Why I no longer draw an island in a forty-square-metre kitchen-living room

A short note on the arithmetic of walkways, and on what to put in place of an island so that the room stays a room.

An island is the most frequent request in a kitchen-living room, and the most frequent thing I later talk people out of. The arithmetic is simple. A kitchen run along the wall: 60 centimetres. The walkway between the run and the island, so that the dishwasher and the oven open and a person can still get past: at least 100, better 110. The island itself: 90 to 100 deep. The walkway on the other side, if people sit at the island: another 100. All told, 3.6 to 3.7 metres from the kitchen wall to where the "living room" begins.

In a forty-square-metre room 5.5 metres wide, that leaves 1.8 to 1.9 metres for the sofa, an armchair and the way to the window. A sofa 95 deep, a coffee table, and that's it. A room that looked big on the plan lives like a kitchen with a sofa in the corner.

What I draw instead of an island: a peninsula, joined end-on to the run, with a bar section for two. It gives the same work surface but eats one walkway, not two. Or a table: a big dining table a metre from the kitchen run, where people cook, eat and work. There is no sink in it, and that is its main virtue: it stays a table.

An island makes sense when the room is 6.5 metres wide or more, when the hob is in it and you cook facing the room, and when there really are two people cooking. If only one of the three holds, better without.