The Kitchen Island

Well we are just fresh off the holiday season, and we have done lots of visiting, travelling, reminiscing, and gathering in the last few weeks.

During this holiday season I am sure you, as everyone does, ate way too much. There is always lots of new experimental dishes to try and the good old traditional ones – including tons of turkey and stuffing to gorge yourself with! I definitely did fill up on that, but a great part about being Ukrainian (besides being smart enough to wait for the Boxing Day Sales😉- who’s laughing now?) is that we get to celebrate even more! You know what that means; even more trips to the kitchen (sheesh, enough is enough, right?!)

I am sure with all the time you spent visiting and munching around the kitchen island you’ve realized just how vital of a part of your kitchen the island really is! For those of you doing a new build or considering a kitchen reno, I promise the addition of an island to your room will be the most enjoyed piece in your new kitchen.

There are so many functional and fashionable uses with an island that a few blogs may be necessary to cover them all.

So let’s start with the functional purposes. For people like myself with a smaller sized kitchen, a moveable island is simply a blessing! The new food prep surface is so nice, as before I had to do my chopping and mixing hunched over a small countertop with my back to everyone in the kitchen. Now I am a part of the conversation – not to mention all of the extra storage space for those pesky utensils that I don’t want on display or the water bottles and lids… how can a family of 4 accumulate so many? Yikes! Lucky for me, with the flip up edge and wheels, my girls can pull up a stool and help me out in the food prep’ing and it gives us a couple of extra seats when we have people over! We can move it over to wherever we need it! The island also provides the perfect spot to set food for a buffet style meal – very handy when you have a bunch gathered around the table.

Now for those of you who are blessed with spacious kitchens, all of the above benefits are great, but in a more open kitchen, to have a prep sink, a dishwasher, and many other appliances in the island (which we will explore one day) definitely opens up the possibilities for unique kitchen cabinets. It allows the possible introduction to open shelving units, which is a great trend right now, or many other decorative touches that make your kitchen stand out!

One of my favorite changes that the island makes in a space, is that it helps to centralize things and brings in the focus of the room. It cozies it up!

Now is when the fashions and trends come into play, and I’ll leave you hanging till we meet again!