Hi,

Is an island bench (sort of, one side butts against the staircase) of 850mm width too small/narrow?

I will have an undermount sink on the island bench, so wondering is 850mm too narrow to have people sit comfortably (on the opposite side of the sink).

Should I increase it to 900 or 1,000mm (assuming I can physically fit it due to the staircase?

I think it depends somewhat on your layout. I imagine 850mm is do-able but the most common width I have seen is 900mm. We are hoping to have 1000mm in our kitchen but need to make sure the overhang is properly supported (40mm bench depth in stone).

Our bench is 850mm with a 200mm bench overhang. I cannot sit comfortably at the bench on a stool as the overhang is not great enough (my legs hit the island). Also when I sit sideways a little, it certainly feels like I am too close to the sink (if I happened to choose to sit directly opposite). Ours was never designed to be 'sat at'.

Your island bench cupboard and drawer depth and therefore, also the bench overhang must also be considered. I would go deeper if you can.

ok thanks for the advice, I was worried I would be able to sit comfortably while using the island bench with a ~200mm overhang

I'll try for 1,000mm, don't really know if I can physically do it until the staircase goes in.

I should be able to, distance between the walk way between the island and other side of kitchen bench is 1,250mm, I'll reduce that to 1,200mm.

Pete_n_Pet, I don't see an issue with the overhang, especially if it's supported at both sides, i.e. waterfall. It also supported by MDF ..

40mm stone? or 20mm stone with 40mm edge?

If supported by waterfall edge and MDF, it should be fine. 20mm with 40mm edge, but from what I can gather our overhang will be 40mm the whole depth back to the cabinets.

How much does it cost to get a normal double bowl sink on 40mm ceaserstone replaced by a similar size undermount double bowl sink? Any brand will do. I have a Blanco Tipo 8S at the moment.

You should be able to get the prices of the sink off home improvement websites such as appliances on line, E&S trading etc. However when it comes to the ceasarstone I was quoted $500 extra to cut and finish the hole with drainage channels in the stone.