Getting your kitchen into shape
WE ARE metre greedy monsters in our homes. Still, is bigger always better? As few steps through the kitchen as possible during the course of making and clearing for a meal offers convenient, chef friendly territory. A small, well-appointed, kitchen is preferable to a flash but flabby large room with terraces of cabinets.
There are five usual shapes of kitchen — the L, the double galley, the U, the-one wall and the island based kitchen (often set within the L, in a corner). Where an acre of kitchen can be devoted to any number of aspirational activity areas such as baking and worshiping the making of coffee, the smaller kitchen is best returned to the 1950s theory of the work triangle.
The triangle has altered little in 60 years and encompasses the fridge, the sink and the cooker. There’s a lot of play in this clever, angular orientation. The triangle is completely flattened in a one-wall kitchen, but the distances we use for the triangle still apply (generally balanced on the sink).
We are all different and as feted US architect Sarah Susanka terms it, the kitchen should ‘receive’ us and our needs. Once you get the placement and measurements right the obvious sub-zones surrounding cooking, storage and washing will slide will effortlessly in and around the triangle.
* Start with the sink when working out your triangle as it is generally fixed under the window, with a dishwasher by its side.
* Make the distance to cover all three corners a relaxed trot of 7m or less
* Each side of the triangle should be about 1.2m-2.7m in length. This is not always possible, but the point is, reduce your walk where possible to under 3m.
* Don’t make the total distance of your triangle less than 3.5m unless you’re aboard ship.
* The cooker demands at least 30cm of counter either side for safety. 40cm is more comfortable for multiple pots, pans and trivets.
* Poke working counter lengths of at least 110cm widths into the triangle and consider those smaller, much-needed, set down areas of 40-90cm. Think about say taking things out of the fridge or heaping dirty pans up beside the sink.
* Be wary of cabinets encroaching on your path.
* Don’t cross an expanse of kitchen from the sink to the cooker. With a narrow galley kitchen, the sink and cooker are best placed on one side.
If you want a kitchen island in a modest open plan area, rather than reserving it as just an extra work-top, try over-scaling it. Set out from an L shaped corner or one-wall kitchen, the cook’s side can take in food preparation, plenty of storage and even a sink and/ or hob, while the ‘living side’ with a jut of over-hanging counter can leave enough room for stools, homework and socialising with the cook.
The parallel kitchen is an alternative to the island, one half of the units mirrored in symmetry and styling to another set out in the room. A sort of double galley kitchen with roam, it’s sleek, architectural and ergonomic. The bar counter in the room can be all one surface height or staggered down from food preparation to a snacking surface. The fashion for whopping pendant lights can ruin or crowd bar style cabinetry, so consider spots too.
U and L shaped kitchens with connected cabinets and no island can sit out from the wall in a variety of bar configurations. If you love the Bauhaus beauty of the purely single wall kitchen, look for at least 3m of wallspace with no interrupting windows and doors. With all galley, parallel kitchens and one-walls, it’s crucial to ensure that there’s enough safe passage for family members if there’s an entry door at either end. Avoid running small galleys and one-wall kitchens into a cul-de-sac of blank wall if they are contained in one room. Aim for a view to open up the area in light and feel.
In a streamlined kitchen with slab front cabinets, the jump between a metre of one counter surface and another can upset the seamless flow. Integrated sinks in stainless steel or composite counters or an under-mounted sink, eliminate the sink edge and drainer. Integrated appliances set behind cabinet doors, again deliver harmony and in an open plan situation read as furniture. Finger pull handles recessed into the drawers and doors quiet any visual stutter.
Storage taken up the wall might seem the immediate answer in a smaller kitchen, but enclosing high cabinetry can choke a narrow space. Heaving heavy cookware down from on high is an unlikely joy, so consider what you can handle at arm’s reach. Formerly wasted corners on the floor in a U or L shaped kitchen can be kitted out with clever slide-out pantries and carousels.
Use up the base cabinets, add 15% contingency storage and only then go aloft. Shallow wall mounted cabinets of 35cm set over preparation counters should offer 40cm distance of wiggle room to the counter below. Where you are able to run units up the wall from the floor or suspend cabinets in a tiny kitchen, get them as tall as possible.
Open shelving, racks and hooks suspended from walls over cabinetry creates a relaxed look, and allows more light to ping around. Glazed doors for wall mounted, counter mounted and pantry cabinets can lighten the visual load.
Zone the storage to the washing, cooking, fridge areas. For example, put your dishes and cutlery close to the dishwasher for easy empties by those delighted, helpful teenagers.
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