little, and that's not reflected in any of these drawings.
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