Great legs! - kitchen islands and cooktops

Sunset, April, 1996 by Bill Crosby

When islands and cooktops look like freestanding furniture, the kitchen becomes more human-scaled and inviting

Designers are finally acknowledging what everyone else has always known: the kitchen is where people congregate, no matter how inviting other rooms are. As a result, designers are softening the room's traditional spare utilitarian edges in favor of a more furnished look.

Good things happen when furniture becomes the model for kitchen surfaces. First, by treating islands, counters, and cabinets as freestanding tables, sideboards, and cupboards rather than as a unified whole, the kitchen becomes more human-scaled. Second, the kitchen looks more like the family room it's often connected to.