Vancouver Compact Kitchen Island

Ninety centimetres of marble-topped island, with two drawers and open shelves.

“We’d love an island, but the kitchen isn’t huge. Will it just be in the way?”

It’s a fair worry, and the numbers answer most of it. The Vancouver Compact takes up 90cm by 74cm of floor, less than a lot of kitchen tables. Leave around 90cm clear on each side where you walk or open a drawer and it needs a space of roughly 2.7m by 2.5m in all. Measure yours before you come to the showroom in Ballincollig, and bring the numbers with you.

What you get for that floor: a marble top at 92.5cm, two drawers and open shelving underneath, and a frame in pine solids and veneers. The timber has a cross-sawn texture from a mill saw, so you feel the grain as much as see it. Having people over is easier with somewhere to put things down: the bowl of crisps, the bottle, the dish someone has just handed you, without hunting for a clear bit of counter.

Measure first

The drawers take tea towels, utensils and the corkscrew. A 22cm shelf gap suits stacked bowls and cookbooks lying flat. At 92.5cm high, it pairs with stools that have a seat of roughly 62–67cm.

In Ballincollig

We can show you the marble and the cross-sawn pine and talk through the sizes in the showroom; if the Vancouver isn’t on the floor that week, we’ll walk you through it and order it in. Heritage Walk, The Quadrants, Ballincollig, Co. Cork, P31 W968. Monday to Saturday, 9.30am–5pm; closed Sundays. No appointment needed. Get directions

The first few months

New furniture behaves like new furniture. Pine moves a little as the heating comes on and off, so a hairline shift at a joint in the first winter is normal and settles. New drawers can run stiffly for a few weeks and ease with use. Marble is a natural stone: wipe up wine, lemon and vinegar promptly and use a board for chopping. An anti-topple kit comes with the island, and it’s worth fixing, especially with small children in the house.

Getting it into the kitchen

It comes in two boxes, around 98kg packed, and only the top needs fitting. Allow around four weeks. Delivered across Cork and nationwide, or collected from the showroom in Ballincollig at no charge. We’ll confirm your delivery date before you pay.

Before you ask

Will stools tuck under it? That comes down to how far the top overhangs the base; email us the stools you have in mind and we’ll answer it properly.

Is there more in the range? Yes. The Vancouver range includes a two-door sideboard and a two-drawer console in the same cross-sawn pine.

What if we want people sitting at it? For three or four seated at the island itself, the Compact is on the small side; the Vancouver Large gives you 214cm of top.

Any question, any at all: email info@mulberryhouse.ie and a person in the showroom will answer it.

An island for a kitchen that thought it couldn’t.
Mulberry House. Your Home.