How much space needed between table and island?

17 years ago

I will have an island that will back up to the breakfast table. Then, the table backs up to sliding doors. I have a similar situation in my current kitchen except in my current house, my island stools are not backing up to the table. In the new kitchen, they will back into the table. I am trying to decide how much space I need. My table is 35 inches wide and about 6 feet long. It seats six. The sides with the two chairs will be the ones close to the island. Anyway, I think I have about 127 inches between the sliders and the island. I am trying to decide if I can curve the island countertop or not. If I curve it, it will be slight--3 inches. I will lose those three inches in the space for the table. Am I making any sense? I think my question is, how much space would be good between those table chairs and island chairs? In my current house, I have about 5 feet between the island and table chairs, but the island chairs aren't right there--though we do have a trash can there (in that five feet of space).

Let me know if you have any opinions. Thanks.

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Comments (6)

plllog
17 years ago
Rule of thumb is that a dining chair or stool takes up 2 square feet just for the chair. Add another foot either direction for average size knees and elbows. So that's 3 square feet. You need push back space and walking space. That's nine feet just for that aisle. You can obviously compact this by pushing chairs and knees under, but if you look at a lot of those nice magazines they have these huge kitchens that actually have that.

Will you be using the slider a lot? Assuming yes, 127" - 35" = 92" for both aisles. If you give the slider side 3.5' = 42" which is enough for someone to get by if there are seated people, that leaves 50" for the other aisle. It'll be mighty tight if big people are seated on both sides. If it's an either or it should be fine. You might think about getting pedestals instead of legs, or even stretcher bars on the legs, so that they don't get tangled easily.

I think you can get away with your three inch curve, but I probably would leave it straight so as not to have even a little bit of a pinch point.
kelleg69
Original Author
17 years ago
I think you are right that I should leave it straight. I am going to have my island moved back a couple of inches. It won't hurt me on the other side. I don't feel cramped in my current house and it is a big kitchen. This is a big kitchen too, so I don't want to cramped there either. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts.

There are drawers in that room right now. Once they are cleared out, I am going to measure and layout the table and see...
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Buehl
17 years ago
Leave it straight...those 3 inches are important!

We have 48" b/w our DR table & the peninsula edge and it's too narrow...if someone is sitting at either one (& the unused chair or stool is pushed in), it's a squeeze to get through. If someone is seated at both the table & peninsula...forget about getting through!

We had planned a wider aisle, but when we put the chandelier in the DR we centered it in the room (& where the old one was)...forgetting that we now had peninsula seating that takes up more space on the edge of the DR! The chandelier should have been further into the room. If we put the table where we'd like it for aisle clearance, the chandelier is in the aisle & we hit our heads on it! (Besides, it looks terrible!)

One of only a few regrets...but nonetheless, a regret.
kelleg69
Original Author
17 years ago
Buehl--thanks. I think you are right. It don't know that the 3 inch curve will be that dramatic anyway--probably not worth giving up the space. Thanks for chiming in.
bbtondo
17 years ago
Kelleg: I TOTALLY agree with Buehl on this one. One of my only kitchen regrets is the placement of my chandelier in my DR. I wanted it pushed more towards the LR and DH wanted it where it is. It was the ONLY request he had, so.. I said OK. If it was placed correctly, I wouldn't have the tight sqeeze I have between my peninsula stools and my DR table chairs. Thank goodness there are worse things in life! Bottom line, give yourself as much room as your space will allow. Good luck!
Barb
megradek
17 years ago
HA! I'm going through the same problem right now as well - we centered our chandy in the breakfast nook, which makes sense, but now our aisle between island (the side, not seating area) and a potential table is causing some squeeze! I think I'm going to end up with only 3 feet of clearnance. Ah, what I wouldn't give for another 2 feet!