Stylish Kitchen Island Ideas

A kitchen island can be a functional and stylish focal point in your kitchen. Here are a few design elements and tips to help you create an appealing and practical kitchen island.

Multi-level island

A kitchen island with multiple levels or sections can add a lot of interest and dimension to your kitchen. Ideally, you can reserve one section for cooking and another for dining, prep work, and occasional working-from-home activities.

If you have a long kitchen island, you can break it up into different zones by using different materials on the surface. A good example is shown above, where stone is used on the cooking surface for one side of the island, and wood is used for the side that might be used for dining.

Consider using materials with bold colors that contrast or complement each other. You can use this as an opportunity to add color and textured materials to create a warm and welcoming environment.

Rough-sawn wood or flamed stone tops can create dramatic and appealing finishes for the surface of your kitchen island. There is an increasing trend of using different textured materials, and you can customize these to your liking for more style points.

A kitchen island with different zones helps create a visual partition between the parts of a kitchen used for food preparation and the parts used as a living space. Therefore, you can effectively define different areas of a kitchen without closing off the kitchen or blocking parts of the room with physical barriers.

Work appliances into the island

A stylish kitchen island can have various appliances and accessories built into it. One creative idea is to build a wine cabinet on one corner of a kitchen island. This serves the additional purpose of adding some visual interest to your kitchen island.

A wine cooler within a kitchen island is not only a good investment, but it can also help you free up space in the refrigerator, in addition to keeping the worktop clean while preserving your drinks in optimum conditions.

Another valuable addition to a kitchen island is a cooktop that allows you to prepare food items and cook them in the same place. This can be an electric cooker or a gas stove mounted to the surface of a kitchen island.

Putting a cooktop on the kitchen island ensures that it is the focal point of the room. One benefit is that the person preparing meals and cooking can face the room, which is more sociable than having their back turned to the rest of the kitchen.

Display beautiful cookware:

Source

Small details can add depth to the appearance of your kitchen island and make it more stylish. The example below shows how open shelving on the island can be used to display beautiful bowls, ceramics, and glassware, adding color and personality to the design of a luxurious kitchen island.

 

Light your kitchen island:

Lighting is an important element of designing a kitchen island and should be planned at the beginning of the design process.

There are many lighting fixtures that can brighten up the space around your kitchen island, including intricate small and medium-sized chandeliers, statement shades, small pendants, ceiling lamps, and recessed downlights.

Many experts recommend elegant pendant lights for a more stylish appearance. Keep in mind that for a long kitchen island, an odd number of small pendant lights will appear more visually interesting than an even number.

Pendant lights bring a layer of interest and visual flair to the general design language of a kitchen. The beautiful low-hanging bulbs create a warm ambiance and provide useful light for regular kitchen activities.

Fluted kitchen islands:

Source - 

One of the latest kitchen island trends, according to designers, is fluted kitchen islands that feature the textured effect of a simple vertical pattern, as shown above.

This trend is popular because wood in a kitchen seldom fails to look warm, inviting, and interesting.

You can choose from traditional to modern twists on fluting, such as ribbed designs that feature more angular and geometric patterns. The deeper the patterns on the fluted kitchen island, the more dramatic the finish. You can choose brighter shades of wood to make the fluted patterns stand out more.

Bold Color Schemes

Many colors can be implemented in kitchen islands to make them appear more striking and inviting. Dark blues and grays work well for kitchen islands and add a layer of depth to an otherwise plain design. For a more modern take, you can seek out shiny metal trims, handles, edges, and faucets alongside clean white and gray storage cabinets and drawers.

For smaller fixtures like vases and other accessories, you can consider rich reds and grassy greens to draw attention to particular items and sections on the kitchen island.

These tones work well with marble, quartz or wooden worktops to make for a contrasting appearance fashioned from a durable and easy-to-clean surface.

Seating Options

After you figure out the height and length of your kitchen island, you can look for some elegant seating options like bar stools and high chairs that neatly tuck in along one side of the island. There are endless designs to choose from, so take some time to look over a few options to find something that suits your decor, preferred seating style, and the size of your kitchen island.

Conclusion

Designing a stylish kitchen island is a fun process of looking up interesting items, fixtures, lights, and accessories and bringing them together to tie up the look and feel of a kitchen.

Consider zoning your kitchen island with different textures, adding in some interesting seating, and building in one or two appliances to create a kitchen island on which you will prepare meals and dine for many years to come.

You will be surprised how a few elements like colors, textures, and elegant lighting can make your kitchen island ever so stylish, and many of the tips in this article can help you design a beautiful kitchen island.