Agreed on all. My husband’s current kitchen he and our designer/builder did from scratch, so we’re well aware of the extra weight rating needed! And, in fact, like you said, we do have a couple of cabinets, but those were designed to specific sizes to fit exact pieces of large equipment we know we don’t use often, like the ice cream maker and the chamber vacuum sealer. The good thing about having a ton of kitchen equipment already is that it’s very unlikely we’ll add anything major at this point…
Maybe I’ll start a thread for general kitchen design tips and ideas. We’re building the whole house from scratch, and I think the kitchen is getting more attention than the rest of the house combined!
Venting is, of course, the issue. I always require that the cooktop be over vented meaning way more exhaust power than anyone else deems necessary. (Both homes are Wolf six burner cooktops with Vent-A-Hood exhaust.)
Even with serious exhaust I have trouble if the flu over a nearby fireplace is open with no fire… room air wants to go up and a new draft away from the hood is created.
And, an extemely hot (pre-heated 15 minutes on high) grill pan puts out enough smoke once cooking that if a front burner is used too much escapes the hood; a rear burner is preferred.
In my experience, each of these situations is made worse with an island cooktop location.
We liked it there, too, but not from a venting standpoint. I absolutely get the guest part and didn’t actually think about that when we built. I think it just depends on what your venting needs.
We have a friend who is a serious cook and she designed her kitchen accordingly so she has a very serious kitchen and faces the wall when she cooks. I definitely get the feeling that she wishes she had struck a better compromise between serious cooking and socializing. She has expressed serious envy for our set-up. We are pretty serious foodies and we’ve also had serious cooks use our kitchen to help prep for parties and such. They’ve all expressed how much they enjoy using our kitchen. The island cook top has not been an impediment to serious cooking.
We have a strong pop-up vent which is vented to the outside.
We have no upper cabinets except for a dish rack. Everything is in drawers below counter.
If you’re designing a kitchen and have the space, I have another thing I strongly recommend.
Standard counter width is 24". But the problem is that if you put appliances on your counter while prepping, you have tight crammed space left over in which to work.
We made our counters 30" wide. The increase in usable counter space is pretty dramatic.
Our island is also quite wide at 66". This gives our guests plenty of room on their side of the cooktop and it doubles as a buffet for some events.
Also, standard counter height is 36". My wife and I are on the taller side so we made our counter height 38". The improvement in ergonomics is really nice. Much easier to work at this height. Just know that there are some “standards” in kitchen design that will be assumed unless you challenge and customize them to your needs.
I am remodeling now and putting a range in an island. It will have a direct overhead vent. Because of where we live, with year round moderate temps, all the really smokey high heat stuff happens outside in the outdoor kitchen area. I am going with a clear glass hood. The island will have seating for about 5 or 6 and look out into the living area. I have flipped stuff around a million times and this is the only configuration that works. At least within our budget and current walls.
