Designing Your Dream Kitchen
The kitchen is the "heart of the home." It's the main place where people gather, and if it's not right, then the whole house isn't right. In designing your dream kitchen, we strive to uncover your wants, needs and lifestyle in order to incorporate them into the overall design. We'll design a kitchen that is efficient as well as comfortable and inviting.
The primary goal of good kitchen design is to reduce stress and make life easier. Since today's kitchen has many centers of activity, when you are working in your kitchen, a logical path should lead you from one work center to another. Main work areas should be arranged so that the amount of travel is reduced as much as possible. There are several areas to consider when making your dream kitchen an efficient one:
Primary Clean-Up:
Large sink, detachable spray-handle faucet, waste disposal, dishwasher (possibly two), pull-out hand towel, waste center with bins for garbage and recyclables.
Food Preparation:
Uninterrupted surface between the sink and the cooking surface, or the sink and the refrigerator. Possibly a butcher block insert or pull-out. This surface could also include a secondary sink for preparing vegetables.
Cooking:
Cook top, ventilation, spice storage, cooking utensils, pot rack or deep pull-out trays/drawers. When the cook top is on an island, an under-counter, pull-out pantry provides storage for spices and oils.
Baking:
Mixer, sugar, flour, spices, pan storage, double ovens, warming drawer, marble slab for rolling dough and cooling cookies.
Storage:
Walk-in pantry or full-height cabinet with full-extension, roll-out trays. Full-height, pull-out pantry on either side of the refrigerator can provide a significant amount of very accessible storage. A "butler's pantry" between the kitchen and dining room stores china, glassware, and serving pieces… everything for a formal dinner. Daily-use appliances (coffee maker, toaster, etc.) should be stored in an "appliance garage" with a roll-up door or hide-away doors.
Dining/Socializing:
Counter with stools. Counter can be bar-height (42"), cabinet-height (36") or below-cabinet height (30"). In addition to the counter, you might also have a breakfast nook. A "keeping room" is located in or next to the kitchen. With a fireplace and a couple of comfortable chairs, it is a place where guests can relax and visit with the cook.
Home Office:
Telephone, answering machine, message center, family mailboxes, cookbooks and household records.
In addition to efficiency, the kitchen should feel comfortable and inviting. There are several ways to accomplish this, based on your tastes and desires. For a more traditional look, if you have special furniture pieces you would like incorporated into your kitchen, we'll design with them in mind. For example, you could use an antique farm table as your island; an old butcher block that caps off the end of your granite island with utility sink; install cabinets that have "feet" like furniture rather than the usual toe kick. Whether your look is traditional, modern, or anywhere in between, you can use natural materials such as wood (hickory, pine, cherry, oak, maple), normal or distressed/recycled, butcher block, limestone, granite, slate, marble, soapstone and concrete. Metals include stainless steel, iron, bronze, pewter and copper.