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It’s time to makeover your kitchen, and you’re ready to do a complete overhaul. You hope to make it a more user-friendly space, but you’d also like to give it a luxurious feel. As you think through the design, form, and function of your new kitchen, there’s one element you might want to consider adding that will completely change the way you cook and entertain: a kitchen island.
The Benefits of Adding a Kitchen Island
While expensive cooking ranges and large sinks are wonderful, there are few elements to any kitchen that are more multi-purpose than a kitchen island. Here are a few reasons why homeowners love them.
Kitchen Islands Are Amazing for Additional Work Space
If your counter-top space has been feeling cramped, you may want to consider an island to give you a bit more room to stretch out. Especially if you like to cook big meals, entertain, or do things that require a bit of space like bake large batches of cookies or make homemade pasta, an island can totally transform your entire experience in the kitchen.
They Provide More Storage
Without a kitchen island, you’re limited to whatever storage space you have in your current cabinets and pantry. A kitchen island provides a huge opportunity for additional storage — from drawers and cabinets to a pull-out trash bin. You can use one side of the island for storage or even build it in all the way around!
Kitchen Islands Work as Extra Seating
In addition to creating more storage and work space, kitchen islands are wonderful to use for extra seating. This comes in handy if you need to cook dinner while you help the kids with their homework or if you’d like a casual seating space for guests when you’re entertaining.
They Allow You to Interact With Your Family and Guests
In an island-less kitchen setup, when you’re prepping and cooking, you’re forced to have your back toward everyone else is in the room. With a kitchen island, you can face whoever’s in the kitchen chatting and hanging out with you. Islands can be designed any way you like, whether you’d simply want it as a work-space to prep or would like to include a sink or even a cook-top. There are no limits!
Avoid Common Kitchen Island Pitfalls
Building a kitchen island can seem simple, causing many people to attempt a DIY island project instead of hiring a contractor. Taking on big projects alone is one of the most common home remodeling mistakes and we advise against it for a variety of reasons. First of all, design is key when installing something as eye-catching as an island in your kitchen. If it’s too large, it will not only look awkward; it’ll mess up your flow and ability to move easily in and around your kitchen. If your kitchen island is too small, you won’t get the benefit you were hoping for and it may even look silly.
Even more worrisome are the internal elements that go into kitchen island installation. When you start to move the footprint of a kitchen or bathroom around, you enter the world of things such as plumbing and electricity. If your island will contain a sink (some do) or electrical outlets (which we recommend for plugging in things like electric mixers and food processors), it’s important to have a professional install the plumbing and wiring for these. Failing to do so could result in an inconvenience such as flooding or something more serious like an electrical fire.
Working with an experienced contractor helps ensure that everything is properly designed and laid out, as well as installed properly and up to code. A contractor will also talk with you to find out how you typically use your kitchen in order to offer creative solutions and ideas that you may have never considered.
