South of Boston: Home & Garden

Every year, Jon Lowe of Duxbury invites friends and family to his private island for a Cinco de Mayo party. They nosh on grilled shrimp, enchiladas and nachos and sip salt-rimmed margaritas as the music of a mariachi band plays in the background. The best part is, no one has to board an airplane or boat to get there. The party takes place in the heart of the Lowes' home - at the kitchen island.

"We do a lot of entertaining, and I'm the main cook in the family," said Lowe, a contractor who's married and the father of Jessica, 8, and Zachary, 6.

"I'm always running late, and I spend a lot of time in the kitchen while company's here. So we have an island in the kitchen where people can sit while I'm cooking. And when I'm done, it's where everybody hangs out."

The situation in Lowe's kitchen is not unusual. All over the South Shore, family and friends are flocking to the islands.

"When I entertain, everybody's there," said Barbara Case, a vice president at RBC Dain Rauscher in Norwell, as well as a wife and the mother of Ali, 12 and Tyler, 9.

"Even if I set up a bar in another room or put hors d'oeuvres on the kitchen table, people don't want to leave the island. It's a gathering spot."

Of course, the kitchen has always been the heart of the home. But nowadays, instead of shooing guests out of the kitchen, homeowners are building increasingly large and elaborate islands where they can prepare food and entertain guests in style.

"People are knocking down walls and expanding into their living rooms and dining rooms to make room for islands with seating," said Marlene MacDonald, designer and owner of Kitchen-N-Counters in Hanover.

"We're doing a house right now that has an island 15 feet long." Kitchen islands used to be very simple, just a few rectangular cabinets in the center of the room. Now they come in many shapes - boomerang, circular and L-shaped - with built-in appliances and fixtures.

They have wine coolers and wine racks; ovens, warming drawers and cooktops with down-draft ventilation systems; bookshelves, trash compactors and pendant lighting. Everything, it seems, including the kitchen sink.

Scott Kulda, designer and owner of Timeless Designs Inc. in Duxbury, recently installed three islands in a kitchen in Seekonk.

"The house was huge, 15,000 square feet," said Kulda. "The homeowner had an eight-burner cooktop on one island, double sinks on another island and a bar built into the third island. The whole kitchen cost over $60,000."

To have an island, you don't need an extremely large kitchen, but you do need a minimum of three feet of walk space all the way around the island, Kulda explained.

The kitchen in his own Kingston home is not overly large, but there's enough room for an island.

"I have the ladies from the neighborhood over quite a bit; we have a book club and wine tastings," said Erin Kulda, Scott's wife.

"The island ends up being where we spend our time. I have three stools, and everybody else stands around it."

Building an island doesn't require a fortune, either. A 6-foot island with three cabinets and a granite countertop sells for $3,000-$4,000. A smaller and simpler island with 60 inches of shelving and a laminate countertop with a seating area for three people costs about $1,500.

You can choose standard size cabinetry or, for 20 percent more, order a custom island.

"The dollars are in the details. And it's the details that make the island look more like a piece of furniture," said Scott Kulda.

Popular design elements include glass doors, open shelves, turned legs, fluting, carved corbels, wainscot paneling, beadboard, different finishes and durable stone surfaces.

The 7-foot-3-inch-long island in Carol Boudrieau's new kitchen, designed by Kulda, is an example of the "furniture look." The wood is biscuit-colored with a brown glaze and the drawer pulls are bronze. On opposite ends are two arched open shelves for her cookbooks, napkins and decorations. On the seating side of the island, there's a 12-inch granite overhang supported by carved corbels and beadboard back paneling.

"One part will be the standard 36 inches, which is nice for work space," said MacDonald. "The seating area might be bar height, 42 inches. And sometimes there will be a section that drops down to 32 inches for rolling dough."

The current trend is to have the island complement, but not match, the rest of the kitchen. Lowe's and Kulda's respective kitchens have cherry cabinetry, but their islands are antique white. Boudrieau has a distinctive edge on her island countertop.

"I wanted my island to be the focal point of my kitchen," said Boudrieau, from Duxbury. "My other countertops have a simple straight edge but the island has an ogee edge (a molding with an S-shaped profile). It's eye-catching, my island piece of art," Boudrieau said.

But it's functional, too. On the work side of the island, she has drawers for cutlery, placemats, potholders, plastic containers and wrap. She has one bin for trash and another bin for recyclable items. The island is spacious enough to serve as a food preparation area, buffet and gathering spot for family and guests.

And it offers Boudrieau, the mother of two teens and a 4-year-old, the perfect vantage point.

"When I'm seated at the island, I can see into the other room. And I can turn and see who's coming in the back door," she said. "My children are frequently here, doing homework or having snacks. My husband and I sit here in the evening to talk about our day and discuss the next project on our house. It's where everything happens in my house."

Sometimes islands are so popular, they get too crowded. But rather than voting anyone off, homeowners are enlarging them or building additional islands.

Lowe's new kitchen, designed by MacDonald, has two islands. Across from the refrigerator is the main food preparation island, complete with storage space for pots and pans, a large sink, a quartz countertop and seating for two people.

The other island is for sandwich-making, discussions and dining, Lowe explained.

It has a trash compactor, drawers for bread, silverware, dinnerware and glasses, seating for four people and pendant lighting that illuminates each place setting.

Case's 4-foot square island, built with the house 18 years ago, is too small. She plans to enlarge it.

"I'm of Italian descent, so a lot of our family life revolves around food," said Case. "For our annual St. Joseph's Day party, we had pasta, which was plated from the island.

"There must have been a dozen people who refused to sit at the table to eat; they were gathered around the island. It was crowded, because we were using electric fry pans on the island to cook sfinge," a deep-fried dough dumpling sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.

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