At Home Tales, we create beautiful house extensions in London and provide a fantastic service to all our clients. We cover anything from internal refurbishments to ground floor and roof extensions. Evidently, side return extensions in London free up a ton of space, often allowing for a roomy kitchen set up. The layout of a new kitchen must be carefully considered, as a poorly organised space runs the risk of clunky circulation around the room.

Homeowners often bring up the idea of adding a kitchen island, as it has become a highly sought-after feature in modern homes. This freestanding unit could serve all your kitchen needs (and then some) and is the perfect focal point in an open plan kitchen and dining area. These can be complicated to design due to its wide range of styles, shapes, and sizes that allow it to be configured in an endless number of ways. In today’s post, we wanted to explore what the purpose of a kitchen island is and cover a select few layouts of the many configurations available for a kitchen extension. We want to ensure you have all the facts before making any decisions.

Things to consider

A kitchen island can be a wonderful addition to any kitchen. It is a multi-purpose free-standing unit that accompanies the rest of the kitchen units. By introducing this transitional feature, it makes the kitchen more interactive with the rest of the house.

There are a number of things to consider before picking the size and design of your future kitchen island. Most importantly, do you have enough space for one? Typically, a room with a width of 5 metres can fit a standard 1 by 2 metre island. It is advised to leave a 1 metre clearance between the island and the other kitchen counters or appliances to prevent accidents. There are alternatives available for smaller spaces, but we must avoid creating any safety hazards, especially around an active stove. How many people live in the house? For small families, a quaint breakfast bar or 1 by 1 metre island would work perfectly. Larger households may want to prioritise a proportionally large kitchen island to be able to seat everyone at once.

What appliances do you absolutely need, and what do you really want in your home? There are some essentials that you would need to add, such as a large kitchen sink, dishwasher, or stove. Figuring out what the main purpose of the new island is imperative. You should observe whether: your kitchen requires more storage, you want to create an amazing entertainment area, or you honestly just need some built-in bin space to accommodate all the cooking you’re doing. A few of our clients have even added luxury appliances to their islands. The market offers traditional and modern kitchen designs with matching kitchen islands; on the other hand, you may want to create a statement piece that still ties in with your kitchen but stands out through its décor. This may look like a bold colour or change of material. Oftentimes our clients opt to hang pendant lighting above their island to create a beautifully intimate social space.

Food preparation

Place your kitchen sink on your new island to clearly keep each task separate. When washing up, you’re able to socialise and enjoy the television or garden view. We’ve placed the wine fridge towards the access point of the room to highlight it as a main feature, making it especially great for hosting guests for dinner. Why not show off a bit? Alternatively, as the outer edge of the kitchen island is the first thing you see when walking in, it would be a good idea to include shelving on this side or an integrated bench.

This layout is also perfect for keeping all food preparation away from the cooking station. You can wash and cut your vegetables on the island, then turn around to whip up your meal. This makes it easier to keep your kitchen organised and clean. Why not add a butcher’s block as part of your countertop so your kitchen isn’t cluttered with cutting boards and unnecessary accessories?

Entertaining

If you love a good get-together and are looking to host plenty of guests in your new kitchen extension, this type of layout may work best for you. Having your stove on the kitchen island is a real show stopper, as you can interact with guests while they watch you cook. When there is no concern about getting enough storage space, make your island an entertainer’s dream by adding appliances such as a wine fridge or by installing shelves of cookbooks and cool cooking gadgets. In this case, it’s important to keep your most exciting features in clear view! We love the circulation in this plan, as there are no awkward corners and everyone can get the most of the garden view. The cook has clear view of the whole room.

Breakfast bar

For homes that do not have the luxury of a spacious kitchen, there are effective alternative options. Adding a peninsula to your kitchen gives you most of the benefits of an island, though it is attached and no longer freestanding. It connects to your main counter and is aptly named as in Latin, peninsula literally translates to “almost island”. This spot is ideal for a breakfast bar and promotes a social space where the person cooking can interact with anyone stopping by for a quick snack. A breakfast bar allows for your informal dining space to be separate from a formal dining space. This means the kids will not have to do their homework or have their snack at the dinner table.

In conclusion, a kitchen island can be a huge benefit to any kitchen that can fit one, especially in an open plan space as it helps to reinforce this specific cooking zone. They can be designed to fit most layouts and can really provide that extra bit of storage, appliance or counter space that you are looking for.

As an architectural firm, we produce all types of home renovations across London. If you would like to discuss a prospective project with us, our team would love to hear from you. We can be contacted on 02070432378 or via email at hello@hometales.co.uk. To book a free telephone consultation through our website, please click here.