i agree. When we were home shopping, we viewed an island stove as a big deterrent. We demanded sink and dishwasher in island with seating and the stove must face a wall. We didn't want a hood hanging down and obstructing the view into the room and we've read that MOST counter retractable suction vents were not very effective. We thought sauteeing at an island stove would splatter too much. (Sorry, my opinion doesn't answer your question)

If you have a gas range or range top, you absolutely need all the trim pieces that you mentioned. They are there to protect your cabinets. And yes, it will stick out a little bit in the front. This usually isn't very noticeable and looks natural.

Alternatively, you could install a cooktop (not rangetop) and an undercounter wall-oven. N.b. wall ovens aren't really great for standing in front of. So, you might not actually want to mount the wall oven directly under the cooktop.

Also, unlike gas rangetops, gas cooktops are often very impractical. Placing the knobs right next to the burners is awkward. They get a lot of splatter making cleaning a chore, they take up valuable real-estate, and operating the knobs on the top surface increases the risk of you burning yourself on the hot pots and the gas effluent.

If you are convinced you want a cooktop, you should consider getting an induction model instead. I still don't like the placement of the controls, but with induction the risk of burning yourself when reaching for the controls is greatly diminished.

If you must have a cooking surface in the island induction is the best choice.

A cooktop in an island is bad, but a gas cooktop in an island is especially bad. You will need a proper vent hood from above, which will block sightlines. Not to mention no one wants to gather around a stove.

Ideally, an island shouldn't have anything on it, or at minimum a sink. But if you HAVE TO (cannot stress that enough) have a cooktop on an island it should be induction.

Post your layout. There has to be another choice that is not so dysfunctional.

No stove in the island venting is usually a huge issue for sure and the ideal place is on an outside wall for a gas range for sure.

Heh! My observation after being on this forum for over 10 years is that proper ventilation is a huge (and often last minute) issue no matter where the range is placed if the home owners are not aware of what is required to achieve it. I suspect that appliance sales-persons do not want to lose a sale by pointing out that the expensive cooking appliance under consideration has a one-time ventilation equipment "tax" that can equal the cost of the appliance.

36" induction cooktops to look into are Bosch Benchmark or 800 series and Miele models. 17 or so different power levels. More than other options.

I just put in a 36” Wolf with the Wolf downdraft in an island and it’s fine. I don’t have perimeter walls in my kitchen and I hired a kitchen designer to help me. Omg! And it’s propane and not Nat gas (propane burns dirtier, meaning soot). If that’s what you want, it’ll work. I should also mention that my house has always had a stove with a downdraft (a GE that didn’t work very well). Nothing is ruined, including the fir ceilings.

I have a 30" induction range on an island, and I love it. As long as you've got proper ventilation, go for an island range! It's so nice not cooking facing a wall - don't let anyone talk you out of it.

Having been following this forum for a couple of years, I have come to the conclusion that it is pretty easy to make pretty horrible mistakes when installing a stove or stove top in an island. On the other hand, it takes a lot more ingenuity to really mess up the installation of more conventionally placed stove.

This isn't to say that a stove in an island always is a mistake. There are times when it is the correct solution. And with enough careful planning, it can be made to work -- maybe not quite as well as a stove at the perimeter. But then, kitchen design is all about compromise. You do the best possible job within the constraints of your available space, budget, and priorities.

The more information you can share, the more feedback you can get. It might at times be opinionated, but in general everybody in this forum speeds from experience. So, you benefit from getting a lot of valuable views.

I don't understand why everyone feels the need to face guests while cooking. Are you performing in a cooking show? Conducting classes in your kitchen? Having philosophical discussions while you saute the onions??

If none of the above, place the cook top where it can be vented properly, which is usually on an outside wall.

That's less of a functional and more of a cultural question. I have been in a lot of kitchens with open floorplans that place the work surfaces and the stove in a direction facing the living room. I have seen this in AirBNB apartments, in houses owned by friends, and in rental apartments. And let me tell you, it's nice if the host can continue preparing food without being but off from the guests' conversation in the living room.

This isn't for everybody. But it would be patronizing to discount this choice out of hand.

Diana WELL SAID! I am an experienced cook. I do not need to stand over my stove.- just set a timer and walk away. There is no need to stand at a stove to reduce sauces or sautee proteins. An accidental wine flambé could be hazardous with guests seated near the cook area. Making a custard?- Okay, you must hover the stove for that, but not much else. I spend far more time prepping and cleaning after the meal... Rinsing dishes to place in DW, etc. Island with sink, not stove top.

Prepping the food does consume the majority of kitchen time. Not cooking. Which is why most people suggest to have the prep zone facing the social zone.

There’s nothing worse than hot and splattery shoehorned into a 60”W island. That’s big enough for a safe cooking zone, if it deep enough. But it is NOT big enough to contain both the prep and cooking zones. It would need to be 3’ longer for that. And shoehorning it in is what leaves you with your back to your guests, as you prep next to the sink, across from the fridge. Not on 15” of space next to a cooktop thstbwont even hold a cutting board.

And that leaves you turning back and forth to your source of water, which you use frequently during prep. So, if you want to add a prep sink to the island, add another 27” to that island. You’re over 10’ for that island now. Which just isn’t possible in a lot of remodel situations. And, even in new construction, it leaves you searching for how to find a countertop for an island that’s longer than the standard countertop slab.

So, since cooking time itself actually occupies much less time than prepping, and space is not infinite, very often the best physical layout is to have the cooking zone on the perimeter. It is certainly the cheapest choice by quite a bit. And it’s the most effective choice for ventilation as well.

Ok, let me remind everyone that the designers do have great advice and they’re there to prevent spending tons of money on a poorly designed, dysfunctional kitchen. Our family is off to spend quality time with our friends, who have a horrible, falling apart ‘70’s kitchen. The only point I wouldn’t go over there to visit is if the house was unsafe, and then I’d still go over there to either get it fixed or pick them up. Point is, buy what you can afford, what you like and what meets your needs. The rest is completely irrelevant once that kitchen ‘ages out’.

"I don't understand why everyone feels the need to face guests while cooking."

As long as I'm not facing a wall, I don't care whether I'm facing guests, a window, or an empty room. I also don't prep facing a wall -- about the only thing I do facing a wall in the kitchen is moving dishes from the sink to the dishwasher, rolling pastry dough, or mixing up smoothies in the blender. I hate working while facing a wall.

Wow, Sophie, you prep very differently than I do......I don't go back and forth to the sink all the time (not to mention that I use much less space than you seem to need to prep). I wash my veggies at the same time, so no back and forth to the sink for me. As I empty dishes or grab new utensils, I just put the others aside and move them all to the sink for washing after I'm done. Your way seems very inefficient.

The hostility of “no stove in the island” is laughable. Why do these same people insist the island is the perfect place for a sink? Why would anyone want to eat breakfast with a sink full of frying pans and dirty dishes in their face? I loved, loved, loved my island cooktop because I could see the fire in the fireplace, the game on tv, and check my guests on the terrace while I finished the risotto.

I'm a sink in the island person myself. I like having the prep space next to the sink and trash bin so that I can clear up as I go, while watching the news on tv or chatting with hubby and guests while getting things going. And there's no risk of splattering guests (I'm not the neatest cook - flamboyant, you might say, so an island cooktop is not a good idea).

Different strokes, as they say...oh, and even if people ate at our island, which they don't, they wouldn't be looking at dirty dishes because that's what dishwashers are for.

remodeling1840:

It's not the stove in the island itself, it's the exacerbated problems of venting a stove in an island. Sinks don't make your home smell like fried fish the next morning and downdrafts just don't work all that great.

Actually the new downdraft from Wolf does work. I agree with the assessment of the others not working. My old GE just made noise really. The interesting thing is that many homes don’t have ventilation for a stove - at all. And some just have microwave vents that don’t vent outside. If this really was such a horrible problem, you’d think that builders would install them.

"The interesting thing is that many homes don’t have ventilation for a stove - at all."

My sister said something similar to me when I was renovating - she'd lived without stove ventilation (other than the window above the stove) for over 20 years, and never really had a problem.

to Remodeling 1840, I don't like either the cooktop OR the sink in an island. I also think that the mandatory "I must have an island in my kitchen" and "open concept" is also laughable. Every kitchen, every home is unique, and any renovation should be approached with the view towards maximizing the function and aesthetic of the room and the home, as well as the budget and preferences of the owners.

Downdraft exhaust vents cannot improve much- the basic physics of effluent rising and downdraft pulling do not compute. Unless Wolf has found a way for fumes to naturally sink, the battle is lost.

if you actually cook, there is no way a downdraft is sufficient. This is the simplest example, turn a burner on high with a cast iron pan, letting it get burning hot, then dropping a steak on it. It will produce *clouds* of smoke that no downdraft can clear.

This goes to a lesser extent for fish, bacon, seasoning your wok, etc.

"if you actually cook"

Yeah, that might be the difference in different people's opinions -- maybe some simply don't cook often, or they do more roasting/simmering/baking than they do pan frying. Which really means that everyone who says "it won't work" should first be asking what the intended use is before deciding what's right or wrong.

It’s true that most downdrafts just don’t work. The cottura by Best does (its OEMed by Wolf). I have the Wolf version to match my Wolf gas rangetop. It handles searing just fine. The old one didn’t (GE model). But my stove is also in front of an 8ft slider and has 2 72” ceiling fans to push air back down, or up and out my transom windows 30 ft above - just in case the smoke gets nuts (it doesn’t). My kitchen is a double island and has a half wall facing the living room and a wall on the other side by the dining and family rooms. It’s a post and grade beam house with most walls being sheer walls. There just wasn’t a way to put in a roof vent without ruining the architecture (and sweeping views). Most people have what I had at my old house, a small kitchen that must fit the maximum amount of function and storage into a limited amount of space and budget. And yet, they still manage to cook, quite well, I might add. You don’t need high end products to cook well. And most people don’t have adequate venting in their kitchens. That’s a luxury.