Kitchen Islands in Nairobi: When They Work and When They Do Not

The island is usually the biggest single piece we make

On a Karen or Runda kitchen the island is frequently the largest carcass on the job, often large enough that it has to be built in two sections simply to get through the door and joined on site. That is normal, and it is worth knowing at design stage because it affects where the joint falls.

Clearance decides whether it works

An island needs 900mm minimum clear all round, and 1,000–1,200mm on any side where someone opens an appliance or two people pass. Below that it stops being a work surface and becomes an obstacle.

This is the single most common reason we advise against an island. A kitchen that is 3.2m wide cannot take a 1m island with working clearance on both sides, and squeezing one in makes the kitchen worse rather than better. In that room a peninsula, attached at one end, gives most of the benefit and costs less.

We will tell you which your room is before you have paid for a design.

Services have to be planned early

An island with a sink or a hob needs plumbing and electrical routed through the floor slab. That is a first-fix decision, made long before joinery. Retro-fitting services to an island in a finished kitchen means breaking the floor.

If an island is even a possibility, the services should be laid for it while the slab is open. It costs very little then and is disproportionately expensive later.

What an island is good for

Storage on the far side, seating at an overhang of at least 300mm, and a work surface with nothing above it. What it is not good for is a small kitchen, and no amount of design solves that.