The Kitchen’s Balancing Act

There’s a saying that the kitchen is the heart of the home, which has never been more true when it comes to custom kitchen design. Homeowners are much savvier than they used to be and know every design and product option available. They are much more willing today to cut back expenses in other areas of a house if it guarantees they will get their dream kitchen at the end of the process.

Appliances are a major driving force in kitchen design. Some designers argue that appliances determine the storage and flow of a kitchen, making appliance selection a critical part of design. To guarantee the right appliances are chosen, it is pertinent that a designer knows what is important to his client. “If something is a ritual for a client, then I’ll focus on it,” says Stewart Davis, AIA, design director, CG&S Design/Build, Austin, Texas. “If they make coffee every morning, or drink a glass of wine at night, then we need to respond to that [lifestyle]. If those things are celebrated, thought about and carefully placed, then it responds to the clients’ lifestyle and is a successful design.”

Because these are custom spaces, homeowners expect convenience at their fingertips. “A lot of clients want the dish drawers so they can start the top drawer without running the whole dishwasher if it’s not full,” says Cheryl Stegman, CKD, designer and manager, Stegman Kitchen Showcase, Newport, Conn.

In a kitchen designed by Ricci Racela, designer and general partner, Kohala Creative Construction in Kamuela, Hawaii, her clients wanted 12 different appliances. “They had refrigerator drawers on one end of the kitchen for drinks and then one fridge and one freezer. Instead of one big fridge for the beverages, they separated the drinks into its own fridge [drawer]. They also had an oversized fridge in the pantry, and a separate dishwasher for parties,” she says.

To minimize the appearance of an all-appliance kitchen, Racela used wood panels which integrated the appliances into the wood cabinetry. The large freezer/refrigerator was the only block of stainless steel in the kitchen.

Zoning the Kitchen

Good kitchen design keeps the cooking and entertaining areas separate to minimize the chance of cooks and guests running into each other. “We need to find out how the kitchen will function. How many cooks, what kind of cooking will they be doing, do they entertain and do they have kids. From there we design a kitchen that fits their needs. If there are two cooks in the kitchen, then we’ll design two zones; client needs drive the design,” says Zach Simmons, owner of CKS Kitchens and Design, Durham, N.C.

One key to traffic flow is keeping main appliances out of the main traffic flow. “We try to design kitchens around entertaining so when a group of people are gathered, they aren’t in the main triangle. We keep entertaining outside of the island,” Stegman says.

Some designers focus on triangles or zones when it comes to keeping entertaining and cooking areas separate. If Stegman is designing a kitchen for two cooks, she creates two triangles. “We link the fridge and the main cooking appliance on one leg of the triangle, and a separate sink for each cook. They essentially have their own triangle to work in,” she says.

Simmons, on the other hand, doesn’t focus on a triangle but rather zones. “We think in terms of work zones — areas of work. The prep area, cook area and clean-up area shouldn’t overlap too much. You should be able to have three people in the kitchen without them running into each other,” he says.

When Racela’s clients told her they wanted a 12-ft. island, she searched for alternatives because the traffic flow around a 12-ft. island would be difficult to manage. “A 12-ft. island is too far to walk around. I designed two islands so the flow is much better,” she says. “Traffic flow is very important. You don’t want to stop production but rather aid it and make it easy.”

Maintaining Balance