Cabinet Design

I bought a new house last month and my wife was pretty concerned about the kitchen and wanted the kitchen to look perfect, so we went to a house remodeling store and the guy their told us that if we want our kitchen to look extra ordinary then we should focus on the kitchen’s cabinetry because the kitchen’s cabinetry is the most important feature of the kitchen which bring the over all looks together.

We started looking for a new stylish kitchen cabinet. The first thing that came into our minds was its design, we wanted it to make an statement on our guests while inspiring us as well. There were an endless number of designs to choose from. So we started looking for clues, got our heads in catalogues, the internet and asked our friends too. Doing all this research we came to know that the first thing that we needed to decide for kitchen cabinet design was that whether we wanted a metal kitchen cabinet or a classic wooden cabinet.

We decided to put up wooden cabinets in our kitchen because my wife and I thought that wood will give a more mature look to our kitchen and there were few disadvantages of metal cabinets that we came to know like they were noisy and sensitive to scratches.

Wood design seemed a risk free choice to us. Now we had to select between finished kitchen cabinet and unfinished kitchen cabinet. There were many designer styles that we could have chosen from but we decided to go for our own customized design, we searched the internet for inspiration and liked two or three cabinets. We put all of those three cabinet’s design together and made something new and explained it to our dealer. He liked it and took measurements according to our kitchen’s space.

Two weeks later our kitchen cabinet design showed up, when we put it together, we were pretty amazed to see that it was as good as we thought it would be.

Hassan Ouda is a sublime devoted author He writes articles on several subjects including publishing ebook. You can read more of Hassan’s articles at Kitchen Cabinets [http://www.mynewbathrooms.com] located at [http://www.mynewbathrooms.com]

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Kitchen Design 101

Section 1 – The Beginning

Once you have made the decision to build a new facility with a commercial kitchen, or remodel/expand the existing kitchen facility in your building, you will need to take one of the following steps to begin:

1. You go directly to the Architect to develop the location and preliminary design for the facility.

2. You request that several Architectural firms provide information on their firms and requests information on the Subtrades (i.e., Electrical/Plumbing/ Mechanical Engineers, Foodservice Consultant (Kitchen Designer),etc.) to evaluate and select a firm to assist you with the project.

3. You hire an Architect or Project Control firm to develop the location and the preliminary design of the facility and prepare a Request for Proposal (RFP) for other Architectural firms to provide the Architectural services for the design of your new facility.

Request for Proposal

The Architect developing the RFP may or may not be requested to provide a proposal for this work. The RFP should provide basic information on the project by the owner or architect as to type and size of building, etc. and generally requires information on all of the team members; the architect needs to provide information on:

• Personnel to be assigned to the project and their resumes

• Finances to ensure that the company is financially capable of handling the project

• Firm history

• Similar projects, with examples and pictures

• Methods of operations, explain how they do business

• Resumes and information on Consultants, i.e., Engineers, Landscaping, IT, Foodservice, etc.

Foodservice Consultant

The Foodservice Consultant (Kitchen Designer) should also be brought in as early as possible in the planning process to ensure there is adequate space provided to meet your vision of the foodservice area. This does not always happen, and by the time the Foodservice Consultant (Kitchen Designer) is brought,in most of the floor spaces have been designed or allocated for other purposes.

Section 2 – Kitchen Design 101 – Concept

Architect plus a Kitchen Designer (Foodservice Consultant)

You may have already done a preliminary programming exercise with either an architect or programming firm to develop a location and a preliminary concept for the building. You may have done some of the concept for the facility and foodservice areas (kitchen and servery) but this is just the beginning.

Once you have selected the architectural firm to work with you on the project, they will have further meetings with you to develop and finalize the program for the building that will include the kitchen design. During these meetings, they will assist you with the continuing development of the required areas within the building and the overall footprint of the building.

The Foodservice Consultant (Kitchen Designer) is normally not included in the design and programming of the facility at this point. We feel that this is an error in the design process!

Why a Foodservice Consultant?

We believe that the Foodservice Consultant (Kitchen Designer) should be part of this early design process. We will work with you and the Architect to identify the number of potential customers and operational functions, which will significantly impact the design process.

We will work with you and/or the chef/operator to develop the type of service and food products that will be provided.

We will do preliminary block plans and a sketch of the necessary functional area(s) to allow for the proper amount of square footage. This will allow the square footage required for the kitchen design to be programmed into the project as part of early planning, not as an afterthought.

The information gathered during this stage will be further developed and expanded during the Design Development phase.

Section 3 – Kitchen Design 101 – Program

Foodservice Consultant

Five Oaks Kitchen Design’s approach to a project is to address all planning issues during the pre-design or Concept Development portion of the project.

Five Oaks Kitchen Design will provide the Owner and Architect a “Foodservice Program Questionnaire Form” designed for your facility. (See Appendix)

The program questionnaire will include statements of planning facts, goals, special owner/operator requests, operational characteristics and assumptions, area allocations, and cost estimates.

Unless these items are discussed early and resolved, unspoken assumptions could result in problems as the project develops.

Questionnaire

The Foodservice Program Questionnaire approach gives the Owner, Architect, and the design team the opportunity to understand, in detail, how the foodservice facility will operate and is the basis for the design assumptions. This program is reaction-oriented and we ask all of the team members to review the program, to confirm, refine or expand on any part of the program.

For a design to be effective in the early planning stages, it is important to explicitly state what the directives and proprieties are, so a well coordinated and approved program can be the basis for developing the most successful design.

Foodservice/Planning Considerations

• Corporate Goals & Policies (Operational Objectives/directives)

• Has the owner pre-established foodservice guidelines, operational profile, or specific financial targets.

• Demand Requirements (Who/How Many we feed)

• We need to analyze populations by employee categories, location within the facility, and likely participation.

• Serving/Dining Format (How are we serving the employees)

• Do we need multiple, complementary-format foodservice entities? What are the serving requirements, training/conference center, private dining, executive dining, employee cafeterias, patient feeding, school/institutional feeding, etc?

• Operational Characteristics (How are we going to prepare the food)

• Should there be an in-house bakery, meat/vegetable preparation area, etc.?
• Do we need an ingredient control room?
• Staging areas for remote feeding areas or transport equipment, etc.?
• How do we encourage self-bussing?

• Functional Relationships (Proximity and adjacency relationships, process flow workstation organization)

• How can process flow be shortened and streamlined for food preparation, service, warewash, and trash.
• How can cross-flows or flow restrictions be eliminated or minimized?
• Have we met all the program objectives?

• Equipment Costs (Capital initial cost)

• What is the initial foodservice equipment budget and what is the basis for the estimate?
• How can it be reduced and if necessary, still maintain the design of the project?
• Long term quality equipment vs less expensive short life equipment.

• Operational Efficiency (Equipment life cycle & labor/staffing costs)

• In most applications, a 10+ year life cycle is an appropriate factor. Can the facility be designed to use fewer workers, can one person work two stations easily?

• Project Schedule (Planning and Construction management)

• An early assessment of the project milestones needs to be done to see if there are any constraints on the foodservice planning, bidding, or construction schedules.

• Growth Considerations ( Future Employee Growth)

• Do we need to develop “soft” spaces for future growth in certain foodservice component areas?
• Should we size the cold storage assemblies for future growth?

Section 4 – Kitchen Design -101 Schematic Design

Bubble Diagrams

During the schematic design phase, the Foodservice Consultant (Kitchen Designer) will work with you, and the chef or operator, as well as the architectural team, to develop a floor plan layout using bubble diagrams, of the major functional areas and work stations:

• Receiving

• Storage (Dry, Refrigerator, Freezer, Non-Food, Disposable Paper Goods Storage)

• Preparation Area, dry, vegetable and meat

• Production Area (s) (hot & cold), a la carte cooking/grille

• Waiter pick-up/beverage area (s)

• Serving counters/serving lines

• Warewashing / Potwashing / Pulping

• Other/Specialty Areas

• Office (s)
• Toilets/Lockers
• Bakery
• Service Bar
• Service Pantries
• Executive Kitchens
• Banquet Kitchen, Dish-up, Staging
• Tray assembly area
• Cart Wash

• Seating Areas

By reorganizing the bubble diagram, as necessary, and relocating the relationships of the work areas and flow from one work area to another (with minimal counter flow of product or crossing traffic), we can create a bubble diagram that works.

Block Plans

Once the bubble diagram is completed, we will create a block plan which shows the required square footage for each functional space. This will also further define the space requirements; we will reorganize blocks, as necessary, to incorporate the ideas and fit within the overall plan.

Keep in mind that gross square feet (the sum of all areas on all floors of a building included within the outside faces of its exterior walls, including all vertical penetration areas, for circulation and shaft areas that connect one floor to another.) is larger than net square feet (Net square feet is computed by physically measuring or scaling measurements from the inside faces of surfaces that form the boundaries of the designated areas. Areas defined as building service, circulation, mechanical, and structural should not be included).

Once we have an approved block plan we will create a schematic plan (a drawing intended to explain how something works; a drawing showing the relation between the parts) for your review and approval. We will provide a budget estimate for review based on the estimated cost per square foot.

After the schematic plan is approved, we will move on to laying out the basic equipment as part of the Kitchen Design Development.

To be continued.

Bob Pursell is the owner of Five Oaks Kitchen Design in Houston Texas, Bob has over 35 years in Providing Commercial and Restaurant Kitchen Design Services.

We have the experience and talent to handle world class projects with the dedication to detail of larger firms; being a small firm, we provide hands-on for every project, including yours. We bring in dedicated people as needed, to provide the best possible support for your project.

Five Oaks Kitchen Design is unbiased when it comes to selecting equipment for your project; we look for the best piece of equipment for the best price to meet your needs. We are not affiliated with any of the equipment manufacturers; we are hired by either the architect or you the owner.

Five Oaks Kitchen Design is a specialty design firm providing consulting and design services call us for more information.

For more information about Five Oaks Kitchen Design contact: http://www.fiveoakskitchendesign.com

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Kitchen Designs

Cabinets are an integral part of the kitchen. Just as, the sofa or the TV is an integral part of the living room, the kitchen just can’t function without cabinets. Therefore, the design of the cabinets should also match with the grander scheme of the entire kitchen design. Many of the kitchen cabinet designs are traditional in their look while others are more contemporary. Choosing the right designs for your kitchen space requires evaluating your space, your requirements and then finally your aesthetic quotient.

Small kitchens generally do not do so good with a lot of cabinets since these things make the room smaller and, therefore, more claustrophobic. For small spaces, going for innovative designs such as racked cabinets or two way doors etcetera, would free up space while maintaining the storage capacity. In case of taller kitchens, having upper cabinets along with the lower ones is a terrific idea since you never know when the extra space can come handy. Basing your kitchen cabinet designs on the space available is of utmost importance.

The next thing to consider is your requirements. What are the items that you shall be storing in the cabinets shall dictate the percentage of various types of racks and holders that the cabinets shall bear. If you plan on keeping more plates and glass wear then racks would be needed, if you are interested, you can even get the sliding type of cabinets that will not only keep the dishes safe but also save space. Similarly, if you are looking for more storage space, then plain old cabinet designs would work best. Whatever your needs, you can accommodate it in many of the available kitchen cabinet designs.

The last consideration to include is the aesthetic value of the cabinets. After all, the cabinets will also contribute to the overall look of the kitchen, in fact, more than any other component. As such, the outer design must mix well with the background design and colour scheme. Sticking to traditional kitchen cabinet designs and colour schemes is always a wise decision since, such designs would help in selling the house in the future if required. People often get turned down looking at the kitchen of the house, if the cabinets are mismatched, if the walls are not of the right colour, if the cabinets are rusty or weak. Taking these considerations into mind staying with neutral colour choices for the kitchen area is a safe choice.

The type of knobs used, the wood used, the quality of the finish, all these things matter in the overall design. Although, these are just small part of the entire cabinet system, they, however, can stand out as sore thumbs if not done right. Kitchen Cabinet designs that consider this fact are generally the one that are chosen by most house owners because they appeal to the eye.

In the end, once you have settled on a particular kitchen cabinet design, you either choose to buy them prefabricated or employ an agency to make them for you. In fact, with a little research, you can also make the cabinet designs yourself.

Experienced kitchen cabinet design can help get more out of the space you have in your kitchen. Examples of this can be seen on the following kitchens melbourne website.

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