Designing your kitchen with an island space would help add style and functionality to your cooking area. Go through the article, to know how to design your kitchen island.

Designing Your Kitchen Island

Gone are the days when a kitchen used to be the most boring area of your house. Today, the room is synonyms with style and functionality. One way to add a modern and contemporary feel to your kitchen would be by installing a kitchen island. A kitchen island is basically a vacation retreat of a kitchen space, vastly expanding its design potential and convenience. From doubling up as extra work surface and informal dining station to being a freestanding piece of furniture with base cabinets and countertop workspace, a kitchen island has surely come of age. In case you want to remodel your kitchen or are thinking of ways of styling it up in your new home, this article would be of immense help. Given in the following lines are ideas for designing your kitchen island.
 
How To Design Your Kitchen Island 
  • First of all, you need to decide the purpose of the kitchen island. Is it a mere decorative piece of furniture or a storage space, or a space wherein you can install additional things?
  • Once this is decided, the next step would be to plan the budget of the kitchen island. The amount of money you shell out would determine the type of material, finish, styling and designing that you can have for your kitchen island.
  • As for designing, much would be dependent upon the size of the kitchen. While mostly, a kitchen island is used as an extra workstation, adding to the usefulness of the work triangle or corridor kitchen, sometimes, it is also used as a low, casual divider, in between the kitchen and the dinning room.
  • Whatever be your motto, get an island piece that offers hidden cabinets, open shelves, or a combination of the two, in addition to another work surface.   
  • The height of the island would be the next consideration for you to make. You can either go for the same height as your kitchen countertops or choose to have a higher or lower work surface. It would be wise to subtract an inch from the total height measurement. This will allow for adding the countertop later on.
  • The next step would be to choose the surface type of the island. In case you want the kitchen island as an additional space for cutting and chopping purposes, get a butcher-block surface. The other options would be to get a tiled surface, or even a solid granite or quartz surface.
  • In case you do not have sufficient space in your kitchen, use the island to add a second dishwasher, a microwave or even an under-cabinet wall oven.
  • You can even employ a second sink in the kitchen island. This would serve as a great opportunity for you to complete the task of cleaning, while talking to the family members.  
  • If money is not the criteria, you can even install a wine rack, a gourmet wine chiller, an under-cabinet refrigerator or an ice-maker in your kitchen island.
  • For those who love cooking, an ideal kitchen island would be one that has a cooking surface. You would then have a number of choices to choose from, where the source of fuel might be electric, gas or propane. Make sure you consider the ventilation as well.
  • Another option would be to house special appliance shelves in your kitchen island. These shelves can be pulled out and up whenever you need to use an appliance. This may be a convenient feature for your island design, as well.
  • In case you do not have sufficient seating space in your kitchen, model the island in such a way that one of its ends (preferably, the one towards living room) has room for people to sit.
  • Lastly, decide whether your kitchen island would be stationary or movable. While the former works well for larger kitchens, the latter serves the purpose in case of smaller ones. This would allow you to roll the island to any corner of your kitchen.

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