(Free the Word Blog)
Have you ever had a family Christmas or Thanksgiving when everyone (meaning you, your 30 cousins, and 10 aunts and uncles) were crammed in the ktichen, fighting for room to just grab a utensil? And on top of that, you were POSITIVE you were in line but apparently you were going the wrong way. Well, I have. Apparently my mom’s kitchen only has vacany for about 15 people, not 50. The design of the kitchen was not thought out very well.
The kitchen is not only a place for preparing and eating food, it’s also a gathering place for friends and family for casual entertaining. This means that the kitchen needs to be well designed to be able to accommodate these functions. Some of this information might help people who are trying to design the perfect gathering place for friends and family. Warning: take into account how many siblings you have and how many children they may have someday. 
First, we need to tackle how the main assets of the kitchen are placed; this helps the kitchen to be functional. Kitchen designers know that the “Kitchen Triangle” is very important to this functionality. Here is a little explanation: the stove/oven, fridge, and sink are the corners of the triangle and each side of this triangle needs to be at least four feet but no more than 9 feet. The entire perimeter should be no bigger than 24 or 26 feet. The inside of the triangle is the “work space.” The Triangle helps because when you’re cooking you can get your fresh ingredients from the fridge, clean them in the sink, and start cooking in the most efficient way.Other things to consider:
- dishwasher
- Second sink
- pantry
- separate oven and stove top or one piece range
(DIY Network)
These aspects may not be the 3 points of the triange but they are definitely connected to them.
1) The dishwasher should be close to the sink so that cleaning dishes is fast and easy.
2) A second sink may be useful so that some one else can move and work in the work space with interrupting your activities.
3) The fridge acts as a storage place for food, but some foods don’t need to be refridgerated. The pantry should be in proximity of the fridge so that when you’re cooking and you need those spaghetti noodles and some sugar for the dessert, you won’t have to go out of your way.
4) Some stoves and oven are completely separate, this could either help the triangle by allowing someone else to cook or interrupt the kitchen triangle depending on where they are placed. A one piece range can be convenient for one person, but not for two.
Now that you have the kitchen all planned out. Its time to use LIGHTS to make the place welcoming! There are layers of lighting that are used in kitchens to create a certain kind of mood.
The four types of lighting are:
- Ambient lighting- This is the general lighting that all kitchens start with; an example is track lighting.
- Task lighting- This lighting is vital for preparing food. These lights are underneath and on top of upper cabinets, over the island, stove, and sink. These make sure the shadows disappear from the corners of your counter tops and create a soft, ambient light.
- Decorative lighting- This includes chandeliers and hanging pendants. With these, you have to make sure that they their size fits the scale of the room or else it won’t look right.
- Accent lighting- These are lights that are pieces of art. This includes wall sconces, lighting in glass cabinets, etc.Below is a kitchen with different types of lighting
(DelMar Designs)
I hope that these tips will help you in creating a well-designed, warm, homey kitchen for everyone to enjoy!
So what would you do differently in your mothers kitchen if you could change it to better fit your family gatherings?
I have a big family as well and we get together at my grandparents house. Their kitchen is conducive for one cook and one prep person (3 people is still functional but not ideal). But the good thing about their kitchen is that it opens up into the dining room and living room so it is like we are all gathered together even if we are in separate rooms.
The stove is on the island but you have to go around the island to get to the oven. I would put the oven by the stove. The oven is on the side of the kitchen where everyone walks through, too. I also wish the kitchen was a little bigger or just more like a square shape; its kind of narrow and rectangular.
There are too many things wrong with this piece to even begin to comment without teaching an entire seminar on the subject.
First and foremost, the work triangle is the worst and most virulent fraud in the kitchen industry. It isn’t a design principle, it’s geometric happenstance.
Kitchen layout, like that of any manufacturing space, should reflect the sequence of tasks performed in it.
Rectangular kitchens are far better than square ones, and wet prep and hot prep functions should be placed on one contiguous (NOT continuous, that wasn’t a typo) counter. There is almost no kitchen too small for two sinks, allowing the appropriate separation of prep and scullery functions.
Please feel free to contact me if you wish to carry this further – The Proximity Kitchen System (copyright 2009 – 2011) answers virtually every question which arises in the kitchen design process. Having spent 35 years developing it, hearing the work triangle trotted out, yet again, as if it was in any way useful does tend to get my blood running.
All the best,
Hey Pete,
I am interested in kitchen design and saw the “kitchen triangle” concept and thought this was an interesting idea and thought I’d talk about it. But I never thought of it just being a “geometric happenstance,” which does make sense. I would love to hear what you think is important in designing a kitchen since you’re the expert. I always want to learn and I rather know the correct kitchen design principles.
Hey Erica –
I’m so sorry I didn’t see this until just now. Please feel free to visit the website (www.proximitykitchen.com) and email me at your convenience.
All the best,
Pete
The “working triangle” is an old concept and since it has been originated there have been many changes in the design and layout of kitchens today. There are a lot of decisions that are taken into consideration when people are designing their kitchens; crediting your point “the sequence of tasks” is very important, along with the number of cooks, zones, etc. There are many ways to begin constructing a kitchen but in my opinion a triangle is a good starting point, especially for the novice. A website I like to visit aside from HGTV and NKBA when researching is Kitchens.com. The concept of the “working triangle” is helpful when looking at these layouts. http://www.kitchens.com/design/layouts/work-triangle.aspx
It is a hard feat to trail away from tradition. It is always great to get a professionals opinion so we thank you for that.
Jana –
I realize I am a little…terse on the work triangle point, but I’m thoroughly convinced after almost 40 year of research, 400 – 500 executed kitchens and 3000 kitchens designed, that I’m not wrong.
If you have three elements (stove, sink, icebox…yes, ICEBOX: let’s let the term speak to the time when there was a possibility the triangle was a design principle) and you draw lines between them, you get a triangle. Any possible usefulness stops there. All you have to do is place the stove in closer proximity (do I love that word? Yes, I do) to the fridge than the sink, and you’re crossing your path of workflow ALL the time. This doesn’t just apply to kitchens, think about a well designed master suite – closet, bath, bedchamber…lay them out so they reflect the way you live (as you enter the suite you probably want the closet, then the bath then the bedchamber, as when you enter you undress first, and as you leave, you dress after bathing, etc) and you’ll have an easier, more functionally convenient life. Fail to do so, and you’ll be annoyed at some level EVERY DAY you live there.
Just sayin’…