To have a kitchen island or not? Some insist they bring people together; for others they are a waste of prime floor space. It’s one of the most hotly-debated subjects in kitchen design today with experts on both sides of the fence having very strongly-held ideas. We asked two such experts to share their insights. The final decision, though, is yours…
‘Kitchen islands are overrated’
Interiors writer Busola Evans has long been campaigning against her biggest kitchen bugbear
Five years ago, in my self-appointed role as a kitchen curator on Instagram (in my defence, my real job as an interiors writer involves looking at a lot of them), I voiced my long-held ambivalence towards the kitchen island, describing them as largely ‘big soulless slabs plonked in a room, acting more like an obstruction than anything else’. The most memorable response simply read: ‘You’re wrong.’ Now, more people are questioning their purpose, and I’ve never felt more right.
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Kitchen islands are as overrated as they are expensive. They are cumbersome, take up an inordinate amount of floor space and are often tricky to navigate with the hazardous mix of small children, pets and hot pans. One of the most parroted arguments for them is that they make convivial gathering spots. Yes, people may be drawn to an island (because, quite frankly, one can hardly ignore it), but there is nothing less encouraging of inclusive conversation than guests sitting in a line like a Westlife tribute act.
Talking of which, seating is always perilous – and I am doubtful anyone has had their best meal with feet dangling from an uncomfortable bar stool, hoping another glass of wine won’t make them topple into A&E. The desire of any host to cook while facing guests has a whiff of narcissism. Unless you are actually Jamie Oliver, there’s very little need for an audience and conversation doesn’t have to be curbed.
More storage is a more valid argument, but a truly well-designed kitchen shouldn’t have to rely on an island to resolve that problem. I have never had a kitchen island and wouldn’t, even if I did have the space. If it’s a sociable spot I want or just a dumping ground for keys, there is a better and cheaper alternative: a good old-fashioned table.
‘A kitchen island is the epicentre of the kitchen’
For cookery author and columnist Skye McAlpine, it’s a must-have for a sociable space
I’ve always wanted to have a kitchen island: it somehow says ‘proper grown-up-kitchen’. The pros are obvious: extra surface area to cook on (which, when you’re both as keen and as messy a cook as I am, comes in very useful), and extra storage space – ours, for example, has a shelf underneath where I store pots, pans, mixing bowls and so on, as well as a drawer for chopping boards and kitchen knives. I also like to dress our island prettily with colourful hand-painted jugs from my brand, Tavola (either filled with flowers or even empty), and with bowls of fresh fruit and vegetables. But the magic of the kitchen island, I have found, is that it’s the epicentre of the kitchen: people naturally gravitate to it.
Kitchen islands have a force all of their own. When I’m cooking, that’s where I choose to centre myself, and everything else happens around me: pots bubbling away on the stove, cakes baking in the oven… But also, when I make breakfast for my sons, or when we have a quick and easy, improvised kitchen supper (scrambled eggs on toast, peanut butter sandwiches or what have you), we tend to eat at the kitchen island. They sit on high stools, while I can simultaneously be with them and busy myself buttering toast.
Often those kitchen-island meals are my favourites, because they have an informality and cosiness that doesn’t quite happen at the dining table in the same way. A similar principle applies when I host dinner parties: on the island I always lay out bowls of nuts, olives, crisps, a hunk of cheese with a little dish of honey for dipping, and guests gather round with their drinks, nibbling and chatting amongst themselves, and to me, while I toss the salad and do whatever I have to do to get dinner on the table.
