Property Ladder and island units

Sarah Beeny was very anti island units on Property Ladder and as I am thinking about putting in an island unit in my kitchen (though it won't be for a year or two yet) I thought I'd ask what other peoples experiences are cos I've not lived with an island before.

My kitchen is quite large and at the moment I seem to spend a lot of time traipsing from one side of the room to the other as I move between sink and hob and fridge and an island unit would bring things much closer together. I would design the kitchen so there is nothing 'kitcheny' on the other side of the island because I expect it would be extremely irritating to have to walk _around_ the island all the time.

So what does Sarah Beeny have against island units? I find her ideas to be mostly very sensible but I can't figure this one out.

Anna

-- ~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plasterwork, plaster conservation / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling and pargeting |____|

formatting link
07976 649862

Reply to
Anna Kettle
Loading thread data ...

Didn't understand it myself. I assume her concern was over filling up the room too much, but that didn't seem to be the case there, circulation and socialising space had not been impacted.

Can't really be that different to having a table.

Reply to
Toby

That's exactly it - it's very different to having a table.

Her (very valid, IMHO) point was that when developing a property to sell, you want to leave the space as flexible as possible, while minimising your expenditure/profit ratio.

If you slap an island unit in the middle of the kitchen, you might absolutely love it, but others may not. For those who don't, it restricts what they can do with the floor space significantly. It means they can't have it empty if that's what they want, and they can't put a table there if they want to.

Obviously they can remove the unit, but it will either leave an uncovered floor (who'd tile under their unit?) or leave fixing holes in the floor.

In Anna's case, because she's not selling the place, she should do whatever she wants - flexibility is less of an issue, because it's for her use.

Reply to
Grunff

I saw a great island in a mag somewhere. basically two 600 base units mounted on a base with castors (big rubber wheeled ones like on a pallett truck). It was only for storage and as a giant chopping block. With some thought possibly the idea could be adapted for a fridge?

Tony

Reply to
enuff

Actually its not.

We have our kitchen as a U shaped bit interruped by a door up one end of the room I ended up bending the end of te 'U' inwards as a peninsula to separate the cokking from eating area.

In the middle of the 'U' is a kitchen table.

Its fabulous, because all the prep work happens there not around the edges. Isntead of teh classic triangle of cooker/food store/sink its a star...with teh prep arae (or didrty dish stacking area) in the middle.

Contraiwise, sister in lwas place has bult in island, and dreadful layout with not enough room around it, and yes, its vile because you keep bumping into teh rddy cetral thingy, and due to poorly planned storage, it is always covered with s**te, and so useless as a work surface.

My comclusion us that it depends on wheher the space is large enough, and on the detailed planning of the rest of the kitchen.

In a smalle to m,edieum kitchen avoid it like the plague. You need at least a meter cklear walkway in a kicthen, and preferably nerarer two. If that is not achievable with an island - which menas a kitchen at least 4.5m square, then forget it.

Tables are in many ways more useful, as they can be moved, or removed if they don't work out.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

That sounds interesting. It was what I was contemplating. I don't suppose anyone knows of any designs/photos?

TIA Colin

Reply to
Colin

Her opinion was that it lost you flexibility in that (eg) it prevented you from bringing a 20-seat table into the kitchen for Xmas dinner or whatever.

Whether you agree with that is up to you; but friends of ours have an island unit (in an admittedly very expensive kitchen) which is actually moveable if need be, although to look at it you'd never know. I think it includes flush floor lecky sockets hidden underneath, which feed sockets at worktop level.

I actually quite like the thing, not that I'm a cook but for social reasons; people tend to congregate around them, using it like the bar of a pub.

David

Reply to
Lobster

I find the same for peninsulars. Instead of people hanging around the doorway, they tend to congragate around the peninsular. I think they are better than sqeezing in an island because they leave the main working area of the kitchen clear, and also divide the room nicely. It all depends on the size and shape of the room, I guess.

Mal

Reply to
Bob

Sorry, can;t even remember when let lone whast mag. But I remember it had six castors about 4 inches round with a rubber "tyre" for want of a better description. They had locks on them so it could be made stable. It looked like a thick ply base with the cabinets on top and that was about it.

HTH

Tony

Reply to
enuff

"enuff" wrote | > > I saw a great island in a mag somewhere. basically two 600 | > > base units mounted on a base with castors (big rubber wheeled | > > ones like on a pallett truck). | > That sounds interesting. It was what I was contemplating. I don't | > suppose anyone knows of any designs/photos? | Sorry, can;t even remember when let lone whast mag. But I remember it had | six castors about 4 inches round with a rubber "tyre" for want of a better | description. They had locks on them so it could be made stable. It looked | like a thick ply base with the cabinets on top and that was about it.

Habitat and Next do free-standing kitchen units; I'm not sure if they're sufficiently braced to withstand being pushed around on castors.

They are on the pricey side though.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

B+Q do castors and feature legs that fix to their standard units. eg

Reply to
John Armstrong

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.