Planning a Kitchen for Guests: When Eight at the Table Is Normal

What makes a kitchen for hosts different

Planning a kitchen for guests means thinking of situations that do not occur every day but shape the character of the house. The Tuesday evening with two people and the Saturday with ten should both work in the same kitchen. That does not call for a huge floor area but for clever organisation.

Three things distinguish a host's kitchen from an ordinary family kitchen: it has separate routes for cooks and guests, it has more surface for setting down and plating up, and it can handle large quantities of crockery without the evening ending in chaos. Then there is the atmosphere: light, acoustics and the view from the hob into the room.

A host's kitchen is not a bigger kitchen. It is a kitchen that knows people will be standing in it who are not cooking.

What doing nothing costs. A kitchen that cannot cope with company teaches you quiet habits. You invite fewer people, you cook dishes that can be prepared in advance, you apologise for the noise and the mess. The evenings you love shrink to fit the room. So how do you give guests and cook their own routes?

Separating routes: who stands where

The most frequent conflict in open kitchens with guests is the route. Guests go to the fridge to fetch a drink and stand exactly between hob and sink. Someone wants to help and blocks the drawer with the cutlery. The solution lies in the arrangement.

This is how we plan the routes:

1. Define the working area: Hob, sink and main worktop form an area that guests do not need to cross. With an island, this is often the side facing the wall.
2. Move out the drinks zone: Glasses, drinks fridge, wine and perhaps a coffee machine lie at the edge of the kitchen, easy to reach from the living or dining area without crossing the working area.
3. Counter as interface: The island or a peninsula separates cooks and guests without isolating them from each other. Guests sit or stand on one side, the cooking happens on the other.
4. Plan generous aisle widths: Where two people work at once or pass each other, we recommend 1.20 to 1.50 metres between island and run as a guide.
5. Think about the coat area and arrival: Where do guests put coats and bags? The entrance area belongs to the host's kitchen.

The dimensions and distances around the island are described in detail in the article Planning a kitchen island. How the entrance becomes the first impression of the evening is covered in the article Arriving: the entrance area. Next: space to put things down.

Surface for setting down, plating up and clearing away

Anyone cooking for eight or more people needs above all one thing: surface. Not necessarily more cabinets, but more free worktop. Plating eight plates, setting down three bowls, slicing the bread, resting the roast. All of that needs space, and at the same time.

Typical surfaces in a host's kitchen:

• Main worktop between sink and hob, at least 90 to 120 centimetres wide as a guide.
• Plating surface beside the hob or on the island, on which plates can stand while serving.
• Landing surface near the sink for the dirty crockery coming back from the table.
• Buffet surface on the island or a sideboard when guests help themselves.
• Surface in the Speis or pantry on which to prepare what guests should not see.

For many hosts a small pantry or larder, in which things can be prepared and set down, is worthwhile. How to plan one is described in the article Larder and pantry.

Appliances for large gatherings

With appliances, the host's kitchen tempts one to excess. Not every host needs two ovens and a professional range. What matters is to choose appliances according to the flow of a typical evening.

With frequent guests the second dishwasher is often the best investment. It allows the first crockery to be washed during the meal, and prevents half of it still standing on the worktop after midnight. How to choose appliances by daily routine is described in the article Kitchen appliances. What a hob with an extractor means for conversation while cooking is covered in the article Hob with integrated extractor.

The table for eight and more

In a host's kitchen the table is as important as the hob. It is the place where the evening happens. Its size and position decide whether guests feel at ease.

As a guide, we plan 60 to 70 centimetres of table width per person. For eight people at a rectangular table that gives about 2.20 to 2.60 metres in length by 90 to 110 centimetres in width. Behind the chairs, at least 80 to 100 centimetres should stay free so that one can stand up and pass behind. An extending table helps when the company occasionally grows to twelve.

The position of the table links kitchen and living space. If it stands close to the island, food can be served without anyone having to walk across the room. How kitchen and dining room become one space is described in the article Kitchen and dining room as one space. For fundamentals on the dining table as a focal point, see the article The dining room. Picture it: a long timber table under a warm pendant, eight chairs, bread torn by hand, and you sitting down in the middle without anyone noticing when.

At the end of a good evening everyone is sitting at the table, and nobody knows exactly when the cook sat down.

Light and acoustics for long evenings

A full table is loud. Eight people talk, glasses clink, music plays in the background. In open kitchen-living rooms with hard surfaces, stone floors, large windows and smooth fronts, this soon becomes tiring. Guests have to speak louder, and after two hours everyone feels exhausted without knowing why.

That is why we plan the acoustics of a host's kitchen in from the start. Possible means are curtains, a large rug under the dining table, upholstered benches, open bookshelves, or acoustic panels discreetly integrated into the ceiling or furniture. More on this in the article Acoustics in open-plan living spaces and in the article on textiles, curtains and acoustics.

The light has to move with the evening: bright task light for preparation, subdued light over the table for the meal, a calm residual light in the kitchen so that the eye does not fall on the dirty crockery. The logic of these layers is described in the article Kitchen lighting in three layers. And when the last guest has gone?

Clearing up without ending the evening

The moment after the meal decides how an evening feels for the host. Is clearing up an hour of work alone in the kitchen, or can it be dealt with calmly while the conversation goes on?

Some details that help with clearing up:

• A large, deep sink with room for roasting tins and trays.
• A second, smaller sink at the island or in the drinks zone for glasses and fruit.
• Waste separation with large containers directly beneath the landing surface.
• Crockery and glasses near the dishwashers, so that unloading the next morning is quick.
• A way of closing the kitchen visually, for instance with sliding doors, if the crockery can wait until tomorrow.

For our couple in Währing, the wall to the living room was opened and a long island with a hob and a view of the dining table was created, together with a drinks zone at the transition to the living space. The table now stands in the middle of the room, not at the end of the corridor. Our joinery Tischlerkultur, a Viennese tradition since 1935, builds the island and the drinks zone to measure. When a wall may come down is described in the article The open-plan kitchen and living space. How we plan kitchens for people who love to invite is shown on the pages about our fitted kitchens and our references.