One of the most important questions we ask our clients is, “How do you use your kitchen?” Is it the heart of your home – or just the place you prepare meals a few times a day? It is important for us to get a sense of your lifestyle in the space we are designing for you, and also to get a sense of what works for you now and what could work better!
Knowing how you use and work in the kitchen will help better inform our designs for your space. Do you prepare each dinner plate individually in the kitchen, bringing the filled plates to the table? If so, designing dinnerware storage near the stove may be a good idea. Or maybe you arrange empty place settings at your table with family-style platters for everyone to dig into? If so, designing dinnerware storage on the end, closest to your table, may be best. How you serve meals is one small example of information we can use to better design your kitchen for you. It is a small detail so that, ergonomically and functionally, your kitchen works better for you.
On a larger scale of function and ergonomics, you may have heard reference to the “work triangle” in a kitchen. Typically, the work triangle is composed of the sink, refrigerator, and stove. A few examples of the dynamic of those spaces:
– Refrigerator to sink: taking fruits or vegetables out from the fridge to rinse them in the sink
– Sink to stove: filling a pot with water from the sink to boil at the stove
– Stove to sink: boiling water for pasta at the stove then carrying it to the sink to
strain
– Sink to refrigerator: filling a pitcher with water (maybe with a powdered drink mix, too) from the sink and placing in the fridge for cool drinks
As you can see, the sink can be the most important and popular point in this work triangle. This is why designing in a secondary or prep sink is often considered, or even a pot-filler faucet in the backsplash of your stove. There are other points to consider as well, such as your microwave: do you use your microwave multiple times a day, or just every once in a while?
Similarly, what is your cooking style? If you make bi-weekly trips to the farmer’s market for fresh produce, we’d love to hear about it. Or maybe you frequent Costco and buy packaged food in bulk – we want to know it all! This could help us design larger and more efficient food storage into your new kitchen, custom to the type of food you buy and eat. It will also better inform us of your workflow in the kitchen: if you are constantly getting food from your pantry, that’s important so we design your pantry close if not inside your primary work triangle in the space.