Mini-Kitchens: Multi-task Living in Small Spaces

I became involved in designing mini-kitchens for YesterTec when I helped my daughter move into her first Manhattan Studio apartment. The entire apartment including the bathroom was less than 280 square feet and exposed to view was the efficiency kitchen shown below. Granted, this was close to the bottom of the price range for Lower East Side housing, but it struck me that there must be a better way to integrate a kitchen into such a multi-functional room.

A little research turned up a few companies that were quite involved with creating mini-kitchens. Perhaps the best known is Dwyer, a large company that has many lines of compact kitchens to fit all kinds of uses. The Whirlpool kitchen shown below is one of the more compact models available, larger models typically add more storage, upper cabinets, counterspace and appliance  and styling options to this basic core.

But these kitchens still keep the contents of the messy kitchen in view at all times. And for multi-functional rooms like studio apartments, extended stay hotel rooms, executive offices and the like, an exposed kitchen can compromise the styling of the room. So the answer was to create an efficient kitchen that can also be concealed. I thought that though the kitchen may stay open a lot of the time, the choice to close it up from view would be quite desirable at times.

Of course, there are many ways to attack a certain design issue, and several companies have developed unique ways to conceal a small kitchen from view when it is not being used.

For example , The Tivali kitchen shown below by Dada, an Italian company hides all the appliances and countertop behind two huge folding pocketed doors. The kitchen is flawlessly concealed in panels that can be designed in a multitude of finishes.

  
Another approach literally turns the mini-kitchen into a revolving cooking experience. The Circular Kitchen shown below,from Compact-Concepts Ltd., a New Zealand company, features an entire mini-to-moderate sized kitchen in a revolving column, and the entire contents can be hidden from view.

Still another is China’s Nigbo Oulin Kitchen Utensil Co. Ltd. Concealed Kitchen, designed for student dormitories, hotel suites etc. that features tambour style doors that slide down to conceal the messy countertop.

Though all of these examples are creative, there is still the issue of safety. At YesterTec, when we hide a built-in ‘hot’ appliance like an oven behind doors, we always cut its power so that it can’t be used when it can’t be seen. We feel that this feature is paramount to insuring that someone can’t cook and close the doors at the same time. The safety technology we use has been developed at great expense and is patented and U.L. Listed (so that code inspectors realize that our mini-kitchens meet UL’s extremely high safety standards).

We also thought that the design should be able to mix in with a variety of furniture styles. And though it should be a strong enough design to become a focal point in a room, we also wanted it to be able to recede into the background when necessary. So we came up with an armoire styled mini-kitchen, which incorporates our U.L. Listed appliance hiding safety features so that when the kitchen isn’t in use, it can look just like a piece of fine furniture. And it can be styled by the designer to meet most design themes.

The Mini-kitchen shown below is from our Stealth Kitchen Modules line. Though we made this one to be freestanding, the Stealth line is made to be built-in, where several different modules can combine together to form many different arrangements. Key to this line is the ability to hide the countertop and the extra depth that makes these units so efficient.

Below is an example of a Stealth mini-kitchen combined with another 18” wide module that adds more refrigeration and storage space. As shown almost completed in our factory, it was encased in 6” deep custom trim moldings so that it would stand out from the wall.

The hospitality center armoires are very similar to the Working Pantry armoire shown below, except they typically include an undercounter refrigerator and a sink. No built-in cooking appliances are available, however some very nice movable, plug-in cooktops and ovens can be used.

We’ve designed many other models as well, in the armoire, breakfront (hutch) and console (nothing above the countertop) configurations. A complete list including ballpark prices of our mini-kitchens and hospitality centers is available by email by contacting us at this link.

Trend Watch:
The following excerpt from the article 10 design trends for 2011
was written by Jenny Sullivan, a senior editor covering architecture and design for BUILDER online.

Multigenerational households are proliferating for all kinds of reasons: boomerang kids moving home to save money; elderly parents who need family support; young parents relying on grandparent care for their kids; and rapid growth among immigrant families for whom shared living is a cultural tradition. Sure, smaller homes generally cost less than large ones, but they're not nearly as economical as a shared mortgage and a household where everyone pitches in. Nearly 50 million Americans now live in homes containing at least two adult generations, up from 28 million in 1980. And with nationwide unemployment rates continuing to hover around 9.8 percent, that phenomenon is likely to continue in the near term.

Some of our armoire mini-kitchens have already been used in various types of multi-generational households. Their ability to provide autonomy when it is desired has made them a great asset for these families.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this visit with us. If you have any images of mini-kitchens that have performed well for you, I would certainly like to see them. I think it would be really fun to do a follow-up article featuring some of the many solutions that are out there.

So until later,
David Beer, President
YesterTec Design Company

Stealth Technology Applies to Kitchens Too!

Our new line of Stealth Kitchen Modules (SKM) is not for everybody, just like our Kitchen Workstation Furniture (KWF) is not for everybody. Both lines are Alternative Kitchen Design concepts when compared to standard kitchen design. Even these two lines are very different from each other and yet they have some of the same features too, like the ability to hide ALL the appliances. To learn about the Stealth line’s features please visit this link, but for this posting, I’m just going to talk to you about just some its points and features.

First of all, if it was easy to hide a kitchen in this way, you already wouldn’t have seen it!

I love that line. But it’s true. The Stealth line evolved slowly but carefully as we learned from our KWF line how to make beautiful, tough, safe, appliance hiding workstations. There is so much more to this line than just making two foot deep cabinets. Completely hiding a kitchen behind various styles of door and drawer fronts is a step way beyond normal kitchen design.

We came up with the Stealth concept because it was a natural offshoot to what we were already doing with the KWF line. Nobody ever asked us to do this. We didn’t do ANY market research that asked designers if they wanted this. We did this because our UL Listed technology that safely hides ovens combined with the panel system that Subzero came up with for their 700 series units made it possible. And I had seen countless examples (see http://www.trendir.com/interiors/kitchen) of kitchens that try to hide everything in all sorts of ways, so we jumped right in!

The potential to neutralize the chaos of exposed appliances, cabinetry and countertops is an option that can revolutionize how we view kitchens. It is time that we really should be reducing the amount of space we live in to save on material resources as well as the energy savings for conditioning that space. The stealth concept allows us to reduce living space by combining living functions into one multi-task living space instead of having so many single use individual rooms. Think of it, just by closing a few cabinet doors, a room does not need to look like a kitchen anymore.

Above is an example of a sleek kitchen line manufactured in Europe by Tisettanta. Almost always, the kitchen will be shown with its refrigerator completely concealed, but the sink, cooktop and ovens still exposed. We know it is a kitchen. If it were to be placed in an open living room, it would be very sculptural, but we would always know that it is the kitchen. ESPECIALLY WHEN IT IS MESSED UP! After all, most of us don’t live our lives as pristinely as that depicted in this design photo.

We hope that the Stealth kitchens will give people what they’ve been looking for a long time: Choice!

With the doors and drawers closed, rooms can have an uncluttered, tranquil look without the trappings of a messy, exposed functioning kitchen. With the doors and drawers opened, a fully functioning kitchen is exposed. And the interior of the workstations can be maintained at any level of chaos that suits the owners, but when the doors are closed, tranquility again.

Stealth kitchens are not ‘Smart’ kitchens. A company called Anvil Motion makes an incredible ‘Smart’ kitchen that automatically opens and closes cabinet doors and drawers for you by voice command (see photo above). The cabinets are designed to conceal all the appliances too, (as of yet they do not have UL approval to do this). Sensors and motors know when it is ‘safe’ to close a door in front of the hot appliances. Prices average $200,000 and up per kitchen.

Here at YesterTec, we don’t think that people that use kitchens are lazy. We’ve got the time to open doors and drawers. But often, we don’t have a lot of time to cook. So we’ve tried to make our Stealth Modules more efficient to make the act of cooking and cleaning up and storing things easier. So the Stealth Modules aren’t ‘Smart’ but they are intelligent! Their extra depth allows for more storage and countertop space in less width. Full height pantry modules replace the typically smaller wall cabinets, and overhead storage modules are available as well for those seldom used items. Full extension drawer slides conveniently bring all of the stored items into view, and they even close softly after they are given a push. And our example shown above averages only $40,000 for the sink, range refrigerator and (2) pantry modules, all appliances, countertops and sink.

Don’t expect to see these kitchens popping up all over, it is going to take quite a while until designers and homeowners recognize this for what it can do for them. We have been desensitized to this option, simply because we are so accustomed to seeing normal exposed kitchens. But I’ll keep you posted as to our progress. In fact, we are building a Stealth Kitchen now, one of our Stealth Mini-kitchens, but it is still going to look like a piece of furniture as it will have exposed sides and a cornice.

Until Later,

David Beer

Who says Innovation in America is dead?

Last week I was on the road coming back to PA from a visit to Underwriters Laboratories (UL) in Chicago with our electrical consultant at the wheel, and I thought that maybe you would be interested in one of the deeper innovative sides of YesterTec.

I am really not aware of any other cabinet company that gets involved with creating safety features that are certified by UL. Our involvement started back in 1995 when we decided to conceal 'hot' appliances inside our Kitchen Workstation Furniture (KWF) so that the individual pieces would really look like furniture when the appliances were not being used.  So we developed specially designed cabinetry with electrical cutoff controls and switches and other stuff to make it work.  The UL certification is required so that local electrical inspectors anywhere in the US or Canada are satisfied that our unique products are safe to use.

In 1996, UL engineers visited our testing facility to witness the first electrical tests that would ultimately lead to the certifications. Our prototype pieces of furniture were hooked up to heat sensing thermocouples that were monitored by a computer to record the results as they were tortured by extended heat testing.  Then, the controls and switches were sent into the testing labs in Chicago where they endured hours and hours of heat and endurance testing.  In the end, we received the coveted UL Listings, and then we patented the technologies that had been developed.

As a side note, I never would have proceeded with the KWF line had we not received the UL endorsement, because I felt that strongly about the advantages of concealing the appliances.  Many cabinet companies could already hide special refrigerators and dishwashers, so hiding the hot ones would be a refreshing new design tool for the design industry to have.

In 2007, it became apparent that our controls (shown above during a test, the controls are like big junction boxes where the appliance’s power wire and the power wire from the house and the cabinet door switches meet) would need to be redesigned because some of the parts had been discontinued, thus hard to get and ultimately expensive to procure.  So we started to redesign the controls to bring them into the world of circuit boards which would eliminate the rare parts.

I’m still not sure why, but the UL process took entirely too long this time, but we finally got to the final test stage so we packed up the truck and made the whirlwind trip to Chicago.

The photos show views of the UL controls testing laboratory (John, a UL technician is shown below).  I won’t try to explain anything about these tests, expect to say that the testing thresholds (temperature and endurance requirements that our controls need to meet) are way beyond what the normal use of ovens and cooktops entails. But our controls passed with flying colors! When we were finished, a director gave us a tour of some of the other labs, and let me tell you, there is some very cool stuff coming to marketplace (assuming they all pass the tests). Innovation in America is still thriving!

There is a price for all this safety certification.  Recently, I came up with the sobering fact that for every piece of furniture that we have sold that hides the hot appliances, we have spent an average of over $1200.00 for UL and Patent approvals, file maintenance fees, consultant fees and manufacturing.  This doesn’t even include the cost of manufacturing the wood parts and countertops! Of course, we could only charge a few hundred dollars per piece for the safety technology. But my plan has always been that someday the unique ability to conceal appliances would catch on in a much bigger way and we would begin to recover more of these costs.  But holy smoke!

So our 13 hour road trip each way produced the results we desired and cleared the way for us to continue to bring our customers unique products that no other company on earth can create. So don’t believe that innovation in America is dead. It is as alive as our imaginations and a lot of money allows it to be!

Please be sure to see our past postings as well!

Kitchen Workstation Furniture: It’s not rocket science.

For most of us, we are living with a kitchen that came with the house. After all it is there, we can cook and store food and we bought a new stainless steel refrigerator now and it looks much better. If we bought the house new, then at least we could pick the color of the cabinets, type and color of countertop and maybe even add an appliance, or at least upgrade them all to stainless steel.

That was easy. But if we want to renovate the kitchen, now we get a little nervous. ( Shown here is the 'before' picture of a kitchen prior to its renovation) There are so many different things to choose from. I once read that there are 50,000 decisions to make when designing a home from scratch. I am convinced that a kitchen remodel accounts for a full 20,000! After all, there is a lot to planning for the, power, plumbing, lighting, flooring, back splashes, countertops as well as special place to put your keys! Will it have an L or U shaped plan or will it have a Galley or Pullman layout (wait, aren’t they the same?). How big will the island be? It’s got to be bigger than Joanie’s, and she can seat all of her relatives around hers!

And once you’ve figured out all the details, either by yourself or with the help of a professional, the real fun starts. I’m serious; the fun of ripping apart your home can’t be missed. Turn off the water and power and start whacking away. It’s the putting back part that is tedious. Delays, missed details, uneven floors, all kinds of things that are hard to imagine in the planning stage.

Finally, after a month (minimum) of eating out and cleaning up the dirt, things start to take shape. You’ve now got a space for everything, and you can go out and buy more stuff to fill those upper cabinets that you can’t reach. You know, that big turkey roaster that you use once every two years; get it up there out of the way. You thoughtfully installed a library ladder and track system that rolls along the floor to access those high cabinets. Add that ladder looks so cool!

I’m sorry, I got carried away.

But there is another kitchen design alternative for remodeling as well as new construction. And that is this; Create a room, then Furnish it! Create a beautiful room, with full height windows, great proportions, nice materials, then furnish it in the SAME way that you furnish a bedroom or living room.

That is the premise of Kitchen Workstation Furniture. Well designed workstations that can handle the tough kitchen tasks can literally be placed in almost any room to create a beautiful, functional kitchen. Here, note the three simple workstations in the same, but renovated room that was shown in the 'before' image above.

My company started making these workstations back in 1996. By now, I had hoped that the concept would be so widespread that you could walk into a furniture store, like Ethan Allan, Raymour and Flanigan, or Macy’s and pick out a few workstations and have them installed shortly after. Moving? Take them to your next home. Your next home is a boat? So leave them and the next owners could swap one or two of them for new ones if they wanted something a little different; just like what you do when you trade your car in for a new one.

But all this hasn’t happened, and even though I am working every day to make this happen some day, I have to admit that the concept of furnished kitchens is still in its infancy. Still, it is not rocket science. Designing with workstations is still much simpler than using built-in cabinetry. Our clients style each piece they want from pre-designed selections in our catalog and we handle all the details. Then finished pieces of furniture arrive at their door.

Remember, create a beautiful room, then furnish it.

Of course, typically, it is not quite that simple. After all, it took a lot of searching for our clients to find us in the first place. They were looking for something different because they had a special look in mind that cabinets could not fulfill. We never need to convince people to buy our furniture; they already know that we are designing what they want. So it does take a dedicated client some effort to understand some of the differences between cabinetry and furniture. Its easy and fun to do, but still there is some effort!

From my experience, the most successful designs are the simpler ones. People who need all the latest gadgets and a dedicated space for everything should stick with cabinets that go nine feet high. Okay, so our economy is based on consumerism, and we have grown up in a time that allows us to accumulate the latest and greatest of anything found throughout the world! But do we really need to have that electric slicing devise that might save us 2 seconds (factoring in clean-up time) as compared to using a good knife and cutting board? In our house, my family is well aware of my favorite saying; “Can you live without it?” and that applies especially to kitchen purchases!

But people who care about creating a beautiful room for living and cooking in as a primary goal find that efficient workstations can handle 99% of any cooking, storage or cleanup task that they are asked to do. The fewer, the better. And with the aid of a working pantry (an example is shown above, learn more about these great all purpose pantries at this link on our website) medium sized kitchens can be reduced to 3 to 4 pieces of furniture to take the place of all the built-ins.

Create a beautiful room, then furnish it. Keep it Simple.

Please go to this link on our website if you want to know more about this exciting concept. Otherwise, this Post is going to go on way too long!

Till Later,

David

Using Unfitted Kitchen Furniture (instead of cabinets)

When I first designed our line of Kitchen Workstation Furniture, I really didn't think there was much of a difference between cabinetry and furniture.  Not so as it turns out, they are as different as night and day. So I thought an initial post to this blog should outline some of the differences between designing kitchens with Cabinetry and Unfitted Kitchen Furniture. (The term ‘unfitted’ meaning freestanding or independent is an English term that contrasts to the term ‘fitted kitchen’ which refers to a kitchen that is created with continuous bands of cabinetry and counter tops)




We all know that cabinetry can be used to create any kitchen configuration that can be imagined. Its success requires that the style, color and materials of each cabinet is the same so that the eye can be comfortable looking at a pleasing composition. Too much diversity and the eye will become confused! Typically, these kitchens have continuous, horizontal bands of cabinets and counter tops.

This unfitted kitchen was designed by Johnny Grey for Smallbone back in the 1980s.
Unfitted kitchen furniture separates all the functions of the kitchen into separate ‘Workstations’. Each separate piece has exposed fronts and sides (and sometimes backs) and they are more 3-D in their appearance. Furniture has sculptural 3/D characteristics whereas cabinetry has a flatter, more repetitive look similar to wallpaper. Furniture divides the room into separate vertical spaces, allowing the wall, floor and ceiling surfaces to meander in between each separate piece. In fact, it is these ‘voids’ that keep the whole composition together and allows the eye to have a comfort level when there is so much diversity in the size, style, color, material and shapes of the individual pieces of furniture.

Key to the workstation idea is to make each piece more efficient per lineal foot than the standard 2 foot deep cabinetry. Extra depth and additional counter tops in the 'reach zone' can add valuable workspace and storage space right where it is needed the most.

Designing an unfitted kitchen is more like designing all the other rooms of the house that don't have any built-in cabinetry. You create a room... then furnish it. Here at YesterTec, we think that the special furniture you use should be as beautiful and it is functional.  That is why we decided to hide all the appliances, so that when the kitchen wasn't being used, the furniture would look like real furniture, not furniture with exposed appliances.  So we developed and patented technology that would allow all the 'hot' appliances like ovens and cooktops to be safely concealed when they are not bing used. This has enabled us to create beautiful furnished kitchens of all shapes and sizes.

Future Posts to this blog will address some other advantages of furnished kitchens, how they are an appropriate 'Green' choice, and many more examples. In the interim, please go to this link on our website to see other examples of furnished kitchens.

Not your mom's kitchen!

Have you ever been a guest at someone's house and tried to do the nice thing and load their dishwasher after dinner? Did you do it right? Chances are you didn't, but they were too nice to tell you. Maybe you stuck the forks in with the tynes down or put the bowls where they put the little plates. Sure, they would have been cleaned, but according to your host, it just wasn't the way they would have done it.

Kitchen design concepts are also habit forming. We like what we know. We like what works. For over a century now, the mainstream kitchen design concept promotes the use of as much base and wall cabinetry as can possibly fit into every available cubic inch of space. Until recently, all the modern appliances were exposed to view, frequently compromising the look of the cabinet's style. But it is what we know and what so many of us want. And that is okay, it works, it is easily available, it is fine.

This Blog will not be about those kitchens. Our mom's kitchen. It will be about other kinds of kitchens that for whatever reason have found a way to be different. I will try to find examples that have merit, and present them in a way that may inspire you. I hope that you will respond by sharing other examples and your thoughts with me.

Some of the first entries will show some of the examples that YesterTec, my firm has produced over the past years, and I hope to show you some new projects as well as we collect the images. It seems that all of our clients fit the mold of not wanting their mom's kitchen, they were always looking for something different.

So I hope we'll all have some fun with this. I won't be posting all the time, quite frankly I'm not a natural writer and I'm also quite busy running this small company, but I do hope these thoughts will be useful for you. So, till later....