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THE WEIRS TIMES & THE COCHECO TIMES, Thursday, December 1, 2011
want to consider in your approach. Now, remember ing
by Dr. Debi Warner Contributing Writer
Dear Dr. Debi, We are thinking about
our kitchen design and might want to take out a wall for an open concept. With the holidays we re- ally felt crammed into that tiny space. What do you think?
Signed, Old House
Dear New Cooking, It is such fun to redesign
a space at home; espe- cially an important one like the kitchen will give your family a real change in its feeling and flow. Day-to-day and holiday cooking are all part of a good design. Lets look at some factors you will
your experiences at the holidays, you can really examine the full ways you would like to use the kitchen when it is tapped to its limits. While you do not want to design an in- dustrial kitchen, it is nice to notice how its functions can expand to many users when company happens. When you have an expan- sion plan, you will also be at ease with the extra help rather than pressured to fit all the workers into a bumpy space. Probably first off, you
will want to notice which types of help you welcome in your kitchen. Do you like adults helping you? If so, you will want to separate out some of your areas. Even in an ordinary sized kitchen, you can have several workstations. You can have the food prep and scullery area near the stove – of course with a sink for washing vegetables and also the pots & pans that go with the cooking activities. Over in another end of
the kitchen you can have the dishes clean up area.
This spot can be along the traffic flow off the dining room. It is nice to have a dishwasher and sink in the middle of that counter with a natural organi- zation of dirty incoming dishes on one side and clean over on the other. The cabinets in that end of the kitchen are suited to hold dishes and serv- ers that can be readily put away when clean and close to the table where they will be set. Next you will want a
spot for processing left- overs. That spot can be on the near side of a pen- insula, and is nice if easily reached after dinner as things are brought back into the kitchen. There you will want some coun- ter surface, with storage containers underneath, and perhaps on the other side an easy reach to the fridge. Do you want kids to
prep, cook, or do dishes? You will want to make some areas conducive to their reach and good supervision too. Many folks imagine the central island for that use, but are irritated when they continually bump into
Dr. Debi Warner is the Founder of Renovation Psychology®
and
author of Putting the Home Team to Work, available now online. Dr. Debi provides advice for greater domestic harmony to folks who are renovating their home – for True Home Improvement. This column is offered for enjoyment and enhancement and is not intended to replace your personal medical care. Photo by Bob Jenks, St. Johnsbury, Vt. Dr. Debi has a con- sultation practice, visiting home sites all over New England from her studio in Littleton, NH at the Tannery Marketplace. © 2009 Renovation Psychology® Questions are welcome.
the kids. You can design your kid space out of the traffic loop and all will be happy. Many of these functions
will serve double duty. The food prep area becomes the scullery after the din- ner. The dishes area can display your pretty dish- es in cupboards above if you use glass doors. The food processing area can double as the snack zone, with treats, coffee pot and teas and their cups and spoons. The organization of these supplies above with the alternate use be- low is compatible with the different times that the two are accessed. So let’s look at the ev-
ery day cooking styles. You will want to scale the size of the kitchen to the routine needs of your home life too. It is amaz-
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ing how a well thought out flow can also fit into an ordinary sized kitch- en. See how you can fit these various functions into your floor plan. Us- ing graph paper and cut- outs, you can move the people shadows around the kitchen and find out how that flow goes. Try alternate layouts and see about how they flow with the everyday traffic and also the holiday load too. As for breaking down walls, there can be some advantage to that. Many folks like this aesthetic these days. But several issues should be consid- ered. First of all, an old house has supporting walls that are integral to its design. An experienced builder should be able to tell you which walls ought not to be taken down al- together. But if highly de- sired, alternate supports can be configured for your dream to come true. Then again, a functional de- sign caution – open kitch- ens are noisy for all the house’s occupants, which is nice when there are just two people at home, but perhaps less desir- able when your have a full noisy crew underway in the kitchen. They are also messy to look upon when you wish to sit and calmly eat your delicious meal. Think it through with
Dr. Charles R. Fink III, DC Serving the Laconia area for over 28 years.
783 Elm Street, Laconia, NH 03246 603-524-4555
your holiday experiences fresh in your mind as you mull over the possibilities constructing your dream house together. Happy Home Team!
Dr. Debi
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