Wednesday 14 November 2012

Kitchen Plans, and the idea of Food Flow

View from Kitchen into Scullery


Moving right along - there's been a bit of progress with finalising the plans, including the joinery design and I must say I'm pretty happy with how it's looking.

Designing the kitchen has been a little tricky, as part of it is located in the original cottage with the scullery located in the new addition. Unfortunately due to planning regulations, the scullery is slightly narrower due to the required boundary setback, hence why the side of the house kicks in at this point. There were also existing windows and doorways to consider.

Also as we scaled down the renovations, the dining room was deleted so we are now having an eat-in kitchen, which is most probably how the original cottage would have functioned, and anyhow I'm all for casual dining. With all this in mind, this was the best layout I could come up with.

I spent a fair bit of time thinking about the kitchen design, and how it will be used so it functions efficiently (keep in mind I cook for six so processing and production is high on my priority list) and I came up with this design strategy.



I thought it was best to locate the work areas in the right sequence, based on the way food is processed. To simplify this, food comes into the kitchen and

1. gets stored in a pantry or the fridge.
2. It then gets taken out again and washed up at the sink.
3. It is then chopped up at a preparation zone.
4. The food is then cooked.
5. Then served at a table.

If the work areas are more or less in that order, kitchen work will be easier, with fewer wasted steps. The diagram above illustrates this efficient food-flow idea as food is moved sequentially into and out of storage, through the appropriate work stations and then to the table. In saying that, if I have missed something or if you have any other recommendations, please by all means drop me a line.

But not only do I want the kitchen to function well, it also has to look right and work into the existing cottage framework. We've spent hours deciding upon fixtures and finishes, and I have changed my mind dozens of times already, but we have finally sorted it out (I think!) Here are the preliminary elevations:

KITCHEN/SCULLERY

The dining table will be located in the room on the LHS, so this is the "pretty" side of the kitchen. This room will include a bespoke drying rack fitted with decorative glass, marble bench tops over white cabinetry and a gorgeous tap from Perrin & Rowe. I've also specified a bigger than average sink -  as we will have a 900mm stove, the baking trays will be extra wide too. The existing VJs will feature throughout along with polished floorboards. All I need to select now is a beautiful pendant light which will hang over the dining table.

The room on the right is the scullery. This is where all the food is stored, prepped and cooked. We've decided to install high level windows here, so there is no requirement to install privacy screens. The splashback will be lined with white subway tiles (which will be laid horizontally), however I have selected stainless steel bench tops which will differentiate this area as "back of house" and also tie in nicely with the freestanding cooker. There is direct access via a set of sliding doors from the scullery through to the terrace and out into the yard, where I intend on having a herb garden - perfect.

Scullery


This is the other side of the scullery, which houses the fridge, pantry, MW and heaps of other storage drawers and shelves for books, crockery, decorative items or whatever. That little cut-out (that's shaded above the fridge) is just a nice little something that the architects came up with. At night while the light is on in the scullery it will cast a nice glow through this cut-out and into the hallway on the other side.





  1. White Subway Tiles
  2. Marble Benchtop
  3. SMEG Pyrolytic Freestanding Cooker
  4. Oliveri Commercial Sink
  5. Stainless Steel Benchtop
  6. White Cabinetry
  7. Io Kitchen Tap with Levers and Spray Rinse
  8. La Scala Butterfly Coffee Machine
  9. Decorative Glass in Arabesque
  10. Blackbutt Flooring


12 comments:

  1. I love it!
    I love the idea of the scullery...so practical.

    One question...will it be easy to get food from the scullery outside for when you want to have a BBQ or just dinner on the deck?

    I wish that we were planning our kitchen renovation.
    We were thinking that this Christmas would FINALLY be the time.
    But now we have to buy a new car.
    It is alway something other than our kitchen. Sigh.

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    1. Now that the design incorporates quite a large terrace (with fireplace) I imagine we will be doing most of our entertaining in this area. Sliding doors from the scullery lead you down a few steps and onto the terrace.

      The terrace can also be accessed from the corridor that sits between the terrace and the living room. A set of stacking doors can be pushed to one side, opening up the entire wall (e.g. when you walk through the front door, you continue down the corridor, down a few steps and then down one more step onto the terrace.) It's a bit hard to see this detail on the plans. xx

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  2. It looks amazing. You won't know yourself having such a fabulous place to prepare your meals. Love that you're using a mix of marble and stainless steel too. I wish I had an extra wide sink because it is a pain to wash the large oven trays from the big oven. xx

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  3. I am so envious, I love the fixtures, and the subway tiles, I can't wait to see your progress.

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  4. Impressive plans Caroline. You might as well take the time to get what you like,after going through one kitchen renovation,you won't be in a hurry to do it again! We have a long skinny block of land so we can go 50cm from the boundary.

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  5. Love all the details of your plans. The scullery looks very functional- you seem to be as much a details girl as me.Can I play devils advocate for a minute and ask if you have thought of flipping your dining/kitchen with the scullery? Just wonder if that gorgeous outlook at terrace access would be a treat in the eating part of your kitchen, would also give you heaps more light into your living room and better view of what your boys are up to? Would be noisier I suppose which could be why you are not doing it? I'm sure you have ten reasons why this is a bad idea but just curious. mel x Ps just found another deep undermount sink- I am thinking for the laundry but could also be good in the kitchen. Go to imadesign.com.au and look under at the V and look at the 811 and the 635 and you will find it. Also about half the price of the oliveri.

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    Replies
    1. The kitchen has definitely been the hardest room to plan and we've tried lots of different options, but this is the one that worked the best. I think the original plan had the two rooms swapped over, however the main reason for this layout are the stairs in the hallway. There are now for steps in the main hallway which lead down to the terrace - we simply couldn't put a table in this location. Also the scullery is narrower, so it made more sense to put the table in the room that had larger proportions. The living room actually has openings along the wall where the two single chairs are shown, so you will get view/light onto the terrace. (God it's hard to get things to work when your reno'ing on a small lot!) Thanx for the sink info - I will look into it. xx

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  6. Hi Caroline, just catching up on all your recent posts and your plans are coming together so beautifully! Curious about two things. Are you having grey grout between your tiles?..just love that look, and have you widened the hallway/door between kitchen and living room? What fun,
    Helen

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    Replies
    1. Hi Helen. Yes, we are using charcoal coloured grout between the white "subway" tiles. I love that look too. I'm not sure which door you're talking about. If you mean the opening between the kitchen and sitting room, that is currently a solid wall. xx

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  7. Hello,
    Just wondering, as I am designing my kitchen, is there a program you recommend to render it in 3D? Or did you design yours with a designer who did that for you?
    LOVE your home!
    Cheers

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