Recommended gap between kitchen units and island

Innys

Hi everyone,

I woul just like your views. I am designing my kitchen and am wondering what the recommended gap between kitchen units and an island.

According to item 6 in this link, the gap should be at least 105cm (42 inches).

http://www.kitchens.com/design/layouts/NKBA-guidelines.aspx?ekmensel=c580fa7b_1921_0_3902_6

I visited Magnet today to get an idea of clearances in real life and no island was more than 95cm from a worktop. A difference of 10cm may not sound like much, but if I can get away with less than 105cm, it well help me with the design no end.

Do any MSEers out there have an island in their kitchen? If so, how far is it from their kitchen units and is the gap enough?

Thanks

latecomer

The only thing to watch is that you must have a certain clearance in front of your oven/cooker - think it was 100cm.

loucroft

Hello this is news to me, because I had three quotes about 20 months ago that each said 'no, you can't do that because...' and between three of them they said 70cms - 80 cms at least

Could this be because they're islands were built to a certain size, and that they were trying to get me to buy a bigger size then? Because I've still got one number that I was happy with, hmmm

Try calling a trusted local fair trader ( find contacts on your local council website ) and getting them to quote you too, they will be up to the minute on standards like this

Hope that helps

QTPie

Recently had a kitchen designed and they said 105/110 minimum for a good/practical design.

You want a certain amount of space for people to be able to move past each other. Also depends what you have in/around it: can you stand there and open the doors/drawers fully (especially something like an oven/dishwasher...).

benood

Watch out for the dishwasher door - this was always a bit of a problem with an island we had, luckily we spotted the issue beforehand and reduced the island a bit, even so it was a squeeze but at least you could get by when the door was open instead of having to hurdle it.

Loganfire

I use to design kitchens and have done many islands the more space you can allow the better but the min I ever did was 800mm this was to allow two people to get passed each other, however I always informed the customers and told them the pro's and con's and in some case refused work when the customer wanted the impossible. The NKBA Guidelines are a good guide so if you can allow more space the better.

Note

The main reason NKBA have said a min distance is to allow for oven doors and dishwashers and hobs and allowed room for you to get passed so if your island is near these items then you do need to make sure there well over a meter away if not 800mm is fine.

QTPie

And 800mm may allow your standard person to pass by another standard person who they don't mind getting city with, but waistlines are expanding these days...

Think carefully about the space and how you will use it too. We went for a peninsula in the end (instead of an island): just had a baby and, one way or another, an island would probably proven an irresistible thing to race around for the next 10 years...

QT

googler

Innys wrote: »

I am designing my kitchen and am wondering what the recommended gap between kitchen units and an island.

....

I visited Magnet today to get an idea of clearances in real life and no island was more than 95cm from a worktop. A difference of 10cm may not sound like much, but if I can get away with less than 105cm, it well help me with the design no end.

Enough to allow doors on both sides of the gap to open, plus some extra. It's down to you if you want to be able to walk past the doors when they're open or whether you're happy with having to close a door to get past it.

Also depending on how you want to use the kitchen, how many people are usually in your kitchen, and which appliances are in this gap area - you may want to leave enough space for two people to pass each other side-by-side - so two shoulders' width, in other words...... you don't want to build it then find you're bumping in to each other all the time.

The Magnet showroom is no more 'real-life' than their catalogue. They don't build working kitchens in their showroom, they build something to entice you to buy.......

ormus

i would have thought that a minimum of 36ins/1m would be about right.

[Deleted User]

Don't forget to leave enough room to bend down as your bum will stick out. I know this sounds daft, but if you have a freestanding oven and need to get something out of the bottom oven which is close to the floor you need room to open the door and to bend down too. Humans are wider bending down than when standing - I'm not saying you have a big bum!

Before we renovated our kitchen we had to have the table in the middle of the room. It was too close to the cooker and everytime I got something out of the oven I caught my back or bum on the edge of the table standing up.

Meepster

Well, considering the NKBA is American, you can generally ignore their "guidelines" as they have no relevence to the regulations over here.

But to answer the question, 800mm is the minimum distance you should have between kitchen cabinets, to allow two people to pass each other safely.