Most of us daydream about the perfect kitchen; we see beautiful magazine covers, celebrity home tours, and Nancy Meyers movies and think I want a kitchen like that! And yes, these kitchens are beautiful, and some of them function well, but the thing is, we shouldn’t swoon over these massive kitchens but instead focus on how our kitchens should function.
Let’s be honest—we don’t need a huge kitchen. But if you had tens of millions of dollars, would you build that kitchen and a huge house to go with it? Of course, you would! But we will talk about real life for most people, and hey, if you become a billionaire, enjoy building your home and a massive kitchen. You have the money; use it!
Although, a quick caveat to Nancy Meyers movies. Those kitchens, while big and expensive, are beautiful and function well, have a sense of purpose, and feel lived-in and loved. Which is the goal of every kitchen anyway, aged, loved, and highly functional above size.
But for most of us, a massive kitchen is just plain ridiculous. Now, I’m not saying we have to hate people who have them. We have to be careful not to pine over something we don’t have and feel miserable because we don’t have it. I’ll tell you a secret: You aren’t less of a person for not having a huge, designer-quality, multimillion-dollar kitchen.
If I had the money, I would 100% create a gorgeous large kitchen, but I would not build a massive kitchen; at least, I hope I won’t. Because I’ve seen massive kitchens with my own eyes, and it’s so ostentatious, wasteful, and screams, look how much money I have. We only need a small-medium size kitchen to do what we need to do, cook and entertain, and do it all efficiently. A super large kitchen is a lot of wasted space. We see 8 burner stoves, a 6′ W fridge with pot fillers and customizations, a pantry, and a dirty kitchen. But almost no celebrity mentions the private chef that comes into their home to cook dinner. None of those chefs give input on the kitchen size, organization, and decor. They do, however, slip in the same line, “I never cook,” after showing us a $15,000 minimum range.
They also mention a dirty kitchen, a small kitchen off the main kitchen (if you ever watch a tour and they don’t mention it, look in the background, you’ll find it). It has good ventilation and everything you need to cook. And that is, in fact, where all the cooking takes place. The main huge kitchen is a show kitchen with no cooking taking place. Mainly used for making a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee, that’s it. It’s more for the sake of more, which is pretty, but these massive kitchens are rarely unique and are primarily done in the same style.
We need small(er) kitchens. We need to look at the function of our kitchens in the footprint they already occupy and come up with a great plan that will serve us well for decades. Cabinets that go to the ceiling, a standard-size fridge that may be extra tall, a large sink with a quality faucet. We want an easy-to-maintain counter, drawer organizers, lighting, and good ventilation. Adding in charm can come from using the features already present in the home. You can still make it highly custom; go to architectural salvage stores to find some unique items for less. Custom doesn’t have to mean massive in size and scale.
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