KITCHEN ISLANDS

If you've got room in your kitchen for an island we stongly recommend that you include one in your kitchen design. If your kitchen is already finished but needs a little extra something, consider adding a kitchen island cart.

The kitchen island is a wonderful multi-purpose area that allows for the function of numerous kitchen duties and frees up the space throughout the rest of the kitchen. It's a common gathering place for visitors, especially if seating is available. It's a great place for kids to do homework, it provides additional space for large cooking projects and more. Modern houses are now putting the range and stovetop in the island, and even the dishwasher and an additional sink depending on how the rest of the kitchen is laid out.

Kitchen islands are appropriately named as they truly are an island. They require their own seperate electrical wiring, their own overhead lighting and storage considerations. If you don't have room for a full blown island to be permanently built in the middle of the room, then you can get a mobile kitchen cart to serve a similar purpose while spending less money and gaining the flexibility of a mobile workstation.

When building a permanent island in the kitchen you'll want to consider how much walking space is available around it, and whether it will obstruct the use of any surrounding cabinets or appliances. For instance, if you have a dishwasher that would open close enough to the island that you are no longer able to walk around it, you would then have a hazard in the middle of the flow of kitchen traffic.  Be sure to allow for enough space to people to walk easily.

Many people will either put specialty lighting above their islands or hang a pot rack to give them great overhead storage and display for their cookware sets. If you've chosen to use a kitchen cart you'll want to abandon both of those notions as you'd have an out of place item hanging in the room whenever the cart was moved to a different area or an out of the way space.
In that case your lighting should be either recessed bulbs or just don't add anything.

A kitchen island is a great way to gain a tremendous amount of kitchen storage. Even with just a cart you'll have additional drawers, cubby holes and cabinet space for storing essential tools in out of the way places. Gaining the additional workspace will probably require you to rethink how to use your kitchen as some projects will be shifted to the center island area.

How do you know if you should get the cart or build a permanent structure? Try this: put a regular table that is about the size of your ideal island size and work around it for a month or two. If it doesn't get in your way and you find it to be helpful then you're a good candidate for adding this feature to your home. If you find that it's constantly in the way but you like the additional benefits, then the flexibility of a cart is probably what you need. If you simply hate having something in the middle of your kitchen then keep it area open.