The Kitchen Island Paradise

Yearning for some extra surface area for food prep? If your kitchen table is perpetually covered in mail and sweaters, you might enjoy having a breakfast nook for backup. A kitchen island provides extra room and storage. You can start a wine cabinet, use the drawers for your more ambiguous utensils, or install a stove top and a range hood above to add intimacy to the kitchen workspace.

After working in a kitchen with an island, you’ll immediately notice how much freedom you have as a host to interact with your guests as you’re preparing food or drinks.

Kitchen island designs by Lyn Design, like this one with the aqua finish, have incredible features. This model has soft-close European hinges, full extension drawers, and adjustable shelves within. This color looks so Victorian and would complement a forest country home very nicely.

 

That model comes in different colors, such as this dramatic dark red finish. Everybody’s island paradise is different. Is yours art deco and full of glamorous symmetry and Parisian 1920s paintings? This island would live there happily.

Or if you’re more french country, this beautiful kitchen island in white suits that style perfectly. It comes with fully adjustable spice shelves and a removable wine rack. With additional wine racks the unit can hold up to 48 bottles. You could use its large cabinet and deep drawers for storing kitchen appliances. Sometimes its time to find a place for that juicer, that milkshake machine and that dehydrator we almost never use.

This pretty kitchen island has glass inserts on its cabinets which look great in a home with a contemporary interior design. If you like sparse decor, funky sculptural elements and vertical fountains, this would be the decorating style for you.

There are smaller ways to increase your kitchen’s surface area. This island with two drawers makes a fantastic breakfast bar. It has less storage, but the counter space still expands.

The white round is a good start for a small kitchen island, and it is easy to move from place to place. The shape is cute, and a round kitchen island is more unusual and unique.

Here we have another small kitchen island complete with a maple butcher block. I have a similar island in my kitchen. Even though its small, that little bit of extra space makes such a huge difference. I love that I can just pick it up and put it by the stove when I’m chopping up vegetables for a stir-fry or bring it next to the dining table to hold a serving plate.

Many of the larger models do not come with their wood block surfaces. Above is a wooden surface that looks great in a Mediterranean decor, or a cottage style home.

The wooden surface is for the octagon shaped island seen here in black. Black often finds its way into guy decor. Something about black is so masculine and strong.  All of these islands could be coordinated into almost any decor style, but I’ve had fun picking specific ones I think would work. You know your kitchen best, and soon enough you’ll find the perfect island to complete your vision.