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Design DilemmaCucina
jeniniowa

Distance between island seating and fridge - need input!

Jennifer Weinman
l'anno scorso

We are finalizing our cabinet layout and order this week and I want some input on our island size and the distance between the overhang of our island and our refrigerator, which is behind it. I'm inserting a photo for reference of the layout.


Right now, in this screen shot, the island is 48"x72" - it has a 12" overhang. The general size of this seems good to us. Here's where our dilemma is:

  • husband would like more than a 12" overhang - he'd like 15 or possibly even 18" (we are a tall family)
  • we don't really need the additional 12" base cabinet in the island for storage, however, I personally think aesthetically, it's going to look very unbalanced to have an overhang beyond 15" without something there to achieve the visual balance with the overhang.
  • husband is not a fan of endcaps or legs for the island overhang either, though I like them and love the finished furniture-look they lend to islands. He hates that it messes up with leg room - that's a driving force behind a lot of this whole discussion. So this is a difference of opinion i suppose, but I doubt I'll come out on the winning side - we'd likely end up with some type of support underneath for the counters
  • where the rubber meets the road - we can't make this room any bigger, and the distance from the overhang in this design to the wall/over-fridge cabinet is 60 inches. We have a counter depth LG so the door handles and actually doors do stick out a bit beyond that. So it's a tiny bit less if we're being real. We currently are fine with the size of our fridge, I suppose there's a possibility someday we'd want a full size fridge, but we've also lived with much smaller. We do have a chest freezer in our basement.

So here's my question - what distance between fridge and seating would you recommend here? How do you think we can find a middle ground to get the leg-room we want, island size we want, and not run into traffic problems with the fridge? Are there other considerations I haven't thought of? We're pretty set on the overall design and layout on the major stuff, this is sort of the final thing to be determined.


Our designer said we could do a 5" cabinet that's essentially "dead space" behind the regular base cabinets in the island so that it's still the 4x6 size and do the 18" overhang....good or bed idea? Open to suggestions



Commenti (18)

  • millworkman
    l'anno scorso

    "and do the 18" overhang"


    Is the designer specifying the required steel stretcher bars for supporting the tops? I thing it is going to be way to tight, borderline is just with it as currently drawn.

  • Fori
    l'anno scorso

    The way I interpret the drawing now is that you can just make your husband sit in the middle where there is extra leg room. :)


    Does the island seating have to be along that side? facing the range might give more options.

  • PRO
    Construction Elements
    l'anno scorso

    I have always used 36" as the absolute minimum for a walk space in a kitchen. So I would use a barstool in the space to see how much room you would need with the barstool pushed out and still have 36" to the refrigerator. Hope this helps.

  • PRO
    Debbi Washburn
    l'anno scorso

    In front of a ref, I would do no less than 48". As a far as an overhang is concerned, I never do an 18" . There is never a need for it - you don't sit that pulled into the countertop and stools don't need that depth to be pushed in. Of course there is also the added support needed. That sort of overhang would look best with decorative legs and skirt pieces going from leg to leg so it doesn't look odd.

    My desk has a 12 " overhang and I have had customers who are 6'4" sit there and they are just fine. I would test it out before making any decisions.

    I just don't care for how this looks:


    You have to do what's best for your comfort. I would use your table and put a box underneath to simulate 12' overhang vs 15 and see what you think.

    Good luck!

  • PRO
    Jeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor
    l'anno scorso

    1. get some real measurements for the refer depth. Full sized roll ins are 36-38" to handles plus gap. 48-54" space to edge of island, using a 12" overhang is standard.


    42" in front of range is minimal, and how far does it stick out (more than 24" deep unless its a Harmony or similar)


    Turning the island 90 degrees isn't a bad option and would keep traffic away from the refer side and leave more space in front of range

  • Michael
    l'anno scorso

    I was concerned about not enough overhang and everyone we spoke to said 12" would be enough. It probably would have been fine, but we opted for 15" and are very happy to have the extra leg room because we use our island a lot. I would not put the extra 12" cabinet on the island. Leave it as a standard 24-25" and then do ~15" of overhang. The island will be approximately 70" x. ~40-42" which is plenty of width.

  • Jennifer Weinman
    Autore originale
    l'anno scorso

    Thanks everyone for the input - the one challenge for us right now is we are currently overseas while communicating with our cabinet person, so that adds some extra fun to all of this too.


    @Jeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor we actually did have the island turned with seating facing the range originally, but would actually have only 25 inches from the island to the fridge door handles if we kept the island the same size and did 42" walkway by the sink - that seems a bit tight to me, plus then the walkway from the pantry and through that corner there gets a lot tighter too.


    Range depth is 24.813 per specs from the manufacturer.


    Fridge specs state that it is 30 7/8" deep with the door handles and door accounted for, and 24 1/8" deep without. So basically, we lose around 6" to the door/handles of our fridge as it currently stands, and the counter to there would be closer to 54"


    @millworkman yes, she is taking into account the stretcher bars for supporting the counter. We've discussed that.



  • anj_p
    l'anno scorso
    Ultima modifica: l'anno scorso

    Looks like your aisle measurements are cabinet to cabinet, which means your actual aisles will be less than the recommended minimum of 3'-6". Counter overhangs are usually 1.5". Fridges may not be shoved up against a wall - there's typically a gap required in the back, so make sure you account for that as well. I would shift your island 6" in both directions to get closer to 4' aisles.

    Regarding overhang, 15" is recommended for counter height seating.

    Regarding space between seating & fridge...I would want at least 5'. Working in a kitchen where you have to ask people to move to get into the fridge is the worst. 4' is not enough. I might consider adding seating at the end of the island and no seating directly across from the fridge to mitigate the impact. Consider eliminating the extra skinny cab in the island and reducing the width of your island to get better clearances.

  • Jennifer Weinman
    Autore originale
    l'anno scorso

    @charlie charlie we have a counter depth LG



  • Jennifer Weinman
    Autore originale
    l'anno scorso

    @anj_p thank you for all the specifics. Yes, we know about standard overhangs on counters - i believe we are doing an inch on the island, but I need to cross check. I also appreciate all of the considerations you are mapping out. So you're suggesting reducing island size on all sides basically by a few inches?


    We could lose some cabinets on one end of the island and put a stool there instead of the 3 on one side, more of an L shape seating - that's one option.

  • PRO
    HALLETT & Co.
    l'anno scorso

    Skip the cabinets under the island if you don't need the storage, have 18" of overhang and 6" more clearance in the walkways. You do need to figure out support and make sure you have planned for the code required outlets.

  • anj_p
    l'anno scorso

    @Jennifer Weinman I was suggesting moving the island away from your work zones a bit to get better aisles (your kitchen will end up being a bit of a walk-through for people to go from fridge to sink, so you will want a bit of room to not feel squished). So instead of 3'-6.75", make those 4' (which, with a 1" overhang, would result in 3'-10" aisles). And then eliminating the 12" cabs to narrow up the island so you get more space between it & the fridge. Or putting them side-by-side at the range side (assuming they're pullouts towards the range?), which would at least take care of some of the fridge/seating conflict. I think L shaped seating would be much better anyway, assuming there's no issue with a seat at the end being in a walkway.

    I had 12" overhangs on my last island. It was fine, but our knees would hit the cabinets. If I had the choice, I'd definitely go with 15".

  • PRO
    Patricia Colwell Consulting
    l'anno scorso

    IMO anyplace where you have seating you need 5' from the edge of the counter to the wall or to any appliance and IMO from a fridge even more space .We are tall and honestly for stools at a counter 12" is just fine but if you can plan on proper walkway 15" IMO is all you ever need.

  • PRO
    Jeffrey R. Grenz, General Contractor
    l'anno scorso

    Add an inch to the refer for rear and side clearances, more it you plan an enclosure on the side, cabinet over and crown on top, otherwise it may push into the hall a few inchesm in other words the cabinet designer needs to walk thru. It will crowd the space in front of the ovens some, but doable. The island may need to be smaller if turned.


    Space around the island is more important than the size of the island.

  • Jennifer Weinman
    Autore originale
    l'anno scorso

    Thanks everyone - we're playing out all the scenarios and going to try to figure this out. We were able to do some measurements in our apartment with a stool and feel like the space we have between fridge handles and counter will be sufficient for us.

  • User
    l'anno scorso

    Seats in front of the most a accessed appliance is always a bad idea. It’s even worse when the people in the seats will have to get up and move for you to access the appliance.

  • felizlady
    l'anno scorso

    You need unfettered access to all the appliances in the kitchen. I prefer a kitchen large enough for a small table and chairs in one corner: if your guest likes to visit while you cook, they have a seat and are out of the way.

  • Buehl
    l'anno scorso
    Ultima modifica: l'anno scorso

    Regarding seating overhang (from a tall family): Go with 18" IF you can fit it with a 48 to 51 inch aisle behind the seats. 15" is the bare minimum for an average-height family. I can tell you that 15" is barely enough for me (5'10" - my knees hit the backs of the cabinets) and my daughter (6'0" - although she cannot sit "straight on"). My 6'5" husband and 6'7" son never sit there b/c it's just too shallow for them to be comfortable.

    I would not go less than 15". Contrary to what some people think, skimping on the overhang will not "save" you on aisle space. If you skimp, then people's bums stick farther out into the aisle than they would if the overhang was more. In fact, think of it this way -- for every inch you skimp on overhang, that's another inch you need in the aisle to accommodate people sticking farther out into the aisle.

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