Kitchen Island Size Calculator

The short answer

Leave the aisles first, then fit the island in the floor that’s left. That means 42 in on the side where you cook (48 in with two or more cooks), 36 in for a walkway and 44 in behind stools, so people can walk past someone seated.

With those, the smallest built-in island, 4 × 2 ft, needs about 10 × 9 ft of open floor between the counters, and an 8 × 4 ft island with counter stools about 14 × 12 ft.

How to measure

1. The open floor: measure from the edge of the countertops, not the cabinets or the walls, along the kitchen and across it. Where there’s no counter, measure to the wall.
2. The fridge: a standard-depth fridge stands about 6 in past the counters, so measure the aisle in front of it from the fridge.
3. The doors: open the dishwasher, the oven and the fridge, and mark on the floor with masking tape where each door ends.
4. Tape it out: mark the island’s outline with painter’s tape and walk around it with the doors open, or build a full-size mock-up from cardboard.

How to use the calculator

1. Enter the open floor’s length and width.
2. Choose how many people cook at once.
3. Choose the stools: none, counter height or bar height.
4. Read the result: the largest standard island that fits, the floor it leaves on each side, the stools it seats, a plan from above and every standard size, each labeled Fits, Tight or Doesn’t fit. Copy link keeps your numbers in the address, and the next step takes the island’s size to the pendant light calculator.

How we calculate

The aisles below leave room to cook, walk and sit around the island. Your local code and accessible design can ask for more.

• From the countertops: the open floor runs from counter edge to counter edge, and an island’s size is its countertop, overhang included, so the overhang comes out of the aisle.
• The cooking side: one long side faces the counter where you cook. At least 42 in Fits for one cook and 48 in for two or more. 36 in is Tight, a squeeze to work in.
• The far side: with stools, 44 in to walk behind someone seated Fits, and 36 in to edge past is Tight. Without stools, it’s a walkway: 36 in Fits, down to 30 in Tight.
• The ends: walkways too, 36 in Fits and 30 in Tight.
• Stools: knees need an overhang past the 24 in deep base cabinets: 15 in at a 36 in counter and 12 in at a 42 in bar, with 12 in and 10 in Tight. Each stool takes 24 in of counter.
• The sizes: standard islands from 4 × 2 ft, the smallest built-in island, up to the long islands in the table below.
• Placing it: the island sits in the middle, sharing any spare floor between its two long sides, and each size is tried both ways round.
• The pick: the largest island that Fits, or if none does, the largest that’s Tight.

Appliance doors and the fridge aren’t in the math. The result lists them as notes.

Worked examples

Worked example

A 10 × 9 ft open floor with no stools

What we know

• Open floor: 10 × 9 ft
• Cooking: one cook; stools: none

How it works out

1. 4 × 2 ft island: 45 in on the cooking side, 39 in on the far side and 36 in at each end: Fits.
2. 5 × 3 ft island: 39 in on the cooking side, 33 in on the far side and 30 in at each end: Tight.

A 4 × 2 ft island, with 45 in on the cooking side, 39 in on the far side and 36 in at each end.

Worked example

A 14 × 12 ft open floor with counter stools

What we know

• Open floor: 14 × 12 ft
• Cooking: one cook; stools: counter height

How it works out

1. 8 × 4 ft island: 47 in on the cooking side, 49 in behind the stools and 36 in at each end: Fits.
2. 9 × 4 ft island: 47 in on the cooking side, 49 in behind the stools and 30 in at each end: Tight.

An 8 × 4 ft island, with 47 in on the cooking side, 49 in behind the stools and 36 in at each end.

Worked example

A 13 × 11 ft open floor, two cooks and bar stools

What we know

• Open floor: 13 × 11 ft
• Cooking: two or more cooks; stools: bar height

How it works out

1. 7 × 3 ft island: 50 in on the cooking side, 46 in behind the stools and 36 in at each end: Fits.
2. 7 × 4 ft island: 44 in on the cooking side, 40 in behind the stools and 36 in at each end: Tight.

A 7 × 3 ft island, with 50 in on the cooking side, 46 in behind the stools and 36 in at each end.

Island size for your kitchen

The smallest open floor each island Fits with one cook, without stools and with them. The shallower islands have room for bar stools; the deeper ones take counter stools too.

Two cooks, a squeeze and the kitchen it suits

The same islands with two or more cooks and at a squeeze, and the kitchen each suits when the island takes up no more than a tenth of the kitchen’s floor.

Stools and overhangs

• Counter height (36 in): a 15 in overhang for counter stools; bar height (42 in): a 12 in overhang. The bar stool height calculator matches the stools to the counter.
• Spacing: 24 in of counter per stool, or 30 in for more elbow room.
• Support: past about 12 in, an overhang needs brackets or corbels under it.
• Behind the stools: 44 in to walk past, or 60 in for room to spare.

Sinks, cooktops and appliances

• Length: plan about 7 ft of island for a sink or a cooktop and 9 ft for both.
• A cooktop on the island: at least 9 in of counter behind it and 12 in and 15 in of landing on its sides.
• Appliance doors: where a dishwasher or oven opens into the aisle, 42 to 48 in leaves room to get past the open door. The island mustn’t block the fridge doors, and no two doors should hit each other.
• Corners and outlets: round or clipped corners are kinder to hips. Outlets go on a working side, not under the seating overhang, as the National Electrical Code asks.

When the kitchen is small

A kitchen under 13 ft wide is unlikely to fit a built-in island. A peninsula takes less floor than an island, and a rolling cart gives you counter space you can move, though it still needs about 36 in around it.

Before you buy

Once the island is set, space the pendant lights over it, which takes the island’s size from this calculator, and choose stools for its height. For the table in the dining area, the dining table size calculator works out the room around it.