Furniture Kitchen Design - What Your Designer Needs to Know
Kitchens have evolved a lot.
While browsing a model home book I recently purchased from a reprint publisher - bungalow home designs in the 1940s - I was struck by some of the "selling points" offered by the author.
For example "care was taken to align the upstairs bathrooms over the kitchen so if there are any overflow leaks, it will be in an unimportant room.
" SAY WHAT! How times have changed.
This gives us a perspective of what a kitchen used to be.
Today, if I were to "align" a leaking bathroom over and "unimportant" room, it would be my garage.
This explains a few things; like what they were thinking when they built the kitchen cabinets from lumber on-site but the passage doors were built in a door shop by expert carpenters.
And why you seldom see a cabinet from that era that was anything but a paint grade wood.
You would see some nice bookcases, in the living room - obviously an important room - but not in the kitchen.
Since this is clearly an unacceptable view of what a kitchen is today, it is worth considering where this design philosophy continues still today and to do this I would like to imagine some things.
Let's imagine you are looking for a nice dining room set.
You go to furniture store that sells a nice line, say Drexel Heritage, or Ethan Allen.
When you walk in the door, the very first room set has a row of cabinets, laminate tops and a row of wall cabinets.
The wood is natural maple and it has a raised panel door.
You think to yourself, "odd that they would put their employee kitchen at the front of the store", but you continue.
The next set is a few tall pantry cabinets and an upper/lower set with a granite top and suddenly it hits you; this is not furniture.
You turn and leave.
I just described almost everything you will see at Home Depot, Lowe's and most kitchen showrooms.
It's not furniture.
So what makes "furniture"? It is design.
It is proportion.
There is a reason why you can not get most furniture in any size you want, it's because it is designed, and if you change the dimensions, you change the design.
Also, there are some furniture "elements" like; leg turnings, feet, valances, corbels and glass doors.
These are very important and typically add cost to your project, but in the hands of an unskilled designer they will only mock a furniture design look.
If you need proof of that, go back to Home Depot and see for yourself, is it furniture yet? No.
As kitchen design becomes more sophisticated and as cabinet manufactures do the same, it is becoming less acceptable to fill up a kitchen with building materials and more expected that those materials will be designed and that the end result will be a sense that your kitchen is now an important room, and this is accomplished by making it a "furniture kitchen" by design.
While browsing a model home book I recently purchased from a reprint publisher - bungalow home designs in the 1940s - I was struck by some of the "selling points" offered by the author.
For example "care was taken to align the upstairs bathrooms over the kitchen so if there are any overflow leaks, it will be in an unimportant room.
" SAY WHAT! How times have changed.
This gives us a perspective of what a kitchen used to be.
Today, if I were to "align" a leaking bathroom over and "unimportant" room, it would be my garage.
This explains a few things; like what they were thinking when they built the kitchen cabinets from lumber on-site but the passage doors were built in a door shop by expert carpenters.
And why you seldom see a cabinet from that era that was anything but a paint grade wood.
You would see some nice bookcases, in the living room - obviously an important room - but not in the kitchen.
Since this is clearly an unacceptable view of what a kitchen is today, it is worth considering where this design philosophy continues still today and to do this I would like to imagine some things.
Let's imagine you are looking for a nice dining room set.
You go to furniture store that sells a nice line, say Drexel Heritage, or Ethan Allen.
When you walk in the door, the very first room set has a row of cabinets, laminate tops and a row of wall cabinets.
The wood is natural maple and it has a raised panel door.
You think to yourself, "odd that they would put their employee kitchen at the front of the store", but you continue.
The next set is a few tall pantry cabinets and an upper/lower set with a granite top and suddenly it hits you; this is not furniture.
You turn and leave.
I just described almost everything you will see at Home Depot, Lowe's and most kitchen showrooms.
It's not furniture.
So what makes "furniture"? It is design.
It is proportion.
There is a reason why you can not get most furniture in any size you want, it's because it is designed, and if you change the dimensions, you change the design.
Also, there are some furniture "elements" like; leg turnings, feet, valances, corbels and glass doors.
These are very important and typically add cost to your project, but in the hands of an unskilled designer they will only mock a furniture design look.
If you need proof of that, go back to Home Depot and see for yourself, is it furniture yet? No.
As kitchen design becomes more sophisticated and as cabinet manufactures do the same, it is becoming less acceptable to fill up a kitchen with building materials and more expected that those materials will be designed and that the end result will be a sense that your kitchen is now an important room, and this is accomplished by making it a "furniture kitchen" by design.
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