Floating Kitchen Islands

Floating kitchen islands are called as such because they appear to float in the air. How is this possible? It has an efficiently hidden pedestal holding it up, so it creates an illusion that it is floating. Often, builders add downlights to highlight the open space under the kitchen cabinets. 

How Can You Say if Your Kitchen Island is a Floating Island?

For some designers, a kitchen island is “floating” when the countertop goes beyond the base that accommodates the addition of high chairs. Others, loosely use the term to call portable kitchen islands that you can move about in the kitchen. In a strict sense, they are not floating kitchen islands. In short, floating kitchen islands must be stationary and must appear to have no legs. 

Guidelines for Installing Pedestal Floating Kitchen Islands

Whatever designers or builders call them, they all follow the same guidelines when designing or building these floating kitchen islands. The most important of which are the clearances: 

  • There must be at least 54 inches of space between the island and the countertop. 
  • The island must provide a pathway of at least 48 inches on all sides. 
  • Floating kitchen islands must have a minimum length of 78 inches, with 60 inches used for food preparation and the remainder for the sink, if necessary. 
  • If your kitchen island is opposite a dishwasher, make sure to allow ample distance for the door opening. 
  • The same concept should apply if the island is opposite a refrigerator. It should allow easy passage even if the refrigerator door is open. 

To efficiently hide the pedestal support, as your cabinet maker to place the pedestal further back from the vertical cabinet face. This allows the island to appear as if it is indeed floating. For this to work, the island must have enough width that the pedestal can cover a larger surface area to support the entire kitchen island. 

To add drama and emphasize the recessed space underneath, you can have downlights to deepen the illusion. If you can use strip lighting, then that’s better. Use LED lighting, as it can serve as your night light when having your midnight snacks. 

Another ingenious way of creating the illusion is by placing your kitchen countertop on a mirrored cabinet. You can also use different materials used for your kitchen island. For instance, you have a marble countertop on top of wood cabinetry and wood flooring. It can trick the eye to think that you have a floating countertop island. 

Rolling Floating Island

If you want the concept of a floating kitchen island, but don’t have enough space in your kitchen to accommodate one, you can opt to have a rolling floating kitchen island instead. You can ask your cabinet maker to build a rolling cabinet with minimized wheels. It creates the illusion that it is a stationary island, but it can still be moved when necessary. 

Floating Kitchen Islands For You

Floating kitchen islands are a great addition to any kitchen space. It adds a functional and trendy solution for your kitchen needs.