A table is more soulful, more family-friendly, more flexible, say these nine people who rejected the ubiquitous island concept. Do you agree with them?

L ike most things in my rental home, my kitchen table wasn't exactly styled. I'm in between house buys, and we unpacked in a hurry, thinking we'd only be here three months. Six months in, and the ...

A kitchen by Los Angeles firm Bunch Design. Photo: Yoshihiro Makino Given how ubiquitous, even obligatory, a center island has become, a kitchen without one feels subversive.