Ventilation can be a problem with island cooktops, if you're doing high-heat, potentially smoky cooking. Downdraft fans are inevitably noisier and less effective than overhead hoods, while overhead island hoods are more expensive and more visually prominent than wall-mounted hoods.

As jon1270 said, ventilation is the main problem with island cooking. It's much easier, more effective, and less expensive to vent a range or cooktop on a wall. Also, most of the time spent cooking is actually doing the prep, not standing at the range. Nonetheless, there are still people who prefer to face their guests while cooking so they put the cooktop in the island.

There is actually (and I KNOW I'm going to take a lot of heat for this) a trend away from large permanent islands altogether.

I've had a couple of high-end designers (contacts through work, not people I talked to for my own kitchen) tell me in conversation if the client insists on it, and many do, they'll do them, but they're sick of them, they often don't think they're in the best interest of the house (particularly in an old house it tears up floors and ceilings and can be structurally disruptive, and when you have 4 kitchens in 10 years, as some of these houses get, it takes a toll).
When I see them in magazines, I'm seeing more on legs that can be moved or removed more easily, or lots of lovely kitchen tables.

By all means, get what you love. Just don't think "an island" has to look like one single thing.

I've always been leery of island cooking because it seems like there are all these hot pots and pans and woks, and it just seems like there's a lot of potential for people brushing up against them.

Whatever. I'm probably being a Nervous Nellie, but even now when I'm cooking on the perimeter counter, I tend to move pots to the back, nearer the backsplash, when they just need to simmer or boil & don't need immediate hands-on attention. Of course, having a son who used to play full-contact kitchen hockey when he was a teenager didn't help my jangled nerves.

've always been leery of island cooking because it seems like there are all these hot pots and pans and woks, and it just seems like there's a lot of potential for people brushing up against them.

me, too!

My aunt & uncle had an island cooktop w/ a downdraft (new construction), and I was nervous about it. The downdraft served as a barrier at the back, but we all sat at the dogleg end of the island and she cooked at the other end. It felt weird and a bit unsafe.

I always felt that the stuff that collected on the island would cramp the cook, or ran the risk of getting pushed out of the way--and onto the cooktop.

I had a cooktop on an island at my previous home and moved it to the perimeter in my current kitchen. The amount of time you spend on the stove is actually very minor compared to the amount of time you spend prepping, so I chose to just put my prep sink therein the island. Also, when entertaining, it is much easier to use the island for serving when you don't have an in-use or greasy range right there. I much prefer this.

Thanks for the input! I currently have a cooktop on my island and really want to move it to the perimeter, both for the funcionality that some of you mentioned - I need more space for prep and now find myself working down the side of my island toward guests eating their hors d'ouevres - and for aesthetics - like the idea of a focal point with a hood on the wall and a nice backsplash there. Was wondering if I would miss "facing out" as I cook though. Nuccia, thanks, I was hoping that people would feel that way! Glad to hear you like your current set up!

Hadn't factored in the hood vs. downdraft issue other than being aware of it and knowing I don't want a big hood over my island - think it would really break things up visually. I NEVER use my downdraft as it is now because it IS loud and really seems like a nuisance to bring up, it hits the pots and pans on the back burners.

Now, just waiting for contractor pricing on how much to reconfigure everything. hmmmm

I have a 6-burner Wolf which is installed in what was the perimeter of my galley kitchen. But we removed a wall so that has become the kitchen side of a peninsula open to the family room. The effect is the same as cooking at an island.

The ventilation above it does a fine job but I didn't want a big hulking hood intruding into the space so we went with one that's as spare looking as possible without having glass that would need constant cleaning of the oil rising from cooking.

From the back:

From the kitchen:

I think that people are also becoming more aware of the safety concerns of having cooktops or ranges on their islands, particularly if there is seating across from the cooking surface. With children it becomes even more important as regardless of the overhang, they will probably reach over the cooktop/range at some point!

If you are leaning toward this, then I recommend that you have at least an 18" (preferably 24") distance b/w the cooking surface's edge and the seat--regardless of counter height. This could be accomplished w/12" cabinets + 12" overhang for bar height seating or 9" deep cabinets + 15" overhang for counter height seating. Or, you could just have an 18" to 24" overhang.

If you've always wanted (or have currently and want to keep) cooking on an island, then I think you should go ahead...just be aware of the pros/cons (venting) and make it safe! And, unless you plan on selling in the next couple of years, don't worry about resale/trends...get what YOU want!

BTW...most people spend more time prepping than they do standing at a range/cooktop, so if you want to face your family/friends/guests, then I think it makes more sense to prep at the island instead of cook, IMHO!

Oops....I composed this message hours ago and just submitted. Wow! Quite a few more replies!

At one time, our KD suggested we put our cooktop on our peninsula but we vetoed it b/c of the safety issue as well as the venting issue... Our cooktop will be on the back wall w/a corner sink in the corner of the peninsula and the rest of the peninsula will be clear for HW, projects, etc. No, it's not a huge expanse (~42"Wx40"D + another 18" or so behind the sink), but it's so much more than we had originally! If we had gone ahead w/the cooktop in the peninsula, we wouldn't have had any deep expanse of countertop to work at b/c the cooktop would have taken up so much counter space!

Katmandu, are you thinking of putting a cooktop in an island? Just curious.

For anyone who is, Jon mentioned the expense; and I wanted to elaborate on it. (Other, safety issues being well addressed!) Putting a cooktop on an island starts a chain reaction of budget busting. The hood is significantly more expensive. You can get some lesser-known brands online around $7-800. We got ours in-store at $1500 (GE Monogram); but the Viking, Wolf, Vent-a-Hoods, etc. are easily $2-3000 and more. Then, if you have a high ceiling, there's a several-hundred dollar extension kit. You're likely also paying your trades a bit more to move wiring and/or gas lines. I think it's safe to say that you're adding at least $1000 to your budget to get island cooking.

This issue has also bothered me for sometime as well. Though I actually don't know why (it was bothering me while spending years drawing house plans for my dream house that will never happen unless I win the lottery...a big lottery!!! That doesn't even include furnishing it!) So I started doing my own survey and making my own observations.

I personally have never lived in a home with an island cooktop. Both in my home growing up and the ones I have lived in afterwards the cooktop is on the perimeter. However, my mom and best friend now have island cooktops after previously having perimeter. My best friend hates having it in the island. My mom (who is an avid cook) I think is pretty much totally clueless one way or the other. She and my stepdad spent who knows what on this home's remodel and don't even have a work triangle (the plans were even drawn by a supposedly "renowned" architect for the area). My personal opinion is that he was an idiot on this and other issues.

Also, a couple of other friends of mine have ranges in the island with these beautiful copper hoods above them. They are gorgeous but totally break-up the space, so I don't get the point of having an open area (kitchen & keeping room).

Sorry I digress, but FWIW I prefer a perimeter range or cooktop setup. Like someone said before it can provide the focal point and/or anchor for the room.

I also like the fact that I can use the island as a buffet, serving hors d'ouevres or drinks, homework center for big projects, wrapping large amounts of gifts during the holidays, etc. So in our upcoming remodel ours will be on the perimeter.

I truly mean no offense to those who have it, because this is just what I always thought when I saw a photo of a range or cooktop in an island...It's just for show and the person doesn't really cook. That was before spending much time here, where I've seen some great solutions with hoods over islands, etc...but it still seems much more difficult to get it right and it's certainly not for me. For one thing, I'm not that inclined to try to carry on much of a conversation while food is cooking, the fan is running, etc. I'd rather prep where I can visit and cook where I can cook, splash, splatter, etc. without hazard or unconfined mess.

My sister has a cook top in the island, she really cooks, and it's very nice for some dishes that don't splatter much. One guest compared it to gathering around the communal hearth...

One reason her's works as well as it does is that the island is a full 48 inches wide: anything less, and the heat from the cooking would make those seats far less practical.

But her Jennaire cooktop/vent system has been quite a dissapointment to her: not a lot of heat, poor venting. Doesn't put a decent sear on a steak, even crispy bacon takes a while. If it produced better heat, the vent would be even more inadequet. The more I'm around hers, the more certain I was that it wasn't the right thing for me.

As to islands being 'over', well, what isn't? I'm afraid its an arguement that's starting to exhaust me...

I have one in the under construction house because the cooking end of the kitchen is better than 17 feet wide. It will provide a LOT of prep room right accross a 4 foot walkway from the range, and since there's no good place beside the stove for a prep sink, it's going in the island, meaning the island will be permanent.

If all the KDs in north America shriek and swoon in disapproval as a result, good.

I never thought of the cooking being a problem to those on the other side. I guess I'm lucky we planned a peninsula with a generous depth! It's true that the fan cuts down on conversation but, before we opened the wall I was completely separate and still had to ventilate.

I do agree about the range as a focal point on that wall, tho. It really is both from it's central position, the contrast of the stainless amid the wood and the importance of its function.

All that said, I am an enthusiast of narrow galley-type kitchens (which is what you've got with a wall and one side of the island). Everything is within reach or a few steps and you're not crossing and crisscrossing a cavernous space to work. Not sure a galley kitchen would be in scale with a high-ceilinged contemporary floor plan but it does work in my cozy 50s ranch and I really have come to appreciate the efficiency of it now that we've opened it up at least visually.

I don't know - we have had people post that they MUST have their island irregardless of whether it fits. I hope that is going away.

Having turned my range and placed it on a small peninsula so I faced out has been great. If I got to do it over again, I'd do it again. I usually prep beside the cooking surface - I don't have that as an issue. I must be prep-o-matic, because I spend more time cooking than prepping.

However, I do agree that you need 48" deep.

imrainey, I absolutely love your island hood. If you don't mind sharing the information please tell me the brand. I've been looking for something similar for months. I also agree with your position on galley kitchens. Every cloud has a silver lining and the hurricanes that took our house in 2005 have allowed us to design the right kitchen (for us) from scratch. We have the best of both worlds---a galley kitchen in the middle and a perimeter for helpers and other functions.

I like to think of myself as Captain Kirk (or I will be when the house is finished). The galley kitchen consists of 2 islands 42" apart. One island with a prep sink faces the great room. The other island has a centered cooktop and oven beneath. A U-shaped perimeter runs around the two islands. The refrigerator and microwave are in one leg perpendicular to the two islands, the other perpendicular leg has my desk, and the clean up sink is in the leg parallel to the islands and furthest from the great room. All of the kitchen minions can run around the perimeter and I can get on with the main functions of cooking. Wish I could post a drawing but my computer skills aren't up to it.

My great room is a bit smaller than some may like because we put so much room into the kitchen but this suits me, suits my family and when resale comes around maybe some other "Captain Kirk" will appreciate the design.

That's funny. Captain Kirk is how I described myself to a friend who was watching our progress from Flick'r. I said when I stand at the range with a spice pull-out on one side and oils & vinegars on the other I feel like I can do anything! ;>

The hood is a Miele DA 270-4. It's pretty unobtrusive for something that has to hang down in the center of things. I didn't want glass 'cause I thought it would be a nightmare having to clean grease off of it all the time. This profile tends to disappear as much as possible. It's even hanging between the banquette were we eat and the wall-mounted TV on the other side of the family room and we don't find it distracting or interfering.

I have been very happy with the choice. It was one of the pricier things I picked tho. I've forgotten what it was but you'll find out if you investigate it.

Sorry about the trauma of a hurricane. Glad for the opportunity. We've been there and done that with an earthquake so I know how it feels. Glad you're on the recovery side of it now!

I agree with bmorepanic...I like to prep next to the cooktop, not turn back and forth. Different lifestyles...different sized spaces...different design.

Last year I posted "If you had to have one on the island, cooktop or sink?' It had lots of views for both. Best of luck!

I recently received a product brochure from Wolf. In the ventilation section (page 44 of my brochure), I was appalled to see a photo of an island cooktop (gas), with a boy sitting on the island inches away from a hot pans! What were they thinking?

imrainey, Thank you so much. Miele was a brand I never looked at so I didn't recognize it in your kitchen. I'm on the hunt for it now. My family thinks I'm such a weirdo now because I can look at almost any kitchen or bath and name every product by brand and model and by next week I'll be able to add Miele to the weirdness (in the best kind of way).

Your ceiling too is wonderful and I'm only saying that because it looks almost exactly like the one I've had my heart set on for the past two years and with any luck on the upcoming hurricane season it will be in by August. Thanks again for the help.

I am almost finished putting in a range in my island with counter height seating across from it. I do like talking to guests while cooking. It is a quarter oval and will give me prep space as well. It is definitely more expensive to do this, especially the hood. My hood does have a lower profile and doesn't block view off too badly. For just stylishness, I gotta vote for imrainey's hood - very cool. To resolve the safety issue, island is 50-54" deep (36w x 15d) cab between range and counter overhang)and I am adding a 10" backsplash/shelf to protect from spatters. Can't wait to finish remodeling and get cooking. Do what works for you!

We've had an island cooktop for 20 years, which has been OK but nowhere near ideal. I haven't used the downdraft ventilation for 10 years since we switched to gas, because the vent sucks the flames away from the pots and pans. I have a 30-inch cooktop centered on one end of a 54-inch wide island, which gives me just 12 inches of landing space on each side--very meager.

For our remodel, we are placing our new rangetop on the perimeter wall directly across the aisle from the island, with a nice effective vent hood above it. I will have something like 4 feet of counter space on each side of the cooking surface. The island will be reduced to 48 inches wide and topped with marble. It will have a 14-15" wide prep sink installed on one corner, with the operational surface on that end being a free-standing butcher block cutting board that will measure about 36" wide by 24" deep. From prep surface to rangetop will be just a matter of turning around, but if I can develop the discipline I'd like to get used to placing prepped ingredients in bowls on a tray at the island and transferring the tray over to the counter next to the rangetop--sort of the mise en place approach.

maydl, Just learned that mise en place term from this website a few weeks ago but learned to cook that way years ago. While my children were growing up I did all of my prep work in the early afternoon before school pick up and the afternoon rush of soccer, dance classes, overseeing the homework and skinned knees that lasted from 2:30 to whenever.

Probably most people on the forum will understand the priority for homecooking and sit down family dinners whenever possible and the mise en place method was the only way that worked for me. My baby is 21 now and my children have never caught the McDonalds habit because they grew up thinking that homecooking is fast food. The secret is that advance prep. We could walk in all muddy from a soccer field and by the time they finished showers dinner was on the table. Just an old almost granny here and I know that the world is getting more pressured all the time but even prepping the day before will help you have great dinnertimes with your kids and the layout of your kitchen isn't the most important ingredient.

Sorry about the off topic but now that I'm working on planning that perfect kitchen and house that I never had growing up myself or raising my own children I'm starting to realize how perfect the people in my life have been. What a luxury we all have to obsess over creating our own spaces as we imagine but today I'm trying to put it all in perspective and realize that if I've made mistakes or all the people I'm working with have made mistakes all of this will fade away.

My two grandmothers had imperfect kitchens that live in my memory but I remember most how loving they were and all the great meals they created. My mother and my friend's mothers had imperfect kitchens and although I remember those oddly ad hoc spaces and I can't imagine how anyone cooked in them, what I remember the most is the great times I had in those places. So try to get the kitchen as perfect as possible but don't forget that in the long run you'll find a way to cook wonderful meals and have fun no matter what detail you overlooked.

Love our new island! I cook a lot and spend most of the time at the cooktop while cooking. Prepping takes time too but my cooking requires constant attention at the cooktop. Facing a wall while cooking would drive me nuts :) Couldnt talk to guests...

We have these discussions of cooktop on island or perimeter or whether islands or peninsulas are better, but I don't think much of the abstract answer. A lot of the time it is a question of what works for your space plus the way you use the kitchen.

For our L plus big island kitchen, putting the rangetop on the perimeter just wouldn't have worked. Our island is 8 foot long so the L plus island works about the same as a galley kitchen between the island and long leg of the L with the short leg of the L providing for the baking and coffee/tea area and the back of the island being for big projects, buffet serving for parties and casual hang-out area.

There just isn't enough perimeter for a rangetop plus sink plus other countertop appliances (mixer, bread machine, expresso machine). Even if we didn't have the countertop appliances or stored them in cabinets (and I'm not willing to do that for big appliances that we use a couple of times a week or even daily), the sink would have been too close to the rangetop for convenient multi-cook use if we kept the sink under the window. If we moved the sink from under the window so that both could be on the L but more separated, then one or the other would be too far from the breakfast room and dining room.

Also, we keep kosher which means two to three sets of plates, flat ware, utensils, pots and pans, etc. If the range top plus focal point hood were on the perimeter, We'd have lost some of my wall cabinets - something we weren't willing to do. Might as well have the hood over the island where it isn't displacing storage - and I don't find it interferes with the feeling of openness. For some reason people here seem to accept a pot rack, chandelier, or pendant lights as decorative over an island but consider a hood an impediment to openness. I don't quite understand that.

I wasn't willing to put the clean-up sink on the island - it wouldn't have provided as good flow and separation between someone cooking and someone else cleaning up and I don't want the clean-up sink front and center.

Our island is a little over 4' deep (3 feet of cabinet plus a 15" bar). The island it replaced also had a cooktop and eating bar on a 4' deep island. In more than 20 years with raising a family in the house, we never had a safety issue arise due to the placement of the cooktop on the island. 2' between the cooktop and the edge of the eating bar was enough separation to keep the hot stuff away from people at the bar.

For a smaller island, I can see dedicating the island to one function like prep or serving. Big islands can accommodate multiple functions. Like some others here, I like prepping next to my cooking surface. Yes sometimes I do mise en place - mainly when cooking things like stir fry where it is important to keep up the cooking pace to have the veggies turn out tender crisp. But other times like when getting a stew or soup ready I chop and toss items in as I go. It is nice to be able to keep an eye on what's on the stove with a glance to the side or reach out to give it a stir.

I may spend more time prepping than cooking, my set-up allows me to do both while facing guests or family in the family room. And most prep occurs before or during cooking so as guests gather for food, I'm more likely to be cooking than prepping.

8 feet on the kitchen side of the island provides for prep sink, prep counter, range top and a bit more counter on the non-prep side of the range top. The 8' by 2' area on the family room side of the island provides plenty of buffet space but sometimes when serving items like a soup that we want to keep on the heat, we have made one side of the rangetop into part of the buffet too.

For me keeping my walls for storage, clean-up, baking center and being able to cook and prep facing the open area were worth the extra $1000 or so that it cost to get an island hood instead of a wall hood.

I do have one regret - I wish I had sprung for the extra cost to have an external fan motor on my vent hood. At the time we bought, the manufacturer had a special where the internal motor was free with the hood so it was hard to justify the cost of the external one.

flseadog, well said and so true!