The three essential kitchen zones every home should have
It's important not to skimp on worktop space when designing your dream kitchen. Picture: Alamy
Searching for a new kitchen, thinking about which trend to follow and the decorative elements for your new showpiece?
Before you contemplate how your kitchen is going convey style and good looks, it’s important to figure out how it’s going to be functional besides fashionable.
Looeeze Grossman, founder of The Used Kitchen Company, says: “People get carried away either with Instagram or seeing the way someone else’s kitchen looks and say, ‘Oh my God, I just want that fridge,’ or ‘Oh my God, I love that layout.
“But really, what you’ve got to think about is: Is that going to work for me? Is that going to work for me in my lifestyle? In my space? In my style of home?”
Kitchens have changed enormously and so has the way we use them. As Grossman points out, kitchens aren’t just about design and layout — they’re about creating a kitchen that works for you and your family.
“For years, the working triangle was the golden rule of kitchen design — the relationship between the sink, the fridge, and the cooker,” explains Grossman.
“It’s still important, but people are using their kitchens differently now. It’s more a sort of a hub. People don’t use their dining room anymore. A lot of people have open-plan living.
“Their kids aren’t necessarily doing their homework in their bedrooms… they might be sitting at the kitchen table.”
“People are working from home so the kitchen’s being used much more as a hub of the home than it ever used to be,” underlines the kitchen sustainability expert, who’s been specialising in used and ex-display kitchens for more than 20 years.
Here, she advises on the three zones every kitchen should have and why…
Grossman says storage is one of the easiest things to underestimate when planning your kitchen, and to start by thinking about what you actually need to store, rather than simply how many cupboards you can fit in.
If you like things tidy, Grossman suggests tambour units: “You’ve got a run of base units, and then a shutter that comes down, and you can hide all sorts of things behind it.
“And some people like pocket doors [sliding doors which disappear into the wall], and they hide all their toasters and things behind there.
"There’s a lot of hiding being done these days, whereas I have pocket doors, and I don’t think I’ve actually closed them since the day I got my kitchen because I quite like having cookbooks and the toaster on show.”
Alternatively, she says an open-shelf zone gives you the best of both worlds — somewhere to display the things you love while keeping everything else tucked away.
And then there’s the fridge. “Things like a Fisher & Paykel double-door fridge are one of the most popular [freestanding American style].
“It’s double the width, or at least 90 centimetres anyway, and it’s got double doors on the top; then it’s got a huge pull-out freezer on the bottom — huge larder fridges have definitely become much more popular.”
So think about how you’re going to use your kitchen and whether you want the fridge hidden away behind an integrated door, or as a feature in its own right.
Moreover, she says if you’re a keen chef, having your fridge on show and easily accessible is often the preferred option.
But if you’re less likely to cook and want your kitchen to be more of a showpiece, then Grossman suggests an integrated one may be a better choice.
“People get carried away with ‘I love the idea of having a run of tall units along the back, with my cooker, the cupboards and the pantry; and then I’ll have a [kitchen] island with a hob and a sink.
“But what they’re not thinking is, by doing that, they really don’t have a lot of worktop space, however big their kitchen.
“So one of the things I did in our kitchen when we designed it, I had the tall units, but I had three tall units on either side, and then in the middle I had a base unit run with the sink and worktop.”
“Straight away, not only have I got a bit of extra worktop there, but I’ve also freed up the workspace, and the island where I would have had to have my sink as well,” highlights Grossman.
So really take the time to think about what you do day-to-day and how that space will hold up, she advises.
As Grossman points out, you need somewhere to actually do things.
“Not just a little bit of worktop between the sink and the hob, but enough space to spread out, unpack the shopping, chop vegetables, roll pastry or prep your dinner before it goes into the oven.”
And while kitchen islands are very trendy and brilliant for this if you have a large-enough area, she says a well-planned run of worktop can work just as well.
Especially if you envisage walking into a kitchen — the last thing you want to see is a pile of dirty plates next to the sink on a kitchen island.
“Maybe it’s for people who aren’t messy, or who don’t do washing-up. I’m super messy, and being able to have my sink behind me is far more advantageous,” says Grossman.
As Grossman puts it: “Kitchens are the heart of the home — it’s where everyone congregates, from sitting round the island to doing homework, to having breakfast together or drinks in the evening.
“I love it when we’ve got guests and the kids come in, and I’m standing there prepping at the island, and it’s like a gathering space.
“We tend to entertain in the kitchen because I like to be involved, and I like it. Everyone’s having their drinks around the island, and I’m still cooking and prepping, and it’s a very lovely, relaxed feeling.”
And if you have the room, she loves creating more than one place to sit…
“Not everybody wants it and needs it, but it’s just nice to have separate areas. If you’ve got a huge dining table and there’s just two of you, or four of you, you don’t necessarily want that.
“Whereas if you’ve got a nice little area where you can just, you know, gather, it becomes much more intimate and cosy.”
Indeed, she says a breakfast nook will probably become your most used space.
“Perfect for that first cup of coffee or lazy Sundays with the paper. They’re also great for serving the kids breakfast or used as an additional prep space,” adds Grossman.
Moreover, she says you don’t need a huge space to create somewhere to gather. “A peninsula takes up less space than an island, as do breakfast bars and can still give you the space you need.
“The trick is to think about how people will actually use the room, rather than simply asking yourself where you can squeeze in some stools,” she says confidently.
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