• Double kitchen islands are becoming increasingly popular - but they can be a disaster if you don't have acres of space, says interior design expert
• READ MORE: Forget rowing over the dishwasher, there's a tiny thing that I always do - but one day it led to the biggest argument in our 12-year relationship
• See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source

Marking her 45th birthday earlier this week, Meghan Markle enjoyed a dance around the kitchen at her luxurious Montecito mansion...and shimmied around not one, but two islands.

In footage shared with her 4.7million followers on Instagram, the Duchess of Sussex, wearing a slogan T-shirt with the words 'It's Giving Mrs' written on it and a pastel-hued 'Happy Birthday' tiara, whirled around the sizeable room in the £11million Californian mansion she shares with Prince Harry and the couple's children, Archie, seven, and Lilibet, five.

Clearly in the background of the video were a pair of expensive-looking twin islands. Shaker in style and and light navy in colour, each is topped with a different surface, indicating their distinct roles within the Sussex kitchen.

While one has a gleaming marble top ideal for social gatherings, the other is a more down-to-earth wooden affair, a 'butcher's block' for food prep.

Having a 'double island kitchen' has become a true status symbol for discerning homeowners on both sides of the Pond in recent years.

Why? It suggests that you have so much space that fitting in two islands - when most ordinary kitchens only have room for one - is a breeze.

A dance around my double-island kitchen: The Duchess of Sussex marked her 45th birthday this week by enjoying a shimmy around her Montecito mansion - and showed off her two islands while doing it

Inviting guests into a home with a co-ordinating pair of surfaces also suggests you're in possession of a truly sociable kitchen, where family and friends linger at one - often dining table-height - while the domestic god or goddess chats and preps dinner and snacks, with pro utensils, naturally, at the other.

Other famous faces who have invested in double islands? Martha Stewart, Kate Hudson, Kris Jenner and Selena Gomez have all shown off theirs on social media.

While a brace of islands installed in palatial celebrity homes certainly work, interior designers warn that copying the trend in a less expansive British home might actually leave you enduring a dose of middle-class regret - and wondering where all the space went.

Gareth Davies, Design Director at Classic Interiors, told the Daily Mail that homeowners should consider whether they have the square metres to accommodate such a status symbol before calling in the builders.

'It's clearly a trend that only works if the room is actually large enough to support both of them - for example in Meghan Markle's huge space!'

He continues: 'If you were to add two islands to your kitchen without properly considering the proportions of the room then you could easily put buyers off.

'If you don't have enough space for two islands then you're going to have a cramped kitchen where your natural movement is blocked and it just looks more like a design statement than a practical family kitchen, which will devalue your property.

'You should always be looking to enhance the space, not overwhelm it!

US domestic goddess Martha Stewart shows off her sizeable double island kitchen

Status symbol or double trouble? Twin islands are increasingly common but can eat up floor space, says interiors expert Gareth Davies, Design Director at Classic Interiors

'You just can't fall in love with the look without thinking about the scale. Two islands take up a surprising amount of space and it's not just the islands themselves you need to consider.'

He adds: 'You also need comfortable walkways all the way around them so that you can move freely without constantly squeezing past each other or opening cupboard doors into someone's path.'

If you are blessed with a kitchen the size of a small air hangar then are they worth considering?

Yes, says Gareth: 'In a spacious open-plan kitchen, two islands can actually help fill what would otherwise be a lot of empty floor space and make the room feel more balanced. That's why they work so well in large American homes where kitchens are often much bigger than the average home over here.

'If you try to recreate the same layout in a typical kitchen here you can easily end up making the room feel smaller and less practical than it was before.

'I'd always rather see one well-proportioned island that suits the room than two islands that have been squeezed in simply because they're fashionable.'

Do we really need a prep and a social island? If you're a particularly dedicated home cook, then it's something definitely worth considering, says our interiors expert.

'I like the idea of one island being a dedicated working area with the sink, food preparation space and storage, while the second becomes a more social zone for serving food when guests are over. That separation can make a busy kitchen feel much calmer because the people cooking aren't competing for the same space as everyone else.

'But for most households, a single island can comfortably handle everything without taking over the room. If adding a second island means losing valuable floor space or making the kitchen harder to move around, you've solved a problem that probably didn't exist in the first place.'

Fans of the Duchess of Sussex got a proper glimpse at her newly redecorated kitchen in the video footage shared on Tuesday this week.

Filmed by Prince Harry for her 4.7million Instagram followers, the farmhouse-style kitchen is believed to have been renovated recently and, alongside the duo islands, also features two chandeliers over the dining table, Portuguese-style blue and white feature tiling and an expensive Vitamix blender.

Elsewhere, there's also several other features you might not find in your average kitchen, including a trendy 'pot filler tap' by the stove.

Designed to avoid having to carry around bulky trips with heavy pans, from sink to oven, this allows for easy access. Pot filler taps can start from $150 to $3,000 in the US, or from £100 to anywhere upwards of £2,000 in the UK.

Meghan has long sworn by her $379.95 (£449) Vitamix blender. She previously told Esquire: 'When I had my car brought out here [to Canada], I shipped my Vitamix in the backseat. It was one of the things where I was like I cannot travel without my Vitamix.

'It's like a commercial at this point. But I use it every day for pestos or shakes. Okay, now that's too much. I need to stop.'