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an island in a "regular" sized kitchen, do you prefer the sink or stove in the island?
We already chose (and just installed) so not going to sway us now... but thought its an interesting topic. This new topic was influenced by someone who recently posted their house designs for people to evaluate, and they have the sink in the island.
So, we opted for the stove in the island because i see the work in the sink as just that... work.
Whereas cooking on the stovetop has more opportunity for "fun" and interaction with the guests and family.
No one really chats up the person washing pots in the sink... and its a fast "let's just get it done" process.
But cooking on the stove can be more like art, and takes time. Having someone sitting at the counter interacting with "oh you put so-and-so into your gravy?" "Sure, put some mushrooms in my omlette".
Ideally I think the stove in the island with a small prep-sink would be cool, but we didnt have space for that (hmmm... although now that we've rotated the island we probably did have space! doh!)
I love entertaining, so I chose stove in the island. It's a blast to have your friends around you sipping wine and chatting while you cook. I hate cooking with my butt to my guests and my face in a wall (or microwave). It feels like punishment and then you don't get to interact with the rest of the party. I also hate having messy dishes in the middle of the room.
Probably ninty percent of the time you are not entertaining and things will pile up in the kitchen sink until you wash the dishes or put them in the dishwasher. That pile of dirty dishes - a monument to the kid's breakfast or last nights pasta - shouldn't be on the island.
I've seen both styles and I think I would prefer to have the stove in the center. It's hard enough keeping the area dry with a sink facing a wall or window. It just looks like a disaster waiting to happen with a water source in the middle. Plus, if there was some kind of water damage the whole island would probably be destroyed underneath. Something like that in a tradition casing would usually only impact the undersick cabinet.
Kitchen sinks belong under a window, preferably one with a nice view. I don't know why, but this is important to me. Perhaps it relieves the tedium of cleaning up by being able to look outside.
OTOH, I don't like putting the stove on the island, particularly if it's a smaller island. Just me perhaps, but I like islands that are large open work space.
I do understand the idea of people gathering around while cooking, and that the stove can sort of be a social gathering place. We have our stove on a peninsula, and there is a bar on one side of the peninsula and people do like to sit there when we are cooking.
We put neither in the island, and although I agree that it's nice to be able to see people while you cook, I would be hard pressed to put a stove in the island. Too much chance of splattering oil or burning someone while you cook, if this is also somewhere people are seated and eating. Particularly if you have children, this strikes me as a fairly unsafe arrangement.
But I agree that sinks belong under windows (which is where we put ours). We simply reserved the entire island for a combination of eating area/food prep and put the appliances on the outside wall.
If I had to put one in I'd put a sink but I would prefer neither. I'd rather have the space for food prep and/or setting out for people to eat if we are entertaining. We have a large kitchen with a large island that does not have a sink or stove and I prefer that.
We were originally going to place the main sink beneath a window along the perimeter of our kitchen, but our architect thinks we should place our main sink in the island, opposite our range. (We're going to have a second smaller sink in another section of the kitchen.)
The kitchen layout & dimensions are going to look similar to the attached photo.
I don't like anything on my island, I want all the room for baking canning, cooking etc... Nor do I want people in the kitchen while I'm cooking,baking etc .. I never got that one...
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