Planning a new island. Opinions?

[Steve Jenkins]

I'll second the opinion that you'll want to do all drawers. I built our entire kitchen, and except for the cabinet under the induction cooktop, everything is drawers. We have no upper cabinets and find that even our dinnerware works great in drawers. You will save time and money with frameless, but need to consider how you will finish the edges of the sheet material you choose to use.

We also did all drawers except under the sink and cooktop. Under the cooktop we mounted a shower rod and used s hooks to hang all the pans that have a single handle . Below the wall oven we made a large drawer with dividers for cutting boards, cookie sheets etc. I made the drawer front look like a pair of doors since it was so big

[James Pallas]

Here is an image of an elevated dishwasher. You may not have your on the island but maybe it will stimulate and idea

Attachment 400982

That kitchen may be set up as an Accessibility kitchen. The counter tops would be at thirty two and actually raised to accommodate the dishwasher. It also allows the upper cabinets to be 4" lower so easier to reach from a wheelchair.
Jim

[fRED mCnEILL]

We have drawers in the toe kick and one of them is an"upside down" drawer that you can stand on to give some extra elevation for baking, rolling pin stuff. To support the drawer I put plastic runners on the bottom.

[Chad Visker]

Thanks everyone for the thoughts and opinions. They are all great. As far as finishing, they will be painted white. Was originally thinking the iron on edging for the front edges of the plywood, but perhaps wood filler, followed by paint?

[Myk Rian]

Ours is 36.25" tall. It works great for everyone during gatherings.
We put the dishwasher in the island. It has worked out very well.

[Tim Bueler]

We have 2 islands. One is all drawers and pullout shelves. Honestly I don't know why anyone would want to get down on their knees to dig through a cabinet when there is so much great hardware to make accessing lower cabinets easy and efficient. This island is 36", LOML has a cutting board on top which raises her cutting surface to 38". She is 5' 3" (and does all the cooking).

The other "island" is a reclaimed meat cutters block. 30" x 30" x 30" high. She uses this to roll out pastry and/or pizza dough. She also has her Kitchen-Aid mixer here, makes it easier for her to see in the bowl (like when she adds chocolate chips to cookie dough ).

Countertop height is/should be a function of the intended use. Nothing wrong with having varied counter heights. Many years ago I built a kitchen for a little Filipino lady and her mother. Countertops were 33" (appliances were a !@#$%). EXCEPT, the dishwasher was raised 6" or 8" so they didn't have to bend over to load/unload. Can't remember how tall she was but I don't think she'd make 5' if she stood on tip-toes.

[Martin Wasner]

I don't understand pull outs.

Why open a door to open a drawer?

[Patrick Walsh]

I think that might be a very common belief amongst us cabinet makers.

I have yet to meet one that understood the point. As it is a bank of drawers even looks better.

Ok maybe in a pantry I get pullouts. Beyond that not so much.

As for height, the only way I would ever deviate from the 36” is when field conditions force it.

I don't understand pull outs.

Why open a door to open a drawer?

[Martin Wasner]

Ok maybe in a pantry I get pullouts. Beyond that not so much.

I agree, but to me a pantry should only be about 14" deep anyways.

I just hate pull outs. We do them a really stupid and really time consuming way. My fault, but I don't charge enough.

[Darcy Warner]

Saw horses, solid core door and totes. Bam, island done in 15 minutes.

[Chad Visker]

I don't either. Too much wasted space. that's why I'll be doing all drawers instead of doors with pull-outs.

I don't understand pull outs.

Why open a door to open a drawer?

[Patrick Walsh]

Oh yeah please explain.

What do you do box in a box?

We just do maple stand off blocks hit with cv..

It’s a crap look imop but it’s what we do.

I agree, but to me a pantry should only be about 14" deep anyways.

I just hate pull outs. We do them a really stupid and really time consuming way. My fault, but I don't charge enough.

[Martin Wasner]

Oh yeah please explain.

What do you do box in a box?

We just do maple stand off blocks hit with cv..

It’s a crap look imop but it’s what we do.

Ugh...

We do a stick the full height of the opening if multiple roll outs. Those used to get drilled on the linebore. My first linebore it was easy, just a little Delta 13 spindle. It was impossible on the Gannomat, and we don't even have that anymore. We mark them out and drill them on the drill press as of right now. (Retarded, I know) I need to figure out a easy way to hold them on the cnc, that will take seconds.

5mm screws to hold 563's to the sticks.

The box itself is hard to explain. Imagine a standard 4" dovetail drawer box. Prior to assembly the front is cut down to 2". The left and right sides are cut at an angle starting from about 10" from the back, down to as close as possible without cutting into the pin in front.

They look good, but they're a lot of screwing around.

[Jim Becker]

I don't understand pull outs.

Why open a door to open a drawer?

This is a valid statement from my experience. I have pull-outs now on my island simply because I didn't know any better "back then". I do plan on replacing the current island...perhaps even this year...and it will be all drawers and nothing but drawers. I suspect that some meaningful percentage of pull outs out in the wild came about as retrofits, too, and then other folks see them and say, "how kewel...I want that' without thinking things through.

[Gary Ragatz]

I think that might be a very common belief amongst us cabinet makers.

I have yet to meet one that understood the point. As it is a bank of drawers even looks better.

Ok maybe in a pantry I get pullouts. Beyond that not so much.

As for height, the only way I would ever deviate from the 36” is when field conditions force it.

I've never built a kitchen (probably never will), but I work in mine ~ 2 hours a day.

We built a new home a couple of years ago, and went with single drawers with doors/pull outs below. No regrets.

If I recall correctly, doors with pull outs were less expensive than drawer stacks, but that wasn't a deciding factor.

I'm very happy with the pull outs - don't know why I would want to lift pots & pans or a stack of mixing bowls over an 8" or 9" drawer box, when my pull outs have a 2" lip. Also, a little easier to see what's stacked up when I don't have a deep drawer box in the way.

Don't see why a bank of drawers looks better than doors.