The Two Island Kitchen

Nestled in the high desert on an acre of land, this new construction home needed a large kitchen that could serve as a gathering place for friends and family and also provide a view to the beautiful desert landscaping outside. Before the roof was on, I was at the house measuring and helping to guide where the electrical and the plumbing needed to be placed.

As you can see from the floor plan to your right, this is a big kitchen. The homeowners wanted two islands if possible. Islands are sometimes hard to fit in a kitchen because they need a certain amount of space around the island - 42" for one cook or  48" for a two cook kitchen.  A walkway should be at least 36".

The bigger island follows the path of the coffered ceiling above it. It is a part of the clean up zone meaning it has the main sink, dishwasher and a trash compactor as well as a cutting board in the drawer base cabinet. There is a 9"overhang on the ponywall of the island. The purpose of the overhang is for dishes when they have parties, they did not want seating at that counter. My clients are tall so the height of this counter is 45" rather than the normal 42" counter height. Again, it's all about meeting the needs of the homeowner.

The smaller island is part of the prep area. It has a small sink since it is closest to the refrigerator. It also has a bookcase and a cabinet for cookie sheets and muffin pans. The tray base cabinet is closest to the double ovens.

There is plenty of storage space in this kitchen. There is a utility cabinet beside the refrigerator, There are deep pot and pan drawers below the cooktop and there is a lazy susan cabinet in both the upper and lower corner cabinets.

Appliances are a critical component of every kitchen. They must be purchased before hand so the designer knows how to fit the cabinets around them. In this kitchen we have a 36" French Door Refrigerator with cabinets built in around it. A special oven cabinet had to be ordered for the 30"GE Profile and a 36" cabinet base was ordered for the 36"GE Profile cooktop. The cabinets are Kraftmaid in Hickory wood with a Honey Spice finish.

The kitchen turned out beautifully and my clients are very happy.