design ideas for small kitchen islands

a lot of the times wheni'm standing in the space and it's all finished,it's pretty, it's clean, i really have to stepback and remember what this space was to begin with. i still remember walking ourclients right through here. this used to be a doorway. this was their diningroom on one side, and this was their tightlittle kitchen here. one of the thingsi remember is when

we opened up therefrigerator door, there was no room foranyone to walk by. all four of us werestanding in this kitchen, and it was super tight. what i love about it now is thatwe decided to move the dining room back more intothe living space, create a cool littlebutler's pantry for them, because they neededadditional storage, but now they've gotthis huge open kitchen.

you could add an additional10 to 15 more people all around theisland and it would still be really comfortable. you know, it's funny,because we do so many of these older homes, and ithink it just depends on what era the house was built in. but a lot of times, the kitchenwas always the smallest space in the house, where now ireally feel like we're moving into a new idea ofopening up your spaces,

where each spaceis still defined. it doesn't have tobe completely open. but now the idea of havingfamily and friends over, larger spaces forentertaining, gathering around with your family,i think the kitchen is just now a much bigger deal. and that's one of thethings i really like to emphasize in our designs.