I wouldn't mind my main sink being in the island, but I would hate having my range there. I just think it seems really unsafe for kids sitting at the island...and really messy.

I thought about putting the sink there, but I feel like I use the range more than I use the sink when cooking.

I plan on having a bar on the edge of the island, with a step up. I think this would step up and the island wlil be deeper than standard depth to keep splatter down.

A lot of people don't like the idea, but I think in the right situation, it works well. I would choose a raised seating area, too...although on one level seems to be popular. The raised area will give you a place for outlets and a division between the cooking area and the seating area. I like your idea of making it a bit deeper than usual, too.

My SIL has this...and despite what you see on GW, no one has caught a newspaper on fire or been burned by fried chicken. Of course, they do have a dining table, so if she's doing something really messy, we can sit over there.

I thought about putting my range on the island (with a downdraft vent, since we have electric/not gas) but my husband discovered the joy of home made fries! And the George Foreman grill...thanks to some great Christmas gift...so I'm wondering if I can put a huge vent/hood on most of the wall, where the range will be (LOL) to keep all the fumes/grease under control! :)

Thanks everyone! This is making me feel better about the plan.

The reason GWebbers don't like it, in succinct bullet points are

1) To get adequate ventilation, you need an island rangehood. And a lot of folks who design island ranges don't want the hood blocking their view, so they go with downdraft, which doesn't provide as good of performance as a hood.

2) Safety. If your island isn't big enough, you end up with seating or walkways too close to the hot stuff.

3) Statistically, people spend more time prepping than they do actually cooking at the stove. Yes, there are exceptions, and you need to be aware of your own habits. But if you spend lots of time chopping and mixing, but once you've got the pot simmering it only needs a quick stir every 5 minutes, then you get the most social benefits from having the prep space facing the seating/living area. If your island is big enough, you can have prep space and cook space on the island and have the best of both worlds.

I have seen island cooktops that work. They are large, with adequate prep space and a wide buffer for seating, and they have a rangehood.

Them's the issues, in a nutshell.

Cawaps summarized this well.

I did leave my range in my peninsula because of cost and layout. I don't believe it is the best choice necessarily. I think it was the most practical for my particular situation. If I were starting a room from scratch (ie new build) I would not do it this way.

You don't mention the height of your ceiling. Doing a proper vented hood can be expensive if you have vaulted ceilings. Even with regular height ceilings, your hood will cost more for an island/ceiling application as all four sides of the chimney must have a finished look to them. It's not a crazy amount but can be a few hundred dollars or more.

"...our architect has decided to put the range in the island."

This statement puts up red flags for me! A range in the island can work, it seems, but make sure it works for YOU, not just your architect. Unless he or she will also be your personal chef. ;)

cawaps hit the nail on the head - points 1 and 3 are the biggies. Venting a range/cooktop on a wall is a lot easier, less intrusive, and less expensive.

We are four weeks post-remodel with a range in our large island. I love it! We splurged a bit with a sleek zephyr hood that is a bit minimalist. I played around with different layouts for years before I realized how much more efficient my layout would be with the range in the island, and I haven't been disappointed. I'll post photos soon, but when I stand at the range, I can see into our dining room and even our living room. I find the island range is quite efficient and left a large uninterrupted countertop around the perimeter of our kitchen, which has worked great for entertaining. And our island seating is far enough away that I don't worry about safety.

In addition to the above, I use my island for entertaining and serving which you can't do with a cooktop in the island without reaching over hot pots or splattering people. I like the multipurpose use of a flat and uninterrupted counter...when the girls come over, we are all able to work around the whole island to bake and such. I think if you have a cooktop you need a raised bar to prevent splatters on people at the island...and raised bars present their own problems for shorties like me who can't sit on the stool and reach the floor to move the stool.

I also like the look of the cooktop and backsplash as the focal point on the main wall in the kitchen.

An island cooking station can be a GREAT feature of a home! IF it's done correctly with an eye towards function and not the mental cooking show fantasy where there are no consequences for skipping on the functional needs of such a setup.

A range on the island can work...

IF you plan for enough clearance behind the cooktop for safety. That means 9" for those pan handles to protrude into. Then you can start the overhang for any seating. So, if you want seating, add that 9" to the recommended overhang for seating, which is 15" for counter height, making it a full 24" behind the cooktop. Then you have to account for the needed aisle space for traffic, which is 48" at minimum for people to scoot by, or preferably 60" so people can walk behind seated folks. If you will have cabinets across from the cooktop and behind the seated diners, you are up to needing a 16' wide kitchen to make this work safely.

IF you have enough island length to be able to create a prep zone next to the cooking zone. If the island is short in length, you will end up prepping elsewhere, usually next to your sink, and you will have your back turned to the cooking zone rather than your vision of facing outwards. Functionally, this means that you island will need to be at least 36" of prep space + 12" of emergency landing space + range size + 15" of emergency landing space. For a 36" cooktop, the island needs to be at least 88". But that still leaves you turning back and forth to the water source to wash produce and your hands, or get that pot of pasta water. For a more efficient prep space, you need a prep sink on the island to create a "cockpit" where you only shift back and forth maybe a step or two between prepping and cooking. So, add in a 21" cabinet to hold a 18" prep sink, and at least another 12" cabinet to the other side so there is a bit of a landing space, and that 88" island now needs to be 121" to be the most efficient for you ergonomically. Do you want seating on one end of that island? Add in 15" for an overhang. You are now at 136". Now, add in the 48" aisle clearance between the working end of the island and the 25" of counter that's across from that working end, and the length of the kitchen is up to 209". But you haven't accounted for the aisle behind the seating area on the end of the island. Add in another 60" before you can place a sofa if it's open to another room, and you now need a room that is 23' x 16' to do an island cooking zone without compromising function somewhere. You might have that much space, since it's a new build, but those renovating rarely do.

IF you can manage the more difficult logistics and additional expense of island ventilation. An island vent hood needs to be much wider and deeper to do the same job as a smaller wall hood because you don't have the adjacent cabinets and wall to direct the cooking steam, smoke, and grease into the capture area. So, you need a larger capture area. And more CFM to serve that capture area. More CFM will most likely lead to a need for makeup air, which can add significantly to the cost of the project. It can be a case of a 10K ventilation system just to satisfy the local codes if you go with a high BTU cooking appliance. Even if you just choose a consumer grade cooking appliance and an island location, you will have to compromise somewhere in the ventilation needs if you are not to trigger the makeup air requirement. Either you go too low of a CFM to trigger the makeup air requirement, and have grease and steam carrying odors throughout the house, or you don't end up cooking very much to avoid that situation. Want a downdraft instead? Think jet engine noise levels in order to create enough of an actual draft to suck the naturally rising steam, and heat back downwards and out. That can pull the flame of a gas burner to the side and leave that pasta water needing a half hour to actually come to even a simmer. And that doesn't solve the problem of the makeup air issue either. Of course, if you rarely cook, then a low CFM downdraft can probably handle most of your ventilation needs, but it's the rare person who rarely cooks who plans a kitchen renovation!

Since you are in the planning stages, you can afford to take the time to address each of these issues properly. You may find it's much easier to compromise on the location of the cooking zone than to satisfy the needs of an optimized functioning island cooking and prepping zone. Much more time is spent in prepping for cooking than cooking itself (70% vs. 10%) and that is why you will see more islands as dedicated prep zones than cooking zones. It's easier to have all of the zones you need in a smaller space when you design it with the cooking against a wall.

As a kid, I liked to sit on the counter while my mom was cooking/baking. I wasn't a dumb kid and she wasn't an inattentive mom, but one time I did not realize the range was on and wound up with a VERY bad burn on the palm of my hand.

With kids, accidents happen no matter how attentive you are or how well behaved the child is. I personally would never have an island range because of this bad experience, but I think you just need to assess how you're going to use your kitchen to decide if it's right for you.

In my last house I had it for over 22 years. Redid the kit and did it again. I really liked it. In my present house it wasn't possible and I miss it. That said I first had a JennAir with a worthless downdraft. Then a tall telescope that was a big improvement. In my present kit I have a wall hood and it is better yet.

99% of the people who want an island cooktop have been watching too much HGTV or Food Network without paying attention to the details. How many network stars do you see actually washing their hands or cutting boards in between chopping the onions for the saute and the fruit for the sorbet? How many wide screen shots do you see of the "kitchen" that they are cooking in? It's a TV set! It's not a real kitchen! It has an extremely LARGE capture area and fans above the camera line. The filtration systems that handle this are state of the art commercial grade and will cost more than just about everyone reading this thread's entire kitchens combined.

Don't confuse TV with real life. Real life is much messier and follows the actual laws of physics and time motion studies.

We considered putting and were encouraged to put our range in our peninsula. For us, the kitchen was way too small, the large vent required would have broken up the space badly, and we wanted the big smooth peninsula (all at countertop height) to be available for prep or art projects or meals or a bit of all three.

One of my favorite features of our finished kitchen is the effective venting-- don't skimp on venting!

I think there are some good points about the ventilation, I'm happy installing a high power island hood. I'm currently planning on the Wolf Island Pro hood. 36" hood if I get a 30" range, 42" hood if I get the 36" range. In either case, paired with a 1200 or 1500 cfm external blower. Code in my area definitely requires make-up air and I'm looking at a passive system either by Famco or CCB Innovations.

The clearance advice is really good and I'll make sure we incorporate it.

Thanks everyone!

Gee Hollysprings - someone likes something you don't like so you assume 99% of them are misguided and trying to be like what they see on TV? How rude!

FYI, our kitchen in a custom MCM house was built with an island cooktop in the mid '70s - long before HGTV or Food Network and it is pretty common in our neighborhood in houses of that era. I knew I liked it and it worked well for us because I used it for 20 years before remodeling, not because I saw it on TV.

We have a 36" rangetop in an 8' by 4' 3" island. Rather than centering the rangetop, we have it toward one side so right to left we have a prep sink, prep area, rangetop, counter. We only have 12" to the left of the rangetop, More would be nice but I find 12" workable - enough room to stage some ingredients for a wok on that burner and to provide a bit of buffer between the aisle and the rangetop.

Our island is one level - not a raised bar. Our pre-remodel island was 8' by 4' single level and we found that the 24" between the cooktop and back of the island was enough that people sitting or standing their to chat with the cook didn't get splashed. Our kids grew up in this house and we never had a safety issue with that configuration. We added 3" in the remodel to get a more comfy 15" seating overhang with 12" of storage on the back of the island, not because of any safety issue.

We don't have as long an island as Live wire oak suggests but it works fine for us. Sometimes a second person preps using the side of the island next to the prep sink.

I like to prep next to the rangetop and I like being able to watch the TV in the family room or chat with those at the island while cooking so prep and cooking on the island work well for me.

The 24" of clear area on the back of the island work well for serving when we do a buffet. Sometimes if the buffet includes serving soup, chili, etc, we serve that from the rangetop. That 24" by 8' area also gets used for forming loaves, loading baking sheets or cooling area when doing a lot of baking.

Our island ventilation is an island vent from Independent Hood (now Prizer Hoods). It cost more than a wall model at about 2 K. Generally, an island hood will cost $500 to 1000 more than a similar wall hood - that was worth it to us to get the layout that we wanted (and one saves a bit by not having a rangetop backsplash :) ).

The island rangetop also allowed us to use the wall space for the wall cabinets and pass through window - if we had the rangetop on the perimeter, we would have had to lose the operable window or some wall cabinets to make a place for it.

I think with adequate (overhead) ventilation and decent space to each side and to the back, it is a reasonable option to consider.

Not every island has seating, not everybody has multiple children, not everyone needs it to be blank for a workspace or serving space, and not everyone lets other people roam around the working part of the kitchen during meal prep.

There are many good reasons not to put one on the island but if you can meet certain basic criteria, and your own personal criteria by doing so, there can be good reasons to put one there too.

Don't watch HDTV or Food Channel, and no kids (or animals) on the counters unattended - not that there's anything wrong with that.... :-)

I was not willing to skimp on stove exhaust. I wasn't thrilled with consumer reviews of downdrafts, so went with an overhead. It has become a favorite design feature, and we use it more than our old wall exhaust. Yes, you will spend more on an island hood vs wall unit, but lots of options out there...ours does not block views. It is perhaps the biggest surprise for me as I dreaded the thought of it messing with the open feel we were seeking.

When we bought our old house in 1988, my plans for an eventual new kitchen included a range within an island. In 2002-3 the kitchen became a reality but ventilation wasn't possible in the center of the room & the range-in-an-island idea was scrapped; otherwise, that's exactly where I'd have it.

I prefer having the cooktop on the island. Like to cook facing the guests. Hate cooking facing a wall.

Secondly, who wants to see dirty dishes (sink in island). quite unsightly if you ask me.

It can be done and be successful and there are rooms where it makes sense. This is a house on my street currently on the market and the kitchen was recently redone. They kept the kind of island cooktop that drives me crazy.
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No work space and back turned to any guests. I had one with space almost almost as bad in my last house -- good views but I hated working there. The one in this house was not as bad, but we moved it for other reasons and came up with a much better work space.

I have a 125 inch wide island and I can't imagine having a range in it. I have a 27 inch sink and that feels fairly big, I can't imagine having a 36 inch range stuck in it. I understand your thoughts on wanting on the island. But going from experience I spend the majority of the time by the sink prepping or serving on the island. A lot more time than I do working the range. I cook with oil a bit and having splash over on my guests wouldn't be nice.

I think most of the points I've made have been brought up above, but I just wanted to throw my two cents in. It's nice having the sink right there when guests are just hanging out having a couple drinks and chatting.

The vast majority of ranges are 30" (as opposed to cooktops) so in the above example that leaves 90+" of counterspace. That's 7-1/2 feet. That would fit a range comfortably--almost 4 feet of counterspace on each side.