If you’ve been involved in the design or construction of a new kitchen in the last 20 years, you’ve probably heard the terms “unequipped kitchens” or “kitchen workstations” or simply “kitchen cabinets.” These terms do not refer to a dining set, but to a completely different way of organizing a kitchen by using some purpose-built furniture instead of installing continuous lines of cabinets and countertops. For some people, a ‘furnished’ kitchen is an intriguing idea, but others might say “Why bother fixing something that isn’t broken?”
Sometimes we are so caught up in accepting how things are that we don’t take the time to question whether we are going in the right direction. Technology has a way of pushing us forward, but sometimes we need to take a break to figure out which form of progress is best suited. For example, when electricity first came to New York City, there were layers of power lines connected to every building and power poles everywhere. Looking at old photos of Manhattan, we can’t believe how ugly everything was, but for most New Yorkers at the time, they didn’t even notice the chaos. It took someone with a bit of foresight to figure out that burying all the power lines underground was a better way to go.
Kitchen design using cabinets has become the universally accepted method of creating a kitchen. But in the last 20 years, designers have begun to ask themselves, “Are cabinets really the ‘best’ shape for all design situations?” To answer this question, we must first figure out why it would be beneficial to switch cabinets to something else. Hopefully, by illustrating how kitchen design has evolved, you’ll begin to discover ‘Why’ kitchen cabinets can be a great alternative to cabinet kitchen design.
In the days before electricity changed everything in our lives, family kitchens in modest-sized homes were large but simple rooms. They contained a solid fuel heat source for cooking (a fireplace or a coal or wood stove) and a built-in sink, with or without running water. Everything else was a piece of furniture. The cooler was elegantly made of wood, as were the central dining/work table, cabinets, cake safes, and pantries. The family kitchen was also the central social/work place of the household where family members, sometimes in the company of friends, performed most of the household chores and socialized with one another.
Electricity brought many time-saving devices into the kitchen, as well as many inventions that took us away from cooking. Due to innovations in the kitchen, fewer people were needed to prepare meals, so the kitchen lost much of its social importance and became a smaller, super-efficient workroom. Previously delegated only to Butler’s pantries in larger homes, built-in cabinets have now become the best way to reduce the kitchen to an efficient workspace. With more free time, socializing was delegated to the living areas of the house, because the kitchen was too small.
Now the current planning has opened up the kitchen to once again incorporate the social rooms. New homes almost always have a family/breakfast room completely within view of the kitchen. The Great Room concept is simply a large social room with a kitchen. The walls between the kitchen and other rooms are being torn down in older homes in an effort to create multitasking kitchens. In fact, we’ve come full circle, in just over 100 years, by creating a modern version of a pre-electric social/work kitchen.
Why has this happened? There are too many reasons to list here, but they all seem to be related to time. With the development of 2-headed families and single-headed families, there isn’t enough time in the day to devote much to cooking. Again, innovations (ie microwave, convenience and frozen foods) have allowed us to spend less time cooking during the work week. And when we’re cooking, we don’t want to miss anything that’s going on around us. On the weekends, we can relax in the kitchen/family room watching TV or even entertain friends by cooking elaborate meals.
But typically, the kitchen portion of the great room still looks and is arranged like the super-efficient, work-only kitchen mentioned above. It is lined with horizontal bands of cabinets and countertops that are interrupted only by exposed high-tech appliances. Designers promote this “lab” look because it’s easy to design and really is the only kitchen design concept most people understand. Most kitchen layouts are created by drawing a line 2 feet from each wall (to indicate the cabinets) and then, if there is room, an island (the bigger the better) is drawn to act as a buffer between the kitchen and family room. The personality of the room is determined by the design of the backsplash and relies on the color consistency of the cabinets and appliances to keep the design theme of the room intact.
On the other hand, the family room, or the social area of the great room, is designed in a completely different way. Usually a beautiful empty room is created and then furnished. Instead of lining all walls with horizontal bands of built-ins (and there are exceptions to this, for example Frank Lloyd Wright’s Little Houses on the Prairie), wall spaces are interrupted with vertical elements such as windows and doors or dots. focal points like fireplaces. The room’s walls are separated into vertical segments rather than continuous horizontal bands. In the blank wall areas and in the center of the room, eclectic furnishings set the seating arrangement, while wall-hung artwork and collectible sculptures on display determine the room’s personality. But the colors and textures of the walls, floor and ceiling filter between all of these vertical elements and act as the ‘glue’ that holds the entire design theme together.
So the question is, why not create a multitasking modern open plan kitchen/family room by furnishing it instead of installing cabinets? Why not combine the kitchen with the family room using a vertical layout instead of a horizontal one? Why should half the room look like a sterile laboratory, while the other half is filled with personal touches that bring you comfort?
When designing with furniture, spaces must be created between each piece that allow us to appreciate the 3D character (3D in which the furniture is made with at least 3 finished faces) of each piece. These spaces are the most important as they allow the design theme of the adjacent room to continue seamlessly into the kitchen. The gaps allow wall, ceiling and floor coverings – the architectural finishes – to instantly blend the kitchen and family room into one homogeneous space in a way that is impossible with horizontally designed cabinets. The spaces define the personality of the room and also allow the furniture to become more eclectic, emulating the same design techniques used in the design of the family room. No longer does a kitchen have to have just one wood color, one door style, or one countertop material. The spaces allow all these elements to change more easily. For a clear example, think of an open plan log home where all the interior walls are exposed logs. A fitted kitchen allows the logs to show through between each piece, helping to unify the open-plan room, while a kitchen full of horizontally designed cabinets covers all the logs. In an open-plan loft design where the kitchen is always in view, a fitted kitchen can blend seamlessly with the other informal seating groups by allowing all of the architectural finishes to meander between all the pieces and hold everything together.
There are some simple design rules to keep in mind when designing the individual pieces of furniture, but that’s a topic for another time. There are even other reasons to use furniture over cabinets, like using it to emulate a certain style or period, like the pre-electric style kitchen. But it is in today’s open plan kitchen where furniture can have its most universal impact. Will you ever replace the cabinets? Absolutely not, but for anyone involved in the design of a kitchen project, well-designed cabinets may be the most appropriate design concept to use – one that is well worth your time!