Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: How are your great room and kitchen connected?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> At 02:01 PM 3/11/2008, Kristen wrote:
>
> > Does your kitchen completely open to the great room/dining room?  
> > What works
> > or doesn't work about this?

Ours is open and while it is nice for the cooks not to be closed off,  
it is noisy. And some think it is unsightly.

It doesn't work well when people want to have a meeting in the dining  
room after meals because the dishwasher is too noisy. And when people  
are trying to prepare a meal when a meeting is going on, it is  
distracting and hard to hear.

We don't have anything that closes it off and to do so would not be  
really comfortable either. The things I've seen are not very effective  
or unsightly.

The best arrangement I've seen is at Blueberry Hill. Their kitchen   
opens to a space like a breakfast nook with a table. The dining room  
is  beside the nook and the kitchen. People can see out of the kitchen  
but the dining room doesn't look directly into the kitchen.

Having the table adjacent to the kitchen also allows for easier buffet  
serving because people can circulate around the table back into the  
dining room. There is also a counter on the kitchen side so more  
things can be placed there, or to just serve coffee and rolls from  
there.

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing,Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org