The Kitchen Design Planner

For centuries hidden behind the scenes, the kitchen is now the hub of home life. In design terms, this means that today's kitchen must not only be flexible and practical; it's got to look great, too. In addition to being the place for storing, preparing, and cooking food, the modern kitchen may need to accommodate activities as diverse as washing and ironing, family meals, children's homework or tea parties, romantic suppers, and even full-scale dinner parties. Most of this would have been unthinkable three or four generations ago, when kitchens were kept firmly out of sight. They were always the engine rooms of the house, but not places where anyone who did not have to there would be found. The kitchen is also the place where, traditionally, new design ideas and new technology have entered the home, particularly in the years after World War II, when public taste swung away from the dark and troubled past toward the optimistic, light-filled future. New surfacing materials such as Formica, mechanized assembly lines, and streamlined designs combined to produce the hugely desirable built-in-kitchen. As our lives have grown more informal, the kitchen has become integrated into the living space of the home. In many new houses and apartments, open-plan designs merge kitchen, dining, and living room spaces. Kitchen deisgners, architects, and product manufactuers have responded by creating designs and appliances that are better than ever. The choice of furniture syles and finishes is incrediby varied; flooring and counters are vailable in a whole specturm of natural and man-made materials; lighting is more elegant and practical than ever; and appliances are made in every shape, size, and colour imaginable. I love kitchens. I never miss a chance to visit a kitchen showroom or have a look at kitchens in private homes or in restaurants. So I'm confident in saying that there has never been a more exciting time to create a new kitchen.