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