How to Design a Kitchen Island
If you’re redesigning your kitchen, whether you’ve just moved into a property and your current space doesn’t match your tastes, or you simply feel that your kitchen needs a new lease of life, then you’ll no doubt have a few ideas in mind with regards to what you want to add or remove from the room. New wallpaper, new appliances, painting the cupboards – these are perhaps more commonly thought of when it comes to renovations. However, for something that will truly rejuvenate your kitchen, you need look no further than a kitchen island.
Putting an island in your kitchen might sound like a big task, but the rewards will be clear to see once the work has been finished. However, it’s one thing deciding you want a kitchen island, but working out what you want it to look like is another task altogether. The team at Touchstone Worktops are here to talk through some of the key things to consider when designing your kitchen island.
What do you want your island for?
Before you start thinking about the colours, materials and features that the island will have, it’s important to know what you want the kitchen island to serve as. That is, you might simply want it as a decoration, as some extra counter space in the middle of your kitchen, or you might want to use it as place to eat with extra seating, for example. The main function of your kitchen island should dictate what you want it to look like.
More counter space
So you’ve decided you want to use your kitchen island for cooking and eating. The extra counter space will allow for more food preparation – ideal if you’re cooking a complex dish or cooking for lots of people and you don’t want bowls, dishes and chopping boards cluttering up your usual space. Be sure to use a strong, attractive surface for your new island: granite or quartz is ideal for this purpose, with a wide range of colours available to suit any design, and immense toughness to deal with any misplaced kitchen knives or hot cooking equipment.
More seating
If you want your kitchen island to serve as a more social space, then a lower-profile island and seating to match is ideal. Instead of one solid block, consider using a breakfast-bar/dining table situation, leaving room for people to tuck stools in after they’ve finished using them. In terms of worktop surfaces, quartz and granite are yet again perfect here: they are versatile and durable, with the many available colours allowing the surface to slot seamlessly into the decor of your kitchen.
Space for kitchen features
You might want to free up some space on your usual worktop for cooking or another appliance, but there’s a sink in the way that is preventing you from doing so. Without a kitchen island, you might be stuck, but fear not – you can put a sink in your kitchen island. The Integrity Top sink is an ideal choice for your new island. Made from a single piece of Silestone, the 90% quartz compound material, it is as resilient as you could hope for a sink to be. Additionally, it benefits from a joint-free application, meaning it seamlessly fits into your worktop, adding to the look, rather than distracting from it. Choosing to have your sink in the island frees up space on your normal worktop, but it doesn’t dominate the island, either: there’s still room for socialising, eating and even food preparation.
Touchstone Worktops are experts in the supply and installation of granite and quartz worktops from the world’s leading manufacturers. Whether you’d like a granite worktop for your bathroom or a Silestone surface for your kitchen, we can supply and install it with the utmost professionalism. For more information, get in touch with us today.