Kitchens

Your Kitchen is the heart of your home and therefore deserves pride of place when it comes to design.

Your kitchen is both a functional area and a place in which you spend a lot of time, this means that both the functional layout and the decor require thought prior to the build phase.

Functional Design – The functional design is an aspect of kitchen design which is often neglected. The key things you need to consider is the layout of the core components: Cooker, Worktop, Sink and Fridge. (Ignoring appliances that have nothing to do with cooking and should probably be in a utility area – Washer, Dryer, Dishwasher etc). The height of your sink and your worktop should be tailored to your own height. Most Kitchens and simply fitted for the “Average” person – this means they are not at the optimal height for most owners! This can lead to back pain and joint strain for the enthusiastic cook.

Laying out your units –  It sounds laborious but it helps to do some time and motion studies before you install your kitchen. What I mean is this, if you are a big coffee addict and have a state of the art espresso machine you will regularly have to:

1. Find the coffee
2. Go to the Coffee Machine and fill with coffee
3. Go to the sink and get water
4. Fill the Coffee Machine with water
5. Go to the press and get a mug
6. Take the mug to the Coffee Machine and fill with coffee
7. Go to the fridge for milk
8. Enjoy!

OK this is laboring the point, but for tasks you do frequently it is important to ensure that related work places layed out adjacent to one and other. A Cornell University study back in the 1950s established the notion of the ‘work triangle’ based on many tasks requiring going to the fridge, cooker and sink. Your tasks may be different, for example going to the freezer, microwave oven and dishwasher but the principle of thinking through your tasks remains equally important.