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The New American Kitchen; More Functional and Beautiful Than Ever

by Dena Kouremetis

Times were when a kitchen was merely a necessity in American homes. It was self-contained and oftentimes stuck in a corner or the house, perhaps attached to a dining area by a swinging door. Busy "housewives", pleasantly chased their visitors back to formal living rooms and served from trays, modestly "excusing" the condition of their kitchens when invaded by well-meaning guests.

Kitchens, for years called the "heart" of the American home, have now come to take center stage in new home construction, with more bells and whistles, style and statement being injected into their gleaming surroundings each year. With formal living and dining rooms going into and out of vogue, kitchens remain the "core" of domestic life; the gathering place, the receptor of our joys and consolations and the stage of sustenance in our existence. Even those in the market for a modestly sized home seem to choose a spacious, well-planned kitchen over a formal living or dining room (or both) if the space must be sacrificed. With couples and families spending less and less time in relatively unused areas such as these, it's no wonder builders are all but eliminating formal areas from their floor plan designs.

American homebuilders have been ratcheting up the proportion, storage, features, layout, and varied finishes of kitchens to meet the demands of today's homebuyers. With so many elements to incorporate, it's important that builders and architects keep designs simple, yet within the budget of the average home buyer.

First, builders consider the most practical elements of kitchens; appliances and their locations relative to the user's needs, counter top space for food preparation and "overflow" functions, all-important storage space, eating area(s) and last, but certainly not least, attractiveness.

This last element has no doubt become more and more important over the past ten years or so of new home construction. The need for attractively presented kitchens may primarily be due to the trend to open kitchens to living areas. New designs now allow the chief cook and bottle washer to stand over a sink while watching the big screen, manage a collection of active kids and cook dinner at the same time. This incorporation of function into leisure space has resulted in the kitchen as both a personal lifestyle statement and a Mecca for family life.

Some of the trends for kitchens in the new American home include:

De-emphasizing appliance fronts. Once thought of as only a custom feature in kitchens, adding matching cabinet panels to the fronts of refrigerators, dishwashers, trash compactors, etc., are now available in many every day brands of appliances and on option selection lists of production home builders.

Out-of sight storage solutions to over-sized and oddly shaped cooking and preparation items. Vertical, open spaces in cabinets can take generous griddles, large baking dishes, huge mixing bowls and double-wide turkey platters, saving precious interior cabinet space.

Display space for collectibles or cookbooks, with randomly placed shelves, some with glass doors and in-set lights, to show off colorful accessories, heirlooms, and family knick-knacks.

Spacious kitchen islands. Once thought of as gourmet food preparation areas in custom residences, the kitchen island is common in even the most modestly priced homes. Some islands contain sinks, cook-tops, and generous bar space for hungry diners, sometimes eliminating the need for an additional kitchen dining area, depending on their size and design.

Granite and faux-stone surfaced counter tops are all the rage, giving cooks uninterrupted, easy-clean surfaces that wear like iron. These once expensively opted counter-tops have come down in price significantly over the past decade, making them a surface of choice for even first-time homebuyers. Design experts now "mix" contrasting and complementing tile and granite surfaces (visible in many model homes across the country), giving homebuyers even more budgeting options without sacrificing style.

A plethora of cabinet surfaces, from distressed, weathered, antique looks to gleaming white, raised panel laminates. Kitchen cabinetry is becoming as diverse as furniture, giving buyers the opportunity to match almost any décor and natural wood surface.

Butler's pantries have found their way back into the American new home design. Oftentimes used as "pass-throughs" to dining areas, these practical but anachronistically named anterooms provide out-of sight food preparation and storage solutions both for gourmet cooks as well as for those of us who fake it.

Subtler lighting fixtures. Although cost-effective, builders are now shying away from large fluorescent illumination in kitchens, opting for the softer recessed can lights in strategic locations, sometimes mixed with hanging fixtures over kitchen islands. Since kitchens are now often open to family room areas and great rooms, eliminating harsh kitchen lighting can connect the areas more tastefully.

Planning desks. Let's not kid ourselves. Somewhere in a corner or near the telephone of every kitchen there is a "space" we tend to empty pockets into. This space is the receptacle of receipts, family memos, loose change, free ballpoint pens and keys. Lowered countertop space used for a planning desk in the kitchen is fast becoming the solution to the informal conglomerate family "office". This is place where bills can be paid, help with homework can be beckoned, and centralized phone activities can be documented. Some even add a family computer there, becoming a family tool and high-tech guide for every day doings.

Whatever design today's kitchens take on, form and function are key components in their presentation. However, it is interesting to note that in this world of two-income paychecks, laptops, and multiple cell phone communication, those elements of domestic life for which we may have the least amount of time to devote ourselves are the very ones we hold dearest in the big scheme of things. Kitchen life may very well be one of those, "grounding" us and bringing us back to center in a world where we are pulled in so many directions at once.

Also See:

Plan a Kitchen to Last a Lifetime

Staying in Shape: Creating the Ideal Kitchen Layout

Are You Running a Marathon in Your Own Kitchen?

Be Careful What You Wish For In Design Center Choices for Your New Home

Published: November 10, 1999

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

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A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home.

Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.

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