Dreaming about a modern and spacious kitchen with island?
You are not alone. In fact, kitchens with island are one of the big trends for kitchen design for 2022, and this year also showed how rising is the demand for kitchen island designs.
|| Wandering which ones were the big kitchen trends of 2021? Have a look here
We’ve been asked to design another big living room space ( have you seen this other project of an open space living room design we shared last month?) and here the very first request by the client was to have a kitchen island. That’s why that was our starting point – and why we are sharing this to give some advices to you, who are looking for easy tips to design a kitchen island.
Go ahead and let us know what you think connecting on Instagram @italianbark
INTERIOR TIPS
How to design a kitchen island
This layout is part of a new house in Treviso for a family of three – two adults and a child, all developed on one ground level. The left side of the ground floor is occupied by a wide open space, organized between entrance and open living+kitchen. My clients’ first desire was to have a kitchen with island – that would have to be in an original and tactile finish.
We designed an industrial style interior in cement and wood, where the kitchen island is covered in a recovered wood and it’s the focal point of the space. These are the steps we followed to develop the kitchen island design.
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Kitchen Island Design Step 1
Choose the right layout
Once decided the area where to locate the kitchen, we considered some different options of layout. The kitchen island is always located on the opposite wall from the entrance, with a linear kitchen on the back. We gained the space also for a pantry: in option one, on both sides of the kitchen, in option two on the left side, on the third option it’s located on the right.
In all the three options, the kitchen island is centered in relation to the kitchen cabinets on the back, and to the window, that was still not defined – as this house is a new construction. So the very first tip when designing a kitchen island is to think about its layout always in relation to the other elements you have in the space – this will ensure a good use of space and flow in the kitchen, and also the creation of nice perspectives that will add value to your kitchen design.
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Kitchen Island Design Step 2
Choose the right dimensions
Together with the room layout, when designing a kitchen island you have also to think carefully about the kitchen island dimensions.
It may sounds obvious but make sure you can move around the island and work in the kitchen without difficulties: the negative space – the space between furniture – is as important as the size of the unit itself. An easy rule to remember when designing a kitchen island is to allow at least 1 meter between cabinets and kitchen to move around easily.
A good-size island usually range from about 2m to 3m long and 1m to 1.5m wide, or even bigger. While a smaller kitchen island is not the case – maybe better think about a different solution if you don’t have space enough, for example a peninsula kitchen layout.
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Kitchen Island Design Step 3
Think about where to put the appliances – and the kitchen hood
Once defined the kitchen general layout, it’s time to consider the position of the appliances – where the stoves will be, and other additional features.
You have always to consider that, together with the stoves, you have to set up the kitchen hood. Traditional kitchen hoods can have also beautiful designs and become a focal piece of your kitchen design – also, consider that it will be in the middle of the room, so you are definitely going to see your hood a lot – so choose it carefully.
In the case you want to have a free space on top of your island to place some beautiful lights, maybe you can consider about an extractor hood integrated in the kitchen island. In this project, for example, we choose a Bosa extraxtor hood, that fits inside the kitchen tops and allowed us to set up a chandelier over all the kitchen island.
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Kitchen Island Design Step 4
Choose the right style and materials
Last, once decided about the layout, the dimensions and all the appliances, it’s time for the fun part – thinking about colors and materials. As for all the elements of an interior design ( remember when talking about choosing the tiles for a bathroom here? ) the starting point is always thinking about the style/mood you would like for your home, and do your choices according to that.
In this case, my clients loved industrial style interiors and we choose as a start a resin flooring with cement effect. On the living room and the entrance as well, cement effect is used also on walls, so for the kitchen island the choice went to a very warm and at the same time impactful finish in wood. In particular, this kitchen by Veneta Cucine is covered with a wood called “barrique”, that is an oak recovered from old barrels, with a very raw and vintage look. To create a contrast with the island and add value to it, we choose a dark solid finish ( anthracite ) for all the back cabinets, and a top+ backsplash in dark quartz. This “dark” niche also create a very nice contrast with the long windows, that overlook the countryside.
Here the moodboard and some interior views of the kitchen + living space.
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