At Kitchen Design Partners, we enjoy working with numerous families and we understand that no two families have the same needs. Some families enjoy buying fresh produce every day, while others go to the grocery store once a week and plan their meals for the entire week. At KDP, we consider these nuances when designing a kitchen for your lifestyle. A few important features that we like to incorporate include ample food storage, island seating and time saving features that can evolve as your family grows. Your kitchen can also facilitate and encourage family members to help themselves and participate in meal preparation and clean up. This project is a home chef’s kitchen design.
Cold Food Storage and Modular Refrigeration:
When cooking for a large family, ample food storage is essential. Some appliance manufacturers offer refrigeration options that maximize storage needs. Companies such as Thermador and Sub-Zero offer refrigeration towers that allow you to customize a combination of sizes and configurations that accommodate appropriate quantities of frozen and refrigerated food for your family. The kitchen above shows a 30″ wide Thermador refrigerator and freezer that are integral to this family’s busy lifestyle.
Refrigerator Drawers:
Incorporating a refrigeration drawer in a separate area of your kitchen is another ingenious family-friendly solution. You can stock these drawers with healthy snacks and drinks for your family in an area of the kitchen that is accessible to them but out of your work area (known as the work triangle). Refrigeration drawers are available in stainless steel for a contemporary look or panel-ready to match your surrounding cabinets (as shown above).
Dry Food Storage:
For dry food storage and snacks, we often incorporate tall pantry cabinets with rollout drawers. We recommend placing these excellent storage solutions away from the work triangle so that the food is easily accessible to the family without getting underfoot. The kitchen above has two tall pantries with rollouts. The one near the table houses snacks while the pantry near the cooktop is filled with cooking items.
Features You Can Modify as Your Family Evolves:
At KDP, we strive to design kitchens that can grow and evolve with your family throughout the years while maintaining optimum organization to keep your family hub running smoothly. To this end, we incorporate modular and flexible details in cabinets and drawers. Our dinnerware drawers include pegs that can be screwed into a range of holes so that families can adjust what is being stored, from Tupperware to china. In addition, shelves in cabinets are adjustable, allowing you to adjust the shelf heights for various storage needs. Kitchens are personal, and we strive to meet all of your individual desires.
Work Station/Desk:
We like to incorporate an area of the kitchen that helps you organize and manage your household, whether it be sorting mail, paying bills, searching for recipes online, or charging your cell phone. In smaller kitchens we recommend a desk height that it elevated to the height of the other counters so that this area can also function as extra counter space for cooking and entertaining. Pictured here is a desk with tall pantry storage to the left and right. The pantry cabinet to the right of the desk functions as an additional dry food pantry. We customized the pantry cabinet to the left so it functions as an extension of the desk, with storage for papers, mail, and office supplies to keep this busy household organized and running smoothly.
Island Seating:
Island seating is also a wonderful feature that our clients enjoy in kitchens. It provides a secondary seating area from the dining table, so that you can reserve the dining table for family dinners. With kids at the island, you can keep an eye on your little ones and you are within close reach for homework questions, while you perform your own kitchen chores. Islands are also an ideal spot for your guests to congregate with you while casually entertaining. Multi-tasking at its finest!
Warming Drawers and Microwave Ovens:
Warming drawers are another fantastic appliance for families. They are the size of a regular drawer and are ideal for families with very busy, independent, and varying schedules. Is a family member missing dinnertime for a meeting or a basketball game and coming home late? Pop her dinner in the warming drawer so it won’t dry out and will be hot and ready for her when she comes home. Although microwaves are generally not used for meal preparation, they come in handy any time of day for heating up beverages, leftovers or a quick snack.
These are just a few ways that we at Kitchen Design Partners create a practical and efficient kitchen space for families. As the heart of the home, we provide all of the important details and personal touches that elevate your kitchen to a timeless and comfortable space that will be enjoyed by your family today and for years to come.
