What is your countertop material and thickness please?

You can have steel supports under counter with a larger overhang without needing legs. My island is approx 9x5 and has a 22” overhang with no legs. Cabinetry on other side

quartz countertop, not sure on thickness yet as we have not ordered yet

Thank you!

Steel frame all the way. Why have storage that you have to crawl to get to, plus those cabinets just get kicked. 12” is never enough overhang. I have 24” overhang and it’s awesome, I always allow at least 18” unless it’s a tight urban kitchen.

@HALLETT & Co. how big are the cabinets that support the other side of yours? if we use 24” cabinets and then do a 24” overhang will it look ok? Wasn’t sure if the overhang should be less than the width of the base cabinets? thank you so much!

Ours has 24” cabinets, then a void space behind them so the whole side of island is 37”, then overhang.

My island is 51 wide, waterfall (modern house)

I'll disagree on overhangs. Open ended beyond 15" is just not a great look! Like an unsupported, one side only appendage, looking quite awkward even when supported with integrity. Even dining tables don't always allow more knee room, and unless this is your only dining spot? We all sit differently at an island and we do treat it more as a fast meal, snack perch.

Show your kitchen plan, and the island with whatever is in it. Nine feet is a MAX of four stools on the long side.

Nothing is worse looking that a big giant overhang seemingly supported by invisible wires to the ceiling, floating without support. A large overhang needs to be built with legs and a table apron, just to look scale appropriate. Much less for actual stone support.

Thank you! Maybe we should go with 24” base and 15” overhang, no extra support needed, and just deal with a slightly more narrow island.

"if we use 24” cabinets and then do a 24” overhang will it look ok?"

It will look like H E double matchsticks. H also equals hideous.For the life of me, I can't even hazard a guess as to the desire or need!

Posts will need an apron, and in both cases, involve fabricator and steel support ACROSS the cabinetry in two places. before a top install.

Or? Have a 15 inch - and three steel supports. At least it won't be hideous: )

Jan, if we go with 15” overhang and 24” base cabinets, our island will be 108x40. Do you think that ratio is ok? We don’t particularly need the storage, so we can go without the additional row of cabinets underneath. As for seating, we still plan to have a kitchen table. If we go with this option, we can increase our aisle between island and counter to 48, and add a fee inches to the aisle between island and table. If we did the 48” island, our aisle would have been 42. I’m just worried its too long and narrow but we don’t want to give up too much length becasue the kitchen is long and we have space to fill that way. Thanks!

As I said........show the ENTIRE cad plan for this kitchen. Upload it as a jpeg. Not the pretty elevation, the cabinet and appliance plan with all the feet and inches, TWO dimensional.

Thats what we are working on, so I don’t have it yet. I have a version, which I don’t love, so they are making changes. Will upload when I have the new version. Thanks

IMO no need to have legs on an island ov er hang but I aslo do not think you need more than 12 " and steel supports but I have no idea about your style or any drawings and BTW your cabinet guy is not a kitchen designer he builds what your designer designs .I need to see the plan since IMO an island with seating and a kitcehn table is not a good idea.

I don't know what a large overhand provides. Think about any restaurant bar you've sat at,.......none of them have large overhangs. They serve no purpose.

Even sitting at a folding table, your allotment of space on one side of the table is 15".

Here is a kitchen I did for a client about 8-10 years ago. They did 24" deep base cabinets, with a decorative doorstyle wainscot panel on the backside. Then a 24" overhang. A Ladder support was built with 2x4s anchored at the corners by two heavy columns. To see the island from other angles, click on the project link.

Shiloh Cabinetry - Rustic Alder Silas Finish & Graphite Highlight · More Info

I'm going to strongly disagree with those saying no more than 12" for overhang!

15" is the minimum recommended overhang for counter-height seating. If you or anyone in your family is tall (or has long legs), then 18" or more would be better. We have 15" and it's just barely deep enough for me (5'10") and my daughter (6') - our knees touch the backs of the cabinets. My 6'5" husband & 6'7" son never sit at the counter b/c it's too shallow for them. I wish we had done at least 18"!

We have friends with a 12" overhang and it's uncomfortable to sit at for more than a few minutes...and I have to sit sideways and twist if I want to be near the counter edge. They didn't know that it's less than the minimum recommended (from b/f we met them) -- too many KDs don't tell their clients these things!

• Dining Room Table -- many are 42"D - that means 21" for each side. That's the depth of ours and it works great. Even the narrowest tables are 36"D and that's still 18" for each side. (BTW...18" is the minimum "overhang" for table-height seating.)
• Restaurant bars -- yep, also very uncomfortable to sit at for more than a few minutes. It's one of the reasons I always decline to sit at a bar. Even most booths are too shallow, I always ask for a table (if they have tables) b/c the tables are more flexible. Constantly bumping knees/legs with the people sitting on the other side of you while eating is not fun.

Thank you all for the ideas. I like the idea of building out behind the 24” cabinets and doing 15” We definitely won’t go under 15, but maybe will do 18”. I really dont mind the look of adding legs/posts.

That is what we did. 24 inch cabinets and then built out and have 15 inch overhang with legs.

@vinmarks do you feel like 40in is wide enough? we will have a small prep sink on one side, and we don’t plan to use this as our main dining area so we won’t sit here for meals. I had initially thought we had space for 48” so going down to 40” seems like we are losing out, but we can increase our aisles to 45-48 if we make our island 40” Thank you!

Your aisles, SHOULD be 48 " between cook/ clean up perimeter, and if stools back to a dining table or to a wall? Not less than 42 ( call it squeeze ) to a wall, and 60" to a dining table with chairs or a squeeze at 54"

This is why I asked for the entire plan. Reduce the island to 40" x 108 after you scrutinize all the clearances!!!

Sounds like your plan could need some attention?

I like the look of legs or walls at the end. We have a 24" overhang. I'm not w sure why people think it's too much. Personally I'm glad you have it as the kids can barely reach it so they're not kicking the crap out of my cabinets. Seats fit fully underneath.

40" should be wide enough if you don't have a cleanup sink. You said you have a small prep sink... Please make sure small means at least 18". Here is 48" with a cleanup sink.

And here's a 24" overhang (maybe a little less considering the back panel)

@Katie S I just measured my island. Overhang for seating is 16 not 15. Our island is 109 x a little over 46. 24 inches for cabinets, 1 1/2 inch over hang on working side, 6 inch filler and then 16 inch over hang for seating. Legs are a little over 5 inches wide. We have a 4 1/2 inch apron(I guess that what they call it) front and sides to support the overhang. Here's my kitchen and I included a pic of the apron.