Kitchen Island Design Ideas

Featured Image: Mont Blanc Quartzite Kitchen Island Countertop from Arizona Tile

Now and again, we encounter an element that simply makes our day-to-day life easier, more enjoyable, or more comfortable. One of the things that “once you have you won’t want to live without” is a kitchen island. Kitchen islands provide more counter space, a place to entertain, an area for added storage, and even a place to house appliances. The convenience and versatility of a kitchen island will make the time you spend in the most heavily used room, your kitchen, more pleasurable.

Deciding which options are best for your kitchen island design are situational to your needs. Before designing can begin you want to consider how you dedicate your time, the size of the room, the size of your family and/or friend group, the workspace and organization you desire, and the aesthetics you crave. The high versatility within a kitchen makes an island countertop a wonderful, multi-functional addition.

Make it a Centerpiece for…

An island is a multi-functional centerpiece within a kitchen that adds numerous benefits to the space. If your kitchen is very large, you may simply want to fill the space with a dazzling focal point, but the benefits go far beyond aesthetics and provide much practicality through function.

Cooking

It never seems to fail that on the kitchen countertops, we run out of space for cooking and baking, especially if there is more than one thing going on at a time or multiple people in the room. A well-conceived kitchen island design can tackle this issue by adding an extra surface. Not only can you use the kitchen island for food prep, but appliances can be housed within this space, too. This is an attractive way to keep counters clear and keep appliances grouped and out of the way. Incorporating a sink into the island allows you to face out into the room in an open-concept house as opposed to facing a wall. If you have an open floor plan, a family to watch over, or guests to entertain, this convenience will keep you fully engaged in the moment.

Image: Aviana Quartz Kitchen Island Countertop from Arizona Tile

Family

If you have children and a family, a kitchen island provides wonderful versatility to be able to prepare dinner while your kids sit at the counter to “help” with prep, complete schoolwork, do art, or simply socialize. Any way to be more present with family is a big win. Also, the gained storage you will enjoy with added cabinets and drawers helps organize a variety of items for family members of all ages.

Entertaining

Similar to a family structure, being fully present with guests is important. Not only does an island make this easier to do, but it also becomes an inviting area that makes you want to host a gathering. Being able to entertain in a kitchen makes accessing drinks and food seamless, along with cleanup. While sitting at such a versatile feature, you may even be able to retrieve games from their own storage cabinet within the island and play them on the large surface. As for the look of this versatile surface, Citrine is a creamy white quartz with variegated grey and brownish-gold veining that is beautifully neutral, allowing many options for your décor to coordinate seamlessly.

Image: Citrine Quartz Kitchen Island Countertop from Arizona Tile

Surfaces to Showcase Your Kitchen Island

At Arizona Tile, our variety of products give you many options to achieve any design element for your kitchen island. Not only do we have amazing products, but we want to help you learn what to consider when making decisions for your home and lifestyle.

Image: Nuage Quartzite Waterfall Kitchen Island Countertop from Arizona Tile

A waterfall design adds additional aesthetic appeal. Whereas a “standard” countertop would have a slight overhang and end there, a waterfall design continues the countertop surface down the sides of the island straight to the floor. Nuage polished quartzite creates an incredibly sleek look with its off-white background, horizontal grey veins, and white lightning bolt veins. This quartzite provides a beautiful focal point in any room.

Image: Grigio Elegante Honed Quartz Kitchen Island Countertop from Arizona Tile

Seating is a valuable aspect to consider and making sure you have ample space for it is important. Before running out and purchasing barstools or chairs, you need to determine the amount of overhang for your counter. Generally speaking, the overhang for a kitchen counter designed to accommodate seating is 12-18 inches.  You may prefer closer to 18 inches to provide ample legroom or no overhang or seating at all to save space.

To incorporate seating, you will comfortably be able to pull up stools to a 12-inch overhang, but any less will become uncomfortable and less practical. If your space is larger and you are seeking a more dramatic look, a larger overhang can provide you with even more counter space. In conjunction with seating, you need to decide what countertop height you would like. The countertop height can be the standard 36 inches, but the area for seating portion could always be raised to bar height, which is 41-46 inches tall. You can see in the photo above that this Grigio Elegante Honed quartz kitchen island countertop has a large overhang to provide a comfortable seating area.

More to See

Many different island surfaces work well in a kitchen, but making sure you select a durable material is important. Aviana is a beautiful white quartz with distinct grey veining giving the appearance of natural stone; and Mont Blanc quartzite resembles marble with its creamy white background and grey and taupe veining, yet is more durable than marble. For added inspiration, some other blogs will be helpful: Big Kitchen Island Ideas and Make a Marble Kitchen Island the Center of Attention.

To help you make decisions, our Just Imagine- Tile and Slab Visualizer can give you a better visual of a product which can make a lot of difference when thinking of your kitchen island design. To fully experience our products, stop by an Arizona Tile store or slab yard to get a true visual of your favorite materials. If you have questions for us, our helpful and knowledgeable staff are happy to help.