10 Expert Ideas for the ‘New Normal’ Kitchen
Your guide to the pandemic kitchen of your dreams
"Empathetic experience..." This is quickly becoming a buzz phrase in design thinking during the new normal. Simply put, it means designing products and spaces that are more empathetic to the user’s disposition throughout the global pandemic. Certainly, updating the design of the kitchen to fit the conditions of the new normal is a step toward providing an empathetic experience for the homeowner's physical, mental, and emotional needs. As a kitchen and cabinet designer, I believe that at the heart of kitchen design is designing solutions for the people in it. The mom, the dad, the kids, the entire family—the comforts and convenience of these individuals are what I kept in mind when thinking about ideas for the so-called new normal kitchen.
Is your kitchen ready for an upgrade at this time? Here's how you get it aligned with the needs of the new normal:
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1. Disinfection area
The new normal has evolved the act of disinfection into a prerequisite when entering human spaces. This behavior has trickled into our own houses. It has become our second nature to first sanitize outside objects before letting them enter the premises of our homes. With this health-first thinking, it makes perfect design sense to upgrade your entryway with a disinfection area between the garage and the kitchen. A good disinfection area should have the basics: quick access to alcohol bottles, sprays, and wipes; an immediate surface to put down grocery items; ample shoe shelf space since you will have to remove your footwear; a specific zone to perform the sanitation process on yourself before touching any part of the kitchen. I would also consider adding a spot where I can quickly hang my hat, raincoat, and other clothing accessories, and assigning a section for emptying my pockets. Designing the disinfection bay with these visual elements would help nudge the members of the household to adapt the habit of sanitizing. Integrating peace of mind into the design of the kitchen has undoubtedly become part of the new normal.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Rafael Calero
2. Water filtration system
Now, more than ever, water cleanliness is as important as food sanitation. Compact home water filtration systems have recently become a trending kitchen fixture. Online shopping sites have started to carry countless types and brands of this hot item. They come in various specs but overall, the new generation models are noticeably more aesthetically pleasing than the clunky design of the older devices. I invested in a reliable filtration system from the Ecosphere brand to avoid having to keep on handling and touching the ones that get ordered from the outside. When planning for one in your kitchen, keep in mind that it should be near the faucet. It is also essential to picture it not getting in the way of a person’s natural movement within the faucet area—no bumping into it, no blocking your food preparation area, no eating up useful space. Ease of installation and cleaning should be essential parts of the consideration.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Rafael Calero
3. Wicker baskets
When one thinks of kitchen design, it’s easy to imagine it in terms of the floor plan, the cabinets, the walls, the fixture, and all the bells and whistles brought by the color palette, the lighting, and the overall ambiance. While that is true and correct, the creative decisions that I put in the kitchen design also touch on the quiet and practical elements. One of those elements is the presence of wicker baskets, especially in our new normal. Why? Simple: they’re functional and they’re pretty. From a function standpoint, the wicker material allows for a well-ventilated storage system, thereby keeping that sense of freshness in the fruits and vegetables. And because they’re baskets, they don’t take up much space in an already activity-heavy new normal kitchen. Furthermore, the aesthetics of natural-looking kitchen storage gives the entire space a calm and organized feel.
Photo Credit: @rattanistamanila
4. Pantry cabinet
Just like the fridge having an expanded role during the new normal, the pantry cabinet now has an indispensable part to play in helping families manage storage challenges during our current situation. The key design focus should be on practicality—providing maximum storage without eating up too much floor space. How? Larder units. When thinking about larder units or pantry sections, one should primarily consider the utilitarian nature of the design. For me, I put in the idea of multiple storage capabilities: it has a pull-out piece, a sliding portion, an openable unit, of if possible, even a pull-down panel. These smart executions of the design thinking all ladder up to the objective of keeping jars, cans, and dry goods organized in the most optimum way possible.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Rafael Calero
5. Smart TV
How we treat time in the kitchen has also evolved. Today, cooking is no longer a hurried, frantic activity. Instead, I can see how the new normal has transformed kitchen time into a more leisurely pace. This has an impact on rethinking the kitchen as an activity space and what to put in it. For me, it’s a good idea to invest in a smart TV. Families tend to bond over their favorite movies while cooking and there’s a continuous trend on learning how to cook while watching cooking shows. In kitchen design speak, this equates to reimagining the orientation of the space once the smart TV is in place. Where is the TV facing, what’s its proximity to the workspace counter, how is it mounted—these are some practical decisions that will affect design choices. Moreover, with the shift to home learning for kids, the sight of a smart TV in the kitchen will only become more and more usual in the new normal.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Rafael Calero
6. A desk
Our relationship with the kitchen as an activity space has transformed as well. The work-from-home arrangement and the online schooling system has greatly repurposed the kitchen space in a way that it should now allow for new habitual tasks beyond food preparation and cooking. I see that happening with my friends, my clients, and in my own home. One new normal idea is to plot a workspace within the kitchen. Designating an area allows you or members of the family to cleverly maneuver the space when shifting between food-related chores and work-specific tasks. Another idea is to invest in a kitchen desk. From a design perspective, the desk fulfills the function of providing a station for mails and menus, for your lists and your laptop. Whether you decide on having a designated workspace or a getting a separate kitchen desk, consider in the design the presence of charging stations or USB ports for your devices and your kids’ gadgets.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Rafael Calero
7. Social space
Arguably the most significant change that the new normal has brought us is the shift to doing our life activities inside our homes instead. That means we are working from home, being entrepreneurs from home, entertaining from home, and, for our kids, schooling from home and playing from home. This paradigm shift has a meaningful impact on how kitchen design should be approached. Treating the kitchen as a new common area is a theme that I see in my trends research. Family activities done inside the kitchen area have increased, making this space not only a place for cooking and eating but also for working and socializing. This should mean that making space for people to commune is integral in the design thinking process. Questions like, where should people sit, what’s the flow of movement, where do people place their things, are some of the exercises I brainstorm with my clients. In light of the demands of the new normal, the idea of a long island kitchen would be a good place to start.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Rafael Calero
8. Wine racks
The new normal has drastically changed the landscape of out-of-home entertainment. Sports bars are closed, events places remain unopened, party hotspots stay shut. Meanwhile, small and intimate gatherings have moved indoors. This shift in behavior has also transformed the role of the kitchen as a bar area. Consider integrating a wine fridge. Prioritize the size of the appliance and its aesthetic fit in the kitchen’s overall look. If your existing kitchen space would require something subtle but still sophisticated, one should opt for a quality wine rack. This could be placed within the eye level to maximize the visual appeal of wine bottles on display.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Rafael Calero
9. Easy-to-clean surfaces
Ultimately, safety is the primary mandate of the new normal. The whole world is now part of a unified consciousness toward keeping the virus at bay by strictly implementing sanitation protocols within our own homes. Part of that shared thinking is making deliberate health-led choices concerning our design decisions for the new normal kitchen. One of the most safety-aligned design choices I could advise my client is the shift to easy-to-clean surfaces. Stone or glass counters fit the bill, and so do laminated cabinets and ceramic surfaces. Meanwhile, manufacturers continue to come up with materials infused with antibacterial properties, so this expands the designer’s options when considering the upgrade of the new normal kitchen.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Rafael Calero
10. The Right Appliances
Designing your kitchen into a smart space begins with an understanding of the implications of the new normal on the dynamics of the kitchen as a functional area. This nuanced knowledge should be able to tell you what new appliances to invest in. Nowadays, food storage has become a primary consideration. Instead of dining out, people have become accustomed to more cooking and more food ordering. This translates to certain considerations when it comes to the refrigerator: either get a more spacious one or get a second fridge. Remember: food that needs to be stored is not limited to leftover or purchased cooked food but also covers ingredients that need to be always kept fresh. The frequency of home cooking by the family has also expanded the variety of dishes they enjoy. In design thinking, this would mean allotting additional space for new cooking appliances that are increasingly becoming more relevant because of the times we live in. I have considered a second oven for some newfound interest in baking. Some would opt for or a bigger toaster to accommodate reheating in volumes.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Rafael Calero
Rafael Calero is a Philippine-based kitchen and cabinet designer, and owner of CabinetStudio. His work is showcased on Facebook: CabinetStudio by Rafael Calero. For more info, visit CabinetStudio or call 0917-314-0870.
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