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chuckpatrick_gw

How many legs does an island need?

chuckpatrick
12 years ago

Hi, we are finalizing design of our kitchen island, which will be 9' x 4', with a 1' overhang for seating along one long side. The countertop will be granite.

The kitchen designer has suggested we need legs at each end of the overhang (2 in total), which seems to make sense. However, he also says that we will need 2 additional legs along the side...spaced each 3'.

I have seen many many pictures of islands without the extra legs, but I am not sure if the 3' spacing is a general rule of thumb...or maybe our designer just wants to sell us a couple extra legs!

Thanks for any help you can give!

Comments (8)

  • kudzu9
    12 years ago

    If the cabinetry for the island is constructed well, there is no need for the extra legs. In fact, it just makes the challenge of getting all of the legs to touch the floor uniformly that much harder. Ask your designer if there is some reason this needs to be done, other than his view of the aesthetics.

  • brianadarnell
    12 years ago

    I think you only need two legs if you want legs. With only 12" for overhang, you may not need any legs for support. Do you have room to increase that to 15 or 18" of overhang? 12" is pretty short for us long legged people.

  • suzanne_sl
    12 years ago

    Do you want legs at all? You don't have to have them if you'd rather not. Or if you want 2, but not more, there is a solution. This is the underside of our overhang:

    Those bars you see support the overhang without being visible except to people crawling around the floor to take a look. Your granite installers will know how many you need as they do this every day. Will you have legs elsewhere in your kitchen? They're definitely a style look you may want to go with, but they are not structurally necessary if you'd rather not.

  • joyce_6333
    12 years ago

    I would have liked legs on our peninsula, but DH did not, but insisted on some support, even though not necessary. This is what he and the cabinetmaker came up with.

  • chuckpatrick
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thank you all...
    brianadarnell, I will increase our depth of overhang -- the opposing cabs are normal depth so there is quite a but of depth avaliable on the seating side.
    suzannesl, thanks for the under-counter picture...we haven't met with the granite guy yet but I will bring this pic.

  • Cloud Swift
    12 years ago

    You don't need any legs, but you need some kind of support. How much depends partly on whether the slabs are 2 cm or 3 cm. There are lots of ways to provide support. Our 2 cm granite (really quartzite) is supported with steel bars inset in a plywood subtop. The bars are about 2" by 1/2" steel with one about every couple of feet of overhang.

    Here it is with the granite in place. The laminated edge of the granite hides the plywood to anyone not looking underneath. I wish I had thought to ask them to use plywood with a cherry veneer on the bottom, though nobody but me and perhaps our toddler grandson seem to be aware of the plain plywood underside there.

  • boxerpups
    12 years ago

    How about something fun like this....


  • kudzu9
    12 years ago

    chuck-
    I think I misunderstood. You weren't really talking about "legs," were you? You were wondering about supports for the granite overhang, I guess.