INTRODUCING HIDE and sleek . . . a sleight-of-hand double act that is the hottest thing in kitchen design.

Excess is now such a dirty word that even kitchens are getting coy about being showy.

The new designs are about now you see it, now you don’t: an island that slides open to reveal everything, including the kitchen sink and hob, and similarly slides shut to conceal these engine room elements beneath a sleek free-standing unit that then merges seamlessly with the rest of the room.

The kitchen remains one of the key areas in the home but in Ireland we went bananas, taking it to the max. The bigger the space, the glossier the finishes, the greater the number of appliances spoke as loudly as your designer labels and car registration did.

Now we’re atoning for our showy sins. At home this means the heart of the house is now partially closed off from view.

The sleekest way to do “penance” is to introduce your home to the concept of the sliding island which will open up to allow you to work and use the sink and hob and afterwards can be closed to tidy these things away. This closing mechanism can be either manual or fully automated.

The island has always been the geographical point where dining rooms and kitchens merge. But the divide was often more about building barriers than aesthetic integration.

When it comes to keeping the kitchen tidy these sliding islands are a helping hand for the homemaker. They also allow mere mortals like me to finally live the kitchen catalogue dream. It’s called “hide and sleek”.

Interior designer Liz La Cumber is already a fan. You don’t have to be a feng shui enthusiast to find the struggle with clutter time-consuming, she admits. “In this new era of less-is-more, frivolous is out and functionality is in.”

Open-plan layouts that maximise family interaction have become the ideal, she explains. “To create more fluid living spaces, kitchens must offer a harmonious look that connects with the rest of the home in a free and complementary way.”

Collier Kitchens has several styles that hit the hide-and-sleek nail on the head.

Cucine Gatto has a sliding island in its Yara range. It is operated by a manual push button. Included in its price are the stainless steel surfaces with moulded sink and hob, oven and base units. It comes in white, cream or graphite grey laminate or natural or moka leather.

The latter will tickle your inner dominatrix and create luxey clean lines that will make you the envy of your neighbours. It costs about €7,500.

Further up the price scale is the electronically controlled Cuccine Lube Sliding island unit from the Brava collection.

It includes stainless steel surfaces with moulded sink and hob, taps and dishwasher. It comes in 16 matte finish wood veneers and 13 shades of gloss veneer. It makes a seriously engineered style statement and comes with a price-tag of about €22,000.

At the top end of the market is Gatto Scheer, a new capsule kitchen that takes concealment to a whole new level.

It wears a black and white habit, sports a Perspex lid that is set on a carbon fibre base which opens to reveal a round Corian worktop. In addition to the extendable table there are three electric plates (one complete with lava stone), double sinks and an extractor that is built into the roof of the design.

It comes with two circulating islands on wheels, about butcher block size, and a wall unit that can be either 2.4 or 2.6 metres long. This wall or room divide is 1.3 metres deep and has pull-out drawers and larder units to its front. The two book-ends are used to store the fridge and freezer on one side and the oven and microwave at the other. Sheer premiered at the Milan furniture fair two years ago but has taken 24 months to trickle into the mainstream. It costs €75,000.

Many of Collier Kitchens’ have glass panel accessories that sit into their sinks to close the space. They sit flush with the rest of the counter top creating one long clean line. The Sinphonia sink from Apell costs €1,470.

La Cumber sees “hide and sleek” working in apartments or a mews rather than in traditional family homes where concealing the sink and hob would be impractical.

- Lube and Gatto Kitchens are available from Collier Kitchens in Dublin 18. Call 01-842 3555 or see www.collierkitchens.ie