Designing kitchen layout

Question

I would like to better understand the principles for designing kitchen layout, optimizing it for better functionality. I would appreciate advice, weblinks as well as book suggestions - anything that goes beyond the basics of

• work triangle
• work zones
• freedom of movement
• storage room/cabinets

(my terms might be not precise, since my main kitchen vocabulary is French.)

Remark: I am not asking to design my kitchen (this is why no specifics to this end is provided), but for the established design principles. In this sense the reasons for closure as opinion based are not clear.

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Update:
Some precisions: What interests me is not kitchen design in general (which is a vast subject), but defining a layout for the specific room that I have in mind. I have consulted several professionals, literally spending hours with each of them. These consultations produced several different proposals, each optimizing some aspects, but seemingly neglecting others. Perhaps I am being difficult - but none of the specialists have convinced me "scientifically" that their layout/plan is the best - hence I am looking for some solid guiding principles... otherwise I'll just end up tossing a coin and inevitably suffering from the buyer's remorse.

What one typically finds in the internet: The kitchen layout guides that one pulls out from the internet (like this one), typically cover the following:

• Work triangle that is the triangle formed by the cooking appliances (principally stove), sink and storage (principally fridge). This should be optimally an actual triangle with sides of 1.2-3 meters (4-9 feet) - to facilitate the freedom of movement. Obviously, the movement should not be obstructed by any objects within the triangle.

• Typical layouts: linear, U-shaped, L-shaped, gallery, and island (which is sometimes split into actual island and peninsula). (My problem is that none of these readily fits into my kitchen - more about it later.)

• Heights of tables - for eating, cooking, bar table;

• optimal positioning of suspended closets for better vidibility, access,etc.

• Optimal width of the passages - to optimize the accessibility to storage room, dishwasher, etc , while optimally not blocking the passage to the other person present in the kitchen.

The problem: As I pointed above, none of the standard layouts fits my needs, leaving the notion of the work triangle and the suggested passage widths as the only guidelines for essentially designing my own layout from scratch. Yet, I do not think that my kitchen is too exotic - it does have some extra doors (to the storage room and the entrance hall), a large opening towards dining room, and a long "rear view" window along one of the walls. I suspect that more or less standard solutions exist for this case, even if they are not covered in elementary guides. The only thing that may be odd is that the room is rather small - about 3.5x3.5 meters (about 12-by-12 feet).

Answer 1

I have an open kitchen in the living room. I didn't want to hear the refrigerator noise in the living room, so I built a storeroom next to the kitchen, and put the fridge and freezer there. When I'm cooking, the sliding door is open and the storeroom is fully accessible without the door getting in the way. When I'm not cooking, I don't hear the fridge compressor go BRRRR when lounging in the living room and watching a movie.

I think the kitchen triangle is a bit overrated, because its purpose is to make food preparation easier, but it completely disregards cleaning.

So, let's optimize cleaning.

You just finished eating and now are the proud owner of a sink full of dirty dishes. So you let them soak for a bit, run some water on them to get most of the dirt out (dishwashers do not process chunks well), and put everything in the dishwasher.

• Dishwasher under the sink

In the cabinet to the right or to the left of the actual sink, not directly below, because that space is occupied by the sink itself. If the dishwasher is not there, then you'll have to move the wet dripping dirty dishes over the kitchen floor, and there will be a mess. With the dishwasher in the proper position, you simply take the dishes out of the sink and put them in the washer, and on the way they drip only over the sink and the inside of the dishwasher door. No mess.

• Trash bin under the sink, foot-operated

Next, cleaning the sink. If the sink has a filtering basket in the drain, it's easy: just gather all the stuff and drop it in the trash bin which is under the sink. The cabinet door should be foot operated (put a screw and a tab on the underside of the door and grab it with your toes) then the trash bin should slide out and open automatically (IKEA makes a sliding mount for this purpose, attach it to the door with a string). That way, when both hands are dirty, you don't put food everywhere on the cabinet door handles. And when preparing food, you never touch the trash bin or the handle, preventing contamination.

• Countersunk sink

Next, the sink. After preparing food and doing dishes, the area around it will be dirty. So you want to get a sponge and clean it, and everything should slide into the sink. This means the following picture is an immediate fail, because the sink has a border around it, which will get in the way:

This is also a failure for the same reasons. The area under the border of the sink is going to get full of crud ; the area behind the sink is impossible to clean ; the wall behind the sink is not tiled so so the paint will come off due to water, etc.

Note these kitchens are designed only to look good on a catalogue picture. They are not designed to be used.

This is better: after you slice the tomatoes and juice leaks all over the countertop, you can just slide it into the sink with a sponge, because the sink doesn't have a border!

Two major fails in the picture above through: 1) textured wall tile, impossible to clean with a sponge or a scraper. It has to be smooth tile, otherwise you'll be wasting your time. All grouts non-porous, epoxy or acrylic. And 2) where is the socket for the blender?

Here's mine. The countertop is tile (large ones, because cleaning grout is a waste of time) and they have a slope towards the sink. So when I clean it, it doesn't leak on the floor, and when I put the pots to dry, all the water that leaks out also goes in the sink.

Notice the raised countertop which acts both as storage and to prevent water from dripping at the back of the sink. Blender is next to 4 electrical sockets. Dried pots and utensils that I don't use every day go into the cabinet on the right.

When preparing food, having a trash bin close is necessary. I put the peel pot inside the sink so I can just use the knife to fling the ends of veggies off the cutting board and into the trash pot with the tip of the knife, get rid of apple kernels the same way when chopping them up, etc.

I've seen kitchens with a trash hole in the countertop. Convenient, but impossible to clean. Using a pot is much cleaner. No trash near food.

Besides that, the usual advice applies:

• Need enough counter area for food preparation without shuffling stuff around

• Stuff that is used every day should be out in the open

• Enough sockets for toaster, coffee machine, blender, etc, all strategically placed away from water from the sink and grease projections from cooking.

• Easy to clean wall surfaces where projections will occur (stove, sink, etc)

• Washable paint, every surface that you will clean should be easy to clean (ie, smooth, not textured)

• If you got a hood extractor, it needs to pump air outside. Extractors that don't have a wall behind them work about half as well.

• Short path from stove to sink to dump the boiling water without leaving a wet trail on the floor, especially when the pot overflows or some other accident happens.

• Countertop material must not burn when a 250°C dish from the oven is set on it (ie, no melamine).

• Best sink material: stainless. Ceramic will break your dishes if they fall into it, and plastic sucks up color from food and gets stained.

• Height should be adequate: you must reach the bottom of the sink without leaning, and the height of countertops must be adequate. Usually they are too low (I'm 6'3"). Use higher feet under the cabinets if necessary.

• There are never enough cabinets and drawers.

• Induction cooker is the absolute best.

You can post the room plan in another question and ask for advice.