Hobs or Sinks in the Kitchen Island? (Copy)
The great kitchen island debate- is a kitchen island a better spot for a hob or kitchen sink?
Housing the hob or sink in the kitchen island is a common kitchen feature. If you are designing a kitchen you may find yourself in a situation where you’ll need to choose if you will install either a hob or sink in the island.
Why consider putting a sink or hob in the island?
You may need to include either a sink or hob in the kitchen island for a number of reasons. Here are a few:
If your kitchen design doesn’t have enough counter height wall space to accommodate both the sink and hob.
If your kitchen may benefit from the aesthetics of having a sink or hob in the island.
If your preference for layout is to have the sink or hob across from each other for practical reasons.
Credit: Harvey Jones
So, which should go in the island- the hob or the sink? Let’s take a second to review the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.
The advantages of having a hob in your island:
Credit: Novy
The hob can be used seamlessly with your island worktop. This means if you opt for an induction hob on your kitchen island, you’re not usually sacrificing island worktop space for the hob. When not in use for cooking, the hob surface can be used for prep or it can be used as a food warming or buffet serving space when entertaining!
The hob can be visually seamless. If you opt for an induction hob with a downdraft vent, there is no need for a hood extractor fan in the ceiling above. Therefore, the look is not impacted by the hob as much. If a gas range is used in the island, there is less of a seamless look but a range in an island can become a beautiful feature as well.
The hob is used for cooking so only needs to be cleaned after or during periods of cooking. Therefore, the space is often clean and presentable. Since kitchen islands are usually central and are a natural focal point for the space, this makes a hob in a kitchen island a low maintenance, stress free option.
Hobs in kitchen islands are conversational and great for entertaining. With guests over, you can cook and interact while always facing them. Islands with hobs in open layouts will often overlook other living spaces as well. It’s also perfect for group cooking as it’s positioned where everyone can gather!
Credit: Simon Taylor Furniture
The advantages of having a sink in your island:
Credit: Naked Kitchens
It’s conversational. While a sink would traditionally be in front of a window, a kitchen island sink allows you to face towards guests, family, kids while washing up! Let’s face it- we spend a lot of time washing up.
Sinks are used a lot, therefore its central placement is useful! Whether it’s items that need to go in the dishwasher or be hand washed- it can be in pretty constant use throughout the day and having ease of access is an advantage.
Sink taps and sinks are focal points as they can be beautiful features. Taps are for kitchens what chandeliers are for dining rooms! They are a stunning feature and really pull the metal accents of a kitchen together. A sink on a kitchen island gives you the opportunity to feature some beautiful pieces of functionality as sinks themselves are often beautiful too. Think about statement sinks like Belfast or farmhouse style sinks, glitzy metal sinks, etc.
Credit: Simon Taylor Furniture
The disadvantages of having a hob in the kitchen island:
Credit: Novy
A hob takes up space! Gas ranges can take away from useable counter space. This can make it somewhat difficult to really spread out on an island and will limit the amount of space someone sitting at the island has.
The extractor fan needs to be carefully considered. While hoods over a kitchen island can be made into features (See image!), they need to be carefully designed or potentially made bespoke to the space in order for it to work. This can be costly. Having a hood can also mean you will not be able to have feature lighting over the island.
An induction hob with a downdraft extractor is an option to avoid the dilemma of designing a hood. However, the ducting is routed through the cabinets below the hob takes away from storage. The ducting also dispels the air through a vent in the plinth or sides of the island. This would need to be located on the island and also incorporated into design.
Splatter and mess from cooking! When a hob is positioned against a wall, the splatter ends up on the splash back behind the hob which is easy to clean. When a hob is in the island, it usually ends up on the surrounding worktop, out into the kitchen air or on the lighting fixtures above. If a gas range is installed, the range can be notoriously more difficult to keep immaculate as well. Ease of cleaning is something to consider since the the kitchen island will be a focal point to the kitchen.
Credit: Searle & Taylor Kitchens
The disadvantages of a sink in the island:
A sink is in constant use- which also means constant mess. In an average household, sinks sometimes are only fully empty and immaculate once or twice a day. They’re often a catch all and would potentially create more stress and pressure to keep it clean constantly. If the sink is more out of the way, or facing a wall, there’s less pressure to make sure it’s always presentable. Clutter around a sink against a wall may also be more visually acceptable than seeing that clutter on the kitchen island.
One of the advantages of a sink in the island is that it’s conversational. However, this can also be a con. Often, washing up is a chore many enjoy doing solo- whether it’s in a position that’s conversational or not is irrelevant since it’s a solo activity anyway! Having a sink positioned in front of a window has been a mainstay in kitchen design for years, and there is a reason for that.
Credit: Simon Taylor Furniture
My unfiltered take on it- if you were wondering!
Deciding between having a kitchen island hob or kitchen island sink was something I actually had to decide when I was designing my kitchen. I ultimately went for a self-venting induction hob in the kitchen island.
We opted for this Cookology self-venting induction hob which is budget friendly.
Here’s why I like it:
It is easier than our sink to keep clean. Our sink on the other hand is rarely immaculate! Our sink has constant traffic through out the day and it is near impossible to keep on top of it. I didn’t really want to stress over mess so an induction hob made more sense.
Induction hobs can have self venting which meant I could still have pendant lighting above the island. This is something I really wanted so I see this as a win-win. Having the ducting run under the island did not impact our storage space as much since our kitchen has loads of storage options anyway.
The hob works seamlessly with our island counter space. I love that we can use it as a worktop or serving area when not in use.
If we did have a sink installed in our island, the hob would have to go in front of our kitchen window. I think having sinks in front of windows is a classic for a reason, and incorporating a hob in front of the window would have been tricky.
We prefer having our sink and hob diagonally across from each other. This is ideal for our kitchen layout- it is a quick pivot to prep vegetables next to the sink and over the pull out bin, to cook our meals on the hob, serve up grub on the island, and transfer any mess to the sink and bins for cleaning. It is a very ideal and intentional design, I absolutely love it!
Why it hasn’t worked:
Induction hobs are not necessarily ideal for cleaning. Self venting hobs have vents in the middle of the stove top. This vent becomes a food and crumb abyss while cooking. The grate, crevice, and filter have to be cleaned regularly. It is relatively easy to clean but is a downside and somewhat impractical- I am a messy cooker! Crumbs can also accumulate along the sides of an induction hob. While this is easy to clean it is something to be mindful of and I believe these cleaning drawbacks are universal for all self-venting induction hobs.
Not all hobs are created equal! I prefer gas hobs for cooking so it was a drawback to go for an induction hob. I have had an induction hob in my kitchens for a number of years now for practical reasons even though I think gas hobs are more ideal for honing cooking skills. However, I think an induction hob is suited better than a gas hob in the island, and I would strongly consider a sink in the island over a gas hob. Gas hobs take up worktop space and are much more difficult to keep clean. I am also not aware of a self venting gas hob, so a hood would need to be considered in the design which may impact the space above the island.
The placement of our vent was a tricky one to decide. We had to choose between having our ducting directed to in front of the hob in the plinth, to the side of our island, or routed to the back which is where guests sit at the counter stools. We opted to have the ducting routed to the back of the island. This decision was made for the vent to be more discreet as all other options would be more visible. However, it does impact where individuals can sit at our island while the vent is on. Fortunately, this is not too impactful because our island can seat 4 and we will rarely have all 4 sitting at the island. I am happy with our decision but it is something to be mindful of.
Will you be installing a hob or a sink in your kitchen island? I hope this article helped to breakdown some of the pro’s and con’s of each.
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