Easy Kitchen Benchtop Island Ideas You Will Love in 2025

It's the heart of your kitchen, the space where we eat, entertain, drink and enjoy the company of friends and family. 

We're talking of course about the kitchen island bench. Big, small, bold or simple and beautiful, the design styles are endless and can be perfectly tailored to you and your family needs. 

So how do we create a kitchen island benchtop that's functional and looks the part on budget, without ongoing care and maintenance. 

Kitchen Island Benchtop Tip #1 - Sink Placement

When designing your ideal kitchen benchtop island, there are a few considerations that can have a big effect on how you can actually use the surrounding space. 

Sink placement can have a big impact on the overall look of your island bench and this is something that is often overlooked. For highly functional kitchen island benchtops, utilising a sink inclusion can be a gamechanger. 

However, if you're an avid entertaining, a sink may not be the right choice because it will eat into your available space. Instead, you can include your sink on the back bench, which will better hide spatters and any mess.
Pictured: Ferox

What about Sink type for your kitchen island bench?

Well, that depends on the type of design and look you are going for and your family needs. For sleek and modern style designs, an undermounted, matt black sink might be the way to go. 

If you have a family that includes children, consider a top mounted sink to prevent any chipping, that although can be easily fixed, could become a big inconvenience if repeated fixes are needed. 

Kitchen Island Benchtop Tip #2 - Storage Options

If you have a small island benchtop, or are in need of some extra storage option, draws and cupboard inclusions could be a life-saver for your storage needs. 

You can include things like cutlery drawers for easily servicing guests, or consider double cupboards that you can use to store large plates, pans or serving items.


Pictured: Mont Blanc

Kitchen Island Benchtop Tip #3 - Cost Savings

If you are looking to save money on your kitchen island benchtop design, consider these few hand cost saving tips to potentially dramatically reduce your costs. 

Remove Edge Profiles

For many designers looking at modern style island bench designs, this is a great place to start with the cost savings. By removing edge profiles and only having the exposed benchtop edge, you save on

1. Extra material costs
2. Extra fabrication cosgts
3. Time on the overall job

You could potentially save the value of an entire slab, by not electing to have any edge profiles, which need to be fabricated from your existing slabs, polished and glued on my your fabricator.

All of this costs money that now goes back in your pocket. 

Pictured: Marvel Gold

Kitchen Island Benchtop Tip #4 - Benchtop Seating

If you're an avid entertainer, or use your kitchen island as the heart of the kitchen for eating, the incorporating and island benchtop with seating is the way to go. 

A great to save on space and add versatility to your overall kitchen space.  

Consider these island benchtop seating planning mistakes. 

Using One Sided Seating

For family meal time or entertaining purposes, placing all of your seating on one side means those who are seated will all the facing the same way. While practical, it doesn't really create a flowing conversation when you are looking down the benchtop to talk to someone. 

However, if it is just you and a small group of loved ones, it won't cause too much of an issue and makes sense not to dedicate anymore space to seating. 

Two sided seating arrangement

A simple trick of add one adjacent seat can transform the space into a more inviting space to eat and chat. Consider adding an island benchtop overhang to make way for another seat, or two overhangs for one seat on either side of your island bench.

Kitchen Island Benchtop Tip #5 - Add Shelving

A great to maximise space, while still having a beautiful and functional design is by adding a simple storage shelf at the end of your island bench.

This can be used for storing plates, books, cook books or laptops and car keys for easy access on your way out the door in the morning.

It won't require any extra fabrication by having shelves integrated and can simply become part of the existing cabinet design, whereby the only thing you would require from your stone is a simple overhang, which looks great. 

Looking to start your island benchtop design journey? Reach out to our friendly team today who can provide you with stone samples from our Techlam Collection. Budget friendly and ultra durable stone designs for your every project need.