Mocking up a Kitchen island

[Ferdinand]

1 hour ago, JSHarris said:

To save drilling into the finished floor, I anchored all our wall facing units to the walls only and I anchored the island by sticking some lengths of planed 2 x 1 down to the floor, 2" side down, inside the outline of the island carcass.  I used the small angle brackets that seem to come in abundance with a new kitchen to secure the island down to these bits of 2 x 1.  It seems very solid, yet if we needed to replace it I'm reasonably sure I could use a sharp knife and cut the silicone bond holding down the bits of 2 x 1 and so reposition things on the floor to suit a different shape.

 

Other big advantages of flooring the whole kitchen before fitting any units is that you get a dead level floor to work from, plus you can seal around all the edges.  I used some PVC angle that was around 25mm to 30mm and bonded it to the floor and wall all around the bottom where the units went, so that any accidental water spillage could not get to the walls or underneath the flooring.

 

Interesting.

 

I attached the quadrant round the rooms in the LIttle Brown Bungalow with silicone, so tha5 they cam be removed with a Stanley Knife to lift the click fit floor and subfloor to access service ducts which are under the floor round the sides of room.

 

F

[newhome]

6 minutes ago, HerbJ said:

Our kitchen  island is 1200mm wide but 2100mm long on one side, 1800mm long on the other, with a round table fitted in. 

 

A key dimension is the distance between the island and wall units, we have 1100mm which is good but 1000mm would be the minimum - we haad only 900mm in previous kitchen and that is tight!  I have attached a photo and plan of the kitchen, to give you some idea of scale

 

Our sockets are simply fitted into the side of the island - double socket  at each end - you can just see one of them behind the bowl of fruit

 

Mine is 1350 x 2500 but has no hob in it. It does however have a fridge on the side opposite the wall units, hob, oven. 

 

There is 1100mm between the island and the wall units which seems ok, and 1500mm between the units and the sink. One of the reasons for the larger space there was that the dishwasher is there and you really want to be able to open it and get past it easily. 

 

I also have double sockets on the side of the island like @HerbJ. The island is a magnet for all sorts of crap being dumped on it. I love it when it’s tidy but most of the  time it’s not that tidy. That’s probably just me though ?. 

 

The island is not fixed to the floor as with a massive quartz slab on top it isn’t going anywhere but there is something more structural under the bottom of the units as the base unit legs wouldn’t have been strong enough. It took 4 guys to lift the slab when it was fitted. 

[Alexphd1]

Not a big fan of the pop up sockets, seen more broken ones than working.

[ToughButterCup]

1 hour ago, Stones said:

[...]

Do you have an idea as yet whether the eating area is to be formed from a simple overhang of worktop or raised structure of some sort?  Have you thought about doing as we have done (also pictured) of hiding the worktop area with a dwarf wall?

 

@HerbJ's idea and yours has yet to be discussed. Thanks for the plan 

@HerbJ,  you arrangement for steam extraction  is very discreet: it is in the ceiling space?.... 

 

1 hour ago, Ed Davies said:

That is an ellipse, though, not a rectangle and can be overhung to a certain extent by a worktop (at least 750 high, maximum 300mm horizontally) as it's intended to allow a wheelchair user to turn around. 

 

There's a better than evens chance of me having to be in a wheelchair, I think ; at least for short periods - new hips on order. So the clearance is an issue - quite close to my heart also  because my mate is quadriplegic. 

 

1 hour ago, newhome said:

Assuming you want the hob in the middle of one side of the island where do you plan to put the fridge? 

 

She's changed her mind. ?

2 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

[...]

All depends on whether or not the socket will be left with something nearly always plugged into it, or if its for occasional use, bearing in mind SWMBO can plug the dog and bone in just a couple of meters away on a worktop socket   

 

We are for EVER charging something. If not the phones or tablets, then the external batteries that we need for the bloody phones. 

 

It would be great to hide the damn things while they are charging....... in a shallow drawer maybe?

[PeterW]

9 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

It would be great to hide the damn things while they are charging....... in a shallow drawer maybe?

 

Stayed in an AirBnB recently and they had done just that - it was a sloping / wedge double socket on a lead on a false back of a drawer - only pulled out 8-10” but meant you could get a charger in it and then shut the drawer too. 

[newhome]

11 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

She's changed her mind. ?

 

Within the hour too! Impressive . Hope you're keeping up ... 

[HerbJ]

14 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

erbJ,  you arrangement for steam extraction  is very discreet: it is in the ceiling space?....

 

No, it's a recirculation fan. - Elica Wave ( though I believe they are now called Flow https://elica.com/GB-en/hoods/flow,  - it works well and is  very efficient and fairly quiet at normal extract rates plus it also has dimmable LED lighting, for task and decoration.

 

We have MVHR and the kitchen extraction outlet,  with a coarse filter, can be seen on the ceiling between the recirculation fan and the pink ceiling light.  It's not a normally good idea to have an extract fan with a MVHR system. We just turn the MVHR to boost, for any heavy cooking.

Edited August 26, 2018 by HerbJ

[dpmiller]

didn't we just decide that having stuff plugged in inside drawers and cupboards was a bit risky?

 

[Onoff]

14 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

She's changed her mind. ?

 

 

Like I said...but so quick! 

[Declan52]

11 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

 

@HerbJ's idea and yours has yet to be discussed. Thanks for the plan 

@HerbJ,  you arrangement for steam extraction  is very discreet: it is in the ceiling space?.... 

 

 

There's a better than evens chance of me having to be in a wheelchair, I think ; at least for short periods - new hips on order. So the clearance is an issue - quite close to my heart also  because my mate is quadriplegic. 

 

 

She's changed her mind. ?

 

We are for EVER charging something. If not the phones or tablets, then the external batteries that we need for the bloody phones. 

 

It would be great to hide the damn things while they are charging....... in a shallow drawer maybe?

I have a pop up socket in my island and to be honest it always has someone's phone plugged into it. Plus if I take a notion and go on a baking spree it is great to have all the cables from the equipment not in the way. You can get them with a built in bluetooth speaker for listening to any music you have access to on your phone.

Don't forget in a few years the majority of quality phones  will have wireless charging.

[Onoff]

I prefer the look of the S-Box kit:

 

 

[ToughButterCup]

1 hour ago, newhome said:

[...]

The island is a magnet for all sorts of crap being dumped on it.

[...]

 

Exactly.

We're two opposite ends of the spectrum : I clear up shared areas all the time (my office is a tip). That's why it's so important to have properly planned places in which we can store stuff.

 

Which is why @Onoff , you scored a bull's-eye with S-Box. The eye-watering price, though....

[ProDave]

55 minutes ago, PeterW said:

 

Stayed in an AirBnB recently and they had done just that - it was a sloping / wedge double socket on a lead on a false back of a drawer - only pulled out 8-10” but meant you could get a charger in it and then shut the drawer too. 

I suspect at the end of a let, they frequently find phones left behind in that drawer and have to post them back to their owners.

[ToughButterCup]

2 minutes ago, ProDave said:

I suspect at the end of a let, they frequently find phones left behind in that drawer [...]

 

And not one of them belongs to a teenager.

[newhome]

1 hour ago, recoveringacademic said:

Which is why @Onoff , you scored a bull's-eye with S-Box

 

@Onoff will knock you some up while he's contemplating his tiling 

 

 

[Ed Davies]

2 hours ago, recoveringacademic said:

There's a better than evens chance of me having to be in a wheelchair, I think ; at least for short periods - new hips on order. So the clearance is an issue - quite close to my heart also  because my mate is quadriplegic. 

Indeed, the rule is quite sensible in that there's a lot to be said for houses being easily adaptable to people getting infirm in various ways. But don't need the kitchen to be wheelchair friendly just now.

 

My own hobby horse on things like this is taps and controls which are awkward to turn if you don't have good manual dexterity. My mother in her last year or two didn't eat very well at least is part because she found the cooker knobs difficult to turn because her hands didn't grip well. BiL got her a tool to help but it wasn't really practical. Siblings and I said to get a new cooker but she wouldn't. Something to think about with shower controls and the like which are often designed for “elegance” rather than ease of use.

[Onoff]

43 minutes ago, newhome said:

 

@Onoff will knock you some up while he's contemplating his tiling 

 

 

 

Very nice until you spill something on the worktop!

[newhome]

6 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

Very nice until you spill something on the worktop!

 

Yep, it wouldn't work for me. I wouldn't even like one of those pop up socket things. I like the worktops nice and smooth and easy to wipe down. 

[ProDave]

22 minutes ago, newhome said:

 

Yep, it wouldn't work for me. I wouldn't even like one of those pop up socket things. I like the worktops nice and smooth and easy to wipe down. 

That's the point. When it is down, the socket is nice and smooth.  It's not intended for people to charge phones and be left up, there are USB sockets for that elsewhere. The pop up socket is for food processors etc when cooking, and gets put back down when all is done.

[Onoff]

27 minutes ago, newhome said:

 

Yep, it wouldn't work for me. I wouldn't even like one of those pop up socket things. I like the worktops nice and smooth and easy to wipe down. 

 

You could make it flush maybe, easy enough in solid wood, incorporate a drainage channel etc. Still be a crumb trap!  

[Onoff]

6 hours ago, ProDave said:

Re sockets, I have fitted a pop up socket bank on the Island.  I chose this one https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pop-up-Power-Extension-Sockets-for-Kitchen-Worktop-Office-desktop-Ã-6cm-cable/132544570559?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

 

That's £17 inc VAT now at Machine Mart.

[Lesgrandepotato]

Hmm. Looks like it might feel tight round the island. I’d be tempted (from that one shot) to go for a peninsula possibly with open shelves so you can see through. Then you get a sense of size from the peninsula instead of wall units, small gap, small island, small gap. 

 

Do you have a plan we can annotate at (assuming you’d like other people to chip in ? )

[ProDave]

45 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

That's £17 inc VAT now at Machine Mart.

And £4.99 plus VAT delivery. The ebay one was cheaper.

[Onoff]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

And £4.99 plus VAT delivery. The ebay one was cheaper.

 

CPC then:

 

https://cpc.farnell.com/brennenstuhl/1396203003/tower-power-table-extension/dp/PL15780?

 

[ProDave]

21 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

CPC then:

 

https://cpc.farnell.com/brennenstuhl/1396203003/tower-power-table-extension/dp/PL15780?

 

Bugger I hate you.

 

Just shows how carp CPC's search is "pop up socket" only found 5, and not that one, and all much more expensive.  ebay search works a whole lot better.