Your home should reflect your style, but your home should also reflect the way you want to use your home. Traditional Victorian style homes were typically designed with separate kitchen, dining and living rooms, but today’s buyer is looking for open, spacious plans and builders are heeding this call.
For many this open space presents the challenge of how to furnish and make the best use of it. If you are renovating or building, installing an island workspace is a great way to allow for interaction with family members and guests. Kitchen islands have probably been around since caveman times when man wanted to impress his mate and fellow cavemen with his skinning and gutting skills, which probably took place on a big rock in front of the fire. In a sense, this sense of functionality is with us today, albeit with improved functionality. The island should have lots of counter space covered in non-permeable stone like slate or Caesarstone and I like the idea of installing a sink, a grill and a permanent cutting board. Make life easier, by having a generous opening cut into one end of the board so that a composting bin can be placed underneath allowing for easy disposal of veggie scraps.
If possible, the island should have space for a few counter stools so that friends and family can hang with you while in the kitchen. One of my favourites is a great new stool from Blu Dot called the Real Good Counter Stool. It has a rather ingenious design and is made of folded metal origami style. It is available in some great colours including aqua, which I think is unique and will look interesting in any room setting.
The dining table should be within eyeshot of the kitchen island allowing for good flow form one area to the other. I also like the idea of positioning a sofa in the same area so that guests can relax and chat while you slave over the grill.
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Image courtesy of NancyHugoCKD.com.
