Nicole Franzen

We love the lozenge shape of this trendy kitchen island, in a Manhattan apartment designed by Le Whit. Combined with pink bar stools to match the candy-colored stove, we’d say this is a match made in heaven.

Stephan Julliard

3 From the Top Drawer

Short on storage? No problem! Choose an island with plenty of drawers for storing flatware and other entertaining essentials. Architect Raed Abillama made sure his was painted in the same gray as the vent hood and the rest of the cabinetry for a unified feel.

Kelly Marshall

Two islands are clearly better than one, as demonstrated in Mara Brock Akil’s sleek Los Angeles kitchen. Their reflective steel forms are the perfect foil to the rich timber on the cabinetry.

Mark Luscombe-Whyte

5 Concrete Creativity

Concrete defines the rustic Argentinian retreat belonging to landscape architect Jenny Graham. She brought that brawny palette to her kitchen too, in the form of a board-formed partition. In contrast, the island is painted in a bright cerulean—her favorite color.

William Abranowicz

One can never have too much marble—especially when it’s the dynamic Arabescato kind. Here in a stylish Texas abode, designer Chad Dorsey used the material with maximalist aplomb, matching the island counter with the walls and vent hood.

Tim Lenz

8 Olive Love

If your kitchen island is a far cry from destination-worthy, try dousing it in a unique hue. Look no further than Augusta Hoffman’s elegant Manhattan kitchen, where she covered the cabinetry in a luxurious olive shade. “I do love green,” she says. “I think of it almost as a neutral.”

Brittany Ambridge

9 Stone Steady

Exotic marbles—in hues encompassing all colors of the rainbow— are having a moment. All-star designer Jeremiah Brent embraced the trend in the lavish kitchen of his Manhattan design studio, here opting for the bordeaux Calacatta Vagli Rosatto variety.

Patrick Biller

10 Sculptural ’70s

The most eye-catching kitchen islands function as pieces of sculpture. Montana Labelle’s has decidedly postmodern touches, with pillarlike legs slightly offset beneath a glossy stone slab.

Thomas Loof

We can’t take our eyes off of this stunning kitchen island in a Chicago home designed by Summer Thornton. Rather than settling for a workaday Carrara slab, she selected stone with swirls of violet and green. Pro tip: Want to bring color to your kitchen? Style your island with heaps of vibrant (and long-lasting) produce such as artichokes, citrus, and mini melons.

Brian Ferry

If you have the opportunity (not to mention the budget!) why not make your kitchen island a work of architecture? The designers at Home Studios were inspired by the work of Finnish modernist Alvar Aalto while creating this Brooklyn kitchen and dreamed up a custom island featuring ridged white edges and a Paonazzo marble top that nods to his buildings.

Isabel Parra

Waterfall countertops are a classic. We dig how this kitchen island, in the upstate New York home of Perifio designers Matt Bidgoli and Raphael Portet creates a frame around cabinets painted in a pleasing evergreen shade.

Haris Kenjar

14 Cottage Chic

Everything about this charming Minnesota lake house, designed by interior designer Anne McDonald with Plaad architects, was crafted to evoke the client’s Scandinavian heritage—without going over the top. This sweet custom kitchen island features Scandi-chic turned legs, a detail that cleverly nods to the home’s exterior columns.

Paul Raeside

15 Salvage Beauty

“Reclaim” was the name of the game in this London townhouse designed by local firm Retrouvius. That philosophy extended to the upcycled kitchen island, which began life as a pair of mirrored museum cabinets. It’s topped with a slab of iroko, an African hardwood that Retrouvius salvages from government buildings.

Alanna Hale

Forget white: In this happy Bay Area kitchen, designer Jessica Davis played with punchy primary colors. She painted the island in Farrow & Ball’s Hague Blue and topped it with a huge walnut slab.

Ema Peter

17 Color Blocked

If you can’t afford to replace your kitchen island, then work with what you’ve got! In this ultratrendy mother-daughter home in West Vancouver, Canada, PlaidFox worked with the existing island but remixed it with a fresh coat of teal paint, funky lighting, and plush seating.

Carmel Brantley

18 Minty Fresh

With a home just blocks from the beach, designer Caroline Rafferty made sure her Palm Beach home channelled all the good vibes of the tropical climate. In the kitchen, that meant complementing minty kitchen cabinets with a cream-colored island slab and honey-colored walnut cabinets below. Mother Nature knows best, after all!

Douglas Friedman

We are staunch proponents of an allover pattern look, and the kitchen is no exception. In this art-filled San Francisco mansion, ELLE DECOR A-List designer Nicole Hollis clad the custom island, counters, and shelves in the same raspberry ripple-colored stone.

Ricardo Labougle

20 Old-World Glam

Pass the mustard! We’re obsessed with this custom yellow kitchen island (painted in Farrow & Ball’s India Yellow) in an 18th-century villa on the Spanish island (of course) of Menorca. The look gets further glam, old-world touches via the impressive marble backsplash and the gilt-bronze fringed chandelier, sourced from a palace in Madrid.

Richard Powers

21 The Node Knows

Sure, kitchen islands combine form and function, but we’ve never seen one quite like the sprawling counter in Studio Piet Boon creative director Karin Meyn’s Amsterdam home. Here, the workspace branches off into a dining table for six guests, allowing for easygoing get-togethers.

Ye Rin Mok

This Los Angeles bungalow renovation, designed by LAUN, is a study in volumes, from the green lacquered storage block to the sculptural pink stone island. Renovators take note: The latter’s swirling surface makes a chic alternative to its black-and-white cousins.

Peter Murdock

23 Terrazzo Topped

The view is everything in this shou sugi ban house in Long Island. Therefore the interiors, designed by Joe Nahem, looked to nature wherever possible. For the custom kitchen island, speckled black countertops add some artful intrigue, while the blue cabinetry picks up the hue of the pool just outside.

Stephen Kent Johnson

This look, also in a Long Island home, is bound to please all of the minimalists out there: Designer Poonam Khanna kept the rest of the kitchen relatively muted with pale timber cabinetry and floors, but she clad the island in patinated brass for visual interest. The finish will wear over time, smudged with the family’s fingerprints. In fact, Khanna has instructed the residents not to polish it, as an ode to family life.

Douglas Friedman

26 Rustic yet Refined

This rustic kitchen, in a Sonoma, California, home designed by Ken Fulk, conjures the country simplicity of the surrounding vineyard estate. The weighty central island was a custom design made from dark timber and topped with a curve-edged slab of marble. Brutalist bar stools by Swedish designer Carl Malmsten complete the look.

Roger Davies

Oliver M. Furth infused this Beverly Hills home with Hollywood glamour aplenty. The kitchen was no exception with its larger-than-life kitchen island coated in a sexy, high-gloss coat of Benjamin Moore’s Black Satin.

Helenio Barbetta/Living Inside

28 All That Brass

Who said love of the material was ever a bad thing? Here, in a Milan apartment designed by ELLE DECOR A-List designer Hannes Peer, the island got a Midas touch with shiny brass cladding. To give it edge (literally and figuratively), Peer wrapped it in white-veined black marble.

Lisa Cohen

29 Pepper Granite

A Melbourne, Australia, home makes the most of an open-concept space with a streamlined island crafted of pepper granite.

Simon Upton

30  Walnut Veneer Island

Designers Kelli Wilde and Laurent Champeau gave this 19th-century Paris apartment a modern face-lift with a walnut-paneled kitchen, including a custom walnut-veneer kitchen island.

Thomas Loof

31 Curved Island

In a sprawling TriBeCa apartment, interior designer Richard Mishaan brings the drama with a custom island by Herzog & de Meuron, which features a rounded, black lacquer base.

Dustin Aksland

Architect Elizabeth Roberts fashioned a spacious Brooklyn kitchen with an island covered in a custom oak Tri-Lox butcher block, creating the perfect place for meals to be made and enjoyed.

Douglas Friedman

36 Gray Marble Kitchen Island

A black and white kitchen in a contemporary Los Angeles home designed by Georgia Tapert Howe is complete with a gray marble island, a refrigerator by Sub-Zero, a range by Wolf, and a Rohl farmhouse sink with fittings by Waterworks. The stools are from Design Within Reach, the counters are in a gray marble, the Roman shades are of a C&C Milano sheer, and the pendants are by RH, Restoration Hardware.

Richard Powers

37 Stainless Steel Kitchen Island

In the kitchen of a stunning Alex Papachristidis–designed Manhattan apartment, the custom island is topped with brushed stainless steel. The range is by Wolf, the Saarinen table and chairs are from Knoll, and the Dandelion chandeliers by Tony Duquette are from Remains Lighting; the Roman shade is of a China Seas fabric with velvet trim from Duralee, and the floor tiles are by Paris Ceramics.

Julia Robbs

A white marble island adds contrast to a New York condo kitchen that’s outfitted with black marble, black stools and cabinets.

Joshua McHugh

In this Long Island beach house kitchen, the island is made of stainless steel and walnut, the sink is by Julien, the fittings are by Dornbracht, and the stool is by BDDW. Both the refrigerator and range are by Thermador, and the cabinetry is lacquered in a Ralph Lauren paint.