Working Surfaces

A working area from 31/2' to 5' in length, and 2' wide should be provided, preferably between the refrigerator and the oven, and within reach of the sink, where most of the baking and cooking can be prepared, where the bread can be mixed (Oh, yes, some people still make bread at home, and may their tribe increase), the cakes stirred up, the pies made, salads and sauces can be prepared, where food is made ready for cooking or baking, and most of the kitchen work can be done. One continuous area is greatly to be preferred to the same space cut up into two or three small pieces.

The average height of kitchen working surface seems to be about 35" or 36". If you are tall, you may want them an inch or two higher, and if shorter, you may need them somewhat lower. But the best planned kitchens have working areas of different heights for different kinds of work. You can wash and dry dishes on a higher working surface than you would want for rolling out a pie crust, or mixing a cake. A height of 32" will be found about right for the working surface of the baking area.

A lap board will be found very useful for many jobs done around the kitchen. A lap board is one that pulls out at just the right height, usually about 25", to fit over your lap as you sit down to do some kinds of work, as you give your poor feet a break. Many people who have trouble with their feet get­ting tired would do well to study how they can do part of their work sitting down, instead of standing all the time.

The type of working surfaces in a kitchen are subject to much personal preference. There is con­siderable disagreement among housekeepers as to whether ceramic tile or plastic laminate is better for kitchen working surfaces. Glazed tiles, which are hard, impervious, and will withstand considerable hard wear, can sometimes be knocked loose at the edges if used too roughly. Hot pans, though, can be set on them without injury to the surface, as the tile has been burned and has already been much hot­ter than any frying pan can possibly be heated.

Others prefer the plastic laminates, as Formica, Micarta, or other similar materials. In large pieces, these do not have the joints to clean that tiles have, and since the surface is not quite so hard it will be less liable to chip the dishes if they are brought too suddenly in contact with the surface. Some say that tile drainboards seem to result in chipped dishes. Although the plastic surfaces cannot stand quite so much heat as the tile, otherwise they are almost as durable. Which to use is largely a matter of taste.

A planning desk is a very essential part of any kitchen scheme. Of course it can be combined with the breakfast bar, or some other area, but it must be thought of in any good kitchen planning. This desk should contain drawers or shelves for recipe books, space for stationery, and possibly a type­writer, as the lady may find an odd moment now and then when she can catch up on her correspond­ence while she is waiting for something to come to a boil, or for the bread to get ready to be put into the oven.

A small kitchen radio is almost necessary, and a place should be provided for it near enough to the work center so that the cigarette ads can be tuned out and the soap operas adjusted without too many steps.

Nothing makes a kitchen more satisfactory than a good installation of adequate cabinets.

The upper cupboards in the kitchen must have space for dishes, dry package foods, cake mixes, bis-quick mixes, corn flakes, and a host of bottles, cans, and packages. Spices and flavoring bottles deserve a little cupboard all their own, with shelves spaced to fit the small cans and bottles. The shelves should be narrow, so that one can does not hide behind an­other when you want it in a hurry. This should be convenient to the baking or cooking center, or wher­ever you use them most. They should be readily avail­able, but not in the way.

A small shelf for cups, midway between the large dish shelves, will help make better use of the avail­able space and will keep the cups in good condition.

The space below the working surfaces can be used for storage of larger and heavier things, and for kettles and other cooking utensils.

If the shelves for kettles can be made to slide out, it will save the trouble of getting down and peering into the dark places to see what is in the back of the shelves.

A few drawers are very useful in a kitchen, but many things are better placed on shelves. Drawers for silverware do not need to be very deep; an in­side depth of two or three inches would be adequate. Perhaps the "best" silver plate or sterling will be kept in a different place, maybe in the buffet or china cupboard. A drawer should be provided for what we shall call kitchen hardware: knives, large spoons, spatulas, potato masher, measuring spoons, and all the other small gadgets that make work easier. Per­haps two drawers for these things would be more convenient, as the knives should be kept in separate compartments to keep other metal implements from dulling the cutting edges.

The items of kitchen hardware should not be piled in drawers as this makes it too difficult to get them quickly when they are needed.

Metal-lined drawers are best for flour or sugar. The swing out bins we used to make are not so pop­ular any more, although rotating cupboards to make difficult corners more useful add a considerable amount of valuable space to a small kitchen.

Do not overlook the toe space in building your cupboards. This small space permits a person to stand properly at a work area without leaning for­ward in a tiring position, and puts the bottom shelf of a cupboard at the right height off the floor.

Storage of Equipment

The electric mixer, the blender, and the waffle iron will be used more often and with greater ease if they can be located at the work level and do not have to be lifted out of some cupboard every time you want them. The same could be said for the orange juicer, the toaster, the electric kettle, and the electric frying pan. If there is space on the opposite side of the kitchen wall, as in a closet or pantry, a small cupboard can be made for these things, re­cessed and covered with a sliding door, where they can be entirely out of sight and out of the way when not in use, but instantly available when needed. Be sure they can slide right out on the working surface without having to be lifted.

Hand towels and dish towels can often best be hung from towel racks in the inside of a closet door or some such place. Do not make a small closed space to hang dish towels, as they need a good cir­culation of air to let them dry out so they will not become musty. I have seen some dish towel racks built in the cupboards, but the effect was not good, and not worth the trouble, as the housekeepers would not use them after the first few weeks.

To save steps the utensils used in cooking need to be stored near where they are to be used. It is well to have a specific place for each piece and to keep it there whenever it is not in use. Store things near the point of first use. If the first thing you do with a certain kettle is to hold it under the faucet and put water in it, then store it near the sink, be­cause the last thing you will do with it is to wash it, so it begins and ends with the sink. If the first thing you do with another kettle is to empty a can of soup into it, it should be stored near the can opener. The location of the can opener is a matter that should be studied carefully. It must be instantly available, and yet not in the way when not in use. If it sticks out and catches your clothes as you pass, it is definitely out of place. A pie tin will want to be stored near the baking center, where pies are made. Kettle lids will be stored near the stove, as the lid is generally put on after the kettle is on the stove. The same holds for small items: cutlery, kitchen hardware, strainers, colanders, rolling pins, etc.

Be sure that a thing is not made inaccessible by the activity that calls for its use, as placing the meas­uring spoons or cups under the mixing board that is pulled out when you start to bake.

Some people like to hang up kettles and long-handled pieces of equipment instead of putting them away in drawers and cupboards. This practice works well for a few pieces, but too many things exposed tend to make a kitchen look cluttered, and they also collect dust unless they are used frequently. A few utensils exposed add interest, whereas too many spoil the effect.

For efficiency it is usually better, instead of hav­ing too many pieces of equipment, to get the best and use them frequently. Every good workman has a few tools that he uses almost to the exclusion of everything else. The problem of storage is greatly simplified, if not too many kettles, pans, lids, etc., are used. It might be a good idea to have good con­venient places for the most used items, and to have a general storage area for the things that are not used so often, the things that well meaning friends give for wedding presents, birthday gifts, anniversary acquisitions, and Christmas gadgets.

Avoid placing things so that three or four have to be moved to get the one that is needed. That is what I have against these nested mixing bowls and similar gadgets. If you can reach for the bowl you want and get it in one motion without having to molest a half dozen others, you will greatly increase the efficiency of the storage area of your kitchen.

Shelves spaced near together will help you to store more things near where you want them; if the shelves are too far apart, much valuable storage is wasted. Of course, somewhere you need one shelf with a wider spacing for tall things. Some people labor under the mistaken notion that all shelves should be the same distance apart. Get as wide a vari­ation in the spacing of shelves as you can, as this will help you to store various sized things more effi­ciently. The right way is to measure the things to be stored and make the spaces to fit them, with just enough extra room to make them handy and readily accessible.

The supermarket has changed the culinary life of the average American housekeeper. Let the stores store the supplies. We get it when we want it, with­out having to make provision for storage of large quantities of food. Many thrifty housekeepers, how­ever, like to have room for a certain amount of food stocks on hand. Since it is often cheaper to buy canned goods by the case than to buy a can at a time, plan the shelves in the store room so that tin cans can be accommodated. It is recommended by the civil defense that supplies for a few days be kept on hand to tide the family over an emergency. This is only good sense, for a strike, a natural disaster, or other unforeseen circumstances might easily cut off sup­plies for a week or two, and the family that has a few groceries on hand will be much better off than those who must run to the market before every meal.

Let us plan on a reasonable amount of storage space for food supplies. Perhaps not the old smoke­house that grandma was so proud to have well stocked, or the root house that housed potatoes, car­rots, rutabagas, apples, and cabbage, but a small space somewhere that can hold a few days' supply of food is a necessity. Let us plan the kitchen for effi­ciency so that the family can be well fed with a mini­mum of effort.

With today's modern automatic washers, it is entirely possible and proper to place a washer with a dryer above it in the kitchen and eliminate the so-called utility room, thus saving in the total space of the house, or using the space for something else. Wash day isn't what it used to be. This way, the automatic washer can be doing its work while other things are going on, and the washing will not seem to amount to a lot of extra work. The aim is to make housework as easy and simple as it can be and to get it all done in the least possible time.

An important thing to consider in planning a kitchen is its relation to the other rooms of the house and to the outdoors. In planning your kitchen, do not neglect the important item of the floor. The kitchen floor should be easy to clean, colorful, and cheerful, easy on the feet, resilient, and not hard and cold. It should be impervious to moisture and should not ab­sorb grease or hold food particles; it should not have open joints to catch water and dirt.

A good grade of inlaid linoleum is one of the most satisfactory floor coverings for a kitchen. It is easy on the feet, especially if this new cushioning material is placed under it. It is easy to clean, and wears well, and it comes in a large enough variety of colors and patterns to suit almost any taste.

Several other materials are also successfully used. A floor of ceramic tile or quarry tile is good in a kitchen in that it is easy to keep clean and nothing can hurt it, but some people find that their feet get weary standing on such a hard floor for long periods of time.

Asphalt tile is not the best for a kitchen floor because oils and fats will dissolve it, so that butter or cooking oils or fats spilled on its surface will soften the tile, making it sticky and otherwise un­desirable.

Although vinyl or asbestos vinyl blocks are considered by some to be excellent for a kitchen floor, the fact that it is put down in small pieces is objectionable to some, as they feel that there is dan­ger that water will get down into the space between the tiles and soak into the floor below, making an undesirable condition.

Some of the plastic floor coverings that come in large sheets like linoleum, not being open to the above objection, should be as good as linoleum, per­haps better, because they may be easier to clean.

Cork is perhaps too absorbent for kitchen floors, although it may have its place in other rooms in the house where quietness is desired.

Hardwood floors are seldom satisfactory in a kitchen although they could be made very good by the application of several coats of spar varnish if a person particularly likes the color and pattern of wood in place of the more monotonous manufactured floor coverings. Hard pine floors used to be con­sidered very successful kitchen flooring material be­fore linoleum and the other modern floor coverings came into such wide use.

The walls of a kitchen may be finished in a large variety of ways. The simplest and often the most satisfactory is to have the walls and ceiling plastered with a smooth "putty coat" plaster, troweled to as nearly perfect a surface as possible, then to paint them with a sealer coat, two flat coats and a coat of semi-gloss enamel. This should give a surface that can be washed as often as is necessary, that can be kept looking good for a long time, and that can be renewed merely by the addition of another coat of enamel when necessary. This is one of the easiest walls to maintain and keep looking new and fresh. If you want a more interesting room, you can dec­orate the painted surface with colorful "decals," or murals, or designs applied with a sponge, or other art media to suit your taste.

Other possibilities include wood paneling, which is preferred by some because of its beauty, color, tex­ture, and its informal, warm effect, or wallpaper with a waterproof surface, which is often printed in an interesting pattern.

Mosaic tile, one of the most durable of wall ma­terials, will stand almost any amount of rough treat­ment and never requires more maintenance than an occasional scrubbing. It is, however, considerably more expensive than most other materials used for walls.

These beautiful pastel-toned soft flat finishes are better reserved for the bedrooms; in kitchens they are too easily spotted with grease or young finger marks to be practical.

Driveways and Garages

The nearer the garage can be to the street, the-less room will be taken up by the driveway. This saving in the driveway, both the land and the pave­ment, may not be wise, however, if the garage ob­structs the view or is otherwise in the way.

Sometimes a garage may not be necessary, as many families are perfectly happy to have just a carport to drive the car under during bad weather. Some find a better solution in placing a carport in front of the garage and using the garage for storage, a shop, or a family room, or recreation room. Any­way, be sure to make some solution of the automobile problem that you feel will be satisfactory to your car.

Avoid a driveway that is so steep you have to shift gears in order to drive up into the garage. An even greater error is to have a driveway where you drive down into a garage in a cut where snow and frost are sure to collect, making it almost impossible to get in and out without first shoveling out the snow.

A garage should never have a door leading di­rectly into a bedroom, or to any other principal room for that matter, but can very well enter a hallway, a utility room, and possibly a kitchen. This door be­tween the garage and the house should have an automatic door closer on it and should be a solid core door or a metal-covered door to make it as fire­proof as possible.

Make the garage large enough, allowing about 12' for each car. A 9' door will be found superior to the average 8' door, as it is much easier for the car to get through the wider door without scratching the door jambs or the fenders quite so often.

Garage floors are commonly made of concrete about 31/2" thick. This floor is not usually reinforced. Be sure the earth is solid and well compacted be­fore the floor is poured.