The island conversation
2 September 2026
Almost everybody asks for one. In a room under about four metres wide, it is usually the wrong answer, and here is the number that decides it.
An island is the single most requested thing in a kitchen enquiry and the single most common thing we talk people out of. Not because islands are bad. Because rooms are narrower than people think.
The number that matters is the gangway: the clear distance between the island and the run behind it. You need 1.2 metres for two people to pass while one of them is standing at an open oven or a pulled-out drawer. Below a metre it is a squeeze for one person carrying a tray.
In a room 3.4 metres wide with 60cm of units on one wall, an island 90cm deep leaves you about 95cm each side. It looks generous on a plan drawn at 1:50 and it is tight every single day.
The honest alternative in most of those rooms is a peninsula or an L with a breakfast bar on the end. You keep the sociable bit, the seating and the extra worktop, and you keep the gangway. It photographs slightly less well and it works considerably better.