Kitchen Islands offer more space for cooking, cleaning, and preparing food, along with additional storage and cabinets to store cookware. When adding a large object like an Island to your kitchen, you need to consider the space available.
A poorly placed cooktop on the island can make cooking difficult. The island’s placement of the cooktops can make it difficult to prepare meals, while poorly placed outlets could violate code. Learn how to design, space, and place your Kitchen Island, including its peripheral services.
Tip
Give your island cabinets a unique finish, and top it with a countertop that is different. This will add visual interest to the design.
Kitchen Island Dimensions and Space
Size the island around usable clearances rather than a fixed percentage of kitchen floor area. The kitchen island should not be too large. It will dominate the space, make it hard to move around, and create a visual distraction.
A 4-foot-by-7-foot island occupies 28 square feet in a 10-foot-by-13-foot kitchen. Whether it fits depends on the surrounding cabinets, appliances, and clearances. In this example, the island takes up more than 20 percent of the total kitchen space.
Measure the clear space around the proposed countertop before choosing a smaller island. NKBA recommends work aisles of at least 42 inches for one cook or 48 inches for multiple cooks. Its walkway recommendation is at least 36 inches; seating and accessibility may need more room. These are planning recommendations, and local requirements may differ.
Tip
Plan your island using the kitchen triangle concept. Triangles have three points: the refrigerator, the sink and the cooktop. NKBA recommends triangle legs of 4 to 9 feet, totaling no more than 26 feet. The triangle in the kitchen is designed to maximize efficiency and promote easy workflow.
Choose the island dimensions to fit the planned cabinets, appliances, and clearances. Check the actual cabinet and countertop dimensions before ordering.
Place a small, temporary table in your kitchen island space to experiment with the size. Tape cardboard to the surface of the table to expand it visually to match the size of your intended island. Use a stable cardboard mock-up to test the planned countertop height and any seating overhang. You can also use large cardboard boxes to simulate the mass and size of a kitchen isle.
Kitchen Island Stove and Cooktop Planning
If the main cooking area is occupied, a stove or cooktop on or in the island will give you more working space, extra burners and an alternate cooking area. Not only do centralized stoves make the kitchen more social, but they also create an atmosphere that is conducive to conversation.
Check how far you will travel between the island and the other work areas. Some cooks may be frustrated by this back and forth across the aisle. They are used to a classic triangle-shaped work area that includes the sink, counter, and stove.
A kitchen island with a cooktop is a good option for such cooks. The primary stove will still be in the countertop area.
Have a qualified installer plan the island cooktop’s electrical or gas supply for the chosen appliance. Confirm the service route before committing to the island position; do not assume a concrete slab must be removed.
Kitchen Island Hood and Exhaust Planning
Smoke detectors and burning food can seriously ruin the experience of cooking, as well as eating. Plan ventilation for the island cooktop as well as any perimeter cooking area. A vent is used to exhaust smoke and cooking smells outside, either through the side wall or the roof.
The kitchen islands do not have easy access to electrical power or venting because they are not near walls. Ventilation can be done either upwards or downwards.
Kitchen Island Upward Venting
In kitchen islands, hoods are often installed over stoves and cooktops. The hood is mounted on the ceiling. The vent can continue straight up to the roof, or turn and go in a different direction. Plan the electrical supply separately from the exhaust duct route.
Check the hood’s installation instructions when planning an overhead exhaust route. You will be stuck with a vent and hood in the middle.
Kitchen Island Downward Venting
Smoke and odors may be vented downward when island upward venting cannot or is not desired.
Some cooktops use downdraft ventilation; a ducted system must carry the exhaust outdoors, not discharge it into a crawlspace.
The aesthetics of downward venting on a cooktop are best, since the hood is not hanging over the area where you’re cooking. Performance depends on the selected ventilation system and its installation. Check that the selected system meets the cooktop manufacturer’s instructions and local requirements.
Kitchen Island Receptacles
In U.S. jurisdictions using the 2023 NEC, an island receptacle may be omitted, but provision for a future one is required. Have an electrician confirm the locally adopted code edition, amendments, GFCI protection, and permitted receptacle locations.
The first-9-square-feet/each-additional-18-square-feet rule belongs to the 2020 NEC; the 2023 NEC removed that area-based requirement. Check the applicable local rules before using an outlet-count example. See NFPA’s explanation of the NEC changes.
Kitchen Island Storage Space
Kitchen islands make great storage spaces. Kitchen base cabinets can be shelved or open on the inside.
Add drawers, slide-outs, lazy-susans and shelves to maximize this island’s storage space.
In general, the larger the space is, the less useful it is as storage. You may want to hire a carpenter if you don’t have any woodworking experience. They can build shelves, drawers and sliders. You can also buy semi-custom cabinets to fit your needs.
Pairing Kitchen Islands with Freestanding Kitchen Islands
Think outside the box if your island kitchen doesn’t have enough space.
A quick fix is to replace the permanent island in your kitchen with a rolling or tabletop kitchen island. You get the extra counterspace you need, with a plan to escape. You can move the island to another area of the kitchen, or even the rest of the home if you decide you do not like it.
Tip
When both counter surfaces of the islands are flat, they pair well with freestanding islands. You can measure the height in person with a measuring tape or online.
Each surface should have a unique value. A freestanding island equipped with a large butcher’s block could be used exclusively for cutting meat and vegetables.
A permanent island can include receptacles where the applicable electrical rules permit them. Confirm the outlet plan with your electrician before ordering the cabinets.