Design Tips - Keeping it Working

In the last Design Tips we had a look at work centres and how they related to each other.  In this installment we're going to fine tune things a little bit to keep your kitchen working at its best.

If a kitchen is a collection of work centres, and how each work centre relates to each other is important to the "flow" of the kitchen, then it's important not to put obstacles in the middle of that flow.  NKBA Guideline #4 states that a full-height, full-depth, tall obstacle (such as a tall pantry, refrigerator or wall oven cabinet) should not separate two primary work centers. 

The top illustration on the left shows a wall oven cabinet to the right of the cooktop.  This may be viewed as a convenient placement (keeping all the cooking centres together), but by interrupting the countertop we've interrupted the work flow. 

As will all rules, there are exceptions.  The exception for Guideline #4 comes when we recess a tall unit into the corner (lower illustration).  Done properly, such a tall unit will not interrupt the work flow and is acceptable.  The only caveat to note here is that any object placed in the corner takes up a rather large amount of wall space in each direction of the corner.  It's a great solution for the right situation, but an expert's eye is needed.

Guideline #5 seems a bit obvious at first glance, but you'd be surprised how many kitchens quite literally trample all over it.  No major traffic patterns should cross through the basic work triangle.  Think of it this way:  if the primary path to the back patio runs directly across the path between the sink and the fridge, how many times will you be interrupted by stampeding kids while preparing for a BBQ?

The illustrations shows one of the simplest ways to avoid this mistake.  An island can clearly define the footprint of the kitchen, and will nicely direct non-kitchen traffic away from the work spaces.