kitchen design question

arty68

Hello,

I currently building a house and we are at the kitchen design stage. We had quotes/designs from local companies but they seem to disagree on whether we have enough room for an island. So I thought I would ask the great and the good in this forum what id the minimum acceptable distance between unit and an island?

If it helps the kitchen will be 4.0m x 4.0m leading into an open plan dining/living area so I don't want a table in the kitchen.

My opinion is without an island there will be too large area of floor area in the middle of the kitchen.

Cheers,

dander

Personally I think if some people say there is not enough room for an island, then they are almost certainly right - but I'm really not a fan of island units unless they are in huge spaces. I think if you are going to be weaving along corridor like spaces between units then it's going to be an awkward and annoying space to work in. I'm much rather have a big space in the middle so I can move around the kitchen easily without endlessly bruising my hips on random units.

beaker141

I once had an architect round who advised he would always leave a 1m minimum space between island and units. With units either side at 0.6 =1.2 + 2*1 = 3.2 woudl give you an island of just 0.8m wide so perhaps not enough.

Could you bring one side out with some form of peninsula unit for a breakfast bar type effect?

latecomer

I'm sure when we were talking about having an island we were told you needed to have a certain clearance by law although I dont remember what the figure was. Why not mark the layout on the kitchen floor (if its already built) or anywhere thats big enough and then see what you think of the space.

We haven't yet decided what to do but both the kitchen planners we have talked to said there was room for an island in ours. The approx size of ours was 2x1.2m and the kitchen is 5.3 x 3.8m if that helps.

edgex

you can quite easily work it out

take your smallest dimension, which you have as 4.0m
a unit on one side = 0.6m
+ a drawer open = 0.5m
+ walking space = 0.5m (min)

so thats 1.6m each side, *2 = 3.2m
island depth of 0.8m

thats not an island, & you wouldnt be able to access any of the island units at the same time as units on the wall side, as there wouldnt be enough space to open the doors or drawers into.