Nobody plans for a kitchen island to become the busiest spot in the house. It just happens. One minute it is a place to butter toast, and the next it is holding half the weekly food shop, three coffee mugs, somebody’s car keys, an unopened parcel, and a wooden spoon that has somehow gone missing from the drawer again. If kitchen islands could roll their eyes, most of them probably would.
It is funny how one piece of furniture quietly takes over family life. Breakfast starts there before anyone has fully woken up. Children spread out homework after school. People …