Kitchen Work Station Inspiration! (5 comments)

Kitchen Work Stations come in all shapes, sizes and most of all, functions!

It's all about that word, function! Now, that said, function can be expressed in a kitchen design as a general task area or a specific task area, and this is the crux of designing a kitchen with work stations. Here are a few ways to plan work stations in your kitchen ...

Work Stations for General Functions:

For Multiple Chefs - It does not matter whether the household consists of two people or 12, if the cooking process is inefficient when more than one person is working in the kitchen (such as the kitchen I just inherited in my recent move) work stations (preferably well separated) are the answer to a sense of productivity and control by those who work in the kitchen. The farther separated by distance, within the perimeters of the kitchen, the better two people will be able to cook for extended periods.

For Family/Friends Cooking Sessions - When family and friends gather to cook together as a social activity, beware of bottle necks in the design. Work stations can come in the form of small pieces of countertop in the outer perimeters of the kitchen where multiple cooks can find their own spot to prep at. Another tip is to clean the countertops of clutter in advance of the coming invasion of cooks!

In both cases, offset appliances, particularly in a galley situation, so that cooks are not perfectly back to back.

Work Stations for Specific Function:

There are a myriad of specific cooking/entertaining functions which might drive the design and placement of work stations. Frequency of use is the number one consideration for both the size and location of a work station. Beware of kitchen dreams, however - the dream of a coffee station, where there is one coffee drinker in the family designed into a small to medium size kitchen may not be the best use of precious countertop space. Be realistic about your available space! Be realistic about the many functions your kitchen will need to serve and the context and logic of the "dream" work station will be revealed. The wine refrigerator near a main prep area? Perhaps, it's better placed elsewhere, beyond the busy kitchen traffic ways. Yes, go ahead, you can call me a buzzkill!

Work stations, as noted, above, come in a wonderful and fabulous variety of configurations. Multiple levels and different surfaces to define work areas, an island with a shelf serves as a clearly defined work space and often serves as a place to sit while prepping, a double width island serving many cooks and assistants, are just some ideas for creating the work station that "works" for you. Work stations can have multiple purposes, as seen in some of these accompanying images.

The best piece of advice I can give is to visualize a number of lifestyle scenarios and try to think in terms of frequency of use, particularly if a work station is for a specific use. Selecting work stations for general and specific uses will define the correct sizes and locations for you and will result in a cooking process that flows!

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