Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Your Kitchen: what works/what not so much

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Mar 8, 2025, at 9:23 AM, R Philip Dowds via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> At Cornerstone, severe limitations on project time and money meant our 
> original common kitchen was a bit of a rudimentary rush job, and not very 
> satisfactory.  About fifteen years later, we chose to rebuild the whole thing.

This may actually be a good thing as long as you save for the eventual rehab. 
After a few years you will understand more about what you need. We have 
reviewed our kitchen and planned upgrades/changes but never gotten to them. 

We have a cook who is good about acquiring all the cutlery, serving, baking, 
and processing equipment so we seem to always have enough and the right kinds.

The things I see and have heard others mention, not necessarily things we have 
sought consensus on:

1. We need a food serving counter that is large enough to hold all the food, 
condiments, cutlery, napkins, etc. Desserts and Beverages on another table 
works well and makes the main serving line faster. Serving oneself all those 
things at once takes time and dexterity. 

2. We need room for food service line on both sides of a counter moves the line 
faster.

3. For homestyle service, setting the table with cutlery, plates, glasses, etc. 
would work better with lightweight rolling carts to hold everything. Avoid 
having to walk back and forth to kitchen—it’s tiring and takes a lot of time.

4. We have an open kitchen and it is nice. It doesn’t divide the cooks and 
cleaners from what is happening in the dining room.And everyone can see if a 
person in the kitchen needs help or has had an accident—safer. Smaller 
acoustical treatments could quell the noise. (We got rid of our large sanitizer 
and got 2 high end residential dishwashers which are silent.)

5. Consider cabinet heights for short adults and teens and tall adults. The 
adults on our initial kitchen design team were all tall and a recent rehab 
group was also tall people. Planning to use a stepping stool on a regular basis 
is not safe for everyone and it will be in the way of other people in the 
kitchen. We resolved some items by having 2 storage spots, for example, 2-3 
water pitchers are stored on a low shelf but the remainder 8-10 used 
occasionally are stored on high shelves.

6. It’s nice to have things stored in the same place they are used so they 
don’t have to be pulled out for use — microwave, coffee service, etc. And no 
one has to decide where to put them or to remind anyone to put them away.

7. Our moveable carts are the large plastic restaurant and cafeteria style 
which have places for each size of plate, bowl, glass, cup, etc. Lighter 
kitchen carts would be more convenient and easier to clean. Rolling ours around 
takes space — people already gathering for a meal have to make way. 

8. We need aisles in the kitchen around the island wide enough for 2 people and 
a pan of baked brussles sprouts to pass.

9. A new member with institutional kitchen experience immediately observed that 
our kitchen was difficult because we had mixed up cooking and serving with 
disposal and cleaning. One was always in the way of the other. A used pot 
should not be sitting on the counter where someone is prepping the vegetables. 

10. Have worked out a refrigerator policy that matches the size of our 
refrigerator. A large refrigerator can lead to things being stored too long but 
one that is too small can’t store everything in prep for a meal. People will 
have to store at home. If refrigerator is also used occasionally or during 
frequent storms for food from resident’s refrigerators where the refrigerator 
is not working, plan extra space. (Once we had a week long outage but had a 
generator hooked up to the CH kitchen refrigerator. It was very helpful.)

11. Plan two entrances/exits so there is an alternative when one part of the 
kitchen is blocked/busy. Good for safety as well.

12. Generic advice for labels. Decide how large labels need to be or the 
kitchen will look like a kindergarten room in which all objects have names on 
them. Should the labels be readable from 3 feet or from across the room? Labels 
need to be cleaned, meaning replaced,so be sparing to reduce work.

>  the cooks sometimes or often choose to prep the dinners in their own homes, 
> and cart the food over.

We have an open kitchen and cooks still will often prep at home. People who get 
home from work at 5:30 or 6 most often prep at home the day before. New 
residents or outsiders have several times proposed schemes to close the kitchen 
but they never get far. No one wants to be closed off in the kitchen which has 
2 small windows. 

A closed off kitchen with large windows and a small seating area would be nice. 
People often want to watch their pots while they are cooking. They now sit in 
the eating area to chat, etc., while meals are cooking. And people like to talk 
to the cooks.

One kitchen I saw worked well in terms of noise — the kitchen was open but the 
open side was perpendicular to the large dining room instead of opening 
directly on it. Acoustically the noise went into the area in front of the 
kitchen, a small area that had a serving table and the carts of dishes, coffee 
things, etc., and largely dissipated.

There was a proposal to ask people who were not actively cooking to leave the 
kitchen but it never got anywhee. I’ve noticed that the best conversations take 
place in the kitchen and I wouldn’t want to discourage them. Better to allow 
more space. 

Kitchens are social centers, not commercial workplaces. Everyone seems to be 
comfortable in the kitchen.

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