Courtesy of Nils Finn of AIA FINNE Architects
Architect Nils Finn used a traditional kitchen design in his home.
Seattle-based architect Nils Finn designs luxury homes with kitchens that cost six figures. These detailed cooking plans come in L-shaped, U-shaped, and G-shaped, but for his own home, Finne chose the minimalist galley kitchen—a parallel layout with most major appliances lined up on one side.
Finne loves to cook in his 25-foot kitchen, which features Alaskan cedar cabinets, walnut and limestone countertops, and a comfortable window seat.
“I’ve been designing homes for over 30 years, and I’ve designed kitchens of all sizes and shapes, but I think a galley kitchen is something that everyone seems to respond to very positively,” says Finn, 69. Very effective layout. “
The galley kitchen has its origins in sailing ships, where the efficient design reduced the amount of walking the ship’s crew had to do while swinging at sea. These days, you can find versions of the signature kitchen design in both studio apartments and luxury properties.
Whether you’re downsizing, remodeling, building a whole new home, or considering living in an apartment, there are many reasons to choose a galley kitchen.
1. Everything is within reach
Homebuilders often design spacious kitchens because some believe that bigger is better and a huge room draped with cabinets is pleasing to the eye. Perhaps, but larger isn’t necessarily better for cooking or entertaining.
“Sometimes you experiment with larger kitchen designs and then find that you increase the amount of walking around you,” Finne says. “I think the closeness and the compactness of the kind of kitchen arrangement is very attractive.”
Kitchen design is more efficient than the kitchen triangle, which requires the main work areas—sink, stove, and refrigerator—to be at least 4 feet apart and no more than 9 feet apart, allowing for counter space between them.
With a galley kitchen, you still have easy access to the stove, refrigerator, and sink, says Wayne Visbeen, 61, of Visbeen Architects in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but the design shrinks down and simplifies your range of motion. “So, your triangle is cut into roughly a straight line,” he says. “Everything is close.”
2. It offers a large storage space
A well-designed kitchen will take up less space while also providing a lot of storage space. In fact, you can fit as many cabinets in a tall kitchen as you can in a U-shaped kitchen.
“The number one myth is that it’s not big enough and you can’t get all your stuff into it,” says Finn. But in a remodel, it is possible to extend the length of the kitchen by incorporating an adjacent storage space, such as a pantry. “I think it can accommodate absolutely everything,” he adds.
Long Kitchen Kitchens can be customized to offer any number of storage solutions, such as vertical bread racks, under-counter microwave or beverage refrigerator, and hotplate drawers.
