Collection by Erika Heet
Super Cool Kitchen Islands
A delicious slab of white Carrara marble, a couple of planks of plywood, and 20,000 Legos: These are among the inventive materials used for some of our favorite kitchen islands from the pages of Dwell.
Though this kitchen fits in with its period surroundings, a few tweaks keep it current. “It’s functional in a way that doesn’t feel like the kitchen is in the living room,” says architect Rick Black. He explains, “One of the goals was to make the islands more like furniture than like heavy objects that go all the way to the floor.”
Opening onto the open-plan living and dining rooms, the aluminum Bulthaup System 20 kitchen with its nine-foot-long stainless steel island and Miele appliances has become a focal point of the house. Pressed in one seamless sheet of steel, the island, Picard says with the obvious pride of a satisfied customer, “is an amazing piece of engineering.”
Ikea cabinets were combined with durable work surfaces and personal touches like a chalkboard wall. Decopour flooring, a cement topping similar to terrazzo, is a very durable, family friendly surface. Kitchen, dining and outdoor space flow around a 12-foot long island—nicknamed "the mother of all islands" by the residents.