Sink or Stove on island? Vote!

14 years ago

We're looking at buying a house that has a large island and L shaped kitchen, but no kitchen window! :-(

I hate to admit that this could be a deal breaker in buying this house, but I love sinks under kitchen windows. Accepting that there isn't a way to create a window to put a sink under, I'm faced with either having the sink in the island or having it on the inside wall.

Right now, the sink is in the island with a raised bar area behind it and it feels like alot of functional space is lost with using the island as a prep or work area. If I move the cooktop to the island, then the sink will have to be on the inside wall and I'll be staring at the wall when doing dishes etc.

Do you have this scenario in your kitchen? If so, which option did you choose? If not, which would be your choice? Sink or cooktop in the island?

Featured Answer

numbersjunkie

14 years ago

You will surely have many posters who will tell you (in no uncertain terms)DO NOT put a cooktop on your island. The main arguments to support that have to do with safety (which I don't think is really an issue if your island is large enough to create a buffer zone), the need for venting (you may have the same issues with an interior wall location), and "statistics" that indicate more time is spent prepping then cooking.

Will you have a gas cooktop? Do you fry a lot? Do you have young children that will seated at the island?

I think it depends on what works best for you. Due to space limitations, my island must either house my main sink or my cooktop. I am having a cooktop on my island because it will be an induction glass top that allow me to have a large flat area for other purposes. I have plenty of buffer space around it, and will use an island hood for venting. Furthermore, I am a slob and could not bear the thought of guests staring into a sink full of dirty pots when I entertain. But most importantly for me, I tend to do all my prep work ahead of time when I entertain, so I want to face my guests when I cook.

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Comments (9)

Fori
14 years ago
I think it'd be best to try it out first, since you'd have that option. It's hard to give an opinion without knowing where everything else is!

But until you live there, you won't know if you even want to keep the kitchen in the same spot!
ccoombs1
14 years ago
If you put the cooktop on the island, will you have a way to vent it? either a hood or a downdraft? If not....I'd go with the sink.
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I think you have to look at what you cook and how you cook. I rarely cook pasta, so draining the pasta pot is such a novelty that I wouldn't plan a kitchen around it. I cook a lot of vegetables, so the trip from sink to the cooktop is more important to me. I am right handed, so having the cutting board over the shallow end and my compost bucket in the deep end off to my right suits me ergonomically. I like the way my sink is situated on the corner with the short end across from the fridge. While I'm chopping, I can get one of my kids to fetch some lettuce from the produce drawer and start washing it while standing around the corner from me. Think through how you prepare a meal and who helps you. Ask yourself questions like: Is this the sink where water glasses will be filled for the table? I don't know if any of that answers your original question, but I hope it helps. I vote that you put the sink where it will be the best for you!
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I'm with the others that voted for sink in the island. Mostly because exhausting a stove in an island setup is more difficult. It also requires a hood with more cfm's in order to suck the grease/smoke which is able to float all over because there is no wall or cabinetry to help contain it. And some people feel an island hood may block a window view, or be bad for sightlines (depends on your setup). And of course, the greater expense for a large enough hood (3" wider than your cooktop on each side), with more cfms, and the ducting involved. Furthermore, for entertaining and just being part of the conversation in the rest of the room, that will be much easier with the sink than with the stove. Cause with the stove, as you are working with frypans, boiling items, simmering sauces, etc., you better have your eyes down on what you're doing, not on the rest of the room! Working at the sink does not have that issue. As to dirty dishes, well, it IS a kitchen, isn't it? What--do people expect dishes not to be dirty, or to disappear somehow? Of course not. People will see dirty dishes whether the sink is in the island or elsewhere in the kitchen, so I wouldn't use dirty dishes as a deciding factor. If you have the space, consider doing a dual level island (think Starbucks, but more residential-looking, and lower) which would hide the sink and its dirty dishes.
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User
14 years ago
Moving plumbing is expensive and difficult. Venting in an island situation is even more expensive and difficult.

Keeping what is there isn't only the less expensive option. It's the smart option.
Buehl
14 years ago
If you have no choice and one or the other must be in the island, then definitely the sink!!!! However, try to make the island at least 8' long....36" sink + 24" DW + 36" workspace on the side of the sink without the DW (for prepping)...9' would be even better (48" of prep space).

If it's your only sink, then prep will take place next to that sink. If you need to "see" people or have space, then it only makes sense since the vast majority of the time spent in the kitchen is spent prepping...cleaning/rinsing veggies & fruit, cutting & chopping, etc. (70% is spent prepping, 20% is spent cleaning up, 10% is spent cooking. Prepping + Cleaning up = 90%!)

I would definitely lower that raised counter, though, and, if there's seating, try for an 18" overhang behind the sink (to pretty much eliminate the possibility of splashing someone sitting there). Make it a really great workspace by putting in a one-level island.

Raised counters don't do all that much to hide dirty dishes anyway since most people are taller than 42" and can see those dishes just fine despite the raised counter...plus it encourages smaller overhangs which means more splashing and dirty dishes "in the face" of anyone sitting there...the bigger the overhang the better!

Good luck!
Buehl
14 years ago
Yup! Quoting those statistics NumbersJunkie since they are very helpful and do not represent "special", "unusual", "atypical", or similar situations....they represent the normal use of today's kitchens.

Anyway, each family is different, but the majority of the people meet those statistics. Perhaps no-children households or those who primarily entertain or those who don't cook that much do not, but the majority of families do.

And yes, safety is an issue...if you have at least 24" on each side and behind the cooktop, then you're probably OK, but anything less is not, especially if you have a family or have crowds around while cooking.
beth4
14 years ago
Actually, I've had both in different houses. My last house had a cook top in the island (with a downdraft fan), with the sink immediately behind me as I cooked, and this house has the main sink in the island, with the range to the left, just a few steps away. I prefer the sink in the island, but the cook top in the island worked well, too. By the way, I had imagined it would be a very cool thing to talk to company while I cooked on the island cooktop, but that just didn't amount to much impact.

For me, what's key is where the refrigerator is in relation to placement of these items, how many steps were required to move around the kitchen, and how much counter space I had with the different island configurations. Also, I recommend you do some research on downdraft exhausts vs over-the-range exhausts. For some reason, I never felt that the downdraft exhaust in my last house was as effective as the exhaust in my current kitchen.

If you buy this house, I recommend living with it for a bit, while you imagine what your kitchen would be like if you had a island cooktop or an island sink.
plllog
14 years ago
I've had sinks facing the wall many times and it didn't bother me, though I love having a window over the sink; I tend to use the kitchen most in daylight hours. If you're a look at the view kind of person, I think having the sink in the island would be a second best.

I'm wondering if reworking the island so that it's one level with the sink at one end or the other, so that there's a lot of workspace left, wouldn't solve a lot of the problems. Is it a one storey house?

If so, maybe you could add a skylight or solar tube over the island to brink in some daylight. I put a big round faux skylight over mine, with sunshine colored light. It's not the same as daylight, but still really good.
Buehl
14 years ago
Plllog...do you have a pic of the faux skylight?

Sink or Stove on island? Vote!

numbersjunkie

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