This Kitchen Uses a Long Wood Worktable Where You’d Expect an Island
Built-in islands often repeat the cabinets around the perimeter, filling the center of the kitchen with another block of storage and countertop. Homedit editor Vera Dordick photographed a different approach at the 2020 Kips Bay Decorator Show House Palm Beach, where Connecticut designer Sarah Blank created a Mediterranean-inspired kitchen around a long antique tailor’s table from Provence.
Rich blue cabinetry surrounds the room, topped with Dekton counters from Cosentino and fitted with Thermador appliances. At the center, the old wood table brings a plank top, turned legs, and open storage filled with vintage urns. A sculptural suspension fixture by Rosie Li hangs above it, giving the freestanding table the visual weight that a built-in island would have occupied. The kitchen was also featured in Homedit’s coverage of the 2020 Kips Bay Palm Beach Show House.
Blue Cabinetry Turns the Range Hood Into Part of the Room
Deep blue cabinetry runs across the range wall, interrupted at the center by a wide Thermador range. Rather than adding a stainless hood above it, the design carries the cabinet color onto a large paneled hood that reaches the crown molding.
Windows on each side prevent the dark blue from covering the entire wall. The hood still commands attention through its size, but matching it to the cabinets connects the cooking zone with the rest of the millwork.
Tall Cabinetry Keeps Appliances Out of the Center
A Thermador wall oven sits inside a tall bank of blue cabinetry, with drawers below and closed storage extending toward the ceiling. Appliances that could have occupied the island have a dedicated place along the perimeter.
Concentrating storage and appliances against the walls gives the antique table a simpler job. It does not need an oven, sink, electrical panel, or rows of deep drawers to justify its place at the center.
Wide Drawers Handle Storage Around the Walls
Long drawers fill the blue base cabinets beneath the pale Dekton counter. Metal pulls emphasize their width, while a mix of drawer depths provides enclosed storage without relying on a cabinet-packed island.
A raised tray of pineapples sits on the counter, but much of the surface remains open. With storage and prep space already running along the walls, the center of the kitchen can accommodate a table with an open base rather than another solid cabinet block.
Sink Placement Leaves the Worktable Uninterrupted
The undermount sink stays beneath the windows, set into a Dekton counter from Cosentino with blue cabinetry below. A tall polished faucet rises in front of the center window without cutting into the view across the room.
Keeping plumbing at the perimeter leaves the antique table intact. There is no sink cutout or faucet dividing its top, so its full length remains available as a work surface and preserves the form of the original furniture.
Wood Breaks Up the Blue and White Palette
Blue cabinets and pale counters define much of the kitchen, but wood flooring introduces another material across the room. That becomes important once the antique table enters the center of the plan.
Its aged brown surface does not need to match the cabinetry to belong here. The table picks up the tones of the floor while the blue cabinets remain a separate layer, creating a clearer distinction between fitted kitchen components and freestanding furniture.
Storage Stays Low Across the Window Wall
Base cabinets extend beneath the windows and framed bird artwork without a continuous row of upper cabinets. Drawers and doors keep storage below the counter, while the upper wall remains open around the windows.
The room still has substantial cabinetry, but it is distributed rather than stacked across every available wall and repeated again at the center. Tall storage is concentrated in other sections, giving this side of the kitchen more wall space for windows, art, and plants.
One Sculptural Fixture Marks the Center
Designer Rosie Li’s suspension fixture stretches above the antique table with branching metal arms, leaf-like forms, and exposed bulbs. Its elongated shape follows the proportions of the furniture beneath it.
Using one substantial fixture also avoids the familiar row of three small pendants often installed over kitchen islands. Here, the light and table operate as a pair: one long piece suspended above another long piece of furniture.
Island Lighting Doesn’t Have to Mean Three Pendants
Seen from below, the Rosie Li fixture spreads across the ceiling rather than dropping several identical shades over the work surface. The branching form gives each bulb a different position while the fixture remains one composition.
That choice reinforces the table’s furniture quality. A chandelier or suspension fixture would feel at home above a dining table, and applying the same idea to a kitchen worktable makes the center of the room feel less like a standard island installation.
An Antique Tailor’s Table Takes the Place of Cabinetry
The final view reveals the centerpiece in full: a long antique tailor’s table from Provence chosen by Sarah Blank for the Mediterranean-inspired kitchen. A thick wood top rests on turned legs, with a broad open shelf running close to the floor.
Vintage urns occupy the shelf without closing the base behind doors or drawer fronts. The open construction keeps parts of the floor and cabinetry visible through the table, despite its substantial size.
It is also what separates the idea from a furniture-style island built from new cabinetry. This is an old piece of furniture given a new function. For a kitchen with enough perimeter storage, appliances, plumbing, and counter space, a worktable can provide the central surface people expect from an island without adding another matching block of cabinets.