The days of minimal kitchen islands – no larger than you need to rest your phone, a cup of coffee and perhaps a muffin – appear to be behind us. Kitchen design trend articles are highlighting truly massive kitchen islands – large enough to seat eight comfortably along three sides while the cook holds court at the fourth, chatting with guests while cleaning vegetables. It’s a lovely idea if you have an enormous question – but for the majority of Hopkinton homeowners who have kitchens that are neither miniscule nor enormous, what’s the best size for a kitchen island?
Ask any kitchen design consultant worth their salt and they’ll tell you there’s no one right answer for every family. The key to right-sizing your kitchen island is to begin by understanding how you’d like to use it.
This is where we see the move to larger kitchen islands begin. The pandemic kept families home and busy, most often in the kitchen. Larger islands provide a setting for remote learning, working from home, playing board games, and chowing down on whatever the Ubereats driver delivered.
They’re also wonderful for the serious cook – if you’ve ever tried to stretch strudel dough, you know how nice it is to have plenty of room to work with. Cookie making, jam preparation, and similar production style cooking becomes much easier when you have a large enough surface to accommodate your needs.
And then there’s the issue of how many people will be eating at the island, and how often this will occur. The family of six needs a lot more space than the couple. This has a direct impact on island size.
You’ll want to talk to your kitchen design consultant about what type of functionality you’d like to have in your island. Whether that’s a built in sink, dishwasher, drawer refrigerators, or just simple storage, your island should do more for you than just sit there.