The old kitchen was a galley with doors at each end. On the left was fridge, stove, 18 inches, sink, and dishwasher. The kids would sit on the counter over the dishwasher to be with me in the kitchen. The wall on the right side had a 5 foot opening into the dining room and counter with cabinets. When they were little 3 meals a day. Me cooking for the most part by myself. Now, everyone collects in the kitchen and once there, is then put to work ;^). My son was put out about the addition (not historically accurate) but he has come to acknowledge how much better it is, besides the very first original was outside!

It is more "stay out of my way")) Unless the kids are cooking-these love company

It's a galley style kitchen. No island, and no space for a table. We do have adjacent dining room so that's where everybody ends up(or starts their morning with)

I have 2 homes...one kitchen is a small galley...the second is an L with island minus seating but open to living space. I'll take an open kitchen anytime. The galley is get in-get out.....galley has it's place in a small home: limited space available. I like the open kitchen with prep/clean-up/cooking and everything in between with people around and the kitchen activity part of the general activity of the home and whoever is there-family or friends.....visually don't mind any assortment of things on counters/etc. I would tell anyone who can take out a wall to open up a kitchen , it's well worth it.

I have a small galley. It's cooking only in there. No room for anything else! LOL

Awwww mama goose, congrats on the new gosling!

Thank you!

Right now - it's the center of EVERYTHING. I work at the desk in the kitchen. The dogs are nearby. Hubs, when he's home, works at the eating island.

Mail / his work junk / new house build stuff / laptops / iPads / phones and chargers and everything else seems to be cluster on the islands. IT. MUST. STOP. I long for a flat, open counter to wipe down and not have to jog around CRAPOLA!

New house addresses this by creating an office space that is close (so you don't feel isolated) but separate enough that it won't be near the "action". My new "desk" (which will be counter height and double as a buffet when necessary / after retirement) is "in" the kitchen, but with decent traffic separation. Office is off the great room - but has a 4 foot sliding door so it won't feel like a "room" but an alcove off the main living space. (oh - and it overlooks the pool / courtyard, so there's an incentive)

We are almost always kitchen eaters - also probably because current dining is "visually separated" from kitchen. New house resolves that too - as dining is right there in front of you in a large open space. (also will overlook the courtyard - another incentive to USE THE DAMN THING!)

Kitchen?

Oh - as a drop zone for crapola.
I make espresso in the morning.
On my "Friday" (which is usually a Monday) off, I get a steak ready on a smidgen of the counter next to the sink, which I then cook on the grill.
I walk through it to the fridge, which I put in the mud room. I'm liking that a lot, BTW.
I admire my cabinets, my new window, and my yet-to-be-finished reclaimed pine floor. Then I leave it. Still got my island to build, which is lying in pieces in the living room. Where I also leave crapola. But that is a turnstyle area, because I've been selling a LOT on Craig's List still.

Maybe someday I'll care enough to cook again. Maybe not. So although it's not a showpiece in the intended use of the word, I guess it is to me.

Our kitchen gets heavy use with three and sometimes four adults in the house, and two kids on weekdays, four on the weekends, ranging in age from 10 to 15. We cook a lot.

Our current kitchen has some elements that make it a good layout, but it's way too small for this many people and it has a pinch point where foot traffic jams up. The design for the new kitchen opens things up and incorporates the dinette space. We'll be getting two islands, a prep island with a sink, and an island with seating that will house our beverage refrigerator drawers and the microwave. The new layout works better for a multi-cook kitchen with separate work zones that don't overlap one another.

Our present kitchen should be for "cooks-only" as there is little room for people to hang out and socialize. Regardless, though, our friends attempt to hang out with us as we prepare meals, because it isn't open to other areas of the house. The new kitchen adds seating at the second island, and also the prep island will serve as a buffer between the lean-ers and the workers.

Currently we have one, small oven and that really affects what we can cook at a time. The new kitchen will have multiple ovens, convection, steam-combi, and possibly an Advantium speed oven/mw. My concern now is that I won't be able to keep up with the ovens. LOL.

Our kitchen is a relatively small mostly galley-shaped kitchen with a wide aisle that makes for a great two cook kitchen. DH and I both have space to spread out some and prep (and room to leave the DW open if need be for simultaneous cleanup). We usually cook together, just for the two of us so this works well. The kitchen table is a great place for guests to hang out. We usually eat most of our meals there too unless we are being complete slobs and migrate to the DR table due to lack of space!

Small, room for only one person at the stove end, blend of a galley and a U (part of one wall by the U is taken up with backdoor/basement access). So it is for cooking only, but it is convenient and practical for that task.

Maybe it's because I'm an only child, but my kitchen has always been a "stay out of my way" place. For holiday entertaining, my daughter will help with a task (put the salads on the plates etc), but I'm in charge. I do not want non-family guests "helping" unless specifically asked. I can't cook and entertain at the same time - I'd lose track of the cooking - did I add the salt? - need to concentrate. My daughter is the same way - "out of my kitchen and go sit in the living room".

We have a multi-cook kitchen, all business, with a good sized peninsula for friends to gather. We both like to cook, and have pretty much all of our meals at home. The only time other folks help in the kitchen is for rare family get-togethers, maybe once a year. When we have friends visit, the dishes just get set aside to deal with later, or go straight into the DW.

OMG how can I forget the main purpose of a kitchen counter. Crapola storage.

The best way around this as a DIYer is to keep moving the empty horizontal surface! This week it's the temporary island, next week the buffet, then moving the only clean bit to the kitchen table, dining room next and hopefully it'll follow full circle onto the window sill of the utility room. I'm hoping it'll be a little like musical chairs and stop on the window sill/freezer lid.....not taking bets though. I say keep 'em hopping!

Mushcreek, I remember your MIL's contributions.... GD&R!

I keep looking at stuff thinking, "I used that about 6 months ago. Perhaps I should find a place for it in the SIXTEEN FEET OF CABINET SPACE I BUILT, but nooOOOoooo. I can't decide what I want where, so on the crapola holder it stays. I think I have a file cabinet fear. You know. If you put it in a file cabinet you won't look at it for another year or more. This way, I look at it. Ok, don't always see it, but it's there. Just in case.

God, I'm a construction materials hoarder.

It's MY kitchen. DH works (he's easing into retirement), I am at home. I cook, I mostly clean, I love it! DH appreciates the meals, helps a bit with the clean-up, guests are in the adjoining sunroom where I can chat and they are out of my way. I might feel differently if it wasn't just DH and me, or if we entertained a lot, but we've settled into a groove that works.

This is an excellent post, Beachem! Some of you know that my 30 yr. old daughter, Joy, who lives with me, and I are in the process of becoming certified organizers. We're also writing a book, "Minimalism and the art of the lovely home."

And a lot of you know my house story. In January, I bought a 1979 manufactured home fixer upper. It was previously owned by hoarders and even after truckloads were removed by them, they still left truckloads of the hoard behind. Joy and I spent three months just cleaning out their hoard. They had neglected the home to the point that it is really deplorable. And under the hoard it was FILTHY! Another month just to CLEAN. Then, 2.5 weeks ago, the movers delivered OUR stuff. Now we're in the process of unpacking/organizing all that. And, just in our spare time, haha, painting the interior. Really not the highest priority, but we needed some cheering up!

I bring all this up for two reasons. First, the kitchen remodel will be a gut, but won't happen for a few years, and that may change a bit of how it is used.

Second, when organizing a home, the first thing Joy and I ask clients is, "What is the purpose of this room?" We talk through it, and ask them to write it down. It seems obvious, but really isn't. Just read the comments above me. The purpose of a kitchen can be: cooking, eating, food storage, kitchen related storage, non-kitchen related storage, command center and/or home office, social gathering space, homework or art project space, electronics charging station, romantic dinner space, landing space for everything that comes through the door, family meeting space, bar, football...OK, probably not football, but you get my drift! YOU need to decide what you want the purpose(s) of your kitchen to be, and then organize your kitchen around that. Once you define what the space IS, you will find organizing it, or remodeling/building it to be a much easier task.

OK...so my kitchen is a small eat-in kitchen. It's a 900 sq ft house, so there is no other dining area/room. (Though I don't mind eating in the LR when I have guests.) No island. The kitchen part is an L, and there is a small, round pedestal table that can seat 4 in a pinch. We just have two chairs to save space, since 99% of the time it's just the two of us. Future plans may include banquette seating.

There is also a huge, hideous built in china hutch with a pass through. It faces the LR, so the back of it faces the K table. When I'm done painting the kitchen this weekend (I hope!) I'll post pics.

The kitchen is often the heart of the home. We spend a lot of time in there, and we almost always cook dinner together. We eat out very, very rarely, so dinner is prepared in the kitchen 7 days a week. I work from home, so we have breakfast and lunch in there too. Breakfast usually separately because I get up a lot earlier than Joy, lunch mostly together. Breakfast for me is usually yogurt and granola. Lunch is generally a salad. So not really "cooking" for those meals, unless I get ambitious and make pancakes or something.

The purposes of my kitchen: cooking/meal preparation, eating, coffee station, coffee with neighbors who pop in, coffee or lunch with friends and clients (from my editing business), and general social gathering spot.

This may shock some of you here on the KF, haha!, but I DO NOT want the "command center" in the kitchen! It's too small, and I have never liked it there anyway. I now have a library, which is the master bedroom. My books, desk, computer, files, a small bulletin board, etc., are in there and that is also the command center.

I ABHOR stuff on the refrigerator!!! I don't care how cute the cat, grandchild, whatever, is, it's not going on the fridge! And that is not the place, in my kitchen, for calendars, announcements, lists, etc. I know it sounds ridiculous, but that's just a "thing" with me. I think it makes the whole kitchen look messy and cluttered. I have a small dry erase board and bulletin board in the library, and that's where that stuff goes. If my kids were still little, it might be different.

As far as liking people in there while I'm cooking, I'm really OK with that, and likely to ask them to pitch in! My mom, OTOH, did not want ANYONE in or near her kitchen, and had no trouble telling people to get out and go sit in the LR! She didn't even want them in the adjacent dining room! I think that's just a matter of temperament.

I'm a clear counters person, but due to lack of space, have my utensils canister, a fruit bowl, and my beloved coffee station on my counters.

My LR and eat-in kitchen are basically an open great room now, except for the built in. The top half (above the pass through) will be knocked down eventually, and the bottom half will be made into a useable peninsula, with the storage opening on the K side. (Those bottom cabs are our pantry.) That will really make it an open concept great room space. I'm very casual and have no need for anything more formal.

CEFreeman, if I ever become a hoarder, it will be books and office supplies, haha! I love Staples like some people love BBB or W-S! ;-)