How to Love a Closed Kitchen

Can you imagine that there are people, moreover American citizens that relish in the fact that their kitchen is closed to the rest of their home? The nerve! In reality, not all people feel that the kitchen should be a focal point of the home and some even prefer to cook in solitude. A recent SF Chronicle special contains a letter from one such, closed kitchen fan. Here is an excerpt:

"So, let's tear down this wall between the kitchen and the breakfast room," said the contractor, pointing to the wall with the beautiful Chinese carved cabinet doors, "and then we can open up the living room to the kitchen, and you'll have one great big space instead of all these little dinky rooms."

His enthusiasm was not infectious.

"Thank you," we said. We didn't ask to see him again.

It was true: Our house, at least the kitchen end of it, was a warren of dinky rooms. The half bath (toilet and tiny corner sink) was so small that when you sat on the toilet, you couldn't open the door. That room opened off the little room that held the refrigerator. That one opened off the kitchen, where homemade standard-and-bracket shelves substituted for nonexistent cabinets. Something had to be done.

The breakfast room, though, was inviolable.

What my husband, Fred, and I finally decided on was as follows:

-- Get rid of the half bath (I'm sure we were the only people in the Bay Area ever to eliminate a bathroom), put a washer and dryer in that space, and consolidate it with the refrigerator room.

-- Full Story