When we help people plan a kitchen, we tell them to design to fit the way they actually live. But that’s not always so easy to do when you’re looking at a blank slate. So we’ve developed a list of questions that help clients sort through what it is they really want when they reimagine these spaces.

First and foremost, storage is always important. Unfortunately, if you let cabinet companies have their way, you might well wind up with a kitchen that looks like a mausoleum – with little else but wall-to-wall cabinets. 

We want to make sure you get enough, but just not too much. So we start by measuring the linear feet of cabinets and countertops that our clients are currently using and then ask questions such as the ones below.  

Counter and cabinet use

Will there always be a Kitchenaid mixer on your counter? What about a food processor, blender, bread maker, pasta maker, waffle iron, toaster oven, Instapot, air fryer, and/or rice cooker? How many times do you really use these items in a week? A month? How about a year? 

Do you want your knives, spice rack, cutting boards and cooking utensils on the countertop or in a drawer? 

Countertop real estate is functionally critical. It is also usually limited. 

How many times a year (besides Thanksgiving) does food preparation overwhelm the space you have now? And if there’s a problem, is adding more linear feet of surface area really going to fix it? 

We ask people to think about what they need to have within reach and what could live on a metro wire shelf at the bottom of the basement stairs. 

Grocery store styles

When it comes to food shopping, some people plan so far ahead they’re pretty much always ready for the zombie apocalypse. Others make daily trips to the store with just a little cloth bag in hand, looking for that one perfect lunchtime tomato. 

Which one are you?  Do you plan your meals weekly and cook ahead, or do you make frequent and spontaneous trips to the store?

Be honest with yourself! Whatever way you actually live, design for that intention. Never design a kitchen to accommodate an aspirational lifestyle. Save that for the sitting or powder room. 

Coffee and tea 

Then there’s the all-important caffeinated beverage, almost always an essential part of a kitchen routine. 

What does yours look like? Does Starbucks know you on a first-name basis, or are you your own barista with all the gear? Do you have a wide assortment of teas that you would actually like to select from? Do you enjoy a sense of discovery (and perhaps nostalgia) when you find them in cabinets and drawers years later?

If you need a shrine in which to pay your daily homage to the goddess Caffeina, or alternatively Tranquillitas, be sure to dedicate a place for that in your kitchen. 

Eating and cooking

Consider your habits when sitting down to a meal. Are you closer to an unsupervised eight-year-old at a birthday party, or are you more of a monk, practicing the ayurvedic method of chewing each bite 50 times?

As for how those meals get to your table in the first place, are you the type to cook three meals a day or are you more likely to order out – maybe more often than you’d admit? We had a client tell us once that the only thing he would ever cook in his new kitchen would be a salad. 

Don’t worry – there are no wrong answers. Everyone has their own. Just remember that there is a difference between how we live and how we would like to live. And redesigning your kitchen isn’t going to change that. 

Val Nehez is the owner and principal designer at Studio IQL in East Falls, which you can find at StudioIQL.com and on Instagram at studio_iql or for smaller projects quickandlovely_design.