In her monthly column for the Wall Street Journal, Gardenista editor Michelle tackles matters in interiors (even when her take is controversial: See her piece on embracing a little clutter).
Photograph by Mimi Giboin for Remodelista, from Kitchen Storage: A Drawer for Cutting Boards.
Michelle’s Mill Valley, California, kitchen, with a dining table in place of the island.
A thousand years from now, archeologists sifting through the rubble will be able to identify early 21st-century homes by their kitchens. But they won’t find one in my kitchen in Mill Valley, California.
“All my clients are asking for islands,” Fischbach said, tossing the live grenade back to me.
Photograph by Mimi Giboin for Remodelista, from Kitchen Storage: A Drawer for Cutting Boards.
The kitchen has evolved from a humble household room to become the main public space in the house. Drop-in guests can be more easily put to work at an elevation where their feet don’t dangle and lose circulation.
Photograph by Mimi Giboin from What’s Inside: The Stealth Utility Closet.
Plenty of storage, even without an island.
Sadly, I know I am in the minority (for now) on this design issue. The idea of the kitchen as a designed space dates to the introduction in 1898 of the Hoosier cabinet, which with its clever cubbies and worktop was marketed as the first all-in-one cook’s prep space.
Between then and now, checkered linoleum floors, chrome dinette sets, and massive hanging pot racks all had their moment.
But these days she’s designing more kitchens in which all the appliances are built into an island: “With an under-counter refrigerator, a cooktop, and a sink, you can place the three points in a linear path instead of a triangle. An island lets you work in a very small footprint.”
No island in sight.
Photograph by Mimi Giboin for Remodelista, from Kitchen Storage: A Drawer for Cutting Boards.
Not everybody considers a dining table a dinosaur, however. And the table’s metal frame has wheels, tempting us to wheel it outdoors, where we eat on the patio in nice weather.