Where Do I Start?

  Good planning is the most critical element in a new kitchen. If you   don’t have a plan that works you are wasting your money, whatever the   budget.

  The Victorian days when the kitchen was at the back of the house for   the servants’ use are now gone and the kitchen is once again the hub   of the house, as it was in the days of cavemen around the campfire.

  For a new house, ensuring that the kitchen is a social hub, can be   planned at the start. However for an existing house, minor or major   modifications may be required.

  In our houses a kitchen needs spaces for its many functions - food   preparation, storage, cooking, serving and cleaning and socialising. In   addition all the things we have need logical homes – appliances,   utensils, crockery, pots etc.

  The best place to start is positioning the sink. Most cooks spend a   large proportion of their time in the kitchen working beside the sink   both in food preparation and in washing dishes and cleaning. This   means that it is important for the sink to be positioned so that the   cook can interact with others in the adjacent living spaces.

  When planning the shape of the kitchen it is usually best to keep this   as simple as possible. The best layout will depend on the size and   shape of the space available for the kitchen.

  It makes sense to group everything required for different work centres   together. There is food preparation, cooking, cleaning and storage of   consumables and storage of non-consumables. There may also be   other work centres such as a dining space, space for a home office, a   laundry and a space for socialising that will vary with the users.

  The tried and true idea of the work triangle between the sink, cook top   and refrigerator is still a good guide as to how well the layout of the   kitchen will work.

  When you have a proposed plan either imagine yourself in your new   kitchen carrying out your normal tasks, or lay out the plan full scale on   the floor, perhaps with boxes to get an idea of the size, shape and   how the kitchen will work.

  There are often a number of possible solutions that will work. It is   important to keep an open mind and use creative thinking to see   solutions that are not obvious from standing in the kitchen.

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