Kitchen Consult with Anya A 6/5/06


Anya and her partner Carys recently built a home in Emerald Hills. They put particular care into their kitchen, and they share many of our concerns, specifically functionality for both cooking and accommodating small children, and environmental concerns for both construction materials and day-to-day usage.


Anya is the primary cook in the home (in fact she does occasional catering for large events) and so put a lot of thought into how she would use her kitchen. She wanted functionality and durability more than anything else. Carys wanted the same, but with higher-end materials (e.g., Anya wanted Corian counters and linoleum floors, but they ended up with less-durable, higher maintenance poured-concrete counters and light bamboo floors). 


SURFACES

Anya does not recommend bamboo floors in the kitchen! They are fragile; chip, scratch easily. She has heard good things about cork.


FLOORS

Poured concrete counters crack, stain easily, need frequent sealing. Anya likes them anyhow, but she has also heard good things about "Caesar Stone."


RANGE

Most of Anya's cooking takes place on the range, so that is where she splurged. 


She has a Thermidor 6-burner range with a clean-out tray rather than sealed burners. Her personal preference, she thinks food still gets beneath sealed burners. She has had second thoughts about not getting a griddle or not getting French burners, but in the end thinks the six burners work well for her as she can straddle multiple burners with her large-volume pots.


OVENS

Anya was not overly concerned about oven performance. She got mid-range Kitchen Aid wall ovens and is happy with them.


She recommended a convection oven if possible, as even though they take getting used to, they cook faster and meats specifically are juicier and more tender.


I showed her the specs for the A1to Shaam 250, and told her that it served the function of both a second oven and a warming drawer. She approved of its internal dimensions, and said that she never realized how much she'd love her warming drawer.


DISHWASHERS

Her biggest regret in designing their kitchen is not having two dishwashers. I said that I didn't think we needed two, and she said that we should think of the future, and aren't we designing our house to be a very social place? We should really consider it as she thinks a second dishwasher uses much less water than hand-washing the party dishes and pots that don't fit into a single dishwasher, and she can't stand waiting until morning to finish cleaning up.


BAR

Don't make the bar too high. Extra-high bar seats are really expensive, plus it's inconvenient for kids.


FRIDGE

Their fridge is mid-range and functional (Amaina). They went for a deep fridge with a freezer underneath, which then made most of the food inaccessible to kids. Bummer, that. Her preference would have been a side-by-side with deep doors providing lots of condiment/snack space.


MICROWAVE

She personally thinks microwaves should be hidden, but also accessible to kids as they use microwaves a lot.


SINK

She wishes she'd gotten two large single-basin sinks, again because of the hand-washing; she feels she uses too much water with one single-basin sink. However this would not be a concern if she had that second dishwasher (emphasized).


SPIGOT OVER RANGE FOR FILLING POTS ON SITE

She thinks this is not a bad idea. Her sister-in-law has one and loves it.


TRASH COMPACTOR

Carys talked her into one and she is underwhelmed.


RECYCLING STATIONS/WASTE

She has these under the counter, and wishes she had more. We looked around the kitchen, and noted that I have random sites for:



She recommends having all these under-counter if possible, all in one place. This height also allows kids to participate easily.


COMPOST

She has a larger bucket under the sink. I have a small bucket on the counter so that the compostables get taken outside daily, or at the most every other day. She prefers totally clear counters, we don't mind a few things hanging out.


TUPPERWARE

She has a large drawer specifically dedicated to a very specific tupperware system. We tend to reuse food containers from store instead, but have some Tupperware. Our current space for tupperware is certainly not large enough.


DISHES

Having these at a kid-friendly height (as we currently do) is a good idea so kids can help themselves and also help set table, etc.


APPLIANCE GARAGE

Again, for clear counter purposes, she recommends making it big enough to hold toaster oven and Kitchen Aid mixer.


WINE

She mentioned that they have a small wine fridge, which she will most likely be converting to a kids' snack fridge since Carys just put a really big wine fridge in their garage. I said that I didn't think we'd need it. She then recommended a built-in lattice-style wine rack at the end of the peninsula/bar.


LOCATION

I told her I liked having the sink near the counter so that I could talk with people as I washed dishes, and that it wasn't so horrible that way and I got more done. She agreed; her sink is on the opposite side of the kitchen from the bar and it can be isolating when all the social action is on the other side of the room at the bar.  I told her I like the currently layout of our kitchen in general, and so did she.


In general Anya loved our plans and was very excited about them, and very impressed by the skill, creativity, and thoughtfulness of the design.