The kitchen has always been a busy place, but the way we use it has changed. Cooking and eating are still central, of course, but for many households it is also where homework gets done, laptops come out, friends gather and much of family life takes place.
That does not mean it has to be enormous. A compact kitchen can work just as hard as a large open-plan space if it is planned well, and making the most of the room you have is more useful than trying to squeeze in every item on a wish list.
For David Dempsey, a kitchen designer and specialist with Rathnew-based House Kitchens, the starting point is finding out how the people who will use the kitchen actually live.
“You have to get an understanding of the number of people in the household,” he says. “Do they have specific requirements for that kitchen? It’s not just the parents that actually maybe want to make the decision, but they’re considering the rest of the family and how they use it.”
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One of House Kitchen’s recent projects involved a family with a nine-year-old girl who was keen on baking and the family wanted a cupboard where her mixer, baking trays and ovenproof dishes could all live together. It is a simple idea, but one tailored to what happens in that particular home rather than to a standard picture of how a kitchen should be used.
Storage is inevitably part of the conversation. Dempsey is seeing more concealed pantry units, coffee docks and even small desk areas that are out of sight when they are not in use. “Everything opens up and reveals the storage behind it, but then when you’re not using it, it just closes away and everything’s hidden,” he explains.
When floor space is tight, looking upwards can help. Dempsey suggests reserving the easiest-to-reach cupboards and drawers for items used regularly, while party platters, Christmas dishes and other occasional items can go higher up. “The big party platters that you might use once a year, you’re putting them up in a high unit as opposed to taking up a drawer that opens every day,” he says.
The popular and covetable island remains high on many wish lists, but it is not necessarily right for every room. Dempsey recommends leaving around a metre to 1.2m of circulation space around one. If that leaves only a small island in the middle, he says, it may not be worth having. Where there is sufficient room, though, an island can add worktop space and give people somewhere to sit while somebody else dons the apron. “It is a nice place, a more social place to kind of sit at,” he says. “You can cook and you can be chatting away to people while you’re in the middle of prepping food.”
Open-plan living has brought its own practical questions. Dempsey points out that having the kitchen, dining area and television in one room does not suit every family, particularly when several people are trying to do varying things at the same time. Where an open-plan layout does work, furniture and lighting can help to give each part of the room its own purpose. Pendant lights can mark out an island or dining table, while the position of a sofa or sideboard can help define the living area without putting up a wall.
Noise is easy to forget on a floor plan. In a room where the dishwasher may be running a few metres from the television or dining table, quieter appliances can make a noticeable difference. Dempsey says he is seeing people pay more attention to dishwasher decibel levels for that reason.
The surfaces chosen also have to stand up to ordinary life. The kitchen designer says porcelain worktops are popular for their durability and resistance to heat, scratches and stains, although he notes that edges can be more prone to chipping than quartz. Quartz remains, in his view, a good middle ground, while among natural stones he favours quartzite over marble where durability is a priority.
Technology can be genuinely useful, but only if people actually use it. Wifi-enabled ovens can be controlled remotely, allowing an oven to be stopped or paused if plans change. Dempsey has one at home and finds the function handy, although he acknowledges that many people never get around to using everything their appliances can do. Boiling-water taps and induction hobs with integrated extraction are among the other features he is seeing regularly. The attraction is practical: one removes the wait for a kettle, while the other can make it possible to position a hob on an island without an overhead extractor.
For households with the room, a pantry or “back kitchen” can take some of the pressure off the main kitchen, with food, fridges, freezers or some preparation moved into a separate space. Dempsey is clear that this depends on having the space in the first place. The broader idea, however, works in kitchens of any size: keep what you use most where you need it and find sensible homes for everything else.
When deciding where to spend, Dempsey advises paying attention to the less eye-catching parts of the kitchen as well as worktops and appliances. “The quality of the cabinetry, the hinges, the drawer systems, they determine the life of your kitchen,” he says. Strong cabinetry can also make it easier to refresh a painted kitchen later without starting again from scratch.
It is worth thinking a few years ahead too. When designing for older homeowners, Dempsey considers the height of frequently used cupboards and appliances, keeping everyday items accessible and ovens at a comfortable level so hot dishes do not have to be lifted from too high or too low.
For all the finishes, appliances and decisions involved, the most useful starting questions are fairly ordinary ones. Who uses the kitchen? What do they do there? What needs to be close at hand, and what can be tucked away? Is there room to move comfortably once the doors and drawers are open? And, however much you may want one, is there really space for that island?
A kitchen that answers those questions well is already doing much of what it needs to do. The details will be different from home to home, and that’s why the best place to start is with the people who live there.
