A high traffic passageway like the family entry into the home needs to be 48”-60”. A work aisle is 42”-48”. A less traveled passageway can be 30”-36”. Like to a pantry.

Edmond Kitchen and Bath, great idea to use a mock up w/ cardboard! Doing it today. Thanks. :) It's just two people, but that's where we walk through to the mudroom, pantry and garage, so it's pretty high traffic between us and a small dog.

It may be just two people now, but consider how this might affect the value of your house years from now, when some big family is interested in buying it.

Think hard about this. You're talking about a passageway not that much wider than a typical interior door. Would you put a door in the middle of your kitchen?

Yes it can work. I have my island n the kitchen sink with a space of only 36 inch and it’s fine...

This is likely going to be an expensive and non-reversible decision, so my suggestion would be to create a cardboard mockup of the clearance and see if you can live with it first. If you're hips and sides don't become black and blue every time you navigate around it then you should be OK. If you keep knocking into it - maybe not.

For resale purposes it may be wise to consider that most wheelchairs require 35-36" clearance to get by. Most interior doors are 30", but exterior doors or interior that lead to bathrooms should be 36". That should be your absolute minimum.

Just be sure you have enough room to open any of your appliances that face your island...like the dishwasher, oven, refrigerator and etc. Even having a small space like 36 inches in front of the kitchen sink, can be a pain.

erinsean, thanks! We don't have any appliances there, just lower cabinets and it seems fine to us. Just want to make sure it's not a design mistake. The island was supposed to be the larger size, but somehow they didn't do it, so we are extending it. Only thing is, is we are used to this size now, but can't fit our stools under it that we bought for the size we thought it was going to be. We started to worry whether or not it will be okay or if we should just leave it.

One of my aisles is 36 (my cook's only side) and the other side is 39 inches. The cook's side is ok because I am the only one cooking but the 39 inch aisle is truly awful because my french door fridge opens there and it becomes a choke point. I would not recommend less that 42 inches as a minimum for any aisle and make it wider if there are pinch points with seating, throughways and doors.

I didn't discover garden web till a few weeks after I ordered everything so made a few mistakes. The 36 inch side doesn't bother me unless my kids and dogs are trespassing but the side with the aisle, seating and fridge should be 48 inches.

I am a frequent renovator and move cabinets around the house as needed so in a few years, I am going to reconfigure my island aisles by removing my island seating on one side, paring back the soapstone and shifting the whole island over. It will give me another 12 inches.

good luck

The absolute minimum is likely the same as your counter height - so you can open the dishwasher and oven without hitting anything.

One user (bare minimum) is 36"; One user plus is 42"; Two users is 48" for aisles - no seating. Seating clearance is 48" (bare minimum) and 60" for major thoroughfare behind seated people.

Don't forget that counter overhang! will lose up to 3".