Morris homeowners: Tips for designing your new kitchen

The kitchen is, at least in our home, the busiest room in the house. It’s where all the guests collect at a party, it’s where all the food goes after the supermarket run, it’s where we all collect each and every day at dinner time.

Kitchens serve as a work place, an eating place and an entertainment center. Even an old and serviceable kitchen can be changed for the better.

As our needs change, the kitchen can change along with them. Maybe, we’ll get a little tired of cooking around the guests at a party and want to go toward a galley style or “command center” kitchen. Maybe, as we add children to the mix, we want to keep eating time under control and want to go “eat in.” That’s good for homework patrol as well.

Kitchen design basics

It’s always best to start from zero. Begin any redesign project by imagining you have no kitchen. Later, you can use what you have to fit into your new ideas. Most kitchens are designed around the “food prep triangle.” The corners of the triangle are always the stove, the sink and the refrigerator. When you think about that time-tested formula, it makes a lot of sense. Food comes out of the refrigerator and goes to the stove/oven for cooking or the sink for washing. The stove has to be close to the sink for pots and pans to be cleaned, and close to the refrigerator for ingredients. However, kitchens also have dishwashers that need to be in easy range of the sink and prep surfaces within easy range of the refrigerator and the stove. These elements invade the triangle and make the kitchen geometry much more complex.

However, if you think of the dishwasher as an extension of the kitchen sink, and the prep surfaces as extensions of the stove, it’s easier to put the “triangle” back together. Everyone I know complains about the lack of counter space for food preparation. That might be due to the innumerable appliances that use up valuable counter real estate. An extra counter is a really handy space for preparations that take a little longer than just cutting up vegetables or cooking operations like baking or constructing a casserole. It’s good to have a wide landing spot next to the stove, but for big prep operations, nothing beats a long and wide “air strip” of counter. It’s okay if this addition is outside the basic triangle; even better if it’s close to the serving area as well.

Storage

I don’t know anyone who thinks they couldn’t use more storage. A good kitchen design should start with thinking about where things like dishes, pots and pans, countertop appliances and food stuffs should go. It’s important to think about work flow when putting together a new kitchen. Ask yourself such questions as: How far should the plates be from the serving area and how far are they from the dishwasher? Should the pots and pans be next to the stove or should spices and oils have that place? Most people don’t like to hang their pots and pans near the stove, but there are a lot of good reasons restaurant kitchens do it. In fact, if you get a chance, it’s a good thing to visit a restaurant kitchen. Notice how it’s organized, how close and tight everything is and how everything is broken down into stations. We may never have to cook a hundred meals a day, at least I hope I don’t, but there are lessons and possibilities to be absorbed from those who do.

Personally I’m a pot hanging, open-shelfer and the less doors the better. However in my family, I’m quite alone in this. They prefer pots and pans, plates and dishes away and out of sight — which, I think, makes the planning process even more crucial because doors have to be opened and closed to retrieve them. Are there cabinets that can remain open while cooking and be closed up and tidy when you’re not? What would go in that space? Depending on how much food you store at any one time, think about dry goods, canned goods and the various other spices and oils that you use on a regular basis. Would a pantry be a good idea?

Lighting

Having adequate lighting in a kitchen is a key factor. So many of us make lighting decisions later in the process of design, but it really is a primary factor. We don’t want lighting we can live with; we want lighting we love. Fluorescent lighting fits anywhere — under cabinets or as a whole room light —but it makes everything slightly blue or perhaps sickly and bleached out. The benefits in clarity are soon outweighed by the rich full color lights that are now available and just as cheap to run.

Anyone putting together a new kitchen needs to think about “task-oriented” lighting. Over the stove, many of us accept the built-in hood lights that simply came with the hood. These are easily replaceable by a variety of alternatives that are brighter, which is important to me, and have better color. If you have parts of the counter dedicated to such appliances as a coffee maker, toaster oven or a stand mixer, there is an opportunity to choose the right kind of lighting. Where a coffee maker probably needs nothing more than a decent area flood, a cutting board might be best served by the full force of direct spots placed so that they can illuminate without casting shadows.

With the vast array of LED options available, lights can be tweaked and tuned to suit anyone’s preferences. We are now able to have various modes of light in the same space including “cafe” light for informal gatherings, individual lighted areas for cooking and overall brightness for clean-up.

Open call for Morris kitchens

Over the next few weeks, we are looking for readers willing to invite us into their homes and kitchens to give us an idea about why they made the choices they did. All are welcome, including recent redesigners and “keepers of tradition.”

If you think your kitchen does a good job for you, tell us why.

If you are thinking about a change, tell us what you are going for. Email Eva Abreu, planning editor, EAbreu@GannettNJ.com.

Prentiss Gray’s weekly column will show you how technology can make your life better in Morris County, ranging from new apps that can run things in your house, to new gear that can improve your life. Read “Domestitech” every Thursday in The Good Life section.